“Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 Then they travelled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia. 25 They preached the word in Perga, then went down to Attalia. 26 Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. 27 Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too. 28 And they stayed there with the believers for a long time.” Acts 14:23-28NLT
“I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. 10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Galatians 1:6-10 NLT
Good Father,
Now we wander through acts and we also read the letters that Paul wrote to encourage the churches and fellowships he had visited. Galatians, the first letter written, and the verses above make it sound disappointed because he thought they were better than that.. But Paul was not angry just trying to overcome false teaching that had pervaded their faith. It was difficult where there were Jewish believers and gentiles mixed together. One side knowing their Torah and Law and Jesus and the other only knowing God through Jesus. Scripture is Your Word. But it is Jesus who gives freedom and salvation.
Paul explains more gently in a later verse that the law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. There is no longer Jew or Gentile slave or free, male and female. For we are all one in Christ Jesus. That was a radical thing to say and cut through all their division.
We need to remember that who someone walks through the door of church or into the sphere of our influence. You do not want us to make them good but introduce them to the source of goodness. And make sure we do not become more tick box Christians but like our Father.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Worship Sunday 23rd November 2025
This is a traditional hymn from 1908. I do not know the tune at all. This may not be the most melodic recording, but I was starkly reminded how we sometimes forget we are a small part of a the huge Kingdom of God. And Yet each one of us and each fellowship is most important and loved by You God.
In Christ there is no east or west,
In him no south or north,
But one great fellowship of love
Thru’out the whole wide Earth.
Join hands, then, children of the faith,
Whate’er your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a child
Is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both east and west,
In him meet south and north;
All Christly souls are one in him,
Thru’out the whole wide Earth.
Lyrics: John Oxenham