GALATIANS 5:7-15

SUNDAY-MONDAY, JUNE 17-18, 2007

WATCH THE COACH

7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! 13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! Galatians 5:7-15 (NKJV)

As I have done in the past I have chosen to do a series of Devotions by going verse by verse through a Book of the Bible. This time I have chosen the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians. The first Devotion, for Chapter 1, verses 6 - 10, was written earlier and can be found by going to the Devotion Archives. Each following devotion will remain on this page for approximately 6 days before it will be transferred to the Archives. It is my prayer that these devotions will assist you in your Bible Study and in your growth in Faith and in the Love of Jesus.  Here then is the fifteenth in this series of Devotions.

St. Paul tells the Galatians that they ran well as he uses the example of a race. Then he says, what happened. What happened, he tells them was that they quit listening to and watching the coach and listened to all of the voices from the sidelines, and now they were in danger of not only losing the race but losing the invitation to Eternity.

I think St. Paul would say something like this to us today. You began the race well in those Sunday School years. You heard the Bible Stories and told them to your family. You learned the songs and sang them often. Then as you began to grow, you heard other voices from the sidelines and you listened to them. The more you listened to them, the less you listened to the Coach, God Himself. You heard friends talking about how much fun some of the things were that you were not allowed to do. Even though you knew that God said NO, you listened to and followed those voices from the sidelines. You listened to what would make you popular rather than what was right. Then as you grew, you found the Soap Operas, the TV shows, movies, and books that emphasized sex, violence, hate, and self satisfaction, and you ignored the coach pleading with you to follow Him. The more we listen to the voices from the sidelines, the less we listen to the coach, and, most assuredly, we will not finish the race, let alone win it.

The COACH, our Loving God, encourages us to run the race watching and following him so we can claim the prize of an Eternal Life of Love. The voices from the sidelines can only offer us a life of the Eternal Pain of death.

WE PRAY: LORD, I want to run the race the right way. Help me to close my ears to those voices from the sidelines so that I only follow you. AMEN

A SUGGESTION FOR LIVING THE DEVOTION

The next time a TV program that has sex, violence, hate as content, silence that voice from the sideline by turning that program off.