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But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

So much of Paul’s ministry is calling out those in the church to live out the gospel. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can hide in your own bubble by rarely attending church services and you can then choose to live however you please. Equally dangerous is thinking how fellow church members live their lives is none of your business, may it never be! We are obliged to confront sin within our church. This is not a blog post, it is a direct confrontation for the gospel. This is not ego driven, it is for the good news of Jesus Christ to not be held back. How much Paul loved Peter to confront him! Peter was THE Apostle (with a capital “A”), and Paul was the one who needed to prove himself, yet the gospel was worth more than Paul’s reputation, and Peter WAS the pillar of the church and received Paul’s rebuke with humility and grace. What an example of how we do not seek or expect even the greatest church leaders to be perfect. We must always be learning, growing, and leading.

It has become a tradition for me to post about “uncle Mel” on D-Day. So here it is. Thank you to all the men and women who sacrifice so much for our freedoms.

On this day, 72 years ago, Ernest Melvin Morrison (“Mel” to his family, “Ernie” to his mom) jumped out of a plane and parachuted into France, it was D-Day.

I am proud to know my family was a part of this momentous fight.

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Did you not listen to what I said? Anyone who has children have said or thought this, often. Paul made it clear that the power of the gospel did not come from the authority of the messenger, though his authority was well established, the strength of the good news of Jesus is in the message itself. Paul said that we are saved by faith and not by works, and anyone who tells you different, even if Paul himself changed his mind, do not buy it for a second. Test every blog, test every book, test every sermon… not against the reliability of the one giving it, but by the content itself. If it jives with the Bible, then it is good (even if the messenger is bad), if it doesn’t match Scripture, then reject it, even if it’s from Billy Graham himself. 😉

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

We make plans and we act on how we think we can best serve the Lord, yet, it is God who is in control. Paul is recounting how they sought to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit redirected them. They tried to go to Bithynia, but Jesus’ Spirit had different plans. They went down to Troas, and it was there, though they may have been tempted to feel like failures because their plans were not working out, it was THERE God revealed His plans for them. You are not a failure! That’s impossible. You may fail at YOUR PLANS, but yours are not the plans that count, it’s God’s. You’re right where He knew you would be, poised to be used according to His plans. This is also where Luke joins the team (notice “they went” then “we sought to go”). If Paul’s plans had panned out, we might not have ever had the book of Acts written by Luke (probably Paul’s cousin).

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

As the church was forming, one of the hardest thing for the believers to accept was the “new people.” You can almost hear them “we’ve never done it that way before!” (this is not a new issue in churches). The Apostles agreed, for the sake of the gospel, agree with the common sense traditions of abstaining from idol sacrifices, don’t consume blood, and don’t eat something that was strangled. There’s nothing inherently “sinful” in these things, but that would be hard for devout Jews to swallow. So too, there may be things that your church has as tradition, we all do. For the sake of the gospel, be willing to go along… as long as it is for the gospel. If something hinders the Truth, that’s not acceptable… It is interesting, though, sexual immorality is listed. Obviously, this is sin, but a sin that is so easy to “bend” on while welcoming new people in… we can’t. To be part of the church is to commit to sexual purity. In what you see, what you do, and how you live, not as perfect, but being sanctified through repentance. If you can do this, “you do well”