Summer School: The Gospel — Monday
Isaiah 53:6
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. (NLT)
My dog, Woodrow, loves his morning and evening routine. Truthfully, it’s kind of a problem because it’s gotten to the point that he is insatiable if his “plans” go awry or are delayed. One aspect of his routine is a walk around the neighborhood. Woodrow is recently (about 3 years) hind-paralyzed, so essentially, I have assumed the role of his rear legs and walk him with his leash secured on his lower back, wheelbarrow style. The unfortunate thing is that Woodrow doesn’t consider any of this a reason to be more obedient or to slow his pace, and his pace is irresponsibly fast—that is, fast until he meets a distraction (which is frequent), which then prompts him to jolt to a stop immediately.
I’m sure we are a sight to behold between our Forrest Gump-style accommodations and my vain attempts to lead Woodrow anywhere, all the while arguing with him as though he speaks English. I think either my sanity or my own lower back are next to give out—prayers are welcomed.
You could say Paul had a challenge somewhat similar to this with the church in Galatia. Routine and status quo were upheaved when salvation was provided by Jesus, and the hard-and-fast rules that previously existed were nixed. This week, we’ll be looking at Galatians 1 and Paul’s efforts to course-correct a group of churches that knew what the right thing was, but started to veer off course because someone introduced ideas that planted roots of self-reliance, complacency, and exclusion.
The key idea we will be exploring is this: The gospel of Jesus is available to everyone, and it wasn’t to replace something we could already do ourselves. Jesus came to save us because without Him, we were without hope.
Monday’s Reflection
Our daily devos are written to help you keep digging into the ideas from each Sunday’s message. If you missed the message from this past weekend, today is the perfect time to catch up so you can hear more about what the gospel means for you! Check it out on our messages page.
