Foolishly Bewitched

Galatians 3:1-5

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?--if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

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She's a witch of trouble in electric blue,
In her own mad mind she's in love with you.
With you.
Now what you gonna do?
Strange brew -- killin' what's inside of you.

"Strange Brew" by Eric Clapton, Gail Collins and Felix Pappalardi recorded by Cream

We're people! We like shiny things! We like things that just grab our attention and refuse to release us! How else can we explain disco, pet rocks, and fast food? We get bewitched and that's all there is to it. Steven Covey calls this "non-important/non-urgent" noting all along that they are still interesting, more interesting than real work. It's just fluff and filler.

Of course I say this to you from a keyboard attached to the internet and if you're reading this either attached by computer, phone, or tablet. It's horrible to become your own best example, but I have just done that.

Paul warns the church that they have become bewitched by the law and those who practice it. The law gives us wonderful guidelines that help us in our lives. But taken to extremes, they take us far past freedom and right into control. Law controls, law can't love.

It is Christ who saves by love that frees us from the controlling ties of the law. Christ didn't die for the law. Christ fulfilled the law before his death and resurrection. Christ's death showed what he knew all along, the law doesn't bind the way people want it to bind. In the law's mad mind there is love in the law, love that controls like an abusive lover. This is not the love of freedom in Christ.

So our choices are to believe Christ or to believe prophets who tell us that by law and restriction we can be free. Bewitched? Pray not.

Riding with the King of Kings

Thanks to Vicke Bailey for the suggestion


John 14:1-3

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."

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He's on a mission of mercy to the new frontier,
He's gonna check us all on out of here.
Up to that mansion on a hill
Where you can get your prescription filled.

Get on a TWA to the promised land.
Everybody clap your hands.
And don't you just love the way that he sings?
Don't you know we're riding with the king?
Riding with the king.
Don't you know we're riding with the king?

"Riding with the King" by John Hiatt recorded by Eric Clapton and B.B. King

By this time in John's gospel, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem has been triumphant, but not all has been well. The Last Supper has been served, but there is a bittersweet taste left in the disciples' mouths. Jesus has washed their feet, the work of a slave is done by their Rabbi.

Jesus has foretold his betrayal. Then he foretold Peter's denial. Everyone's upset and there's good reason for that. Nothing is going the way it should at the Passover. They celebrate death passing over the slaves as Jesus tells them he is going to die and die horribly. His death will be wrapped in humiliation, agony, betrayal, and denial. This wasn't the dinner they expected to eat that evening.

In the midst of this, Jesus tells his disciples not to be troubled. He tells them to believe in God and believe in him. They are to believe because the Father has a special place for them, a place he will prepare.

If he does not go he cannot prepare. If he does not go he cannot return to take them to that mansion on the hill.

Riding with the king. Riding with the King of kings! The King is on a mission of mercy that began at creation and came to a head on an Easter some 2,000 years ago. It was a bumpy ride on that day. We aren't promised our ride to God's new frontier won't be bumpy, but we are promised that God will be with us driving the convertible.

Only when we ride with the author of healing will we be made full. The prescriptions we need come in all shapes and forms, and only the King of kings can write and fill the script.

Only by following the directions on that script will we ever see the mansion on the hill and the room Jesus prepares. And when we get there we will all sing together in he presence of God Almighty. The first step is, as always, getting in the car. That's the only way to go riding with the King.