TV

At church yesterday, the pastor spoke briefly of the name Barnabas which, he pointed out, means "Son of Encouragement." Last night, on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the gang fixed up the home of this family that runs Camp Barnabas for children with disabilities. The family had, for the past decade, given their all for the hundreds of children who pass through the camp each year. A remarkable story really, and remarkable people. They went without making repairs to their home in order to accomodate even more children at the camp. One imagines that they could have been well off materially had they put themselves first, but they didn't. Inspiring.

After spending two hours with this family and the crew that was trying (and suceeding, I'd say) to give them a great home to live in, Desparate Housewives came on and I simply did not have the stomach for it. The contrast was too stark, the gulf between the petty (NOT pretty, petty) housewives and the selfless and profound family running Camp Barnabas was simply too great for me to cross over.

Don't get me wrong. Desperate Housewives is a well written show with a good cast hard at work. It's just...

Galatians 1:4a, 6

Speaking of Jesus, Paul says "who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world."

A couple of lines later, he says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ..."

In both verses, unless I read wrongly, Paul stresses the personal relationship with Jesus. This is not a religion of rituals -- there may be rituals involved, but they are not the point. Jesus is. What you turn your back on when you walk away from all this, is not the building you congregated in or the pastor or the congregants. It is not the set of beliefs or the forms. It's Jesus. By the same token what you get when you believe is not rules and regulations, it's not membership into a club, it's a relationship with Jesus. Paul, in these two verses, is trying to bring the Galatians back to that fundamental truth.

Galatians 1:1 (NKJV)

"Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead),"


I don't particularly like the NKJV but I'm having a hard time finding my KJV. Sorry.

This first verse is incredible. I mean it is hard to believe that Paul felt a need to qualify what he meant by calling himself an apostle. If an apostle is one who brings the Good News, then it is clear that he is not carrying a human message (ie, "not from men") and he is not getting his authority from men (ie, "through man"). It is God the Father and teh Son who give him what to say and the authority or mission to say it. Truly, in all things, even this most fundamental but perhaps easy to forget detail, Paul tries to keep God in the center, in focus. So should we all.

Now where's my KJV?