Daily Readings and Thought for April 2nd. I AM ASTONISHED THAT … “

At the start of Paul’s letter to the Galatians he is very concerned to stress there is only one true message leading to salvation.  He writes, “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”[Ch.1 v.6,7].  Gospel – means – good news about the way of life, and understand the purpose and meaning of our lives that God has provided.  We must live to please God and sense his approval of our life and attitudes of mind.  

A foundation for this must be to understand the message that was unfolded by the Apostles in the First Century.  Through the Centuries there have been repeated attempts to change the Gospel resulting in the many different churches.  Note how Paul bluntly states, “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” [v.9]:  then he adds, “For am I now seeking the approval of man or God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” [v.10]

It is our consciousness of God that matters above all else, a faulty consciousness can lead us into foolishness.  There is a remarkable example of this in our Numbers (Ch. 16) reading today; there is a rebellion against the authority God had given to Moses and Aaron.  A large group wanted him to share the role of leadership. They said, “all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”   [v.3],  They wanted to have a share of the leadership, the human spirit of democracy was in their thinking although some of them, the Levites administering different roles in the Tabernacle already had important roles.

The words of Moses that really caught our attention as he and Aaron fell on their faces in prayer was, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh “ [v.22] Strange words that are a recognition of the remarkable power of God to know absolutely everything, he can ‘tune in’ to all minds!  He must be able to do so – to hear all prayers. Like those challenging Moses, so those who develop a “different gospel” fail to realize that God is “the God of the spirits of all flesh.”