Galatians, part 1, Justified by Faith

Justification

This is the third time we’ve had a dalet book. Remember the Hebrew letter dalet and what it means? Door.

Galatians was written by the apostle Paul. The Galatians had become the prey of the legalizers, the Judaizing missionaries from Palestine. They believed 2 false doctrines: one was that obedience to the law was mingled with faith as the grounds of the sinner’s justification and the other was that the justified believer was made perfect by keeping the law. Think about that. You might find that false doctrine resurfacing today. A sinner is justified by faith alone; there is no salvation by keeping the law. Don’t let someone tell you that you’re not getting into Heaven if you don’t obey the 10 commandments.

Read Galatians 2:16, 3:11,13 and 3:23-24:

16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

In chapter 4 Paul shows great concern for the Galatians:

 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!

Paul marvels, "You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!" Yet these are not pagan festivals that he is referring to, but important dates on the Jewish calendar. We understand that there is a sense in which the observance of special days could be tolerated (Romans 14:5-6), but the Galatians are taught to observe them for justification before God and other spiritual attainments. Paul's position is that this is like returning to paganism, back to ignorance and enslavement. And this is also his assessment of the Judaizers' religion.

Next week we’ll look at how Galatians links with the other two dalet books.

The Time Bender

Sixteen-year-old Selina’s battle with APD (Avoidant Personality Disorder) seriously hampers her ability to socialize and find that oh-so-perfect boyfriend. When two interstellar teens target her for kidnapping because they’ve discovered she has the ability to manipulate time, she interprets their actions as flirting. She battles her APD to awkwardly engage in interpersonal contact, something she’s only ever been able to do easily with boy-next-door Alex. When the space teens lure her beyond Earth’s bounds and she realizes she does have a phenomenal time-bending ability, she must decide: can she leave Earth to help them and can she leave Alex?

THE TIME BENDER on Amazon

2nd Corinthians, part 2, Its Link to Leviticus

A Ministry of reconciliation. 

Read 2nd Corinthians 5: 17 – 21:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Why is this important? Because it matches up to the first gimel book, Leviticus. See Leviticus 16:32 – 34:

2nd Corinthians, part 1, the Comfort of the Holy Spirit

Major Theme

2nd Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul. Its major theme is always to be faithful to Christ. This epistle shows Paul’s state of physical weakness, weariness, and pain as well as his great anguish of heart over the distrust felt toward him by Jews and Jewish Christians. The letters tells us of Paul’s principles of action for ministry, the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem and Paul’s defense of his apostolic authority.

2nd Corinthians teaches that God loves a cheerful giver. There are two whole chapters on the virtue of giving. The ministry of reconciliation is also a major theme.

1st Corinthians and Sexual Immorality

Major Themes

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth to inform them that he was sending Timothy to them and to give them some much needed reminders and instructions. His major themes are: divisions within the church, his own authority, sexual morality, what to do about food sacrificed to idols, the Lord ’s Supper, spiritual gifts, love, and the resurrection.

Let’s look first at the word division as it comes up in Young’s Literal Translation of 1st Corinthians 1:10 and 3:3:

 10 And I call upon you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the same thing ye may all say, and there may not be divisions among you, and ye may be perfected in the same mind, and in the same judgment,
 3 for yet ye are fleshly, for where [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not fleshly, and in the manner of men do walk?

There is a direct correlation to Exodus. 

See Exodus 8:23:

 23 and I have put a division between My people and thy people: to-morrow is this sign.'

THE TIME BENDER, YA light SciFi-Fantasy with Splash of Teen Hormones

What if you found out someone you love isn't 100% human?

Intergalactic warrior-in-training Marcum trades his spaceship for high school classes, basketball, and homemade pies in order to court Earth girl Selina. So what if his first motive is to exploit her obvious gift of time-bending—the ability to slow the passage of time—something that would be invaluable in fighting other aliens. Now he can’t help falling for her. When his planet’s leaders learn the secret of her gift they vote to breed her with Marcum’s arch rival, Coreg, whose ability to speed up time has helped him beat Marcum at every simulated battle they’ve practiced together. Creating a race of people with both abilities would make them unstoppable against their adversaries, the star cannibals.

Selina starts to fall for both Coreg and Marcum’s clumsy flirting, but she doesn’t fall for their attempts to entice her into galactic warfare. She hates video games like that. She’s afraid of heights. She’s never even been alone with a boy in a car, let alone a spaceship. And she doesn’t think Marcum’s spaceship is anything more than one heck of a science project until Marcum takes her to the moon and back.

It may seem like she can make a moment last for hours, but what’s the point if it makes those uncomfortable moments stretch out longer? Do Coreg and Marcum really expect her to give up everything she cares about—her best friend Alex, her special needs brother, Hershey’s chocolate—to go up, up in a rickety spaceship again and, dare she think it, fight? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen. Especially since one of them is too awkward to even kiss her.

But hormones are the same from one end of the universe to the other and a few almost-kisses have put stars in Marcum’s eyes. Nevertheless, keeping his loyalty to his planet means going along with Coreg’s plan to kidnap her. He hates himself for keeping Selina's fate a secret from her. Hates himself more for not going after that kiss. When his conscience becomes a black hole of love and guilt, betrayal seems his only option. The question is, whom should he betray?

And—why does Alex keep getting in the way?

THE TIME BENDER

THE TIME BENDER - Goodreads Giveaway

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THE TIME BENDER

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Time Bender

by Debra Chapoton

Giveaway ends September 18, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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New Young Adult SciFi-Fantasy Series THE TIME BENDER

THE TIME BENDER

Selina Langston can barely make eye contact with boys, let alone talk to them—except for Alex, her one and only friend. Although he has a psychic connection to her, even he doesn’t know she’s been receiving clairvoyant visions from the next galaxy. That is, until Marcum and Coreg, two god-like hotties from a planet called Klaqin, suddenly appear in school as foreign exchange students. Alex is suspicious, but Selina doesn’t think Marcum’s spaceship is anything more than one heck of a science project—until he takes her to the moon and back. While adjusting to her new found skill of socializing with boys, Selina unwittingly displays her unique ability to bend time, just what the galaxy-hopping pair were searching for.

Being pursued by two guys would be a dream come true for Selina, if she weren’t busy caring for her special needs brother or dodging snarky remarks from classmates who find her skin color disturbing. Add Alex’s confession of love, a stunning revelation about her ancestry, and a very confused Selina must choose between her heart and her head. And between Klaqin and Earth, before both are destroyed.

Rated PG-13

THE TIME BENDER

available in paperback , Kindle and Nook and other digital formats on Smashwords

New Young Adult Sci-Fi Series

Coming September 13, 2017

THE TIME BENDER

Book 1 in the 4 book series

An intergalactic warrior-in-training trades his spaceship for high school classes, basketball, and homemade pies in order to court an Earth girl who has an unexpected super power.

A Young Adult Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure

When a chance encounter with a galaxy hopping space warrior drops Selina Langston down a rabbit hole of kidnapping schemes, time altering super powers and an occasional intergalactic battle, she must decide whether to trust her head, her heart or her hormones.

Until now sixteen-year-old Selina hasn’t had any prospects for a boyfriend. She’s been shunned by her peers due to her clumsy social skills and her oh-so-public blunders, not to mention her proclivity to think and speak in hashtags and stage cues. But then Marcum, a mysterious foreign exchange student, arrives by way of an interplanetary spaceship. Selina is entranced by his good looks and an awkward manner that rivals her own. Marcum is captivated by Selina’s power to lengthen time, something she didn’t even know she could do. This could be a match made in the heavens … if it weren’t for two factors that will keep them apart. And a galactic journey Selina can’t possibly survive.

This first book in a 4 book series releases September 13, 2017. You can pre-order now here.

Tweet: If you like #SciFi #Fantasy adventures you’ll love #TimeBender. https://ctt.ec/1cB7p+ via @Debra_Chapoton 

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Romans, part 5, More Benedictions than any other Book

Romans includes more benedictions than any other book in the Bible. Here they are. Romans 11:33-36; 15:13; 15:30-33; 16:20; and 16:25-27:

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
   How unsearchable his judgments,
   and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
   Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
   that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
   To him be the glory forever! Amen. 

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, 32 so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
   The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

 25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. 

Amen

Romans, part 4, the Intimacy of the Holy Spirit

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 8, we find the ONLY place in all the Scriptures where we learn an intimate fact about the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit prays for the believer:

 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us! This is very comforting, as is another verse in Romans – 8:28:

 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

How is this comforting?

Romans, part 3, the Perfect Symmetry between Sin and Sacrifice

Here are some other really cool things about Romans. In chapter 5, verses 12 – 21 we find the explanation of the perfect contrast between Adam and Christ. Read this slowly and thoughtfully because it is really deep:

 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

 13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you understand the perfect symmetry between Adam’s sin and Christ’s sacrifice?

Romans, part 2, Obvious Connective Links with Genesis

When we looked at the 2nd aleph book (Isaiah) we saw the connective verses about the potter (God) and the clay (man) that were in Isaiah and then reappeared in Romans, now we’ll look at the story that started in Genesis, the first aleph book, and finished in Romans, the third aleph book. Watch.

Genesis 17: 1 – 5: