Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 23 - Welcomed as God's Children

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May 23 - Welcomed as God's Children · Bible Chat Devotional

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Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
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rooted in Scripture and relevant for today, May 20. 3rd wisdom
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that guides every single day you're making choices, big ones
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and small ones. Who to spend time with, what to
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do when nobody's watching, whether to say something or stay
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quiet, whether to take the easy path or the right one.
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And in the middle of all those decisions, there's a question
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worth asking. What are you actually valuing?
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What's guiding your choices? Because whatever you value most
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will shape the direction your life moves.
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Proverbs chapter 16, verses 16 and 17 are strikingly direct.
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How much better to get wisdom than gold?
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To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
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The highway of the upright is level.
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The path of the wicked is crooked.
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The comparison is between wisdom and wealth, and the verdict is
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clear. Wisdom wins, not because money
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is evil, but because wisdom is the thing that actually makes
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your life work. It guides your relationships,
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your decisions, your responses. Under pressure, gold can run
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out. Trends change, popularity
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shifts. But wisdom, the kind that comes
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from God, steadies your path in ways that nothing else can.
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And notice the image of the highway.
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The path of the upright is level.
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Not easy, necessarily, but level.
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There's a stability to it, a steadiness.
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The path of someone who ignores wisdom is crooked, full of
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detours, dead ends, consequences that pile up.
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You've probably already seen this play out in real life.
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The choices that seem like shortcuts often create more
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complications than they solve. The right path, the wise path,
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is often the harder one in the moment, but the more level one
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over time. Galatians chapter 3 verse 23
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gives us important context now. Before faith came, we were held
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captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming
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faith would be revealed. Before Jesus, the only way to
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try to get right with God was through perfect rule keeping and
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nobody could do it. It was exhausting and it left
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people trapped. But then Galatians chapter 4,
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verses four and five break open with good news.
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When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son,
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born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
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under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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God didn't just send a better set of rules.
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He sent his Son, and through Jesus, we aren't just people
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trying to perform well enough to earn favor.
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We are adopted, we belong to the family of God, we have a new
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identity, and from that place of belonging and love, wisdom
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becomes not a burden to carry, but a gift to receive and walk
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in. This changes the whole frame.
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You're not trying to be wise so that God will accept you.
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You're already accepted, already loved, already His, and wisdom
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is how you walk in the life He's given you.
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It flows from relationship, not from striving.
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So what does it look like practically?
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It might mean pausing before you react.
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It might mean asking God for guidance before you make a
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decision you'll regret. It might mean choosing the
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honest, harder conversation over the comfortable, avoidant one.
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It might mean standing out from the crowd, not to be different
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for the sake of it, but because you've chosen the level highway
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over the crooked path. And here's the beautiful thing.
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You don't have to generate that wisdom on your own.
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James chapter 1 tells us that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should
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ask God, who gives generously. You have access, ask.
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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
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wisdom that is worth more than anything this world offers.
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Thank you for sending Jesus so that I am no longer trapped
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trying to earn your approval. But I'm freely loved as your
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child. Help me to value understanding
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over status and to choose the level path even when the crooked
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1 looks easier. Guide me today in every choice,
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every conversation, every crossroads.
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I need your wisdom and I trust you to give it in Jesus name,
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Amen. What if the battles hitting your
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family are not random and your home can become a place where
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darkness loses every right to stay?
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The Secured Home is a powerful six book prayer series for
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believers who want to guard their households with biblical
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authority, peace and confidence in Jesus Christ.
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Book 1, Guarded Thresholds, fortifies every doorway, room,
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and entry point with prayerful protection.
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Book 2, Cleansed Rooms, helps reclaim spaces marked by fear,
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unrest, and spiritual defilement.
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Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes hidden access points and severs
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every agreement with darkness. Book 4, Broken Assignments,
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confronts oppression, torment, and attacks against your family.
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Book 5, Consecrated Walls, dedicates every space and rhythm
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of the home to God. Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how
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to maintain spiritual order, rest, and holy presence every
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day. Order now on Amazon or visit
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prayerscripts.org. Now I invite you to spend time
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with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
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Proverbs chapter 16, verses 16 to 17 World English Bible How
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much better it is to get wisdom than gold?
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Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
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The highway of the upright is to depart from evil.
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He who keeps his way preserves his soul.
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Galatians, Chapters 3 to 4. World English Bible.
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Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the
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truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed
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among you as crucified? I just want to learn this from
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you. Did you receive the Spirit by
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the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
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Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
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you now completed in the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in
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vain? If it is indeed in vain, He
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therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and does miracles
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among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by hearing
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of faith, even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted
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to him for righteousness. Know therefore, that those who
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are of faith are children of Abraham.
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The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles
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by faith, preached the good news beforehand to Abraham, saying,
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In you, All the nations will be blessed.
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So then those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful
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Abraham. For as many as are of the works
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of the law are under a curse. For it is written.
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Curse. It is everyone who doesn't
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continue in all things that are written in the book of the Law
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to do them now that no man is justified by the law before God
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is evident. For the righteous will live by
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faith. The law is not a faith, but the
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man who does them will live by them.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become
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a curse for us. For it is written.
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Curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of
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Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus,
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that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
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faith. Brothers Speaking of human
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terms, though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been
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confirmed, no one makes it void or adds to it.
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Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring.
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He doesn't say to descendants as of many, but as of 1 to your
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offspring, which is Christ. Now I say this, a covenant
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confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came 430
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years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no
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effect. For if the inheritance is of the
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law, it is no more of promise, but God has granted it to
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Abraham by promise. Then why is there the law?
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It was added because of transgressions, until the
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offspring should come to whom the promise has been made.
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It was ordained through angels by the hand of a Mediator.
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Now a mediator is not between 1:00, but God is. 1.
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Is the law then against the promises of God?
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Certainly not. For if there had been a law
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given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness
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would have been of the law. But the Scripture imprisoned all
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things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ
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might be given to those who believe.
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But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law,
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confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed,
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so that the Law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ,
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that we might be justified by faith.
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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
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For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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For as many of you as we're baptized into Christ have put on
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Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There is neither slave nor freeman.
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There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in
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Christ Jesus. If you are Christ S, then you
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are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to promise.
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But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no
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different from a bond servant, though he is Lord of all, but is
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under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the
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Father. So we also, when we were
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children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles
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of the world. But when the fullness of the
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time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the
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law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we
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might receive the adoption of children.
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And because you are children, God sent out the spirit of his
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Son into your hearts, crying, ABBA Father.
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So you are no longer a bond servant, but a son, and if a
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son, then an heir of God through Christ.
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However, at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage
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to those who by nature are not gods.
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But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known
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by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable
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elemental principles to which you desire to be in bondage all
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over again? You observe days, months,
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seasons, and years. I'm afraid for you that I might
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have wasted my labor for you. I beg you, brothers, become as I
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am, for I also have become as you are.
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You did me no wrong, but you know that because of weakness in
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the flesh, I preached the good news to you the first time, that
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which was a temptation to you in my flesh you didn't despise nor
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reject, but you received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ
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Jesus. What was the blessing you
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enjoyed? For I testify to you that if
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possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to
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me. So then have I become your enemy
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by telling you the truth. They zealously seek you in no
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good way. No, they desire to alienate you
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that you may seek them. But it is always good to be
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zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you,
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my little children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ
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is formed in you, but I could wish to be present with you now
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and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
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Tell me you that desire to be under the law.
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Don't you listen to the law. For it is.
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Written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant and one
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by the free woman. However, the sun by the servant
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was born according to the flesh, but the sun by the free woman
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was born through promise. These things contain an
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allegory, for these are two covenants. 1 is from Mount Sinai
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bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.
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For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answers to the
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Jerusalem that exists now. For she is in bondage with her
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children, but the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the
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mother of us all. For it is written.
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Rejoice, you barren who don't bear, break out and shout, you
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who don't travail. For the desolate have more
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children than her who has a husband.
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Now we brothers as Isaac was, are children of promise.
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But as then he who was born according to the flesh
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persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also
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it is now. However, what does the Scripture
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say? Throw out the servant and her
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son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of
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the free woman. So then, brothers, we are not
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children of a servant, but of the free woman.
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Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
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everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
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Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope and
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walking. Daily with Jesus.