Bewitched

DEVOTION
GALATIONS
BEWITCHED
Gal 3:1-5
3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
NIV
This idea, this thought is continuous and is difficult to break down into one stand alone idea, but I think I might spent a couple of days here anyway. First of all I surely do not want to be considered foolish because I have forgotten that Jesus was crucified for my sin and depart from my life of faith in him and his act upon that cross to a life endeavoring to win favor with God by obeying some rules devised by men. I hope and I am pretty darn sure I will never allow myself to be bewitched by some fine sounding argument from those whose intellectual prowess is superior to mine, which is questionable to begin with. I have such a difficult time with other people who have been deceived into believing being a good Christian has anything to do with faith. In fact, I have a difficult time just dealing with the idea of being a good Christian. I am either a Christian or not. How can I attain any other level of Christian other than Christian? I am a Christian because of my faith in Jesus Christ crucified. Can I have better faith? Can I have a greater amount of faith in what he did? Now, since I do have that faith I must try to live in a manner which pleases my Lord, but I am cannot be a good Christian, I can only be a Christian. My goal is eternal life in the everlasting presence of God. How in the world could I ever imagine attaining that by some human effort? I know I sound like a broken record, but I am thoroughly convinced without any reservations about this faith issue verses some obedience to rules. Enough of that already will you? I simply am firm in the belief of the truth of the scriptures and that is that. Not one single person will bewitch me with their ideas of what I should do in order to be right with God. God has told me all I need to know and it is contained in a record he oversaw for all of mankind to be able to not only find their way back to him but to be able to know all about him and about his love. What I need to know and do is contained within his word. I can read it and hear from him directly, I do not need others to interpret or rather misconstrue what he has said. No bewitching for me.