set my sole on fire

Galatians 6:1-5

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

So there we were, a nice campsite with a beautiful view of this incredible lake, Lake Manateau. It had been the longest week of many of our lives, we hit some terrible weather and finally this day the weather broke. The sun came out, and the trip took a turn for the better. We had renewed energy and only a couple days left. We had been in the Canadian Wilderness for 5 days now and we were wondering if we would ever get out… but this evening was completely different. It was beautiful. Everything was better. To celebrate we built a nice big fire. We had been wet and cold for days so the chance to have a big fire was so welcome. Kyle ryan went and collected more wood, and more wood, and more wood…  we had so much wood. That fire was huge and Kyle and I sat with a few people talking about life and everything, admiring the beautiful night, even admiring the beautiful fire. Until Kyle pointed out that this fire was so pretty that it was even turning different colors. Uh oh! Those colors were coming from Julia’s shoes that were drying by the fire… well, there WERE drying by the fire, but our fire got so big and so hot that now they were part of the fire! Opps. Oh, and these were borrowed shoes.

The next day Kyle felt bad and Julia made him feel worse… so he decided to make it up to her by carrying her burden, he carried her bag…   but that was not enough… he also carried her! He carried her for a whole portage…  it was funny, but he owed her.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a place where we need a little help carrying our burden. I’ve been in those situations on the trail where someone needs you to grab a little weight and sometimes you need someone to grab a little bit of your weight.

It’s like that in real life too. Sometimes our burdens get really heavy. Sometimes we get all this stuff piling up on us and it simply becomes too much for us to handle on our own. That’s why God put people into our lives. We need each other to carry each others burdens.

Jesus was very open about this, he offers us his shoulders when he says “take my yolk up you”, because our burden is heavy and his yolk is light - He will help us carry that burden but He designed it so that we need to rely on others to carry those burdens as well.

Have you been helping anyone carry their burden lately? Are you letting someone carry yours?

Answer This

1.         Name a time that you needed help physically. You needed to rely on others to help you.

2.         What about spiritually, what is a time that you had to rely on others spiritually?

3.         Bear one another's _________, and so ________ the law of Christ.

4. Take a minute and journal about what you read.

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Written by Jeff Harkins

this one’s for the fat girls

Galatians 2:7-10

7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

So, I’ve been listing to Mat Kearney’s new album a lot lately… because my ears are trained to like awesomeness and that album reeks of awesomeness! The first track is called Heartbreak Dreamer … at the end of the song there is a spoken word artist doing a poem, it’s good. He starts out “this one’s for the fat girls…”

I liked the poem so I looked it up and listened to it in it’s entirety. The poets name is Anis Mojgani and the poem is called Shake the Dust. He performed it at a Ted Talk that I listened to and I found it so inspiring. “This one’s for the fat girls…” it’s catchy and his voice holds you to his words… “this one is for the little brothers, this one is for the schoolyard wimps and the childhood bullies who tormented them…”He goes on and lists all the people that “this one” is for, and he tells them to Shake the Dust…  don’t settle for the label that they’ve been given, own who you are and become the best possible version of yourself… the line that I like the best is when it says “this one’s for the ones amendments don’t stand up for, the ones that are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you don’t forget yourself, don’t let one moment go by that doesn’t remind you that your heart beats 9000 times every single day and there are enough gallons of blood to make every one of you oceans… do not settle for letting these waves that settle and for the dust to collect in your veins.”

That is so powerful, and inspiring. It fires me up to find some people who have been labeled by the world and to show them how freeing Jesus can be. I get pumped when I hear that poem. It inspires me because God has really given me a passion to see people, teens especially, taking steps to realize who they are in Christ and to then “become who you are” in Christ. That’s why you’ll often see our tag line “become who you are” at youth group. Because I believe that so many of us have such a limited view of who God has made us and we don’t “become who we are” we settle for a false and unfulfilling version of ourselves.

What’s that got to do with this passage? Everything. Look at the last verse… these guys are getting their assignments as to where to go and do ministry…and Paul gets the poor people, and he is pumped, because that is where his heart is. He got what he wanted, and he wanted that because he is good at reaching them.

I have watched Pastor Shan over the years and one thing that sticks out about him is that he is unbelievably good at reaching the hurting people. I will do my part and if I notice someone that is hurting I will do what I can, but this guy has a radar for it, and he knows exactly what to say and how to reach them…  it’s like those who are needy are metal and God has built this incredibly effective magnet inside Pastor Shan and it just draws him to these folks and then God meets their needs through him.

Paul was excited about who he was sent to serve because he already knew who he was good at reaching. Now Paul has reached the rich and poor, young and old, etc… and you should be willing to go to anyone, but we are each specifically gifted to reach a certain crowd or group or style or type of people, young, old, christian, non-christian, angry, depressed, successful, overweight, underweight, intelligent, special needs, sick, … the list goes on…  who has God designed you to reach out to ? Who are your “fat girls?”

1. What kind of people have you had success connecting with? (Classmates, athletes, old people, kids, peers, non-christians, greasers, soc’s…)

2. Only, they asked us to remember the ________, the very thing I was _________ to do.

3. Without forgetting the others out there, what are ways you can get better at reaching the people you connect with?

Take a moment and journal about this. 

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Written by Jeff