Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, March 30, Galatians 1:19

"But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother."

James, the Lord's brother. One of the three pillars of the church at Jerusalem, as we'll read in the next chapter.

But it wasn't always like that, as you can read in John 7: "For neither did his brethren believe him." (5)

He is named with the rest of Jesus' family in Matthew 13:55-56: "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?"

After He rose from the dead, that changed. In 1 Corinthians 15, most believe that the passage: "After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles (7) referred to his half-brother.

In the first great council, he was the one who made the final ruling freeing the Gentile Christians from the Mosaic strictures.

With that in mind, I've said before that one of the most convincing proofs to me of Christ's deity are the two letters that "bookend" the General Letters near the end of the New Testament: James and Jude, for these are those very half-brothers, now firmly calling Jesus Lord and worshiping Him, looking for His return.

I say this is convincing to me, because I have three brothers, and if anyone can prove the sinfulness of a person, it would be the brothers!

It is James who brings "the other side of the coin" to us about true faith. Paul emphasizes that works cannot save you, but James, who probably saw many hypocrites who claimed faith without the fruit emphasizes that true faith is shown by works. Paul, right after his great declaration of unconditional justification in Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are created for good works, but with the emphasis that the works are not ours, but what God ordained for us as we walk in the Spirit.

Later in Galatians we will see Paul warn everyone that "you reap what you sow". If you think, even as a saved believer that you can get away with sin, you are mistaken. You, even though you are saved, will reap the fruits of your backslidden sin just as much as an unbeliever. I know, because I was in that position decades ago.

But we find that God always delivers His children. We are promised: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." (John 10:27-29)

And we are guaranteed in 1 Corinthians 3 that all our works will be examined before the judgment seat of Christ, which is different from the final judgment of Revelation 20. All our works will be tried by the fire of His righteousness, and those wooden, stubbly works will be burned off by the fiery eyes of Christ, while the golden works, the ones that had been ordained before the foundation of the world will remain and we will be rewarded, like athletes receiving a medal.

Or better yet, like hard-working students receiving a diploma. And it will be a working diploma, just like graduates moving into the working world to apply all of the gifts they have been bestowed and diligently pursued into action. It will start in the Millennium, where we, equipped with our own immortal resurrection bodies, will reign with Him for that thousand-year period, and afterward dwell with Him forever.

Isn't it interesting that in this small passage, we see a murderer and a mocker become pillars of the church of Christ, completely changed into new creations, proclaiming to the whole world that you can truly be reconciled to God, made righteous by Christ, and have the Holy Spirit Himself dwell within you as your tutor toward the Kingdom of God.

The first step is to get out of your head that Jesus is a "religion". He is the Living Sacrifice, and the Living Savior of the world, and wants a Living relationship with you, day by day. And with the Holy Spirit as our guarantee, within us we know that we are, right now, seated in heavenly places in Christ as Paul writes in Ephesians.

Read it for yourself. And if you sense that hunger, that burning desire to repent of your wretched sinfulness, fall upon the Savior as I and many others with have already done, and He will make you a new creation!

And if you already know this, and have strayed into "Bypath Meadow", finding yourself caught in the "Cage of Despair", He will reveal the key that you already have, and you can unlock that cage and fly back into His arms. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Guaranteed.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*KJV used*

Memory Helps

"But other of the APOSTLES
SAW I NONE,
SAVE James the Lord's BROTHER."

(Words per line: 5-3-5)

A very simple verse, other than the archaic structure. If I hadn't already put this to music 40 years ago in the KJV, I probably would have put it in the ESV, but I know from experience how hard it is to switch over to another version. I see every pastor of my generation, no matter how they try to quote in the modern translations quote in the KJV or a mixture of both.

Anyway, I look at the end words first: Apostles/none/brother.

I also deliberately separated lines 2 and 3 to have "S" words: Saw/Save to open the phrases. Then I just put the rest with them.

Linking verse numbers:

My memory character is the "ToP" (t or D=1, p or b = 9) hatted "Uncle Pennybags" of "Monopoly fame, and use his ToP hat on him or others. It works well.

Here I (I use me for Paul, go figure), and I have a good friend named James who I represent as James, putting him in a robe, a ToP hat and a head of hair, since he is lacking, lol. So I'm looking all around for the other apostles, and end up only finding my buddy James, wearing some crazy bow "Tie" as well to represent chapter 1. That is how I can link 1:19 to the verse.