At 8 am on Tuesday morning I awoke without hiccups and thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was amazing the weight that lifted from me. I had been set free from infirmity. I have been free ever since. I was and am giddy with joy. In addition I had slept through the night. It was a remarkable feeling. Both the night's rest and the healing I knew had come from God. All freedom is sourced in God. Truly, Life is what we are given.

Today in our Scripture reading we had a glimpse into the ministry of Barnabas and Paul when they first visited the area of Galatia to which this letter was written. In the reading we heard of his visit to Lystra and Derbe.

I tell you when I read it or hear it read, I am astounded by Paul. He was one unique character. I do not believe I have the fortitude which God gave him.

First, Paul and Barnabas are there preaching and the people see as Paul heals that man who had been a cripple. The healing was not about Paul at all, actually, but about the power of the Lord working through Paul and the faith of the man to receive this power. The people however only see one thing, that which they begin to shout, that the "gods have come down among us."

In a way they were right -- "GOD had come down to them" in the person of Jesus and now in and through Paul and Barnabas. But they were mistaken in wanting to give glory and honor to their false gods of Zeus and Hermes, offering sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas.

What a unique situation to be in! Imagine people wanting to worship you because of something you did! It seems like something that would never happen now, but then, look at our own worship of people in this society. For what they do we laud praise upon the stars of this era - the sports stars, the movie stars, the top TV personalities - we give them our ear, we quote them, we watch them, we believe they are our friends "I cannot miss my time with Mary, Dr Phil, Oprah, etc..." In many respects we are a world gone mad!

Paul and Barnabas react violently, tear their robes and rush into the crowd shouting: "We are only men, not gods! We are just like you! We have come to bring you good news, to tell you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made the heaven and earth and sea and everything in them."

They shouted much more about this living God and even with this had difficulty in keeping the people from sacrificing to them. But then the story shifts. Jews come to Lystra and we read these Jews "won the crowd over". Whereas moments before this same crowd wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas now they are ready to kill them, so they stone Paul, drag him out of the city and leave him for dead.

All this occurred because Paul noticed that one man in the crowd, one man in the audience listening to him was needing healing and open to receive it, that he had "faith to be healed." So there is Paul lying in the dirt in a pool of his own blood outside of the city and the disciples gather around him, I imagine praying and bewildered. And to their amazement Paul gets up. He is not dead and I would think from this that God must have healed him of his wounds to some extent. For he went back into the city-- now I don't know about you, but that surprised me. Had I just nearly been killed by a mob in a community I do not think I would be anxious to return there! But Paul walks BACK INTO town, stays overnight and then leaves the following day for the next town of Derbe.

Notice verse 21: They preached and won a large number of disciples.

Whereas in the 19th verse the Jews won over the crowd inciting them to murder, in verse 21 Paul and Barnabas win over the hearts of Jews in Derbe and bring them life.

Then the two missionaries begin the return trip home and pass again through Lystra and eventually reach Antioch. As they do so they strengthen the disciples, encourage them to remain true to the faith and remind them, with Paul as the living illustration, "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God".

Hardships - like being stoned! I just am astounded by Paul in this! No whining, no complaining about the hardness of the way, but just the recognition: there will be hardships!

En route, they appoint elders in the congregations, and commit them to the Lord with fasting and prayer just as Barnabas and Paul had been commissioned onto this missionary journey by the Holy Spirit likewise setting them apart by the same.

Between the end of the 14th chapter of the book of Acts and the beginning of the 15th, the letter to the churches in Galatia was written by Paul. Sometime in the years that lapse between these two chapters. It was written sometime around 48 AD. It is the earliest of all the letters Paul wrote and was written prior to the council of Jerusalem which takes place in the 15th chapter and speaks officially regarding some of the things about which Paul wrote in this letter.

The letter is about freedom, the freedom we have in Christ, the freedom given by God, the freedom to live, the freedom to walk in this life. Paul is called the Apostle of the Free life by one commentator. He is indeed. He uses the word more frequently than any other NT author and most of that use occurs in the letter to the Galatians.

What we learn of Paul in the opening verse is that his own free life was not a genetic endowment but a divine assignment. Paul is an apostle, he writes in the opening words--God had rescued him from his previous life and made him what he is. Paul is not a self-made, nor self-appointed man, but rather, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ had sent him out as an apostle, one of the original witnesses of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

Paul was made an apostle, sent by the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Paul knew himself to be shaped, guided, created, and redeemed by God through Jesus Christ.

Paul was free to live because of the action of God and within the context of community - as he writes, "and the brothers with me". Paul wrote out of the context of the community. He did not view himself as a lone ranger, as a trail blazer with no need of others, but continually invited others to join him in this ministry and found himself free with them. He was one of them. What a contrast this is the long list of proud, isolated first-century Caesars whose names are now only entries in history books! Paul was the most original individual to live in the first century, yet his freedom was developed wholly in the context of community, and for us our own freedom is only brought to maturity and wholeness in this shared life of others in the faith.

Paul was made free by God, Paul was free in the context of community while being sent forth as an apostle, and Paul sends this letter to the "churches of Galatia". This was sent to Derbe, Iconium and Lystra and other congregations as a personal letter, as an attempt to address their very specific situations.

As with all his letters he opens with those two very profound words that encompass all of the old and all of the New Testament: "Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ..." Grace: Life is a gift! Peace: Life is whole!

And in this verse 4 at the very start of this letter, before he even arrives at the content of it, Paul offers to all those who are confusing his people this word. About Jesus writes in the 4th verse: "who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father."

With this simple verse Paul compressed the entire message of his letter--for freedom always begins at the point of rescue. The fact is that we have need of rescue and that there is no human action which can bring us the freedom we need, it can only come from a divine source.

The "present evil age" is a phrase referring to every age in which we live upon this earth not just to the first century version of it. There is no way to find life if we live in defiance of God. People continue to try to do so, but sin destroys our capacity to live. It weakens our vitality. It blinds us to truth - as the people of Lystra were blinded in their worship of false gods. Sin incapacitates us for living out a healthy love and a vigorous peace.

We need deliverance from this and it has been offered through Jesus.

Ah but this is not some "hope for an unreachable freedom" that Paul is preaching. He himself first off had experienced such deliverance. And history can testify to God's ability to do it again and again. Even in the recent history of the book of Acts when King Herod wanting to please the Jews arrested and had James beheaded and then put Peter into prison as well.

Herod was a man who made decisions based upon what would get him the most applause. The death of Peter - that would put a stop to the hymn-singing Christians! That would show the people where the center of power was! That would show these people who prattled about freedom the tough realities of the world.

But God showed he could deliver - employing the same word used by Paul here, Luke wrote in Acts 12 that God sent His angel to "deliver" to "rescue" Peter from the hand of Herod and all the Jewish people were expecting. "The people had been expecting that Roman power would triumph again. They had been expecting more oppression. They did not believe there was freedom to believe and sing. They didn't believe that God could change things. They concluded that there was no use going against the grain of "this present evil age" so they supported Herod against Peter. But Peter was set free, and shortly afterwards Herod was a diseased corpse" (quoted from Traveling Light, by Eugene Peterson, p. 25, ubp).

Do you believe that God can change things?

Give him those attitudes, those places of anger, and hurt, and selfish pride! Open the door of your heart that God can work in you to free you to live, fully, freely, mightily.

Do you believe in a God who can set free, who indeed has set you and I free in order that we can live?

Do you truly believe in this God preached by Paul, the God of freedom, who is not limited by anything nor by anyone?

I tell you this God has and can yet deliver you and I still from this present evil age - which may get more evil yet. God will deliver us, rescue us, in order that we can walk in the life that He has given.

Freedom is first received as a gift from God and then it is walked in.

Grace--life is a gift! Peace - life is whole! These two words declare that we are fundamentally, finally, free to live!