Twice a week, maybe?

There's a lot to talk about this week.

First off, I'm thinking about doing more than one post a week. I'm considering twice-a-week updates, on Sundays and Thursdays. It seems like updating only once a week isn't exactly driving people to read what I'm writing, and what little audience I gained from my last blog doesn't seemed to have followed me.

There are no plans at the moment to return to daily updates, but I think that more frequent updates during the week will drive greater interest for this blog.

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Today was the first time in several weeks that I've attended my Bible study at church. This morning, we heard a message from Galatians chapter 2, wherein the apostle Paul rebukes Peter for his support of the Judaizers who were causing discord in the Galatian church. Peter had fallen into error, for the Judaizers preached that circumcision was necessary for salvation, and had been withdrawing from the Gentile members of the church, as the Mosaic Law had restricted how Jews should affiliate with Gentiles, or not.

Paul directly addressed Peter's error saying, "But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 'But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!  For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.'" (Galatians 2:14-21)

The basic thrust of Paul's argument is that salvation is made secure through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and not through any human effort, and any effort to achieve righteousness apart from the Lord is an affront to Him. As believers, there's an understanding we ought to have that we contribute nothing to the righteous work Christ accomplished on the cross. 

After the message was over, I was deeply convicted by the realization that I had, in a sense, been doing what Peter had done. I had been trying to do what was good, as if to prove that I was good. I had fallen into the same sort of error that Peter had. When the group had a brief discussion at the end of the hour, someone remarked that trying to please God through your own good works robs you of the joy of you walk with God. Hearing that made me realize that was why I've frankly been so miserable lately. When I got home, I had to stop and pray, and just confess to God that I had been in the wrong, and ask His forgiveness. 

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I know I said in the first post that I wanted to avoid writing about work as much as possible, since I wrote so much about it on the old blog. However, something happened this last week at work that I need to address, and it goes to show that God will work things in His own time and however He elects to do so.

For those who haven't read the old blog, back in November, I applied for the opportunity to train in operating the roll label machine in the digital department. As you may recall, for whatever reason, nothing ever came of it, no one was interviewed for the spot, and the whole issue seemed to fall by the wayside. I personally just let the whole thing go, figuring it wasn't supposed to be.  

Fast forward to last week, when the new digital manager, Mike, called me into his office for an interview. He asked a lot of the standard interview questions: Why are you interested in this position? What are your long-term goals? What are your strengths? Actually, I'm kind of glad I didn't know the interview was coming, because I think I would've been extremely nervous. 

When it was over, I didn't really know how I felt about the whole thing. It had been so long since anything had happened about the position that I really had put it behind me. It took some time for me to consider whether I really still wanted the position, and a moment, I wasn't sure that I did. Now, I think I would at least like to try, and we'll see if God gives me the opportunity.

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I have to stop typing now, as it's been a very long time since I've typed this much on a computer keyword, and my wrists are getting sore.