Do you know
the name of Flossi Holloway? Last year
on November 26, 2015 she hung up her apron after a 40-year-old promise to feed
the people of Farrell, PA. For over 40
years Flossi would cook a buffet meal the week of Thanksgiving and invite her
community. Last year, at 83, with the
meal behind her, she said, “The Lord has
blessed me tremendously, but when you feel under the weather, it’s time to
quit.”
Last year she
fed more than 70 guests, down from her typical gatherings of more than
300. Her son Berry said, “Momma kept
going even when her house burned down in 2008.
The reason she did it is simple; she had made a promise".
About 40
years ago her daughter Carlotta got sick.
Flossi vowed that if the good Lord enabled her to live she would feed
Farrell on Thanksgiving week each year.
Carlotta’s condition improved and ever since Holloway’s guests said her
food was even better than her vow.
After
Carlotta died in 2000, Holloway cooked on.
When her son Armond passed in 2003 Flossi continued to keep her
promise. Though Flossi lovingly paid for
each yearly feast, when others found out about her tradition, money would pour in
from churches, businesses, social organizations, and individuals. Last year donations came from as far away as
California.
Last year’s
dinner consisted of turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans,
macaroni salad, sweet potatoes, tossed salads, and for the kids, crates of
juice cartons.
As the
years past, Flossi’s family and friends worked the buffet line and took dinners
to community members who couldn’t make it to the buffet. Her son said, “What my mother did for over 40
years was a blessing; a gift to the community.
It’s humbling to see a woman so small with such a big heart.”
Think of it. Cooking a Thanksgiving meal for others for 40
years with no regard for payment, or even a thank you! It’s a lot like God’s promise to Abraham, but
of course, He’s never stopped honoring it.
One of the greatest distinctions between Paul and his critics in Galatia is that those critics were propounding a religion of works that were a necessary supplement to God’s promise, but Paul never did. They were championing a religion that required cooperative effort on the part of God and the believer, but the Gospel Paul proclaims requires no such thing. Rather, in the Gospel it’s all God’s doing and none of our doing.
So you say,
“What about the law? Why does God give
us the law, if He doesn’t expect us to keep it?” Those are good questions. And they were some of the same questions the false
teachers were planting in the minds of the Galatians. So what does Paul do? Does he duck them? No, he faces them head on in Galatians
3:10-22.
This Sunday
is Communion and the first Sunday of Advent.
It’s also the Sunday we get to see how the whole Bible hangs together in
Jesus Christ. What Paul sets before us
in Galatians 3:10-22 is profound, life-altering truth that we will seek to dig
into deeply.
What Paul
tells us is that the promise of God to Abraham in no way supplants the law He
gives Moses 430 years later. Quite the
contrary, the Law of God and the Promise of God are completely
complimentary. In fact, as we will see
on Sunday, in God’s perfect plan you can’t have one without the other.
In
preparation for Sunday’s message, “The Law and the Promise,” you may wish to
consider the following:
1.
How is Jesus the fulfillment of every promise
God ever makes?
2.
How many times does God’s promise to Abraham in
Genesis 12:2, 3 reappear in Genesis?
3.
How is the Gospel represented to Abraham as
noted in Galatians 3:8?
4.
What’s the point of Paul’s use of the
illustration in verse 15?
5.
How critical is Genesis 15 to understanding what
Paul is saying in Galatians 3:15-22?
6.
When did God ratify His promise to Abraham?
7.
What’s the significance of the plural – (offsprings)
and the singular – (offspring) in verse 16?
8.
How is God’s ratification of His promise in
Genesis 15 a foreshadowing of the cross?
9.
Why does God give us the law?
10. How
do the Law and the Promise fit together?
See you Sunday!
