Are You Sure That's English?

Galatians 1
Paul greets the churches in Galatia.  He is not writing to just one group, but all the churches in the city.  I imagine they had to pass it around so everyone could read it.  I also think this was a brilliant strategy for increasing unity among believers belonging to different churches!  Then, he begins telling them that he is disappointed in them because they have listened to and turned to a different gospel.  He reminds them that there is only one true gospel.  Then he tells them how it was not taught to him, but revealed to him through Jesus.

Proverbs 23:12
"Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. "  A lot of time I read these proverbs and don't spend much time thinking about their application.  I know that instruction and knowledge are good, but this is telling me to apply myself... meaning I need to work at it!

Psalm 58
David is asking the Lord to do some very specific things to his enemies.

Isaiah 15-18
Isaiah is speaking to specific places now.  He talked about Moab, whose glory would be brought into contempt.  He talked about Damascus, whose strong cities would be like deserted places of wooded heights and hilltops. He talked about Cush, who would bring a tribute to the Lord.

Ireland-
People speak both Irish and English, but there are no monolingual Irish speakers.  And even though they are speaking English, we still might not be able to understand them!  The economy has done very well in the last several years due to a switch to high tech industry and services rather than dairy farming and tourism.  There was a financial crisis in 2008-2009 that has slowed down the economy.  The Catholic church is influential, but not as much as in the past.  There is freedom of religion.  The Holy Spirit has moved through the country and transformed rigid religion into spiritually dynamic fellowships!  Pray for all the changes that come from rapid transformation.  There are many immigrants coming into the country who bring cultural diversity.  Pray that they would come to know Christ.  This is considered a young country... pray for the young people to have life changing encounters with Christ.  Pray for the many missionary workers.