Romans 1:1-7 - I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God's words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God's friends. The sacred writings (like the Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll I saw this morning) contain preliminary reports by the prophets on God's Son. His descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master. Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! Amen and Amen!
I went to the tomb today and HE was not there. He was risen! To stand in that surreal spot...I went to the Garden to pray and the dew was on the persimmons. I was so convicted of sin as I stood there in His Presence struggling with a besetting sin. Romans 2:4 "God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change." Reminds me of the quote: God is not nice. God is not my uncle. God is an earthquake." And it is His Kindness that leads me to repentance.
Even in Jerusalem and America this very day----They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. We pass by it---some of the Jews have his home in their hands but not their hearts. But, He is here.
But wait, Romans says it right and that's where my thinking must be: There's nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
We are all in a race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
Don't know the first thing about living with others....how true. Self-absorbed....self-centered. Praise God there is Hope for our sin.
Romans 3:31But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.
Hallelujah what a Savior!
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ReplyDeleteToday's scripture left me uncomfortable in my own sins. Will I ever get it? Will I ever be able to live up to my own expectations of what I think I should be as a Christ follower? Romans is a hard-hitting book, be ready, Pearls, to be challenged. The following verses spoke to me today: Romans 2:3 -4"You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change."
ReplyDelete9 -11"If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you're from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won't give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind."
12 -13"If you sin without knowing what you're doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you're doing, that's a different story entirely. Merely hearing God's law is a waste of your time if you don't do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God."
14 -16"When outsiders who have never heard of God's law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God's law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God's yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God's yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences."
I found that pearl today, too, Jan--and am left uncomfortably exposed.
ReplyDelete"Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change."
Scared to plunge deeper into Living Water but more afraid not to!