On reading today's passage from Romans, it reminded me that we have to remember the Jewish nation. God's chosen people are still His chosen people. We are not a replacement for Abraham's descendants, we are grafted into the olive tree. We are but a branch of God's Kingdom.
I went to Israel last year and to be honest I believe that it is the most amazing place I have ever been to. I felt God's presence where ever we went. I really do believe that we need to pray for Jesus to be revealed to the nation of Israel.
Let's remember our Jewish brothers and sisters and pray that they will come to know Jesus as Lord and Messiah.
What another fantastic chapter! I know that the Bible is the word of God so I should never be surprised at how amazing it is, but I am!
In verse 9 it says,
That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
What an amazing truth. Jesus has done so much for us through His death and resurrection, and all we need do is believe, all we have to do is confess that Jesus is Lord and believe and that is it!
There is no catch, there is no clause, all we have to do is confess and believe! God has sorted it all out for us. Even though we deserve nothing, we gain everything. Jesus is LORD!
Sometimes we might look at situations in our lives and wonder things like why is God allowing this to happen to me? Where is God in this situation? In this chapter of Romans verse 20-21 says,
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
We are created by God, who are we to question Him? Who are we to moan and groan at Him?
Jesus never said being a Christian would be a bed of roses. We need to look to the author and perfecter of our faith and trust in Him.
I got given a word last week and I think that it goes with this scripture so well.
Because he loves me, says the LORD, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation
This passage of scripture comes from Psalm 91. I have found it a great help and comfort. We need to remember that God sees our hearts, He sees what we are going through. We don't need to moan at Him we just need to trust in Him. He will never leave us or forsake us. Let's remember God is in control!
The start of this chapter of Romans is my Baptism verse -
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
I love this verse. I praise God for this verse. This is the gospel in a nutshell. We are all saved through Jesus and because of that, we are now no longer condemned. We are forgiven, we are set free. We are no longer slaves to sin, but we are sons and daughters of the living God. What a truth to remember. Son's not slaves, forgiven not forgotten, we are free!
This part of chapter 6 reminds us that before knowing the Lord we were servants of sin. We were going the wrong way; we were lost; we were going no where fast.
I know that personally before receiving Jesus into my life I was lost and was going no where. Everything was about me and what I could do or get. But once I chose to follow Christ my priorities changed. Everything I do I want to glorify God. That's not to say that I don't get things wrong, or don't think of myself. BUT my real goal, my desperate need is to know Him, to serve Him and to show others the way to Salvation through Jesus.
I know that I am eternally grateful that Jesus died for me. I praise God for what He's done, is doing and is going to do in my life. My prayer is that I would honour Jesus with everything that I do, think and say. What about you?
In my bible this passage has the heading Dead to sin, Alive in Christ. This is a brilliant truth but a hard one to live.
How often do we forget that we are Alive in Christ? How often do we try to die to the old self? We need to have this engrained into our very beings. We need to come the realisation that Christ Jesus died for us once and for all so that we can be free in Him. So that we can have the fullness of life through the power of His Spirit. So that we can forget our past and move on in the Salvation of Jesus Christ.
I want to live every day for Him. I want to make a difference for the Kingdom. I want to let go of the past and run forward into the future. Let's make sure that we are Alive in Christ, that we live each day to the full for His Glory!
I must admit this final part of chapter 5 is not an easy read. When you read it aloud it sounds very confusing. However, we can praise God for what this passage actually means.
In a nutshell this is what its says:
We through Adams sin are all sinners and deserve to be punished, but through the gift of Jesus dying on the cross we are saved.
Jesus death was our saving gift from God. How amazing is that? We did the wrong stuff and God paid the debt for us with a gift. That means we owe him nothing. When we give someone a gift it's free. They don't pay us back they just get it. So it is with Salvation. We did the wrong, Jesus paid the price we are free - Job done!
Let's Praise God for the debt being paid. Let's thank our Lord and Saviour for paying our debts off. Let's remember that even though we don't deserve the forgiveness and grace of God - we get it anyway just by receiving Jesus as Lord.
I love this chapter of Romans. Whenever I read it I always feel uplifted. The whole passage is brilliant, showing us the hope we have in God. However the bit that I love the most is verses 6-8,
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I don't really think I can do this passage of scripture justice to be honest. It really does speak for itself. These few verses show the love of God. Jesus died for everyone, he didn't just die for the people that believe in Him, but also for those who don't believe. He died while we were still in sin, while we were far away from Him.
We need to hold on to this passage. We need to believe this passage. We need to remember these verses and know that even when things around us are going wrong, that our hope is build on Jesus. Our hope is in the Lord, as He demonstrated His love for us through the cross. Do we really think that He'd go through all of that just for us to fall at the first hurdle? Let's trust in Him and put our hope in Him. He is all we need.
This chapter of Romans is about Faith, however the verses that jumped off the page at me was verses 7-8, Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him
How brilliant is it that, God not only forgives our sin, but also doesn't count them against us. We are completely forgiven. Through the cross our sin is covered. We can be assured that when we repent we are completely set free from that sin. God doesn't keep account, all of our sin is wiped from the book. We are clean.
We can be assured that even though we fall short of the Glory of God, we are forgiven through the blood of Christ. PRAISE GOD!
In this chapter of Romans, Paul talks about the Jews and the law. He warns them of being more for the law than for their relationship with God. He warns them that they are not a Jew on the outside, they must be a Jew inside too.
We need to remember this as Christians too. We need to make sure that our relationship is the top of the list, and not all the stuff that goes with being a Christian. Obviously we have to obey God, however, if we put the stuff before our relationship with God then we are wasting our time. So what is important in our lives? Are we busy judging others, or even acting as a Christian outwardly, but inwardly we are not.
God asks us to give our whole lives to him. He wants us warts and all. Jesus didn't die so that we could have a hobby. He didn't go to the cross so that we could have yet another social club. Jesus death made it possible that we don't have to live under the law, but through grace. I don't want to be religious, I want to live my life for Him, with Him and through Him. I want to make sure that I have God inside and out
In Romans chapter 1, Paul speaks of how people went away from God. In this passage of scripture Paul shows that mankind chose to go it's own way. The human race disobeyed God and just did what it wanted. God could've done something about this disobedience, he could've stopped mankind and changed the way we live so easily. However, God is not a dictator, he allows us freedom. We all have free will, and so God didn't stop us he allowed us to choose the way we live.
There is a problem with this kind of living though. If we choose to go our own way and shut God out of our lives then there will be consequences. There are always consequences to every action in life, and this way of living has the greatest of consequences. When we choose to live without God in our lives, then we are also choosing to spend eternity without God too. When we deny God into our earthly lives, then our eternal lives are spent separated from God also. Let's make sure that we make the right decisions. Let's make sure that we follow God's plan and purpose for our lives. I know that I don't want to live without God in my life now, and that goes for eternity too! What about you?
Paul begins his letter to the Romans telling them of how he'd longed to visit them for such a long time but had been prevented. Even though Paul wanted to go to Rome and tell them about Jesus, he didn't go. He didn't do what he longed to do, he did what God wanted him to do. He followed God's lead and not his own ambitions.
We can learn a lot from the first part of this initial chapter. So often we want to do something and just go headlong into it without a thought of the consequences. We sometimes even forget to seek God about the situation we find ourselves drawn into, and just get so caught up into what 'we' want or what 'I' want that we forget to involve God at all.
I know that Paul had other reasons for not going straight to Rome, like the fact that he just happened to be under arrest and then he got shipwrecked while he was on his way. However, he still only did what God wanted him to do. He still listened to the instructions given by the Holy Spirit to go at the right time - God's time.
Let's seek God always, His timing is never too early or too late - its perfect.
Today I finished off the book of Acts. Paul has finally got to Rome and is living under house arrest. On the way to Rome he has been ship wrecked, bitten by a viper, amongst other things, and all for the sake of the gospel.
How far would I go to share the gospel? How far would any of us go to share the good news of Jesus. Paul was willing to go through anything to show the love of Jesus to everyone. He was willing to be subjected to anything for the sake of the gospel.
The early church went through such persecution for the Kingdom, and around the world today many are suffering for the name of Jesus. However we moan and groan about our situations, and to be honest the problems that we have are nothing in comparison to those in other countries.
We need to thank God and praise God that we live in a country that allows us to worship freely, and even share our faith openly, especially when others don't have that freedom.
My prayer is for those that do not have that freedom that God will be with them and that they will be strengthened in the Lord.
I've missed doing my blog for a few days due to my work being so busy. However I'm back now and continuing in the book of Acts. Over the past few days I've been reading about how Paul stood trial before Festus and Agrippa and even though they find nothing to charge him with he insists that he wants to go before Caesar. In chapter 27 Paul is being transported by ship to Rome, although things are not going well as the boat he is aboard has just been ship wrecked!
This is a weird situation to be in. Paul is the prisoner but even so he is the one with all the answers. The centurion with him follows his instructions even though Paul is his captive. The centurion sees that Paul is different. He sees Jesus in Paul even though he doesn't believe in him.
This really encourages me, as we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us as Paul did. When others look at us and see that we are different, they too see Jesus just like the centurion saw Jesus in Paul.
I've been thinking this week about how even we as Christians can have heroes. We follow other Christians like others follow actors and footballers. We envy them and look up to them and even try our hardest to go and see them in action. I'm not saying that we shouldn't listen to these famous Christians, or even go and see them. However be encouraged today, that you have the same Holy Spirit within you as they do!
We have the Power and the ability to speak into peoples lives, whether they are Christian or non Christian alike! Just like the Centurion saw something different in Paul, let your light shine before men so that they will see your Father in heaven.
I've decided today not to write about my bible study but instead to write about what the Lord has done today.
This week we are going into the local primary schools to do an hour long assembly. We call this the Kidzone roadshow and the children always look forward to the mayhem and fun that we bring with us.
Yesterday one of the team hurt himself playing football, and I can imagine he felt really terrible knowing what we were doing today. I also felt bad and couldn't sleep worrying about what was going to happen. In fact I woke up and prayed on and off all night.
When I finally gave in and got up before my alarm, I went and prayed some more. I prayed that the Lord would give me a word as I needed to know that everything was going to be OK. He lead me to John chapter 10.
Verse 10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full, has been quoted to me many times over the years although today it wasn't that verse that jumped out at me.
It was in fact verse 4, When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. This verse really spoke to me this morning. I really believe that God was telling me that no matter what happens He has gone before me. The shepherd goes ahead of the sheep and the sheep follow. We are those sheep. Jesus paves the way and we follow where he is going.
This verse really encouraged me this morning. I hope it will encourage you if you are going through something difficult. Jesus is in control and He won't let us go.
I want to Praise God for going before us this morning and making a way where there seemed to be no way. The Roadshow went into 2 schools today and our injured man joined it too! We are in another 7 schools and I know that God will pave the way for each one. Thank you Lord!
In this chapter Paul has been arrested, for his own good, and is now in front of the Sanhedrin. They want rid of Paul and accuse him of insulting God's high priest. However Paul plays a blinder - he plays the resurrection card and causes the Pharisees and Sadducee's to start a fight! These two have been fighting forever about their belief or non belief of the resurrection, and so he takes the heat off himself by throwing what seems to be an off the cuff comment.
So often we too can be incensed by an off the cuff comment. It makes me realise that the one thing I don't want to do, I can so easily be drawn into doing. We can be religious about things without even trying! We get our selves in a pickle over what version of the bible to read, what songs or hymns to sing, what colour the carpet should be, whether we should be an hour long or more the list could go on. We worry about these things more than our relationship with God. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could argue about stuff! He didn't come to earth so that we could get ourselves in a tizwaz about what version of the bible is the best one!
We need to get a grip! If we are arguing about stuff then we need to STOP! Let's just get on with the job in hand - SAVING THE LOST - and forget about the trivialities of religion!
In this chapter of Acts, Paul goes to Jerusalem. In the previous chapter Paul is warned a number of times not to go. In fact Paul is told by the Holy Spirit that he will go to prison if he goes to Jerusalem. However, he goes nevertheless. He knows that God is guiding him to go regardless of the consequences.
This made me think, if I knew that I was going into a dangerous situation would I go? Paul knew that he had to go, he knew the voice of the Shepherd. So often we forget the voice of the Shepherd when we have difficult situations to go through.
Jesus never said it would be easy. He never promised a bed of roses. He promised that there would be times of persecution, where families would be split, where we would be brought before the temple etc... We need to realise that when hard times come, that God is with us. When we are weak then He is strong.
