November 21, 2010 (Romans 1-2)

Paul makes the gospel message pretty clear as he starts off the book of Romans. Jesus was born as a man, but was shown to be the Son of God when God raised Him from the dead. Simple message, really:

^1:3 The Good News is about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man, born into King David’s royal family line. ⁴ And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

We are to tell - the Holy Spirit is to convict - and we (and they) are to believe and obey, thereby bringing glory to God's name.

Paul was a prayer warrior. I think that is why he was so greatly used of God. He showed his dependence upon God by his prayers to God. God, please help me to follow his example:

⁸ Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. ⁹ God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.

And it wasn't all about him. Yes, he wanted to see the others to encourage them, but he also wanted to be encouraged by their faith.

¹¹ For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. ¹² When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

Paul was not ashamed of his faith in Christ. He knew that was what would bring salvation. And he reiterates that from start to finish it is accomplished by faith.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. ¹⁷ This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Paul explains that God has put knowledge of Himself instinctively in people's hearts through creation. But we all have a choice, and some choose this:

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

But even for those that are believers, that know Christ, we daily have a choice as to whether we will acknowledge God. When we don't, the following things can creep back into our lives as well:

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. ²⁹ Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. ³⁰ They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. ³¹ They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. ³² They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

And as we just read that list, do we say, "That's not me!?" Paul addresses that as well:

^2:1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. ² And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. ³ Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? ⁴ Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

I have seen that over and over in my life. I point out some "sin" of someone else, and then find myself doing the very same thing. Maybe that's why Jesus tells us to get the log out of our own eye and then perhaps we can see the speck in our brother's.

We can't live 'dual lives' before God. He sees everything we do and knows every thought we think.

^2:16 And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

I just keep thinking about the fact that we are to be 'the salt and light' of this world. How are we doing at that? Are we (am I) truly making a difference for Christ? Do I have the boldness of Paul, preaching the 'foolish' message of Jesus? Is my life lived in such a way that it cannot be explained, humanly speaking? Do I realize that I am 'a foreigner and pilgrim' here on earth, looking for 'a heavenly city'?

Jesus, I thank you for your patience with me. I thank you that through your Spirit you are changing me, but I acknowledge how short I fall. Continue to reveal Yourself to me through your word. Continue to 'change the way I think' through your word. Continue to show me I cannot do anything on my own, but it is Your Spirit that gives life and changes life. Make me a woman of prayer and dependence upon You.

November 19-20, 2010 (II Corinthians 1-13)

It is so easy to forgot our true mission - to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And we can only be His hands and feet as we allow Him to live through us. And we must never lose sight of the fact that we are in a spiritual battle, and that the enemy of our soul has blinded the minds of those that don't believe. But Jesus can remove that veil that he has put over their hearts:

^3:14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.

Paul continues to reiterate it's not about us, it's about Jesus:

^4:5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.

And he reminds them and us about how weak we truly are in ourselves:

^4:7 But this precious treasure - this light and power that now shine within us - is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.

There is something about suffering that draws us even closer to Christ. We, as a whole, have no idea what it really means to be a Christian compared to Paul and the stand that he took to bring others to Christ:

^{4:8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.}

¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. ¹²So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

¹³ But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”¹⁴ We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. ¹⁵ All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. ¹⁷ For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! ¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Paul talks of how those that are in Christ have died to the old life and now live to please Christ. And all of us are 'ambassadors' - God has appointed us to represent Him to a lost and dying world:

^5:18 All this newness of life is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. ²⁰ We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

And now for principles in giving:

9:6-8 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. ⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” ⁸ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

Paul's conclusion:

^13:11 Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Good words for us all.

November 18, 2010 (I Corinthians 12-16)

Today's reading encompassed the "love chapter" - Chapter 13. Today's blog will be 'short and sweet'. I'm getting ready to walk the dog, and as I do I'll work on memorizing verses 4-7.

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

And then, a verse that every Christian worker needs to commit to memory:

^15:58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

November 17, 2010 (I Corinthians 5-11)

Paul is talking about sin in the church - primarily sexual sin. Hard stuff - how do you expel a Christian from the church because of sexual sin? I guess you are supposed to:

^5:1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. ² You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

³ Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man ⁴ in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

⁶ How terrible that you should boast about your spirituality, and yet you liet this sort of thing go on. Don’t you realize that if one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected? ⁷ Remove this wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. ⁸ So let us celebrate the festival, not by eating the old bread of wickedness and evil, but by eating the new bread of purity and truth.

And then here is Paul's warning against sexual sin:

^6:12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. ¹³ You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. ¹⁴ And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

¹⁵ Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” ¹⁷ But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. ¹⁹Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

But in that section, I also get more out of it than just the sexual sin part. Our bodies belong to God and He cares about how we take care of them. I can see in the passage above that it is easy to become 'a slave to food', and that is not good. I also know that I need to be more disciplined in taking care of my body by exercising. This is such a struggle for me. God, please help me!

There's one little verse again about the world:

^7:23 God purchased you at a high price, so don’t be enslaved by the world.

And now a section for me, little miss know it all:

^8:1 Now let's talk about food that has been sacrificed to idols. You think that everyone should agree with your perfect knowledge. While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church. ² Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ³ But the person who loves God is the one God knows and cares for.

Discipline - in all areas. If we could only think of this life down here on earth for what it really is - a race to earn an eternal prize.

^9:24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! ²⁵ All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. ²⁶ So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. ²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

God, help us to run the race with endurance - looking to You for daily strength.

November 16, 2010 (Acts 18-19, I Corinthians 1-4)

Things haven't changed much. Back in the early church a lot of the persecution came because of business, and because of how Christianity would affect those businesses. I don't think I ever really thought of it before that 'clearly'. Here's the passage from Acts:

^{Acts 19:23} About that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus concerning the Way. ²⁴ It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy. ²⁵ He called them together, along with others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows:

“Gentlemen, you know that our wealth comes from this business. ²⁶ But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province! ²⁷ Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world—will be robbed of her great prestige!"

What about today? What businesses would be affected if people were Christians? A lot of "new age" authors would be out of business; pornography publications/internet sites would be out of business (and I say that only if Christians were walking as they should - I once heard a statistic that when Christian conferences came into towns, the hotels made more money on their x-rated movie channel than at any other time); etc. As I was trying to think of other areas, it was actually hard. I think we Christians have so become like 'the world' that we aren't making that big of an impact by living any differently. The early church had a very powerful effect on the culture as explained in this passage:

^{Acts 19:17} A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored. ¹⁸ Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. ¹⁹ A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars. ²⁰ So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.

And now we come to Corinthians. Paul's goal was to focus on Jesus and on Jesus alone. And he tells them that human wisdom will never bring us to Christ, but only follow the cross of Christ can do that.

^{I Corinthians 1:24} But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.²⁵ This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

²⁶ Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. ²⁷ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. ²⁸ God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. ²⁹ As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

³⁰ God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. ³¹ Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

^2:1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s secret plan. ²For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. ³ I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. ⁴ And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

May our message be just as simple.

November 15, 2010 (Acts 17, I & II Thessalonians)

Several things jumped out at me again today. Several times Paul talked about the return of Christ. And it seems as if "the continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ" is what prompted them to "their faithful work and loving deeds". And again he reiterated that "Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts".

Jesus told us that the world would know us by our love. And it seems as if Paul is emphasizing that as well:

^{I Thessalonians 3:12-13} And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. ¹³ May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.

^{II Thessalonians 3:5} May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.

What is God's will for us?

^{I Thessalonians 5:16} Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

In each book Paul stresses the faithfulness of God:

I Thessalonians 5:²³ Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ²⁴ God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

^{II Thessalonians 2:3} But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

And in each book, he asks them to pray for him.

I Thessalonians 5:²⁵ Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us.

II Thessalonians 3:1-2 ¹ Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. ² Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.

Even Paul, the one specially called and anointed by God, was asking for people to pray for him. We all need the prayers of one another. Heavenly Father, may the Holy Spirit continually guide us to pray for each other.

November 14, 2010 (Galations 1-6)

I've only read the first chapter at this point, and have to blog about this before I go any farther. Verses 3-5 sum up the Christian faith in a nutshell:

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. ⁴ Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. ⁵ All glory to God forever and ever! Amen

And then Paul goes on to berate them from turning away from the simple message of salvation:

⁶ I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News ⁷ but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.

And he tells them that he can't please both God and people:

¹⁰ Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

Next he explains how he learned the message he now preaches. That it came from a direct revelation of Jesus Christ. And in reality, we too, when we come to know Christ, have a direct revelation from Him. The Holy Spirit enlightens us, and reveals Jesus to us, and draws us to Him. This next section reminded me of when I was saved:

¹⁵ But then something happened! For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me, even before I was born! What undeserved mercy! ¹⁶ Then he revealed his Son to me so that I could proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

Something happened to me! My life was changed by Jesus being revealed to me.

And now, chapters 2-6. This is difficult to write about, or to truly understand, because I fear I have fallen into the 'trap' the early Christians did. The 'law', God's word, was written to bring us to Christ, and we are not perfected by the law, but by the Spirit. The following passage shows how Paul explained it to those 'steeped' in the Jewish religion.

²¹ Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? ²² The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. ²³ The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.

²⁴ These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. ²⁵ And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. ²⁶ But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother. ²⁷As Isaiah said,

“Rejoice, O childless woman,
you who have never given birth!
Break into a joyful shout,
you who have never been in labor!
For the desolate woman now has more children
than the woman who lives with her husband!”

²⁸ And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. ²⁹ But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.

³⁰ But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.

Galatians 5

Freedom in Christ

¹ So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

² Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. ³I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.⁴ For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

⁵ But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. ⁶ For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

The following verses in chapter 5 show the difference between following the desires of our sinful nature and following the desires of the Holy Spirit:

¹⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

And then Paul sums it all up at the end of the book in chapter 6. So much in this one little book to digest. God, please help us to live by Your Spirit instead of our flesh.

¹⁴ As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead. ¹⁵ It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. ¹⁶ May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.