Category Archives: Alive to God

The Romans Challenge: We Get to Participate!

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“I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.”
Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭18‬-29 NIV‬‬

We live in exciting times! God is working His plan out that He established before the creation of the world.

I know that these statements fly in the face of what the news reports present to us… shootings, turmoil, disunity, disease, wars, etc. It is very dark, but light shines the brightest in the darkness. People are looking for something real. They are spiritually ill, and as believers in Jesus, we have the Truth! We have the cure!

The Apostle Paul lived in a very dark time of history as well. Everywhere he went he shined the light of hope in Jesus Christ. In fact, he made it his “ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known…” (Romans 15:20) God used him in his words and actions to make Jesus known.

This is God’s desire for us today. We were created to know God and make Him known! God wants to use what we say and what we do to reach the broken, hurting, and lost. He wants us to shine His light. He wants to work through us. He will do this, if we will simply yield ourselves to Him, listen to what He says, and obey.

When God works, He works “signs and wonders.” He does things we cannot do on our own. His ways are miraculous. He does what only He can do through the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ accomplishes great things through us. We get to participate!

May we live our lives fully surrendered to God. May we totally obey Him. May we depend on Him for everything we do. Living this way will be exciting. Because God will use us when we are entirely, completely, and totally devoted to Him! We will see Him do great things in us and through us as we participate with Him!

The Romans Challenge: Overflow!

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We were not created to dwell in anxiety, fear, and depression!

Long ago, in the Garden of Eden, mankind was created to dwell connected to God. We were made to be His image bearers, reflecting all that He is to our world. When sin entered, that connection was broken and that image was shattered. However, Jesus came!

Jesus came to set us free from sin and to enable us to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives the moment we receive the New Life Jesus came to give us! The Holy Spirit empowers us to live according to our original design as “image bearers” of God.

Our God is a God of Peace. Our God is a God of joy. Our God is a God of hope! By the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, we can be filled to overflowing with His peace, joy, and hope! Yet so many of us do not live our lives this way…

I know this from experience. For years, I lived as a Christian full of anxiety, fear, and depression… I tried in my own power, using man’s ways, to fix the way I felt. All of these attempts ended in failure. Until, I determined that I needed to truly surrender EVERY area of my life to God. I decided that I would pursue Him above all things, and live my life focused on Him!

How is this even possible? By the power of the Holy Spirit! By faith in God and His Word, i.e. trusting in Him!

I was living my life focused on me. I was very me-centered! God made us to live our lives focused on Him. Our thoughts are to be focused on Him and His Word. Our speech is to reflect that focus — speaking His truth and His life regarding ourselves, our circumstances, our families, etc. Our actions will fall into line as our focus is laser focused on God and His Word!

Here is the truth of what we all need… We need to live our lives with this motto: Less of me…More of Him! When we overflow with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will experience what we were created to be all along: People who dwell with hope— a confident expectation of good; People who trust Him — believe that God said it, I believe it, that settles it; People who live with joy, — an emotion that is excited by the expectation of good; People who live with peace — freedom from disturbance or agitation.

Holy Spirit we ask You to fill us up til we overflow with You!

The Romans Challenge: Wake Up!

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“And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Spiritual drift happens… It’s easy to get lulled away into spiritual “slumber.” Our enemy will work little by little in our circumstances over a period of years and years to get us to slowly wander from the truth.

I know this from first hand experience. One “little” lie that I believed 20 years ago took root and slowly grew inside of me until I had drifted and found myself in a spiritual “slumber” or negligence. This negligence of my relationship with God, drift away from Him, caused me to be miserable. I was anxious, angry, bitter, and more. Thankfully God used some godly older women in my life to encourage me to “wake up!!” In fact, the exact wording one spoke to me as I sat in her home telling her all of my troubles, “Janet, the problem you are having is you have left your first love.” Instead of putting “aside the deeds of darkness,” I was dabbling with whatever I felt like I could get away with. I was not living my life in a wholehearted pursuit of God.

“The hour has already come for {us} to awake from {our} slumber.” God wants us to be alert and pursuing Him! Spiritual complacency will only lead to death, darkness, and destruction in our lives. We are either moving forward towards God or drifting away. If we are drifting off to sleep, we will find ourselves far from the peace, joy, love, and life that God desires for us to experience in a close and intimate relationship with Him.

Wake up!! You and I have been called to live “Awake and Alive.”

The Romans Challenge: Bigger, Bigger, and Bigger God

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“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭33‬, ‭36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Since I am a Missouri Girl, it means one thing with regard to the ocean. I don’t get to see it that much… Every once in a blue moon, my husband and I take a trip to the coast and I find myself standing there staring at the ocean. It is amazing to me how BIG it is. Looking at a globe, seeing pictures, or even seeing it from a distance, cannot compare to standing there with your toes in sand as the waves are crashing on your ankles, gazing straight out to sea.

This is how it is in my relationship with God. When I have only heard about Him, maybe read a few Scriptures or heard a good sermon, He seems somewhat large, BUT when I am experiencing Him by hearing Him speak, seeing His miracles, or watching Him do things I could never do, He becomes bigger and bigger, until His greatness just blows me away!

Have You ever dove into the ocean of God’s great Word and explored knowing Him? Have You ever thought about the depths of His love or the vastness of His goodness? These are “the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

Years ago, I was reading a Bible story to my kids and I stopped to tell them that God was like the ocean, He wants us to dive in and explore and grow in our knowledge of Him. Then I distinctly heard the Holy Spirit say, “Yes, and you are content to sit on the shore dangling your toes on the edge…”.

We were created for the adventure of KNOWING Him! “For from Him” God made all of creation to show us Himself. “For through Him”… God is the One who sustains us and everything around us. We cannot do anything without Him. “For to Him”… God is to be glorified in our lives. This life is not about you or me. It is all about Him! If we try to make it anything less, we will live outside of His purpose and we will be discontented, discouraged, and eventually destroyed by our pursuit of “self” and selfish ways.

Where are You in relating to God. As you experience Him in a relationship, is He becoming BIGGER and BIGGER and BIGGER in your life. Or is He simply an occasional thought? Are you like I was years ago, “dangling your toes on the edge” of His vastness? You and I are meant for more! Dive in! Let the adventure begin!

The Romans Challenge: Checking Off Boxes

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“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is possible to do all the right “religious” things and miss the most important thing… relationship.

The Jews of Paul’s time did just that. They were “zealous for God, but their zeal {was} not based on knowledge.” The word zeal in this verse suggests a firey passion. They worked very hard to do everything that they thought would please God, but they missed the most important thing… the condition of their spiritual hearts.

We are no different. We can spend our lifetime “checking off the boxes” in terms of religion. Attend church… check. Read the Bible… check. Pray a prayer… check. Do a good dead… check. ETC. BUT, Our hearts can be FAR from God.

The whole point of Jesus coming was to fulfill all the “religious” requirements. He came so we could have relationship. Performance… “checking the box”… is a cold and dead religion. Jesus wants us to experience a relationship that is alive. He wants us to KNOW Him! This kind of know is more intimate than what we can experience with our spouse. It is more loving than a mother with a child. It is deeply personal.

Being zealous for God is a good thing! It is a firey passion, but this firey passion is based off of relationship. If it is just for “checking the boxes”, legalism, pride, and death will be the result.

Are you “checking the box?” Or is your relationship with God ALIVE? God is not looking for dead religion. He wants our hearts!

The Romans Challenge: The New Life in Christ

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“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The New Life we have been given by Jesus is a gift like no other! We can leave behind the old way we used to live and experience God in a deep and intimate relationship.

No condemnation! Such beautiful words! We have been set free! When we understand just how much we have been forgiven, we become overwhelmed with just how much this freedom from sin and death means!

Not only are we forgiven of a debt of sin we could never repay, we are taken from the position of a spiritual pauper to being positioned in a relationship with the God! Our position of being “in Christ” means we have been united with Him, which is being attached to Him and connected to Him. We are a part of Him!

He has given us His Spirit to dwell within us so we can live in victory over sin! This is as we walk “according to the Spirit.” We are guided by Holy Spirit’s counsels and His influence. (Websters 1828) When we live our lives in agreement with the Spirit, united to Him, we will experience His “life and peace.”

What we were we are no more! We are forgiven, alive, free, victorious, at peace, full of the Spirit… In Christ!

The Romans Challenge: Holy, Righteous, and Good

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“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Law ( God’s commandments) are not the problem. Sin is!

God gave the Law to the Jewish people so they could get an understanding of His character. God also gave the Law so sin could be revealed. The Law was intended to point out to all of us how much we need a Savior.

For example the Ten Commandments:

These are good moral laws that we should abide by, but have we?

If we have broken just one, we have become a lawbreaker. We have sinned.

The problem is not the Law, that is “holy, righteous, and good.” The problem is us. We are all sinners desperately in need of a Savior, and our Good God has provided for that need — Jesus!

Thank You Father for sending Jesus! What we could not do on our own, You did for us. Long ago You gave us Your Law so that we could understand how much we need You to give us a new heart — a heart that desires to obey You! Thank You for Your gift of salvation that changes everything in our lives and helps us to walk after Your Way!

The Romans Challenge: New Way of the Spirit

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“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Today we start Romans 7.

God gave the law to us so we could see our need for something more. It taught us that we are unable to live completely righteous and holy on our own. Before Jesus entered our life, there was no power at all to keep us from living sinful. Our very nature, i.e. flesh, is bent toward sin.

When we come to Jesus that old self dies. We serve God, obeying Him and being devoted to Him, by the power of the Spirit! When we experience salvation, God’s Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. He begins to influence us in our decisions. He helps us!

We no longer are bound by the written law that God gave to the Jews in the Old Covenant. We experience the New Covenant where we are given a new heart that desires to obey God. The Holy Spirit works within us so we can live and “serve in the new way of the Spirit.”

Thank You God that You have provided all that we need to live for You! Holy Spirit, I ask you to help us to not only listen to You, but obey You! We know Your new way of the Spirit is freedom and life!

The Romans Challenge: The Trap of Sin

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“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Our flesh, unrenewed and corrupt nature, wants to be free to do what it wants, when and how it wants to. It does not desire to walk in obedience to God and His will. Simply put, it wants its own way. But when we choose our own way above God’s we are choosing sin.

There is no way around it. Sin is a trap of enslavement. There are consequences of sin… death. When we are in the middle of living our own way, it can be hard to see the consequences that we will reap in the future. Sin brings not only death, but guilt and shame.

Years ago one of my kids chose a “Chinese Finger Trap” as displayed below:

In a small way it is a reminder of what sin will do in our lives. We think it is harmless. We think we can play around with it, but when we try to get away from it and the harder we pull we cannot.

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

(Famous quote that I am unsure of its origin.)

We will do well to remember sin has its wages, what we are paid for what we do. Those wages are death. But God offers us a gift we do not deserve, something we could never earn on our own “eternal life.”

We can live free from sin’s entrapment, as we live totally surrendered, totally dependent, and totally obedient to God. True freedom is in being a “slave to God.”

The Romans Challenge: Alive!

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“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬

Alive — Regenerated, Renovated Heart, Born Again! (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)

There is beauty in living “alive.” The only way to really understand this statement is to experience it. When you know the depths of what you are without Jesus and then experience Him, you know the death, darkness, and destruction you dwelled in. But thank God that we can live “alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

You and I were dead. There was nothing good in us. BUT GOD! He has taken what was completely broken, without hope… dead. And He has breathed His life into us, regenerated. He has renovated our hearts because He is the ultimate “Fixer Upper.” He takes the completely ruined by sin heart and makes it new! We are born again into a New Life! We are ALIVE!

Being fully alive in Christ is something you have to experience to understand at all. It is foreign to us. He breathes life into us so we can KNOW what His life is like: It is joy. It is peace. It is love. It is mercy. It is goodness. It is all these things and more.

The beauty of the New Life of being “alive to God” is the very thing that God desires for us! He wants us to live attached to Him receiving His life in every circumstance and situation. This starts with salvation, where we enter our relationship with God. It continues as we live day in and day out connected to Him in relationship!

We need to come to Him each and every moment of each and every day so we can truly experience living “alive to God!”