Category Archives: Jesus

The Romans Challenge: Brothers and Sisters, Co-workers, and Friends — The Church

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“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Romans 16:1-16 has a list of greetings that Paul sends to the ones his letter will reach. Over and over again, Paul talks about the various people in his life, who were a part of the Church of his time. Phoebe was dear to him, a sister, deaconess — servant leader. Priscilla and Aquila were “co-workers in Christ.” They opened their home for the church to meet. Some of the people listed Paul speaks of as working hard for the people in the Church and for the Lord. The early Church had a family relationship and a mission. They desired to know God and make Him known!

When we receive Jesus, we become a part of God’s family His church. His church is no different today than it was back in Paul’s time. It is where we experience relationships with each other. We are brothers and sisters, coworkers in our effort to make God known, and we are friends. It is a wonderful thing to live in relationship with one another.

Each of us has a role to play as we focus on our mission. Together we encourage each other to know God better and to make Him known!

Paul took the time to greet the ones who were dear to him in the early church. He appreciated the gift each of them was to his life. He was thankful for them.

Let’s take the time to appreciate those God has placed around us to “do life with.” God has given us the gift of family with the believers He has given us relationship with. Together, we share our laughter, our heartache, our needs and our abundance. What a gift He has given us to be a part of His family— His Church!

The Romans Challenge: Prayer

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“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“All we can do now is pray…” I don’t know how many times I have heard this said. What a sad reflection of the unbelief in a person’s heart. It’s as if we say, “I’ve tried everything on my own to fix it… now I’ll ask God to help.” How we undervalue our greatest privilege! How we doubt the God who not only listens to us when we pray, but answers us!

Paul was fighting a spiritual battle. He urged the Romans to join him in his battle. He didn’t ask them to battle by talking to each other about how big the problems were. He didn’t ask them to send positive thoughts towards him. He URGED them to join him in his struggle by praying!

Prayer is not our “all we can do now…” options. Prayer is our “we get to” option. WE GET TO talk to the God who holds all power, is in control, has our best interest in His heart towards us, complete in love, complete in wisdom, etc… the list goes on and on. We get to come to Him and tell Him about the struggle and the battle. We get to ask Him to help us in time of need. We get to ask Him to provide our every need. We get to do that for ourselves. We get to pray for each other.

Do you and I value our connection to God in prayer? It is my prayer that we do! The truth is we cannot do anything on our own. Our very breath is a gift from God. Why would we think that we should turn to Him only at a moment of desperate need? We need Him every moment of every day!

The people God has surrounded us with, who we are doing life with need us to join them in their battles with our prayer! God hears us when we pray to Him. He loves to answer us when we pray!

“Join me in my struggle by praying to God for me!”

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: Bear With The Failings of the Weak

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“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself…”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We need to be patient with the people that God has placed around us. This is not easy. Especially when we know we are right in an area, and that they are wrong. I know I want people to get into line and see it my way. The truth is, my way might not be as correct as I think it is… BUT even if it truly is, I need to “bear with the failings of the weak.”

Our sinful nature always wants what it wants, when and how it wants it. It is very selfish. It is always thinking about itself… It wants to please itself. But we are to “please our neighbors for their good…” To please in the Greek means “willingly serve.” Jesus displayed this to us. “For even Christ did not please himself…” Jesus is patient with us. He bears with our failings. He is always working in all things for our good. He builds us up. We are to love like He does. To love like Jesus is to benefit and prosper those around us not asking anything in return.

Simply put… We are to be like Jesus!

This is not something that we do easily on our own. The Holy Spirit will help us if we ask Him to.

Holy Spirit, we ask You to fill us with Your Love. So we can willing serve those around us and patiently bear with their failings and weakness. We know as we serve the least of these, we are serving You! In Jesus Name!

The Romans Challenge: Peace and Mutual Edification

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“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God places a high value on unity. His desire is for us to be connected to each other and Him. Selfishness and sin is what separates us. Unfortunately, this what we are all the most familiar with. Humanity has been experiencing disunity, separation, and discord since the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.

Jesus came to restore us to God’s original design. Jesus prayed this prayer for us:

““My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be united and live as one, we must lay down our own ways. We need to “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” This will require us to put to death our “me-centered” life. It will require us to think of others before ourselves. It will require us to be like Jesus — laying down our lives for each other:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Mutual edification” is a reciprocal relationship. Where we all give of ourselves for each other. Making “every effort to do what leads to peace” is being determined in our actions to live united and in harmony. This is not easy. But it is God’s will for us. Whatever God desires for us to do He will empower us to do through the Holy Spirit. We must depend on Him! He will help us!

The Romans Challenge: We Are The Lord’s

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“For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is the most natural thing for us to think about what we want, when and how we want it. This is because we have inherited a selfish nature from way back when Adam and Eve decided to do what THEY wanted to do and not obey God. But when we Jesus becomes LORD of our lives, this changes.

We no longer live to ourselves or die to ourselves. We are the Lord’s. We are to live our lives in total submission to Him, total dependence on Him, and total obedience to Him. Where He wants us to go, we go. What He wants us to do, we do. We are His!

There is joy and excitement in living this way! What God does in our lives and through our lives is always good. His power will be displayed in us and through us. He has placed us where we are to represent Him and to carry out His great and awesome plan. In order for us to experience this we must recognize this truth, “none of us live for ourselves alone…we belong to the Lord.”

The Romans Challenge: Clothe Yourselves With the Lord

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“Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When I was in High School, back in the 80’s, it was every girls dream to get to wear the Letter Jacket of some cute boy. It was a signal of all that you had entered into an exclusive relationship. At that point, you identified as their girlfriend and your status was “taken.”

In a similar way, God’s desire is for us to “wear His letter jacket.” This Jacket is “the Lord Jesus Christ” Himself. We are to clothe ourselves with HIM! When we put on Jesus, we “embody his teachings, love, and righteousness.” (Berean Study Notes Bible Hub) We receive our new identity in Christ living a life reflecting His nature. It is a signal that we have entered into an exclusive relationship with Him. At that point, we our spiritual status becomes “taken.” We are HIS!

How we lived before — chasing after what we wanted, when and how we wanted — is not our consideration. We are pursuing Jesus with total surrender, total obedience, and total dependence upon Him. We are not to “think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”

What a privilege it is to be His! May we take into consideration every moment of every day who it is that we have been clothed with!

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: The Debt to Love

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“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus loves! When I truly get my heart and my mind wrapped around that statement, I am changed. His love reached down into my mess and not only forgave my debt of sins, the areas I have missed the mark, but His love has cleansed me from them and put me in right standing with God. This is not anything I can do on my own. I could never repay Him for what He has done for me. So what is my response? I am indebted to love!

When you and I see how much we are loved by God, our only correct response is to love in return. This is a love for God and those He has placed around us.

When we love, we fulfill the law. Love doesn’t seek its own. Love wants to prosper and benefit others. It isn’t selfish. Love gives itself away for the good of others. “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Loving as God does — completely, deeply, and selflessly — is not something we can do on our own. As believers, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and pours God’s love out into our hearts. “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 NIV

There are times that I struggled to love as Jesus loves, but I can stand on the promise of God. I can ask Him to fill me with His perfect love so that I am not bound up by the debt of sin once again. 

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love…”