Category Archives: love

The Romans Challenge: Salvation’s Certainty

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“As the Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”” 
Romans 10:11 NIV

The world is full of get rich quick schemes and self-improvement plans. It seems like the role of “life coach” is a booming prospect in a lot of circles. We, as humans, like to think we have found the answers to improve our lives and make us happy and rich. But time and time again, our plans fail…

There is only one way for us to truly be changed. There is only one way to find contentment and peace. This is found in a relationship with God. You and I were created for relationship with Him. We will not find what we are looking for chasing the latest fads and schemes.

The problem that causes all the discontentedness and disconnection in our lives, isn’t our lack of self realization. It is SIN and it is living according to our selfishness. Simply put, we need a Savior.

Jesus knew exactly what we needed when He came to provide the way for salvation. What is broken in us can be made new when we confess Jesus as Lord of our lives (turn our lives over to Him), and when we believe that He truly is our Risen Savior. God’s promise of New Life in Christ is certain. If we believe and if we call on Him, we will be saved. We are assured that we “will not be put to shame.”

God’s plan to renovate our spiritual hearts and to make us new are not some fantasy we chase. God’s promise of eternal life is certain. We won’t be disappointed or disgraced in the end. Plans for life change that fall outside of the truth of Scripture will always fall short. Because “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Thank You God that You have provided all we need for us to have Your New Life that You offer us! Thank You for the certainty of salvation. We know You promises are true. What You say You will do. When we come to You and believe we won’t be disappointed. We “will not be put to shame.”

The Romans Challenge: Jesus Image

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“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭29‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Last month, my husband and I went to Mt. Rushmore for the very first time. As we were driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota to get to its location, we were taking in the beauty of the mountains. Then the thought came to us, “who is it that just looks at a mountain and sees a monument with the faces of the Presidents? But not only that, they create it?” You and I are similar to that mountain in South Dakota. God looked at us and predetermined that He was going to create the very image of Jesus in us!

Though it is hard for me to comprehend and believe at times, this is exactly what God had planned for me, “before the foundation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4 ESV) God has had a plan for you and me. He doesn’t see us as we do…sin scarred, messed up, worthless, etc. He sees us fully conformed to the image of Christ— beautiful. In fact, we can be assured that He has begun a good work in us and He will finish it! (Philippians 1:6)

God predestined. He marked out beforehand (Greek for “predestined”) what we will be. This predestination is a present process of a future hope. (Berean Study Notes — Bible Hub) What we are going through today is being used to produce our future that has a confident expectation of good. What is the good we expect? The greatest good we could ever experience is to be just like Jesus. God called us, or invited us (Greek for “called”) to this. He justified us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He provided the way for us to be cleansed of our sin and placed us in right relationship with Him. He has glorified us — made us His image bearers. This is what we are now, Jesus Image, here on earth. This is what we will become more and more of as we surrender our lives to Him!

What a wonderful promise for us now and the not yet! Being just like Jesus is our glorious future in Him!

The Romans Challenge: There Was Jesus

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Fifty-four years on planet earth gives you some perspective. I have a lot of different seasons to look back on. Truthfully, I have made some really bone headed decisions during each of those seasons…

Today when I was reading Romans 7 two phrases that Paul wrote stood out: “What a wretched man that I am!” And “ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Verses 24 and 25)

Chapter 7 is a lot of Paul writing about the struggles he had on the inside. he says, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself sitting in the same struggle.

BUT JESUS!

Jesus is our deliverer! He is the one who releases us from sin’s grip. He rescues us! When we finally get to the end of ourselves and surrender our lives completely, He keeps us! He holds onto us, he retains us in His possession. He preserves us from falling. He protects us, guards us, and sustains us.

Fifty- four years has taught me something, I cannot make it on my own. I ( on my own) cannot make a better version of me… I need Jesus! And Yes! “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Jesus is waiting for us to turn to Him in each and every situation. He desires for us to recognize that we need help… we need Him! When we finally get to that point, we will see “There Was Jesus.”

The Romans Challenge: The Addictive Nature of Sin

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“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A few years ago, I was trapped in a sinful thought pattern. It was destroying me. I couldn’t understand what I was doing and I was doing the very thing that I did not want to do. I had absolutely no peace inside of my mind.

During that time, God led me to a Bible study group where I met a woman who I told my struggles to. I asked her if my thought pattern was sin, even though it was clearly listed in the Bible as sin. She asked me why I thought it was not a sin. Then I said words that have been etched in my mind ever since: “Because I cannot control it.”

Make no mistake about it… Sin is a taskmaster! Sin controls us. It is addictive in nature. Addiction/ Sin will rule over you. Whether it is a chemical addiction, an addiction to lust, an addiction to worrisome thoughts, an addiction to food, an addiction to your phone, etc… our choices to run to the sin over and over and over proves it’s addictive nature. I wholeheartedly agree with Paul when trapped in sin, “what I hate I do.”

BUT Jesus!

Jesus has the power to break the chains of addiction! He can set us free from sin! I can testify that Jesus has set me free and I now dwell with peace in my mind and in my heart.

The first step to freedom was for me to recognize that sin had a grip on me or as Paul writes, “it is sin living in me that does it.” When we see what the problem is — SIN — we are in a very good place! Because Jesus has provided the solution for sin — repentance. 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We are assured that He will cleanse us from sin, and Holy Spirit will empower us to live free! Praise God!

The Romans Challenge: Abandoned…Offering Myself

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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.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬

We were created by Love and for Love! God’s intent for us from the beginning of creation was a love relationship. In this relationship, we would love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength. We were created for worship of Him, or love expressed to Him. We were meant to “offer ourselves” to Him over and over every moment of every day. In return, we would receive from Him everything we ever needed — love, goodness, joy, etc. We were designed by Him to be “slaves to righteousness.’

A slave is subject to the will of another. They have no will of their own. They are wholly under the control of another. (Webster’s 1828) They are abandoned to the one they have given themselves to.

Because we were born into a fallen world, we have not lived as we were designed. Instead we have lived as “slaves to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness.” We willingly gave ourselves over to follow its leading. Jesus came to provide the way of freedom in Him!

Jesus came to break the power of sin. Once again, through relationship with God we are able to “offer ourselves” to Him presenting ourselves as an act of worship — extravagant love and extremes submission. (Webster’s 1828)

How do we experience this? Simply come… Tell Him He can have all of you! Tell Him that you desire to obey Him and to experience Him and His love.

No matter what we will choose to abandon ourselves or give ourselves to something! Choose surrender to Jesus! His ways are best! His way is life!

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!”

The Romans Challenge: Living Under the Reign of Grace

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“so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

(This Week is Romans 5)

Before Jesus comes into our lives, all you and I will truly ever know is the death, the darkness, and the destruction of sin. On our own, we are helpless to overcome sin’s reign – its power and its influence. The struggle is so real. We know the good we should be doing, but we choose to do otherwise… this is sin. (James 4:17) Then the consequences we see of our wrong choices have a ripple effect. This influences even more wrong choices. Sin’s grip grows and grows. It is a merciless tyrant over our lives.

This is what makes the grace of Jesus so beautiful. Even though we have failed time after time after time. He comes with His love and favor. He has provided a way for the reign of sin to be broken over our lives — The Cross. Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection provides the way for grace to reign — have power and influence over us. Jesus forgives us our sins and gives us His righteousness. What we have done in the past no longer has power over us. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit living in us. He empowers us to live our lives where the rule of Grace grows and grows.

This is why it is so important that we spend time coming to know God better through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we will understand His love, and in turn we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more we will obey Him. The more we obey Him, the more we will experience His blessings. Simply put, the closer we are to Jesus, the more we will experience His freedom!

You and I weren’t meant to be living our lives subjected to the reign of sin! We were meant for the reign of grace and the true life we will experience through Jesus our Lord!

The Romans Challenge — Reign in Life

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“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

(Today we read Romans 5.)

The Garden of Eden was a happy place! Imagine being able to walk face to face with God — who is complete peace, complete joy, complete love, complete goodness, etc. There wasn’t any pain, sadness, or sorrow. Happiness, all the agreeable sensations from enjoying all of God’s goodness was all Adam and Eve experienced 24/7. But then they CHOSE to sin.

Death entered the picture. They were separated from that beautifully happy i.e. blessed relationship with God. From that moment on “death reigned.” The divine life they had experienced was just a memory. It remained that way until Jesus came.

Jesus is God’s “provision of grace.” (Or divine favor) His righteousness becomes ours when we place our trust in Him and receive Him as our Savior. Jesus came to restore what was lost in the Garden of Eden, and He has come to us to restore what was lost in our lives!

Sin only brings death to us! It separates us from what we were created for, living in relationship with God — being fully alive. We can possess the Happiness of Heaven through the new life that Jesus gives to us. This is what it is to “reign in life” through Jesus.

The more we experience God in close and intimate relationship, the more we will experience Him in our lives. His complete peace, His complete joy, His complete love, His complete goodness, etc. will be what we experience over and over again. Because God is who He says He is, and He wants us to KNOW Him. This knowing is to experience Him day in and day out.

Jesus told us when He walked on earth that we would experience troubles as we live on earth. The effects of sin are still with us… But we could take courage, because He has overcome the world! (John 16:33)

To reign is to “live victoriously” (Webster 1828 Dictionary). We can “reign in life (live victoriously), through the one man, Jesus Christ. He has given us all we need to live victoriously. His Holy Spirit living in us, empowers us and produces in us the fruit of a victorious life — peace, love, joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galatians 5:22)

The secret to this life of victory is close relationship to God. Just like Adam and Eve experienced before they sinned, we are to walk and talk with God. Jesus provided the way for our relationship to be restored. Once again we can experience the “happiness of the garden”, but now that happiness goes with us wherever we go because the Holy Spirit is living inside of us!

The Romans Challenge: Reconciled!

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“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reconciled- “Brought into friendship from a state of disagreement or enmity” (Webster’s 1828)

Today is Romans 5!

We were created for connection to God! Relationship is connection. Back in the Garden of Eden, God’s intent for mankind was to have relationship. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, separation from God came. This separation is all we have really known and understood in our lives. It is the norm. But God desires for us to experience something radically different than that. He wants us to be united to Him in a close and intimate relationship!

This is why Jesus came. His death, burial and resurrection provides the way for us to experience His salvation from sin. When we accept Him as our Savior, we are justified by His blood. His blood cleanses us from the sin that has separated us from God. Then we experience the most beautiful thing — reconciliation. We are brought back into the relationship that God originally desired for us to have way back at the beginning, in the Garden of Eden.

This relationship we now have with God is closely connected to Him. He gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. We now live our lives literally walking and talking with God.

We go from being enemies of God, pursuing sin, to a friend of God, pursuing Him and His righteousness! We can now live our lives reconciled to God!

The Romans Challenge: Rejoice in Hope

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“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Today we start Romans 5!

Hope is the confident expectation of good.

Glory is the sum of all God’s characteristics. It is all of His perfections or excellence.

When we come to know God for who He is and all of His greatness, we know that we will experience good from Him. No matter what our circumstances are we know God is at work for our good. This is because He is completely good and He is completely love. All this love and goodness is poured out upon us.

When life is hard, we have reason to rejoice! Because whatever hardship that God has allowed into our lives is working in us perseverance, character, and hope. More than all of this, we will experience God’s love, which is defined as His will to good for us!

When we trust God in impossible circumstances, we will find out that He is faithful! He never leaves us or abandons us. Each and every circumstance will deepen our understanding of God and grow our relationship with Him, if we will determine that our eyes will be fixed on Him.

We will “rejoice in hope!” We have hope that He is working here and now on our behalf. Romans 8:28 says He is working all things for our good.

We also have hope that when all is said and done, we will experience the ultimate good, eternity with Him!

Rejoice! No matter what God is for us!