Category Archives: Pursuit of God

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: Each One Will Give An Account

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“You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When my youngest grandson was potty training, he liked to pass the blame off on someone else when he had a stinky diaper. Here’s how it worked, “Levi, do you have a poopy?” “No, It’s Ben (older brother)!” Or “No, It’s Ollie (golden/doodle dog).” Instead of admitting his own mess, he wanted to point the finger at someone else.

We can do that spiritually. Judging someone else’s possible stinky attitude and or actions is easy. All the while we sit in a mess within our own hearts. We are not to judge our brother or sister in Jesus! Or treat them with contempt…

“Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” We cannot blame others for our spiritual problems. “I can’t go to church because the church is full of hypocrites” won’t fly as an excuse. Our relationship with God, how we live, our thoughts, feelings, and actions are between us and Him.

When God points to an area of our lives that is stinky, we cannot point our finger and say, “It’s Ben…” We cannot justify our sins by judging someone else. Each of us will individually stand before God on our own.

God is personal. He wants us to relate to Him as such. He desires for us to drop the judgmental fingers we point and simply come to Him!

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: 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: Live In Harmony

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“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

You and I were meant for connection to God and each other. We aren’t meant to do our lives alone. This is why believers in Jesus are united in a family — the Church. When we live in harmony — a connected whole (Websters 1828) — we will experience growth, encouragement, love, and relationship with each other. This is God’s plan for us.

Pride kills harmony. When our focus is on ourselves — what we want when and how we want it, we CANNOT live as God intends for us to live, connected and united with our brothers and sister in Christ.

We are called to live a God centered life. Our focus is to be on Him. We are to display Him in our actions. Our lives are to be totally submitted to God, totally dependent upon God, and totally obedient to God. When we live this way, God unites us to Himself and to others within His body, the Church.

BUT, if our lives are built upon ourselves — doing what we want and calling our own shots… we will exhibit pride, conceit, and division. We will be separated from the connection to the Body of Christ that we are meant to experience. Destruction will be the result of our choice to follow “self.”

Father, help us to live in harmony with each other. Help us to leave behind our selfish ways and to live our lives with You in the center. As we follow You and obey You, fill us with love for our brothers and sisters in Christ so that we can live as You intended us to live in harmony — ONE!

The Romans Challenge: Love Must Be Sincere

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“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sincere — Being in reality what it appears to be. not for the sake of appearance; real; not hypocritical or pretend. (Websters 1828)

Jesus loved sincerely! There wasn’t any pretense in what He did. He didn’t have an ulterior motive. He came to display to us and to make known His Heavenly Father. He came to show that God is love.

His love embraced the outcasts, touched the untouchable, welcomed the sinners. His love hated (detested) what was evil. He confronted hypocrisy, overturned the tables of swindlers, exposed lies with truth. He was full of zeal, passionate in pursuit of us.

“Love must be sincere.” Anything less than sincere love isn’t love at all. It will be some form of hypocritical, self-exalting, looking out for our own interest, action that will be empty and hollow. It won’t last the test of time.

Our aim should be to be like Jesus — loving with sincerity, hating sin, and clinging to good. This kind of love only comes to a life that is surrendered to God. We cannot “be like Jesus”, loving sincerely, in our own efforts. It will require an emptying of our self or selfish ways and receiving His love. “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Holy Spirit we ask You to fill us with Your love. Help us to love like Jesus — sincerely!

The Romans Challenge: Living Sacrifice

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“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If we are in relationship with Jesus, there will be evidence. We will be changed! When we look at all that Jesus did for us on the cross and see how great the mercy of God is towards us, we see what a wonderful and giving God we have. The only response is for us to give back to Him all that we have, our lives. This is our “spiritual worship.” (ESV). How do we give ourselves to God as we should? He wants EVERYTHING! He wants us to love Him with all that we are (entirely, totally, and completely).

The sacrifices in the Old Testament were laid upon an altar and burned completely. They were offered up completely to God. We are to live our lives that way. Everything about us is His – our time, our money, our entertainment, our jobs, our homes, our cars, our family, our clothing, our choices of food and drink, etc. It is ALL His!

How does this work practically in our world we live in today? We are to live our lives not as the world patterns it, but as God has told us we need to live in His Word! We are to continue to be “transformed” in our hearts and our lives. This comes as we allow God to renew our minds (our way we think and act) by coming to His Word over and over throughout our day.

You and I were meant to display God to the world around us. We are to be distinctly different. This only occurs as we allow God to change us and we become more and more like Him every moment of every day. As we know Him more, we will love Him more. As we love Him more, we will obey Him more. As we obey Him and live as He desires, we will be like Him. Living like this requires surrender to Him and His ways!

May we live our lives as “a living sacrifice.” Set apart for Him and His Glory!

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: The Plan

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“But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God always has a plan! We may not see where all the things in our lives are going, but He does. He is sovereign. He is over all. He is in control.

Everything this happened to Jesus when He walked here on earth was no surprise to God at all. The reaction of the Jewish leaders and the rejection of Jesus were all a part of God’s plan. We know this because there is prophecy after prophecy in the Old Testament that told us exactly what would happen. In fact the Jewish people of Jesus’s time “transgression (sin of rejecting Jesus) means riches for the world…” heavenly ones for us! Had Jesus not been rejected and crucified, resurrection would not have occurred and salvation would not have been provided for us all!

Although I do not understand the full impact of this statement, I know a time is coming that God will do a great work in His people the Jews. And we will all be blessed by the “greater riches … their full inclusion (will) bring!” In Jesus, we will all be one!

God is at work in all things according to His plan!

This is a source of comfort to me in my life. When everything seems to be going sideways in my own personal life, I can know God has been, is now, and forever will be in control! He is working all things according to His will. He started His plan before the creation of the world. He knew how it would go and will go. He cares about the smallest of details. I can trust Him!

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.”