“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NIV
Today is Romans 5.
I am always amazed at the love of God. It is beyond my human comprehension. I have done absolutely nothing to deserve His love, but He pours it out on me in abundance.
Romans 5:8 is one of my favorite verses in Romans. It tells us that when we were against God, deeply trapped within our sins, Jesus died for us. This is God’s greatest demonstration of His love.
I know in my own life that I was in a mess made by my own choices. I was unable to free myself from sins grip. BUT JESUS!
Within my own abilities, I would probably find it hard to die for a good person, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t entertain the thoughts of dying for someone who was evil. Especially if that person had chosen to live as an enemy of me. Yet, Jesus did just that!
I have heard it said that our choices to sin, in reality, is “cosmic treason against God.” Our choice to sin is a deliberate choice against Him. Yet even though we have lived our lives chasing after sinful ways, Jesus provided the way for us to be free!
Jesus demonstrated God’s love for His rebellious children — sinners… He died for us!
“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!
“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4 NIV
“’Cause He is good, and He is God What I earned, it’s not what I got And He is just yet also kind What I deserve, it’s not what I find What more could I say about Him? My God is love” – Chris Renzema “God is Love”
You and I are all lawbreakers/ sinners. It’s what is in us, our nature. We all need to recognize that sin has been our practice. What we deserve is punishment. BUT God!
Through Jesus we see the “riches of His (God’s) Kindness.” Kindness is defined as “Act of good will; beneficence; any act of benevolence which promotes the happiness or welfare of others.” Webster’s 1828.
God’s plans for us are good! He works in our circumstances to prosper and benefit us – which is love. He promotes our happiness – enjoyment of good – when our happiness is found in Him.
I love the song I quoted above. The phrase I quoted always sticks out to me. In Jesus, I don’t get what I deserve. God’s kindness is rich towards me. It is abundant and overflowing!
May we truly see what God has done for us! Then we will love Him all the more!
“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”” Acts 2:38-39 NIV
Acts 2 is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. It is when the men and women who had been following Jesus as He walked and talked with them on earth were filled to the overflowing with His Holy Spirit. They had known “God with Us/ Emmanuel” now they KNEW (Intimately) God within us — the Holy Spirit.
Rushing wind, tongues of fire, each of the disciples speaking in other tongues, then they went out onto the streets below. They were “declaring the wonders of God.” (Verse 11)
Then Peter stood up to preach with BOLDNESS. Peter, who had a little over a month and a half before denied Jesus three times in the garden as Jesus stood trial and was later led off to be crucified. That same Peter preached! What a difference the presence of the Holy Spirit within the life of a believer makes! The words that the Holy Spirit enabled Peter to speak that day “cut to the heart” (verse 37) of the people. They wanted to know what to do. These words have stood true throughout the centuries of what we should all do when we hear the Holy Spirit calling to us. “Repent and be baptized… and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
What a promise! The promise of the Holy Spirit and all the wonderful works that He does in and through a believer were not a one and done deal. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off— for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Verse 39)
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to give us power. (Acts 1:8) With the Holy Spirit in our lives we too can live our lives with a new beginning. We do not have to remain in our old patterns of selfishness and sin. We can live with our lives full of the Holy Spirit. May we hunger to know “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 13:14) each and every day! Then we will be empowered to do what the disciples did on the day of Pentecost— KNOW God and make Him known!
“You know, I never paid attention to sunrises and sunsets, until you brought me here.” – Angel “Redeeming Love” The Movie.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” Psalm 34:8
The second house my husband and I owned was an earth contact (basement house). It was surrounded on three sides with dirt. It is super energy efficient, but if you’re a fan of having sunlight shining in your house, the lack of windows would not be your thing. This basement house was located in the middle of the woods with lots of trees around it. it was so shaded that we literally had no grass. It just would not grow. I have several happy memories in that house. It is where we lived when my kids were little before their teens. I would back the suburban out of the garage, crank the stereo in the living room and we had an instant roller-skating rink. We did nature walks in the woods identifying the trees that surrounded it, and probably one of the funniest memories was the deer running across our roof. An earth contact in the woods… makes perfect sense. Happy memories are a plus, but I really didn’t like that house. No windows in the bedrooms worked on my fear of house fires (my grandparent’s house burned to the ground when I was 11). And only 3 windows that were 2 sliding glass doors in the living room area and a kitchen sink window. This caused serious issues with my needing all the lights in the house turned on from the moment I woke up until I went to bed at night. Words could not express how happy I was when we moved to our current house, grass in the yard, windows everywhere. Since we live out in the middle of 23 acres, my first act as an official homeowner was to strip every curtain and shade off of every window with the exception of the bedrooms. I told my husband, “I don’t want any curtains. I haven’t seen outside for the past 7 years.” I didn’t put curtains up for 11 years. Three years ago, I put up some decorative ones much to my husband’s surprise, but they are never closed…
The two things that I had missed in the 7 years of living in our earth contact was sunrise and sunset. Quite honestly, I don’t remember watching a sunrise or sunset before that either. I just never noticed them. Maybe I was young, maybe I was busy, maybe I just didn’t care. I’m not really sure why I don’t remember really paying attention to them until I moved here. The view out of my dining room and also over my kitchen sink looks over our back field and faces west. It didn’t take too many evenings here to realize I had suddenly been given the most perfect premium seats for watching the sunset EVERY night. Then there is the front upstairs deck. It faces east. I quickly figured out I could put a chair out there, take a cup of coffee with me and enjoy God’s artistry of the sunrise EVERY morning too. The more I watched the sunrises and the sunsets, the more I began to appreciate how God made each one different and unique. I would contemplate how awesome it would be if I could paint such beauty. I’ve tried my hand at painting before, I’m pretty sure this is out of my expertise.
I’ve blogged quite a bit lately about the women’s Bible study I have been attending, WOW (Women on Wednesday). Today’s discussion in the class I am in got me to thinking about all this. We were talking about “Knowing God”. One of the aspects of knowing God was to “Experience Him”. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in my life thinking that experiencing God was always related to a “Goosebump” moment. It was something very emotional. I am not opposed to the emotional/ goosebump experiences of God that do occur occasionally. However, some of my sweetest experiences with God have not involved goosebumps or exciting emotions. They have occurred when I have paused and looked at the sunrise or the sunset. It occurred to me back when I started pausing to gaze that God truly is an artist. He paints scenery that cannot be recreated by human hands. But more than that, when I pause and look at what He has made, I realize that very moment, that very combinations of colors and shades were placed in the sky for me to look at and to stand in awe and wonder of God, who wanted me to enjoy what He made for me. God orchestrated it right then just for me. I whispered, “Thank you God”. Right then I experienced God. It was beautiful and it was simple. For me, a person who tends to overcomplicate things when it comes to my relationship with God, experiencing Him is an area that I easily overcomplicate. Pausing to simply enjoy His blessing and thank Him has been a source of experiencing Him like none other. It is beautiful!
This past weekend I went to watch the new movie “Redeeming Love” at the movie theater twice. One of the scenes involves Angel, a prostitute that had endured horrendous abuse at the hands of men from a young age, and Michael Hosea, a farmer who loves Angel with a pure love as they watch a sunrise over the mountains near their home. Angel recalls that moment and the tenderness of sharing something so beautiful with someone who loved her. “You know, I never paid attention to sunrises and sunsets, until you brought me here.” It was the first experience she shared with the first person who loved her with a pure love. It hit me, that is me and God. I never paid attention to sunrises or sunsets either, until God blessed me with the home I now have that has windows facing east and west. It was then, I stopped for a moment to watch the beauty of them, and I experienced God’s tenderness with me. He did all this so I could know Him better and get another glimpse of His great love and I respond with “Thank you my heavenly Daddy, I worship you”.
Amazing Sunset not far from my home. God is Awesome!
Your Love 