God's Gift

 

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

Romans 6:1-2

Paul, in his letters to the early churches, wanted them to know, that all sin. But once we identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are no longer bound to it. We can choose to avoid temptations of it. But when we do, we can get God's free gift of grace. (see full chapter)

The book of Romans was a familiar one to me as, throughout my life in the churches I had gone to, and it was preached on a regular basis. But I had not read the whole book myself. 

And so this chapter was not just for me but for everyone. The leaders of the church I was at, at this point, and I had those looked to for guidance in my life was not perfect, but probably more highly regarded, and yet were not exempt from what Paul was saying here.

Still, I did not see anything in this chapter whereby we had to do anything to attain our salvation, except understand that we have only to accept God's grace when we do sin and ask for forgiveness. 

Paul ends this chapter with the following verse:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 3:23

Romans

agh, but the gift of God is 

And there it was again. God's gift to us is from him alone because of Jesus Christ. Not because I wasn't exactly following the teachings of any church the way they thought I should be or growing at a faster pace than I was. 

They did not know or really bother to know what stumbling blocks I might be having in my home life that made some things pretty much impossible for me to grow.

Even though, I had been trying the best I could.

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 Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Til next time, God bless you and yours!

Romans 6

Fact or Fiction? A Rvised Post 8/20

 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. or if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:7-11

Hello Friends. If you have not read this post from a couple of days ago, I am truly sorry but I inadvertently deleted it today and do not have another copy of it. I am going to share with you some things that I did learn from this passage, but it may change some because I don't have the original one to look at. 

And so this means that nowhere in this passage does it say that we have to make ourselves ready to go to heaven once we believe that Christ came to die on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again to go to his Father and sits with God on His right hand. 

I did not have to stop wearing my glasses or be healed of the eye disease, or whatever else they taught we should be doing. I was not committing a sin by wearing them.

If we believe this and accept His gift of eternal life, that in itself, is all we need to do to be with Jesus when we take our last breath on earth.

I had been taught that in other churches throughout my life. And I believed it. 

But why was I questioning it now? 

It was because I was allowing myself to be in a church whose teachings were off that grid of the bible to a degree. 

To be truthful, however, that meant that they did believe in salvation, in Jesus' death on the cross, etc. However, their teachings went much further. They didn't celebrate birthdays or holidays of any kind. They believed in no doctors or taking medicines. That sort of thing. And they tried using the bible for backing those things up.  People would ask me if we were Jehovah's Witness and no we weren't. But I couldn't blame them for asking.

Paul tells us to not be tossed about every wind of doctrine in Ephesians 4:14, and it seems that is what the teaching was in this church. You had to do what they did, believe what they did, talk and act like they did, or they call you out on it. 

When I hadn't completely sold out to them after a time when they thought I should have, they did just that. And made me feel like I wasn't going to heaven when I died and that was scary.

And yet, in this passage in Romans, it was not what I did or didn't do that seals my way to heaven. It is only by His blood that was spilled on the cross for me long before I would ever arrive here.

In heaven, and standing at his throne, He is not going to ask me why I wore my glasses and didn't stay in that church. That fact is and was irrelevant. It is only my belief and acceptance of him, that will matter.

We need to align ourselves with a bible teaching church that teaches the truth. Now that isn't to say that, even a good bible church can't be wrong at times in some things. Because we are human, people do make mistakes. Even bible theologians don't always agree on everything. And God reveals to us only what he wants us to know and it is not always clear. So we do the best we can. 

But it is tragic to use teachings to cause fear in someone that really felt like I was alone in their church because at the time, my home life was so bad and I really wanted God to work within it. No one came to me from the church to speak with me about my "sin" and if they wanted to get real with it, the bible does have things to say about how you go about doing that when someone is sinning and yet they did not. 

One thing that did come out of all of this though, was to be in a church where I knew what I believed what was being taught, as much as possible, and not where people didn't let a Christian grow at their own pace and instead judged them for what they weren't doing right in someone else's eyes. 

The important thing we must believe in where we get to spend eternity has nothing more to do with the fact that we have to believe and accept Jesus and what he did for us. 

Nothing more and nothing less!

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Well, Friends, this is a bit different than what I had originally posted the other day, but it could have all been put together to make a longer post. And so I will conclude here. 

And I will not be posting a new one today. Things around my home have been quite busy this week, and so I plan to be back tomorrow with the next one. I pray for your understanding and thank you for your support of this site. God bless!

Hope

 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: Romans 5:3-4

Well, there was a word I was feeling a lot those days. Going through tribulation was surely what it felt like to me. A feeling of suffering was what the dictionary had said it meant. And yep, that pretty much described me.

But why? If I should have been feeling a sense of peace, why was I experiencing fear. Because even though we will go through times of suffering even as Christians, I should not have been fearing hell at the end of this life. I should have been feeling the peace of knowing that when I die, no matter what I go through here on earth, I would be in heaven with God. I had believed that from the time I gave my heart to Jesus in the car that night long before, with my dad.  What made me think differently now. What had changed?

I knew my answer was still ahead. But when would I find it? 

From that passage, I saw that I needed to be patient and a bit of that hope began to come in. Hope I so desperately needed.

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 Hello, Friends. Thanks for coming by today. Hope is something we all need. Especially with all the craziness in this world, we are living with today. There is so much fear. Fear of this virus going around. Fear of loss of jobs, homes, and even life. It exists even in the lives of those that serve God. We sometimes tend to forget, that he is overall that is going on and while we are to be cautious, we need not fear. Because he is with us. Have a blessed day!

There It Was Again

 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

There it was again. That word peace. Surely God was trying to tell me something. Where was the peace I should be feeling?  It comes to those that are justified or in other words are made righteous in God through his Son Jesus Chris

I could not shake the feeling that some of the teachings of this church were off base at least to some degree. Not only that but were not even backed up by the unconditional love that the bible talks about.

No one in leadership had bothered to talk to me in a private meeting. Instead, I was called out during a worship service. It had been embarrassing and that was just wrong. 

And, when I left the church, no one bothered to give me a call and talk to me about it. Plus, knowing it as I had come to, I am sure it was like one of those deals within other churches when someone leaves, they are shunned. 

What kind of unconditional love is that. I was bad news. I wasn't compliant and so I was one for members to stay away from.

I had had that peace and hope in my life that Romans 5:1-2 speaks of, or I would never have accepted Christ in the first place. 

Had I completely lost it? And if so, could I get it back again? But if I did get it back again, at what price would I have to pay?

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a great day in the Lord and may God bless you in his love

 

Abraham Did Not Stagger....

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, Who delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Romans 4:19-25

Abraham had not been weak in his faith in God. So why was I at this place in my life when that passage also includes the phrase, "not written for his sake alone, but it was imputed for us also...."

That meant me as well as all other believers. Right? Why then,  hadn't it given me any peace? With doctrines in the church that seemed to be different from other churches that claimed the name of Jesus Christ, and yet made its members feel that if they didn't "walk" in those teachings, and/or left their church, may not be going to heaven upon death. 

I had believed in Jesus all my life. Even as a small child. I had not always stuck close to God and for a time had gone my own way as Isaiah 53:6 states that all do. But now I had been trying hard to do what he wanted me to do.

And so again, where was that peace that I should have had?

I didn't know. It sure wasn't there. Yet.

Hello, Friends.Thanks for coming by today. And thanks for sticking with me through these busy days. Some days I never know what may be coming. And mostly, that is ok because I know that my God reigns, and whatever comes, he orders my steps as he has promised. 

Are they always easy? Fun? No. Sometimes, they may even seem a bit crazy. But still, I know, God is with me. And if I have ever learned anything, it underneath it all, there is a layer of peace in God that I didn't have all those years ago while trying to find it, in the book of Romans. No matter what.

God bless your day

All Have Sinned

 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”  Romans 3:23

I had heard this passage given over and over for years during my life as a Christian. All of us sin and come short of God's glory. It should have been good news to me during that confusing period of my life.  I wasn't alone. So why wasn't it?

I still needed more proof that no matter what the leaders in the church made me believe, apart from them, I was not going to hell. 

And so I kept going.

In verse 29, Paul makes it clear that God is not for the Jews only, but He is for the Gentiles as well. 

Was he still for me?

 In chapter 4:3, Abraham "believed God." 

God had promised him that he would be the 'father of many nations...' and he believed God for what would have been impossible.

I could believe what seemed impossible at the time. That God would give me a clear answer to my question about hell. And that did come by faith. Because I felt that I had no other choice than to find out if I wanted to stay out of hell.

If that indeed, was where I was headed.

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Thanks for coming today, Friends. Have a blessed day!

 

NO NOT ONE!

 What then? are we better than them? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Romans 3:9-10

In yesterday's post, I got ahead of myself. In the passage above Paul had asked the question about whether or not God considered the Jews better than the Gentiles. As we see, his answer was "no way, they are all under sin because there is none righteous."

Every one of  us lie. Every one of us sin.

That is where God's grace comes in. His antidote for the sinfulness of the world. 

Did that mean, that the leaders of the church are any different than those of us that attend their services?

Paul would say, "No, in no way wise..."

Just becausie we may consider the leaders of a church above us, and have respect for their postions in the chuch, they are in no way, better or sinless.

Therefore, they are subject to making mistakes, and sin. What about getting the scripture wrong?  Had the leaders in this church  gotten the scripture wrong in some of the things they were teacing their flocks? Were they misleading us? Maybe not exactly on pourpose, but because they really believed those teacings themselves. Of course, there are many so-called leaders that mislead and lie. But how about the ones in this church?

There was a televison commerical years ago that said this, "Enquiring minds want to know."

I have an enquiring mind, and want to know. And I want the truth. Was it clear after just a short time in the book of Romans that I wasn't going to hell when I died?

I still wasn't sure. But with God, I knew that at some point,  God would tell me. At least, I hoped although knew at that time that the Holy Spirit had led me to Romans to decide what I really did believe. That my inquiring mind, did know.

Thanks for coming, friends. Have a blessed day!

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