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Romans 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Personal Challenge

I have spent most of my life, living in an age where it was safe to live our Christian life without any fear or concern about persecution. Christianity has been tolerated by most. However, we are entering into a time where the concept of being a Christian has been mainstreamed in our society and bastardized to be conforming to the world rather than set apart for God. In the name of Christianity, people are storming our capital and school board meetings threatening people’s lives for their definitions of godliness. We are seeing resistance in our churches for choosing to follow and be submissive to our hierarchical leaders in the cause of exercising our “rights” to do what we want. The day may be coming soon, if it is not already here, where people proclaiming to be Christians will be persecuting other Christians who are choosing to adhere to the 2,000 year old teachings of our Lord. This will be a time where we will truly be living sacrifices for our God! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Encouraging Words

It has always been encouraging to be able to submit to another who knows so much more about something than I do. Whether it be in work or in volunteering, when the leader is knowledgeable in the space that we are working in, it is easy to let them lead. This is the way it should be in our lives and our relationship with God. He has so much more knowledge and wisdom than all of creation added together let alone me, He has no need for a counselor. He knows all and is in all. No one or nothing can ever know His mind. Knowing and believing this makes it so much easier to yield to Him and let Him lead my life. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 10:14-15

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

Personal Challenge

We are challenged here by Paul, to be preachers, emissaries, of the gospel of Christ. We do not get welcomed into the family of God just to go sit in the comfortable corner of the Kingdom of God and let everyone else do His work. We are called to share His life giving gospel with everyone that we meet. We share this gospel by our actions as well as our words. By doing this we are bringing glad tidings of good things to the world around us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 10:8-13

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

Personal challenge

God loves us. Jesus died for us. These are irrefutable truths. If we truly believe this, with our whole heart, soul, spirit, mind, and body, and are willing confess this belief every moment of our lives, then we are partakers in Gods’ love. This profession of our faith is not a once in a lifetime event. It is a never ending, day after day, moment by moment willingness to proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and our choice to follow and obey Him. By doing this our lives are changed from a worldly focus to a heavenly focus. By living this way we will never be put to shame. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

This passage is full of so many wonderfully encouraging words about the relationship that we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in this temporal, physical realm can separate us from the love of Christ. If I choose to continue to pursue sin in my life, if I desire to live in the ways of the world around me, even if I choose to deny Him, He still loves me and died for me. If I choose to accept this love from Him and try to walk in His footsteps then I will be a conquerer of everything that comes my way knowing that nothing can ever come between God and His love for me. This love is eternal. This love is complete. This love if from Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 8:31-32

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Encouraging Words

Because of who Jesus was, fully God and fully man, and the work that He did of going to the cross as an innocent man, God is for us, His creation. God has always loved us, but when Adam and Eve sinned a chasm between us and God was established and death set in to reign over us. Jesus broke the bondage that death had on us and bridged that chasm so that we can once again be in intimate fellowship with our Father. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Encouraging Words

Is Paul presenting some kind of prosperity gospel here where God makes everything work together for our good? Absolutely not. If we love God and live our lives for Him according to His purpose, then we will only desire and pursue those things that will glorify Him and edify our neighbor. We will abandon the things of this earth, including all the teachings that we have heard that are contradictory to His teachings and pursue His righteousness. The things of this world; wealth, notoriety, fame, power, will no longer be important to us. God’s economy will be our focus and this is where He will make all things work together for our good. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 8:14-15

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Encouraging Words

If we are being lead by the Spirit of God, which means that we have relinquished our self-focused will to Him, then we are seen as sons of God, adopted into His family with all rights and privileges of being a child of the Father. Because of this adoption and the relationship that goes with it, we can approach God with the cry, “Abba, Father”. That term “Abba” is a very special terms, which is not captured fully in the English language. It is a term of endearment. It would be like a little child running up to his father with his arms wide open calling out, “Daddy, Daddy” knowing that his father will sweep him up into his arms, hold him tight to his chest and lovingly protect him from the rough and tough world around him. This is what our “Abba, Father” does for us, if we are His adopted child. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me and forgive me for those times that I quench the leading of Your Spirit!