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

Jesus left His regal place in Heaven to become His creation. He became a man. He lived a human life with all of its challenges and temptations. In His humanness, He chose to not sin and therefore lived a perfect and pure life. He then gave up that life as a sacrifice for the very creation that He became. By doing this He returned to heaven as a resurrected human being, opening the door for His believers to enter heaven as well. By this glorious work of love, mercy, and grace, Jesus changed our relationship with God forevermore. We are now adopted into Gods’ family as sons and daughters and no longer slaves as we were when we were subject to the law. Jesus has made us joint heirs with Him in the kingdom of heaven through adoption. Because of this, we do not have to fear God as a slave fears his master, but we can call out to him with, “Abba, Father”, as a child calls out, “Pappa” when he or she needs the love of a caring father. Glory be to God!

Sirach 27:4-7

When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains;
So a man’s filth remains in the way he reasons.
As a furnace tests a potter’s vessels,
So the test of a man is in the way he reasons.
As fruit reveals how a tree is cultivated,
So a man’s reasoning process reveals his heart.
Do not praise a man before he reveals the way he reasons,
For this is the way a man is tested.

Personal Challenge

Here in Sirach, we are reminded to not take a person’s actions or thoughts into account on first impressions, but to study and understand how he, or she, reasons to get to that point. This is what reveals the true nature of their heart. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 8:10

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Encouraging Words

Death of our physical bodies is a result of the original sin of Adam. We were created to be eternal beings. God, in His infinite love for us, instituted physical death of our mortal bodies so that we would not spend eternity in the flesh that sins. Because Jesus became incarnate, lived a sinless life, and gave up His physical body as a sacrificial lamb, the reign that physical death had on us was broken. He gave us the Holy Spirit and we now have eternal, spiritual life after an physical death. This is all a mystery, but a truth that we can claim every day of our life here in this physical body, Jesus has freed us from death and given us eternal life. Glory be a God!

Sirach 25:1

There are three things beautiful to see,
And they are beautiful before the Lord and men:
The harmony of brothers, friendship between neighbors,
And a wife and husband well-adjusted together.

Encouraging Words

What a blessing it is to be able to live in harmony with those around us and to be a part of a friendly circle of people. But all of this pales in the presence of a husband and a wife that are deeply in love with one another, for as the scriptures teach us when a man and a woman come together in marriage, then two become one. I am so blessed to have a wonderful wife to share my life with. A wife who loves me deeply, even with all of my faults and idiosyncrasies. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:1-2

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Encouraging Words

It is good to know that the work of our Lord Jesus Christ covers each and every one us as we strive to live godly lives. His work does not mean that we can take advantage of it and live worldly lives. It means that as are work out His salvation in our lives that He will cover us. When we do commit sins in our lives, He never abandons or forsakes Us. That is the depth of His love for us.

Sirach 22:27

Who will set a guard over my mouth,
And a prudent seal over my lips,
That I may not fall because of them,
And that my tongue may not destroy me?

Personal challenge

The tongue, or what we choose to speak with it, has been addressed by so many of the wisdom writers, the apostles, and even Jesus, as the source of so much sin and damage. That is why silence is so often lifted up as the golden behavior, for in silence I will not do as much damage as if I speak. But Jesus teaches us that what the tongue speaks, thus is the nature of our heart. Knowing this, we cannot just stop at holding our tongues, but we must also be working at purging our hearts and minds of those things that would be spoken by the tongue. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 7:17-20

But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Encouraging Words

So, what is encouraging about this corundum that Paul presents about his (our) struggle with sin? The encouragement comes from what the Eastern Orthodox church has taught for over 2000 years. Sin is what we do, it is not what we are or our nature. Here is a note about this passage from the Orthodox Study Bible:

“Man is not sinful by nature. The Orthodox Church rejects any teaching that man has a “sin nature” or that man’s nature is depraved to the core. This passage clearly shows that sin is something distinct from our nature. Because we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), there is an indelible goodness in our nature that can never be undone. While we can become immersed in sin, we know that it is still not part of our nature, but a foreign force that dwells in us. Thus, sin is what we do, not what we are.”

Once this truth. is embraced our whole outlook on life shifts as we begin to see our lives as people created in the image of God, as diamonds covered with the filth of our sinful actions waiting to be washed clean by the blood of our precious Lord. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Sirach 21:1-3

My son, have you sinned?
No longer add to them, but pray about your former sins.
Flee from sin as you would from the presence of a snake,
For if you approach it, it will bite you;
Its teeth are like lion’s teeth, destroying the souls of men.
All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword,
For there is no healing from its wound.

Personal challenge

Just as I have the free will to choose to sin, so do I have the ability to choose not to sin. Sirach reminds us that if we have sinned, which we all do, we need to quickly confess our sin, repent of our wrongdoing and flee from that which draws us to sin more. The longer that we wait to do this, the more set that sin becomes within us and the harder it is to flee. We are so blessed to have the Holy Spirit available to help us through these challenges. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

There are two small words in this verse that sum up the entire essence of works versus grace. These words are “wages” and “gift”. Wages are the payment that I am owed for something that I have done. Death is what I earn through the sin that I have committed. This death is both physical and spiritual. And it doesn’t matter if I have committed 1 sin or billions or if it is very small or massive. Sin is sin and it perm­anently separates me from God. A gift is something that the giver chooses to bestow on me whether I deserve it or not. I cannot earn a gift. It is the grace of the given that bestows the gift upon me. God, in His infinite mercy, has given me the gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the Good News. Glory be to God!