DAY 77-WOW

When I sat down to write about today’s passage, I couldn’t find any one thing that jumped out. The trouble was that in Romans 8 I found a lot of good stuff. What a powerful chapter—or at least for me.

No condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus (8:1)
….power of the Spirit has freed you from the power of sin (8:2)
We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them (8:28)
If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (8:31)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:38)

Wow, what a wonderful God we have……

DAY 76-SLAVES NO MORE, WE ARE FREE

In Chapter Romans 3:23-24 we read, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, yet God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty.” Then in 5: 8-9, we see God’s love, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” Then in chapter 6, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” (Romans 6: 11-14)

Do you think Paul was trying to make a point? We are all sinners and will continue to face temptations but we are no longer slaves to sin. Through God’s grace we are forgiven and have the power over sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23). We have been set free and now have eternal life—eternal life!

DAY 75-WE ARE ALL SINNERS

In Romans chapter three, it talks about how we are all sinners. I have heard from several people that they hate to be called sinners. They go to church, pray, help others and obey the law. They are good people. How can they be considered sinners? Paul writes:

10 As the Scriptures say,

“No one is righteous—
not even one.
11 No one is truly wise;
no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”

No matter how much we try, as humans we fall short, we all sin. You see, left alone by ourselves we are prideful human beings. We only see what we want to see and thus make decisions with our “best” interests in mind—sometimes the decisions are not so good but we justify it by comparing ourselves to others— “I’m not as bad as so and so.” But it isn’t about us. It is about God and our relationship with him.

What I see in this passage is humility. By humbling ourselves we realize our shortcomings which help us recognize our need for Jesus. And thorough Jesus are sins are forgiven and we are made whole again where we can experience fellowship with God. Sometimes when we take a moment to reflect we are able to see ourselves in a totally different light. We need to be honest with ourselves and more importantly; we need to be honest with God. We are humans, we will fail. Forgive me Lord of my sins. Help me to humble myself before you and stop making excuses. Help me to trust in you and allow you to lead my life. Amen.

DAY 74-GOD KNOWS THAT YOU KNOW

As I read Romans 1, I found the following passage underlined in my Bible, Romans 1:20,

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Next to it in the margin I had a note that read “No excuses for not seeing God”. This reminded me of a passage by our pastor. He was trying to tell us that no one had an excuse to say that they did not see or have the opportunity to know God. God has revealed himself thorough nature and creation. No one has an excuse to say they did not know God existed. Just look around. I am thankful that my eyes were opened to see God and who he is.

But now that I can see, I have an obligation. An obligation to do what is right. In Romans 2:5-8, we learn of the judgment that will come upon all of us. If we proclaim to follow Jesus and our actions do not meet our words, then we will be harshly judged. God knows our hearts and we know right from wrong. We know what we need to do and when we fail, God knows–we cannot hide from Him. Stop and take a look in the mirror, a really hard look at yourself. Where is your heart? What does God see? What do others see? Do they see Jesus in you or are they confused by how you say one thing and do another?

DAY 73-THROUGH IT ALL

As we get to the final chapter of Acts, we see the long, long legal process that Paul had to endure. When you look at Paul’s trials, it makes you wonder why God allowed this obstacle to occur in Paul’s life. This whole process took several years. As I got to thinking about this I thought how Paul did not waver, lose patience nor give up on God. We can learn a lot from Paul. We need to keep the faith and endure and through it all, we need to keep are focus and trust in God. This reminds me of the lyrics of the Andrae Crouch song….

I’ve been a lot of places
And I’ve seen so many faces
But there’ve been times I’ve felt so all alone
But in that lonely hour, in that precious, lonely hour
Jesus let me know I was His own

Chorus
Through it all, through it all
Through it all, through it all
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus
I’ve learned to trust in God
Through it all, through it all
Through it all, through it all
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word

DAY 72-DON’T BE AFRAID

Acts 27: 22-25 “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”

When things get bad, isn’t it comforting to know that God is there? Here we see everyone around Paul thinking the worst because they only saw things through human eyes. Paul saw the situation through Gods’ eyes because I believe Paul was trusting God to get then through the storm. He had enough faith for all of them. We need to be like Paul and trust in God to get us through the storm, even when our friends are telling us otherwise.

DAY 71-SHARE YOUR STORY

In Acts 26 Paul stands before King Agrippa and begins to plead his case, but what we really have is Paul’s testimony.  Not understanding the message, he is called insane by Festus, the Roman governor.  While King Agrippa states that Paul is not guilty of breaking any Roman laws.  They failed to really hear the message. Have you ever given your testimony only to be ignored or have people make fun of you?  We all have a testimony that needs to be shared even though it might not be understood or received well by the audience.  However, your experiences and testimony are unique to you and make you who you are. 

Check out the following link.  It provides a quick overview of Noah’s story.  See how Noah’s testimony is being used to bring others to Christ.

Noah’s Arc – Noah’s Story

Your story needs to be told just like Noah’s because your story or testimony may be the one and only one that may impact someone else’s life.  Don’t be afraid to share your story.  Your story may lead someone to Jesus just like Noah.

DAY 69-70 STAYING FOCUSED

In Acts 24 and 25 we see Paul struggle with the accusations against him and the Roman government’s inability to find him guilty. No Roman official could find any wrongdoing and thus were unable to find any reasonable charges to try him. As a result, Paul was in prison for several years. Imagine being incarcerated without any “legitimate” charges filed against you. Most of us would be mad. That would be hard for me to do. Paul knew his purpose and remained focused. As we will read in Acts 26, Paul was neither bitter nor full of anger. No, when he was asked to defend himself he spoke about Jesus and how He had changed his life. It was not about him, it was about Jesus and how others could come to know forgiveness and ultimately Jesus. In spite of any obstacles that we may face, we need to remain focused on Jesus and stay true to him. Stay focused.

DAY 69-70 STAYING FOCUSED

In Acts 24 and 25 we see Paul struggle with the accusations against him and the Roman government’s inability to find him guilty. No Roman official could find any wrongdoing and thus were unable to find any reasonable charges to try him. As a result, Paul was in prison for several years. Imagine being incarcerated without any “legitimate” charges filed against you. Most of us would be mad. That would be hard for me to do. Paul knew his purpose and remained focused. As we will read in Acts 26, Paul was neither bitter nor full of anger. No, when he was asked to defend himself he spoke about Jesus and how He had changed his life. It was not about him, it was about Jesus and how others could come to know forgiveness and ultimately Jesus. In spite of any obstacles that we may face, we need to remain focused on Jesus and stay true to him. Stay focused.

DAY 68-KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE

Today I sat through a management course where we were reviewing communications. One of the points made concerned knowing your audience, their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, their beliefs and bias. If you know your audience and anticipate how they may react then how you deliver the message to them should change. Paul did that perfectly in Acts 23: 7-9. He knew his audience well enough to cause them to be divided and thus creating dissension so they could not reach a decision against him.

I thought about the times we try to talk to people about Jesus and fail. We have to understand that one size does not fill all. As we try to spread the Good News, we need to take the time to get to know them. If we know their background we can better communicate to them and hopefully bring them to accept Jesus as their Savior.