Posts Tagged ‘christianity’


Under Gods Command
Future Glory

Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

As a believer, you are not left to your own resources to cope with problems. Even when you don’t know the right words to pray, the Holy Spirit prays with and for you, and God answers. With God helping you pray, you don’t need to be afraid to come before him. Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede for you “in accordance with God’s will.” Then, when you bring your request to God, trust that he will always do what is best.

Lets Bring it Home: Don’t allow yourself not to pray because you don’t sound like someone else, or you don’t know what to say. God is telling you right here that Holy Spirit intercedes for us. So, there is no excuse not to pray more. We got to trust the Holy Spirit and Gods word. Just drop your head and go into your secret place and talk to the Lord.


Under Gods Command
Future Glory

Romans 8:22-23 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits, of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

24-25 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

It is natural for children to trust their parents, even though parents sometimes fail to keep their promises, Our heavenly Father, however, never makes promises he won’t keep. Nevertheless, his plan may take more time than we expect. What are we waiting for? New bodies, a new heaven and new earth, rest and rewards, our eternal family and home, the absence of sin and suffering, and being face to face with Jesus! Rather than acting like impatient children as we wait for God’s will to unfold, we should place our confidence in God’s goodness and wisdom.

In Romans, Paul presents the idea that salvation is past, present, and future. It is past because we were saved the moment we believed in Jesus Christ as Savior (3:21-26; 5:1-11; 6:1-11, 22,23); our new life (eternal life)) begins at that moment. And it is present because we are being saved; this is the process of sanctification. But at the same time, we have not fully received all the benefits and blessings of salvation that will be ours when Christ’s new Kingdom is completely established. That’s our future salvation.

Lets Bring it Home: While we can be confident of our salvation, we still look ahead with hope and trust toward that complete change of body and personality that lies beyond this life, when we will be like Christ (1 John 3:2).


Under Gods Command
Life Through the Spirit

Romans 8:10-16 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (11) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (12) Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. (13) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (14) because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (15) For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (16) The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

The Holy Spirit is God’s promise or guarantee of eternal life for those who believe in him. The Spirit is in us now by faith and by faith we are certain to live with Christ forever.

“Put to death the misdeeds of the body,” means to regard as dead the power of sin in your body (see 6:11;Galatians 5:24) When we regard sin’s appeal as dead and lifeless, we can ignore temptation when it comes.

Paul uses adoption or “sonship” to illustrate the believer’s new relationship with God. In roman culture, the adopted person lost all rights in his old family and gained at the rights of a legitimate child in his new family. He became a full heir to his new father’s estate. Likewise, when a person becomes a Christian, he or she gains all the privileges and responsibilities of a child in God’s family. One of these outstanding privileges is being led by the Spirit (Galatians 4:5,6). We may not always feel as though we belong to God, but the Holy Spirit is our witness. His inward presence reminds us of who we are and encourages us with God’s love (5:5).

We are no longer cringing and fearful slaves; instead, we are the Master’s children. What a privilege! Because we are Gods children, we share in great treasures as coheirs. God has already given us his best gifts: his Son, his Holy Spirit, forgiveness, and eternal life; and he encourages us to ask him for whatever we need.

Lets Bring it Home: What family do you belong to? Who’s your Father?


Under Gods Command
Life Through the Spirit

Romans 8:6-9 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

Have you ever worried about whether or not you really are a Christian? A Christian is anyone who has the Spirit of God living in him or her. If you have sincerely trusted Christ for your salvation and acknowledged him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit has come into your life, and you are a Christian. You won’t know that the Holy Spirit has come if you are waiting for a certain feeling; you will know he has come because Jesus promised he would. When the Holy Spirit is working within you, you will believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and that eternal life comes through him (1 John 5:5); you will begin to act as Christ directs (Galatians 5:22,23); you will find help in your daily problems and in your praying (Romans 8:26,27); you will be empowered to serve God and do his will (Acts 1:8) (Romans 12:6); and you will become part of God’s plan to build up his church (Ephesians 4:12, 13).

Who is a disciple of Jesus Christ?
1. A disciple is one who fist has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
2. A disciple is one who regularly seeks out
3. A disciple is one who reads and meditates upon the Bible
4. A disciple is one who is faithful in attendance at opportunities for worship and praise
5. A disciple is one who routinely shares with others what the Lord has done in their life
6. A disciple is one who cheerfully returns a tithe of what God has given
7. A disciple is one who serves the poor, the hungry, the hurting, and the lost as if that person were Christ himself.

Lets Bring it Home: How many of these fit into your Christian Walk?


Under Gods Command

Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do, For what I want to do I d not do, but what I hate I do.

Paul shares three lessons that he learned in trying to deal with his sinful desires.
1. Knowledge of the rules is not the answer (7:9) Paul felt fine as long as he did not understand what the law demanded. When he learned the truth, he knew he was doomed.
2. Self-determination (struggling in one’s own strength) doesn’t succeed (7:15), Paul found himself sinning in ways that weren’t even attractive to him.
3. Becoming a Christian does not stamp out all sin and temptation from a person’s life (7:22-25).

Being born again takes a moment of faith, but becoming like Christ is a lifelong process. Paul compares Christian growth to strenuous race or fight (1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:7). Thus, as Paul has been emphasizing since the beginning of this letter, on one in the world is innocent; no one deserves to be saved-not the pagan who doesn’t know God’s laws, not the person who knows them and tries to keep them.

Lets Bring it Home: All of us must depend totally on the work of Christ for our salvation. We cannot earn it by our good behavior.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 11:29 – He who brings trouble on his family will inherit only wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.

One of the greatest resources God gives us is the family. Families provide acceptance, encouragement, guidance, and counsel. Bringing trouble on your family, whether through anger or through an inflated desire for independence is foolish, because you cut yourself off from all they provide. In your family, strive for healing, communication, and understanding.

Here are two ways you can cause trouble and cost yourself dearly. You can abuse privileges, or neglect duties, in your family, and you will end up with nothing. Your future will disappear like wind through fingers. These and other foolish choices will also take you down: you will end up serving those who are prudent and wise in their choices.

Fathers can trouble their houses in many ways. Being greedy of gain is a clear one (Pr 15:27). They work too many hours, waste money in foolish ventures, deprive their family of personal attention, are stingy with money, compromise integrity, and are carnally minded, all in their vain pursuit of wealth. Lazy and foolish men also hurt their families by depriving them of needs and opportunities through sloth and ignorance.

Fathers can also be too overbearing, harsh, critical, and domineering, which may discourage wives and children, or provoke them to wrath (Eph 6:4; Col 3:21). On the other hand, a father who avoids decisions or being a leader troubles his house. The wife and children are at sea without a captain. They lack security and direction for their lives.

While fathers are mentioned here, everyone knows overbearing wives and mothers are also an evil (Pr 12:4; 19:13; 21:9,19; 25:24; 27:15-16; 30:21-23). They drive children to anger, bitterness, discouragement, frustration, and even hatred; though they whitewash their odious conduct by saying, “I was just trying to help.” They are full-time meddlers, always digging, nagging, and pressing suggestions about unimportant things of life.

What is the punishment for these selfish persons – foolish fathers and mothers? They lose their families. The children can hardly wait for marriage to get away. Some will run away before marriage. These children only come home under duress. They want so much to escape the vexation of living with selfish or critical parents. They want peace and quiet, with affection and happiness, where love reigns; they want to escape their cruel parents.

Troubling your family has consequences. Foolish parents, who selfishly neglect their children or odiously interfere in their lives, will lose them. They will die lonely, even if the children visit them out of obligation. Foolish choices will cost a man his standing; the prudent man will take dominion over him. These judgments are natural and appropriate.


Under Gods Command
Dead to sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:20-23 when you were slaves to sins, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at the time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are free to choose between two masters, but you are not free to adjust the consequences of your choice. Each of the two masters pays with his own kind of currency. The currency of sin is eternal death, That is all you can expect or hope for in life without God. Christ’s currency is eternal life-new life with God that begins on earth and continues forever with God.

Lets Bring it Home: What choice have you made?

Eternal life is a free gift from God, if it is a gift, then it is not something that we earn, nor something that must be paid back. Consider the foolishness of someone who receives a gift given out of love and then offers to pay for it. A gift cannot be purchased by the recipient. A more appropriate response to a loved one who offers a gift is graceful acceptance with gratitude. Our salvation is a gift of God, not something of our own doing (Ephesians 2:8,9). He saved us because of his mercy, not because of any righteous things that we have done (Titus 3:5). How much more we should accept with thanksgiving the gift that God has freely given to us.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 1:22
How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

In the book of Proverbs, a “simple one” or a fool is not someone with a mental deficiency but someone with a character deficiency (such as rebellion, laziness, or anger). The fool is not stupid, but he or she is unable to tell right from wrong or good from bad.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 28:27 He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.         

God want us to identify with the needy, not ignore then.  The second part of this proverb could be restated positively.  “Those who open their eyes to poor people will be blessed” If we help others when they are in trouble, they will do what ever they can to return the favor (see 11:24,25).  Paul promises that God will supply all our needs (Philippians 4:19); he usually does this through other people.  What can you do today to help God supply someone’s need?

 


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 25:21-22 – If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

God’s form of retaliation is most effective and yet difficult to do. Paul quotes this proverb in
Romans 12:19-21. In Mathew 5:44, Jesus encourages us to pray for those who hurt us. By returning good for evil, we are acknowledging God as the balancer of all accounts and trusting him to be the judge.