Day 4 - Week 6 - Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I got paid today --- I bet a lot of you did too if you get paid every other Friday like a lot of us do.  I got paid what I earned over the past two weeks.  I was glad to get what I earned. 

But when it comes to the wage scale of God, I am SO glad that I do not get my wages...that I do not get my payment for what I have earned.  For that payment would be death...that's what I've earned over the course of my life.  Every day I've earned a little bit more of my wages.  Every day through the sin in my life, a little more of my wages have been earned, so that on my ulitmate pay day I could get my compensation...eternal death, eternal separation from God.

But thanks be to God, He has had mercy on me!  He has a gift for all through Christ Jesus our Lord...the gift of eternal life.  It is not what we have earned, it is God's gift.  God takes the paycheck of eternal death and voids that check, and instead hands us the beautifully wrapped present of Jesus. 

I'll gladly exchange my wages for that gift...who wouldn't? 

Day 3 - Week 6 - Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

I spent an amazing evening tonight at the CareNet annual banquet.  This banquet is a time to thank those who have helped this organization in the past, and to ask for help for their future operations.  Senator Rick Santorum spoke, and brought a message from his heart.  He spoke of his passion for defending those without a voice, unborn children.  As I sat and listened to him, and to Candy Gibbs, the Executive Director for Amarillo's CareNet center, I thought of our verse for this week. 

I know our verse this week is much more reflective of eternal death and life, but I cannot help but think that it also teaches us the concept that sin breeds death, God brings life.  Psalm 36:9 tells us that God is the giver of life...who are we to think that we can usurp His decision by snuffing out a life that He has put in place.

In this age of abortions that number approximately 1.3 million (yes, I said million) every year in the United States alone, the increasing popularity of ideas regarding euthansia for the very elderly and chronically ill, the promotion of assisted suicides, I cannot help but think that Satan is smiling at his success and that God is very disappointed that His people have taken such a weak stance in defense of life.  Psalm 82:3 instructs us to "defend the cause of the weak"...but our world says, "eliminate the weak."

Sin is serious business.  Sin cost God the life of His Son.  And yet, we become so accustomed to it, that we don't even blink an eye at most occurrences of sinfulness in our society.  We sit by and watch lives being taken without saying a word.

I understand the arguments of "when does life begin", but the best response to that question that I've heard is that abortion stops a beating heart (can't argue with that).  I understand that many have opposed abortion in very un-Christianlike ways.  Finally, I truly understand that many girls find themselves in horrible circumstances and don't see any way out other than the path of abortion and my heart so goes out to them. But I believe that's where Christians and the Church should be active, to take up the cause of those in their times of need and to turn their points of crisis into times of opportunity for us to share Christ's amazing love.  To take up the cause of the weak, to love those in need, and to reach out with the hands of Jesus to embrace.  Please do not take this message as one that condemns, but one that is an expression of love for all.

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

Thank You Lord for Your gift to us of eternal life...help us to NEVER take life for granted, to acknowledge You as the only giver of life.  Help us to reach out with Your amazing love and help those who need us, to love them as You would, and to smile everytime we see a baby, knowing that You have breathed life into another soul, a soul that you long to have in Your eternal kingdom.  It is in Christ Jesus' name we pray...AMEN!

Day 2 - Week 6 - Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Robert J. Morgan states, "With the possible exception of John 3:16, no other text in Scripture better sums up all sixty-six books and thirty-one thousand verses of the Bible.  This is the ultimate Reader's Digest version of God's Word.  Notice the way the verse is balanced between its two clauses:

The wages of sin is death.

The gift of God is eternal life."

God made this pretty easy to understand, didn't He?  I mean, if you're a black and white kind of person, this is your verse --- it can't get much more straightforward.

He made it clear from the beginning... Sin =  Death.  In Genesis 2:17, He told Adam and Eve, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."  Adam and Eve's disobedience cost mankind eternal life and subjected all to death.  Their pattern of sinfulness has continued throughout the ages, and we find ourselves in the same situation.  But where our sinfulness earns us death, God's plan from the beginning was to gift us with eternal life...the plan that included His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, dying in our place. 

The Message puts Romans 5:18-19 in a great way, "Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!  One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right."

I like that --- we're not only "out of trouble", we've become adopted children of God, assured of a home with Him forever, because Jesus was willing to say "yes to God" and put us in the right.

Don't make it complicated - keep it simple! 

Sin = Death

Christ = Life

Thank You Jesus for allowing us to have the gift of life...thanks for being a friend who was willing to give their all for us.

Day 1 - Week 6 - Second Stop on the Romans Road!

Here we are again - another Tuesday evening and another new verse!  This is the 2nd in the group of five verses that comprise the Romans Road.  As a matter of review, let's just do something real quickly!

Our Four Corners of God's Word were.....?

Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

And the first stop on our Romans Road was....?

Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Second stop?  Romans 6:23 (that's a help- we go from 3:23 to 6:23) - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Our first stop convicted us as sinners---something we have to recognize before we can travel on down the road.  Second stop tells us the cost of our sin.  Death.  But there is a gift that can replace what we have earned through our sinfulness...God's gift of eternal life, the gift that comes beautifully wrapped in the person of Jesus Christ.  I love the picture that I picked to accompany this week's verse...the road is dark and forboding, but there is such a glorious light in the future.  We're on this dark road of sin that leads to death, but we dont have to stay there...we can accept God's light, His gift of life through Jesus.

Robert P. Morgan says, "Wages is a word we see in our newspaper every day.  It's what we get for what we do.  The Bible says that we're all employed by sin, and the result or payback is physical, spiritual, and eternal death."  I had never thought of being employed by sin...but that's what we are.  Sin uses us, and uses us up, until everything in us has died, and then we leave this life to a destiny of eternal death. WHAT can be worth that price?  As appealing as Satan can make sin appear, be put on notice right now of the high price you will pay.  As Mark 8:36 asks, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

In opposition, God is ready to gift us with eternal life.  Seems like a fairly easy choice, doesn't it?  It reminds us of the words of Moses implorng the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:19, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

Choose the gift of God - eternal life, provided to us through our loving and merciful Christ Jesus, our Lord.  What an easy choice, don't be deceived.  Choose life.  

Day 7 - Week 5 - Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

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It's our last night on the first stop of our trip down the Romans Road...say it now without looking!

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

This is an easy verse, but as we've seen before, there can be a lot of power packed in a minimum amount of words!  This verse falls in that category.  This is the verse that has to convict you and me, and anyone that we are presenting the truth of God's plan of salvation to, of our need for a savior.  Until we are convinced that we are sinners, and along with that convincing, that our sinfulness has a negative effect of some kind, what difference does it make?  How can you convince someone of their need of salvation if they don't understand what they are losing, and why they are losing it?  If this verse wasn't perfectly constructed, it may lack that effect.  But it was.

First point --- We have all sinned.  Black and white, no doubt about it.  Don't try to argue with it, because you'll lose.  There's not a human alive who can claim perfection other than the One who came to live, die and be resurrected, and then ascended to sit on the right hand of God the Father.  Other than Jesus, have you ever heard of anyone claiming a life of perfection?  Nope - we have all sinned.  Some of us have committed what the world calls the "big sins"...murder, adultery, embezzlement...you know, the kind of sins that make the newspapers (or now the ones that go viral on the Internet)!  But all of us have committed the "lesser" sins...lying, gossip, cheating on tests, cheating on taxes...the sins that no one ever really finds out about, but they are there...and they convict us all of the crime of which we're accused..."SINNER."   And once we're convicted of that, it doesn't matter the size of the sin that took us there...in fact in God's eyes, they're all the same...they each show that we don't esteem Him to be in authority over us in some way or another.  And that attitude is what truly convicts us.

Sin causes us to fall short --- fall short of the "glory of God."  So sin prevents us from experiencing the glory of God, and conversely we know that without sin in our life, we would come into the glory of God.  That's where Jesus' life of perfection took Him --- right back into the presence of the glory of God.  Luke testified to this in Acts 7:55 when he relayed to us the death of the first martyr, Stephen, "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." 

Now you want to hear the best part?  (Although I feel like I'm giving away a little bit of the secret of the rest of our verses as travel down this road in Rome.)  Even though we are sinners, even though we deserve to be condemned...we, too, end up exactly where Satan would love to never see us...and all because of Jesus our Savior.  In Jude 1:24-25, we hear the exciting news.."To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy-- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."  Yes, Christ is the One who can keep us from falling into the pit that Satan would have us be bound in, and Christ is the One who will, with great joy, present us to God before His glorious persence...without fault, because although we are convicted sinners, He is willing to take the sentence of judgment from us. 

Amazing grace - how very, very sweet the sound!

Day 6 - Week 5 - Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"....

No matter how long you've been a Christan, no matter how well you know the Bible, you're still a sinner...I'm still a sinner...we're all still sinners.  Sometimes when you've been a believer for a long time, it's easy to start feeling superior to others, to think that you would never do the things that you see others doing.  And while we do grow, and while the allure of sinfulness does fade as our faith in God grows deeper and stronger, we should never feel prideful in that growth.  We are what we are today due to the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  We should be ready to reach out to the rest of the "all" and share with them the ability to have a changed life through the grace of Jesus, a life that is available to ALL.

Paul says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."  If we're really considering others better than ourselves, than we are also going to consider others even more deserving of God's grace---or at least, just as deserving, as we are.  We should never think of anyone, no matter what they've done, as outside of the reach of God's love.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  And that all includes you and me and every other person on the face of the earth.  We remember and we are thankful that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. 

In Romans 12:3, Paul admonishes us, "And because of God's gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you." 

I like the way The Message states this verse as well, "I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him."

God does indeed bring His goodness to us...share His goodness with all who you are given the opportunity, and then thank Him for the gift of being able to share, because you have been brought out of darkness into light, out of sinfulness into grace, and out of death into life.  Hallelujah!

Day 5 - Week 5 - Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Excuse my absence yesterday - I was with my two sisters and my mother celebrating Mother's 88th birthday!  Isn't that a wonderful blessing that not many daughters get to enjoy?  I've been so blessed with Christian parents.  My sweet Daddy left this earth when he was only 65, he was never anything less than the best Daddy that I can imagine having!  We have been able to enjoy so many extra years with Mother, and have come to realize just what an incredibly strong and faithful woman she is.  She continues to teach me so much about what is and what isn't important...and she has taught me once again that the things that money can buy are of little consequence, and that what is important are the expressions of love we show each other throughout our lives in light of God's love for us.

Traveling on down our Romans Road..."For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Falling short---it's the result of our sinfulness.  Sin is what diverts us from the course that God has laid out for us; sin is what delays us in our pursuit of holiness; sin is what stops us from being what God designed us to be.  And we fall short.

"Falling short" carries with it the idea of lacking something...and we are definitely lacking something in comparison to the glory of God.  We will always fall short, but does that mean we quit trying?  That we become satisfied within our sinfulness?  Paul answered that pretty clearly in Romans 6:1-2, "So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin?"  Once we have given our lives to Christ, we can't be comfortable "abiding" in sin...living in a surrounding of sin, or in continual, habitual sin.  That kind of lifestyle will grieve the Holy Spirit within us and will cause us to have unrest and overriding guilt.  The Spirit will not allow us to be comfortable there...thank You God for that!  While we may always fall short, once we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, the gap between our sinfulness and the glory of God has been bridged.  But what has also happened is that the world has lost it's appeal to us...we now have our eyes on the things above, and hearts that are turned toward His desires should result in lives that come closer to Him and His ideals for us. 

Dear Lord Jesus - give me peace tonight and strength when I wake tomorrow to walk closer to You; to do Your will over mine; and to love as You have loved.  I have sinned...I have fallen short...you alone can bring me into God's glory. Thank You for loving me so much that you are willing to be the bridge for me.  You are my Savior and my Lord - Amen!