Day 4 - Week 7 - Romans 5:8 - "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

I always think things happen for reasons, and in the calm of this evening, I can look back and say that I'm sure there was a really good reason that my computer spazzed out on me and dissolved an hour's worth of writing last night as I just finished the post for the day.  At 12:10 a.m. this morning when it happened, I wasn't quite that calm.  So lest anyone think that just because I journal about Scripture memorization every evening that I am above totally losing my cool, I SO proved you wrong early this morning!  Isn't that just like God...allowing me to write about our unworthiness of God's love and letting me prove it at the very same time!  I think God was not so subtly reminding me of how my need for His mercy never stops!

The essence of my post last night (I'm not going to try to totally recreate it) was based on a quote from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible regarding our verse's intent...."to show that the love of God... did not arise from any loveliness in them; or from any love in them to him; nor from any works of righteousness done by them, but from his own sovereign will and pleasure."  (If you're wondering why he is speaking so stiff and formal, John Gill was an English theologian in the early 1700s.)

What John Gill was impressing upon those who studied his writings then and for us who are able (via wonderful tools such as http://www.biblestudytools.com/ !) to read his writings today, is that there is nothing about us that would cause God to love us...we aren't just so amazingly wonderful or beautiful or intelligent that He is just enamored by us.  There is nothing that we've done that brings God's love to us...we haven't created anything that He is standing in awe of.  It is not because we have loved Him so much that He feels compelled to love us back (we really aren't the equivalent of God's puppy dogs, even though I sometimes look at my cocker spaniel,Tux, and think he understands me at about the same level I understand God!). 

No - the ONLY reason that we are loved by God is that God loves us..."by His own sovereign will and pleasure."  There is nothing about us that initiates the love relationship between God and us...it is ALL Him loving us first.  1 John 4:19 tell us, "We love him, because he first loved us." 

So if you ever get a little (as my Daddy used to say) "too big for your britches"...stop and realize that without God's love reaching out to the unlovable (yes - that's you and me), we would never be able to come into relationship with our Creator. For while He loves us while we are sinners, His holiness cannot be approached by those whose sins have not been forgiven...the forgiveness that He has provided, because of His love, to us through Christ Jesus.

I'm asking for God's blessing on this message...that it is His message for us tonight and that it reaches the eyes that need to see it.  For my constant prayer is that all the words that come out of this journaling are true to Him and to His Word.  And my prayer is that anyone who is reading this either already knows Jesus as their Savior, or will start to really consider that the gift of God's love that we keep talking about, could be a reality in your life too. 

Day 3 - Week 7 - Romans 5:8 - "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

I think I've just been humbled...I had just completed today's post on the undeserved nature of God's love for us and how He, in His design, requires us to humble ourselves to see that we have nothing to offer Him in return for His love for us, when the post disappeared into never never land!  You'll just have to trust that I thought it had some very good points, but maybe that's the point!  Maybe nothing more needs to be said then...God's love for us is HIS love for us...nothing about us merits it or prompts it.  Abide in that tonight...and maybe tomorrow night I will reclaim all the thoughts that I had written tonight and was so ready to share with you. 

Thank You God for all your reminders to us that YOU alone are in control, and YOU alone are the One who holds everything in the palm of Your hand.  Bless us as we rest in You.

Day 2 - Week 7 - Romans 5:8 "But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Robert P. Morgan says, "The word but is a conjunction that implies a sudden change of direction in the thought.  And when we see this word in the Bible, it's important to understand every word that follows it, especially if the phrase is but God..."

I agree, but (there it is again!) I also think to understand the change in direction, you have to look at the words preceding.  In the case of this week's verse, let's look at Romans 7-8, "For rarely will someone die for a just person---though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.  But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!"

The sudden change of thought is this...in men's thinking, it is very rare that anyone will die for another, although for a really good person, someone might give their life.  But....change of direction of thought....God gave Christ's life for us when we weren't even close to being good.  We can't wrap our human minds around the thought of giving a perfect life to save lives that are so very far from imperfect.  Another example of how God's thoughts are beyond ours.

God does things so differently than we would, doesn't He?  And He does them at different times than we would.  The Bible is full of  "but God..." examples.  And our lives are full of "but God..." examples as well.

Abraham did not see how he would have a son, "but God...." did.   Joseph's brothers thought they had ridded themselves of a bothersome brother, "but God.." had other plans. The Israelites did not see how they would conquer their enemies, "but God..." did. 

Looking at my life, I didn't see a bright future when I was a young divorced mother of two, "but God..." saw a future of stability, and brought into my life a man that I have now loved for 24 years; we have built a solid marriage, and have shown our children that marriages can work with faith and commitment.

No matter what your situation may be right now, however you see it, there may be a "but God..." view that you cannot see right now, but that He is working together for your future.  

If God would give His Son's life for us while we were still sinners, do not doubt that He will work on your behalf when you put your faith and trust in Him.  He did that to prove His love for us...why is it so hard for us then to trust that love and place our lives in submission to His will, His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 states, "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." 

Read how The Message puts this, "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

We may be disappointed with our current Christian maturity, "but God..." is ready to develop us, to bring out the best in us, and to mature us into the fullness of His potential for us.  Let's let Him!   

Day 1 - Week 7 - THIRD stop on the Romans Road!

It's Tuesday - and that means we've advanced to the next stop on our travel down the Romans Road.  I know I need it, and I think you might too, so let's do a quick review of our Romans Road so far...

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

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

Are you seeing the progression? 

First, we have to be confronted and convicted of our sinfulness  We have to acknowledge the huge gap between our best efforts and the glory of God and our inability to bridge that gap. 

Second, we need to know what our sinfulness earns for us...that payment is death, both physical and spiritual death.  But there is a gift provided to us because of the death of Christ, and that gift is eternal life.

Now we're ready to move on down the road to our third stop...Romans 5:8, "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

There's a lot in this verse that we will break down over the coming week.  But tonight I want you to think about how you prove your love for someone.  Think of all the very nicest things that you have done for someone that you did just to absolutely prove your love for them.  Now....have you ever done even one of those things for someone when they were doing something to you that you hated?  What about if someone was doing the exact opposite of what you had asked them to do for you...would those be the times that you would do an extraordinary act to prove your love for them? 

Well that's our God...He proves His love for us while we are doing things that he hates, while we are in rebellion against Him, while we ignore His commands and refuse to acknowledge His power.  While we are doing all of that, He is saying, "Let me show you just how much I really do love you." 

Is it any wonder that Paul says later in Romans 11:33, "How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways?"  God's ways are certainly not the way of the human mind...His love is so much more intense than we can imagine.

Now Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44-45 make more sense, don't they?  "But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven."

That's what He did for us, and He asks the same of those that are His children.

(All of this brings to mind a fantastic Christan novel that showed me the intensity of God's love...Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it.)

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Day 7 - 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."

It's the last night on our second stop along the Romans Road.  Can you say it with me?

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

So what does this verse mean to you?  To me, it's the perfect summary of what we deserve versus what God is willing to give us.  What I deserve in my sinfulness is death; but what God is ready to give me because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection is eternal life. 

Totally opposite attainment - totally opposite fates.  One is earned, one is given.  What I can earn amounts to damnation - what God gives is absolute salvation.

It is one of the things that sets Christianity apart from all other religions --- we can never do enough to earn our salvation; and the gift is only attainable when we admit our total unworthiness of it.  When we humble ourselves enough to realize that our very best still falls short, but that God loves us enough to present us with the unearned gift that Jesus provided for us, that's when we are where God wants His children---to see that He is perfect in justice and in mercy, and that our lives must be submitted to His sovereignty, a sovereignty that we can trust in because we have come to an understanding of His immeasurable love for us.

I hope this verse is firmly embedded in your heart...it is one that can make a huge difference in our maturity as Christians, and it is one that can make a huge difference in your ability to explain God's plan of salvation to those whom you may be given that opportunity.

Praying for you to have sweet dreams in God's care through this night...

Day 6 - 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 attend a church that allows me to take communion to five lovely women in the Arbors, a nursing home here in Amarillo.  I'm always amazed at the faith that these women exhibit as they go through the days of this stage of their life, all of them being over 85 years old.   They share sweet smiles and exhibit such thankfulness for the effort that our church goes to to make sure that they are still included in fellowship and the ability to partake of the Lord's supper. 

When I first started taking Communion to them, I was bothered that sometimes a few were not as focused on the elements as I thought they should have been.  Some can easily be diverted from the seriousness of the sacrament, and may interject a comment like, "You have on the prettiest necklace" or "You have a beautiful smile"; and then one may look up and say as one told me today, "You should have been a preacher!"  (That made me smile even bigger!)  I told her that she should be a preacher with me...that we're all preachers, aren't we, ready to share God's grace with others?  

As I visit with them and we share the sweet fellowship of being Christian sisters (no matter how much age difference), I realize that if through our fellowship and our sharing of the familiar emblems of bread and wine, some remembrance of the gift of Christ that they have known throughout their lives is brought back to them, then it is a very sweet moment indeed.

For these women, in all likelihood, will see our Savior much sooner than I; and they share with me that they understand that as they leave this earth, all the years of their lives have been covered with the blood of Jesus ----the blood that we remember as we share the cup of communion.  When I talked with one this morning about Christ returning for us to take us home, she said, "that brings tears to my eyes" and she was talking about tears of happiness in readiness to see Jesus.  For each of these women know in their hearts that everything that their sin has earned has been exchanged for the wonderful gift of eternal life that God has promised to us in our verse this week. 

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

The exchange has been made because of what Jesus did for us on the cross...and that's the precious gift that I got to celebrate with five beautiful women this morning.

You know when you were little and your parents let you open one gift before Christmas morning, just to appease your anxiousness...but that gift was always a small, less significant gift than the ones you would receive the next morning?   I think that's what God gives us sometimes in moments like I had this morning...small little gifts, just to keep us knowing that there's a greater gift in the waiting.  Isn't He a loving Father?