In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10 (NIV)

Meditating on Scripture is a wonderful thing! As I read through Hebrews, I am asking God to highlight themes, verses and truths that He wants me to notice. So in reading Hebrews chapter 2 today, I got stuck on verse 10. The NIV translation says that Jesus was made “perfect through suffering.” Well, that begs the question:

Was Jesus not perfect before He suffered on earth?

That messes with my theology a bit because God is perfect and Jesus is and always has been fully God. In fact in this verse, it describes God as being the One “for whom and through whom everything exists,” yet we read in chapter 1 that the universe was made through Jesus (v2) and that He sustains it by His powerful Word (v3). Further, in John 10:30, Jesus says “I and the Father are one.” More subtly (to us 21^st century Christians anyway), Jesus proved over and over again that He was God by forgiving sins. Such actions were anything but subtle to the Jews in Jesus’ time. They understood that only God could forgive sins. Every time Jesus said “your sins are forgiven” he was making a very loud and clear statement to the Jews that He was God. (See Matthew 9:2-6 for a great example of this.)

So Jesus was perfect before He suffered on earth, yet Hebrews 2:10 tells us that he was made perfect through suffering. I read the verse in many different translations and I read it in context (i.e., reading through the entire passage and fitting it with the passages around it). I then read several commentaries to see what they thought of the verse. I learned some things – they added to my head knowledge, but didn’t satisfy my spirit. Few commentaries even addressed verse 10.

So I laid the passage aside and read a couple of chapters of 2 Samuel (following our Resting at the River’s Edge reading schedule). I then went back to the passage in Hebrews. Still nothing. So I agreed with God that I would meditate on the passage – mull it over and over in my mind, examining it from many different angles, letting it settle in my mind, heart and spirit – all the while asking God to help me understand it – to bring revelation to me about this passage.

And He did just that! Sometimes we need to meditate on a verse for days, weeks, or even months or years before we gain insight into it. Today’s revelation came very quickly. (Thank You, Lord!) God brought to mind notes I had made from my husband’s sermon at a local nursing home just a few days ago. He was talking about the purpose of suffering and explained that suffering is both our punishment for sin and a byproduct or consequence of sin.

You know the story about what happened in the Garden. Eve violated God’s only command and ate the fruit and gave some to Adam who was standing beside her. Through their rebellion, sin entered the world. Later in the day, God was walking in the garden. That’s where I’ll pick up an abbreviated version of the story.

¹¹“…the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten the fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

¹²“Yes,” Adam admitted, “but it was the woman you gave me …”

¹³Then the LORD God asked the woman, “How could you do such a thing?”

“The serpent tricked me,” she replied. “That’s why….”

¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you will be punished. You are singled out from all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth to be cursed. You will grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly….”

¹⁶Then he said to the woman, “You will bear children with intense pain and suffering…”

¹⁷And to Adam he said, “…I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. ¹⁸It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. ¹⁹All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:11b-19 (NLT)

Adam’s punishment was that what had been a joy in his life – tending the beautiful, growing garden – would now become work, and hard work at that. And the beautiful garden was now a cursed place that would grow thorns and thistles. Both the people and the land (and everything dependent on the land) would now suffer. Suffering became both a punishment for Adam and Eve (and all their descendants) and a consequence of their sin as the entire earth was subjected to the curse.

Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse.
Romans 8:20

With that in your mind, let’s go back to Hebrews 2:10:

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10 (NIV)

Jesus, as the author of our salvation, was made perfect – or complete through the suffering He experienced. We often say that Jesus paid the price for our sin. The price, the penalty for that sin could not be paid in full without experiencing the suffering that is both the punishment and the consequence of that sin. God could not have laid all the sin of the world upon His Son without Jesus experiencing the suffering that the sin caused. Christ was not “made perfect” through suffering, but His sacrifice was made complete through suffering; His authorship of our salvation was completed.

Imagine – imagine – the sinless one willingly experiencing the suffering that results from your sin so that he could author your salvation. That’s what He did and that’s why the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. Jesus’ suffering made His sacrifice complete. Without the suffering, there would be no salvation for you and me. I’m sorry, so very sorry, that Christ suffered because of my actions. But I’m oh, so very glad He willingly did. Another reason that Jesus is greater…than all.

But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
Psalm 3:3

David wrote this Psalm at one of the low points in his life. He was running from his son Absalom who was trying to steal the Kingdom from him. Rather than stay and fight to retain his leadership of the kingdom, David runs to avoid losing his own life, the lives of his leadership team and bloodshed in the city of Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 15:14)

An aside: I paused in my writing to discuss David and Absalom with my husband. His summary is perhaps better than mine. Here’s how he describes David’s thoughts at the time: “My son Absalom wants to kill me and become king in my place. Let’s run for our lives…But wait! I have to write this song first!” It made me laugh out loud!

Phil can be irreverent at times, and it’s one of the things that make him such a great teacher. People remember the crazy things he says for quite a long time because of the way he puts them. It’s a gift I don’t have.

Imagine how hurt, embarrassed and afraid David must be. Out of that emotional place, He wrote Psalm 3. When I read verse 3, I was reminded of what we learned from Romans 8:30 in part 4 of my series titled “The Mean I Don’t Even Recognize.”

²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans 8:29-30

This passage teaches that those people who come to know Christ have been called, justified and glorified. (Read the whole series if you missed it. There’s some great content about those words.) The word “glorified” relates to our Psalm and means praised, celebrated, held in high honor, and to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest or acknowledged. And from the context of Romans 8:30, we see that God has already done it!

David didn’t have the privilege of having the book of Romans to study from, but he knew the Lord so intimately that in the midst of being chased down by his son, he was able to write the very same thing as Paul: That God bestows glory on His children. Imagine how important that was to David at that point in his life. He was saying “Father, my son may be trying to ruin everything I’ve done in my life and is trying to kill me, but You hold me in high honor. You celebrate me. You lift my head when it falls to my chest in defeat or shame.”

What God did for David, He will also do for you, friend.

I usually interpret the first line of the verse – “You are a shield around me, O Lord” – to relate to protection from physical harm, but seeing it today and coupling it with the second half of the verse, I wonder if David also had in mind that God is the shield around his emotions – the One who constantly encourages so that David is not defeated in his spirit.

I need that God around me, sometimes more often than I’d like to admit. Life has a way of beating us down – there is always more to do and there are always setbacks; discouragement is always nearby. But for those of us who love the Lord, we have a shield against that discouragement. He bestows us with glory. He lifts our heads. He is passionately in love with us.

My walk with the Lord was revolutionized when I came to understand that God is my greatest cheerleader. I mean no disrespect to the Lord – He is so very much more than that, of course – but for the longest time I saw Him as my personal judge – the One who constantly evaluated my performance and found it lacking. I hope that’s not where you are, friend. I hope you’ve come to know Him as I have – the One who sees me as I will one day be, and who is ever encouraging me to become that person. He has already bestowed glory on me; He has already made my worth known; He has already celebrated who I am and He holds me in high honor – already!

He is the God who looks down from heaven and smiles to Himself as He sees me pursue Him in the midst of the life He has given me. He looks down and says “See her – she’s my girl – she’s doing great – she’s so faithful, so loving, so kind, so smart, so passionate, so talented, so…….” Now of course, I’m not all those things – yet! But as He shields me from the discouragement that would be so easy to succumb to, He lifts my head and I can begin to believe that I really am those things.

What He does for me, He is happy to do for you. If you don’t know Him, I encourage you to get to know Him and make Him Lord of your life. He will be your greatest cheerleader, your shield and the lifter of your head.

For a clear presentation of what it means to know God, click here.
For a discussion about what it means to make Him Lord of your life, click here.

¹¹The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹²When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
Judges 6:11-17

2 Lessons of Hope

Did you catch Gideon’s perspective and attitude?

He is living his life in the midst of a terrorist state. Verses 3 through 5 of the chapter paint the picture for us:

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.
Judges 6:3-5

Imagine living in a place where every time you are ready to receive your paycheck, terrorists invade your business and steal your check, then ruin all the equipment and set the building on fire. OK, so the first time that happens you’re pretty devastated, but you pick yourself up and you build again and you work and work until you’ve earned enough money to actually take some money out of the business. Or maybe you find someone else who has built again and you work for them and you are about to get your first paycheck in quite a long time. In either scenario, just as you’re about to receive your paycheck, terrorists strike again. They steal your paycheck and all money in the building, again demolish the property and set fire to the building. What do you do? How do you feel?

That’s where Gideon lived. He was doing the best he could for his family, but he was clearly not at the top of his game spiritually. He was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press to feed his family. I imagine as he sat there alone that he struggled to hold onto the faith of his fathers. I imagine that the voices in his head were leading him to despair instead of hope.

You can hardly blame him for his responses to the angel –

“If the Lord…why? Where are all His wonders…?” (v. 13)
“How can I…” (v. 15)
“If…give me a sign…” (v.17)

Yep! Gideon is at a very low point spiritually. I’ve been there. I’m guessing you have as well.

It’s fascinating that this is the person God chooses to use to save the Israelites.
Lesson #1: God can use us in the midst of our own personal crisis of faith!

Did you catch how the angel addressed Gideon?

Gideon – who is at an emotional and spiritual low point and who is hiding from the enemy in terror – is addressed by the angel of the Lord as “mighty warrior.” The word that is translated “warrior” is chayil and means “strength, might, efficiency, wealth and army.” It is often translated valor. (Tomorrow I’ll blog about more about this word – it’s pretty exciting.) The angel makes his point even stronger by adding an adjective (gibbor) that means “strong, mighty.”

I repeat – the angel of the Lord called Gideon “mighty warrior.” I imagine Gideon looked around to see who the angel was talking to. Given his current mindset and experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if a moment of terror seized his heart as he imagined that the angel was talking to someone about to steal his family’s food again.

Lesson #2: God sees us as the finished product, not as we are in the midst of our failures.
Yes, He sees our sins and our failures. But He sees BEYOND our sins and our failures to the person we truly are. Our sin and failure does not need to define us for all our life.

Perhaps my real-life example helps illustrate this: Yesterday, I was experiencing a moment of weak faith, wandering about mentally and emotionally and fighting against despair about my future (I’ll blog about this in a few days). But even in that moment, God knew that I would skirt the brink of despair and settle on the Rock of Hope. He would have been totally correct to address me as “Rock of Hope settler” had He spoken to me as I was resting at “Despair Place” because that is where I ended the day.

“Mighty warrior” is the person God saw in Gideon. “Rock of Hope settler” is the person He sees in me.

Where are you, friend? Are you hiding from the world, having been terrorized by the enemy? God can still use you. He sees beyond your weaknesses and failures and even beyond your sin. Be encouraged. Gideon went on, after a bit of coaxing by the Lord, to be that “mighty warrior” the angel found hiding in the wine press. You can too.

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:28-37

I do not believe God wants us to fail. However, I believe God wants us to risk failure to spend time with him, to live life his way. God is calling us to deep relationship, and that requires some time and some sacrifice. It requires trust – trust that God’s way is better than our way.
from Attending to the Trinity blog on “Humble Future 2″

Josh Broward provides an excellent blog for today, Trinity Sunday. You can find it here.

It’s quite long and worth reading the whole blog. If, however, you feel inclined to bail out before even starting, let me suggest that you skip the history at the beginning of the blog and start after the first break in the blog where the author writes “But what does it mean? What is the point?” You won’t have missed anything substantive. Additionally, there are two videos totaling about six and a half minutes. I didn’t particularly like them, but they make the author’s point. Skip them if you’re pressed for time.

But don’t skip the blog altogether. Consider it part of your observance of this special Lord’s Day (Christian Sabbath), Trinity Sunday.

Which of the author’s three suggestions are you going to implement this week? Since this is the second thing I’ve read recently suggesting a practice similar to what he calls the “HOLY 5″ I think that’s where I’ll start.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30 (New Revised Standard Version)

We’ve already learned a bit more about being predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ and being called. Today’s blog will look at the last two actions God has taken on our behalf – He has justified us and He has glorified us.

Justified
“Those He called, He also justified.” Justified – He has made us righteous. He did what we could never do – make ourselves holy enough to stand before a holy God. At the moment we trusted in Christ, we were justified. We dare not take this for granted, although it becomes so easy to do so. God has made us righteous. He has set us apart as holy. The separation between sinful man and a holy God is broken and we can have fellowship with Him.

In the passage we’re studying, God has predestined us, He has called us, He has justified us and He has glorified us. Of those four things, justification is the most important because without it, we would have no relationship with Him and He would not have done the other things.

Glorified
Finally, He has not only predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus, He has not only called us, He has not only justified us, He has also glorified us. The word translated “glorified” is doxazo – the same word from which we get “Doxology.” It means:

• To praise, extol, magnify or celebrate
• To honor or to hold in honor
• To adorn with splendor
• To impart glory to, render excellent, or to make renowned
• To cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged*

Wow! Scripture says point blank that God has glorified me. He has praised me. He has celebrated me. He holds me in honor. He adorns me with splendor. He imparts His glory to me. He renders me excellent. He makes me renowned. He causes my dignity and worth to become manifest and acknowledged.

And what I love about this is that He’s ALREADY done it! God’s Word says that that I have already been glorified. My dignity and my worth has already become manifest and acknowledged. Are there times when you feel worthless? Are there times when you feel like there is nothing about you that could or should be celebrated? Your feelings are too late, my friend, because you have already been celebrated. Your worth has already been acknowledged. Your feelings are inconsistent with God’s Word because His word says that you have been programmed to be conformed to be like Christ and God has already made you righteous and has glorified you. Hallelujah!

Taking Hold of the Me God Says I Am
Earlier in the year I did a series of blogs based on 1 Timothy 6:12:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I talked about how we tend to think of eternal life as that thing which waits for us when we pass from this life to the next one, but that Paul’s writing to Timothy makes it clear that the eternal life to which we have been called is something we’re to take hold of in this life as well. I wrote several blogs about what it means to take hold of eternal life while we’re living for Christ on earth.

As I complete this series of blogs on “The Me I Don’t Even Recognize,” it seems a continuation of the same theme as 1 Timothy. If we were to take hold of the “me” that God says I am – predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, called, justified and glorified – how differently would we live? I think the difference would be dramatic.

I’d like to shed any old self-image and put on the Me that God says I am. Will you join me? Let’s begin to act as if we are conformed to the image of Christ. Let’s begin to act as one whose name God has spoken in heaven and who has given the title “Christ-follower” in this life. Let’s begin to walk in the forgiveness that enables God to say we are fully justified. Finally, let’s begin to act with the confidence that comes from knowing that God has already celebrated us and made our worth to become manifest – seen and known.

Lord, open my eyes to attitudes and behaviors that belie all You’ve done for me and help me to walk in the identity you’ve given me – predestined to become like Christ, called, justified and glorified.

*All definitions come from Thayer’s Greek Definitions.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30 (New Revised Standard Version)

Called – Hallelujah!
I hope yesterday’s blog began to give you a glimpse of a new you. Today, I hope to take it a step farther. Not only have you been predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, but He has also called you. I was incredibly blessed when I did a little research on the word “called.” The word translated “called” is kaleo? and it means several things:

• To call aloud/utter in a loud voice
• To invite
• To give a name to
• To bear a name or title (Thayer’s Greek Definitions)

From the heights, breadth and depths of heaven, God uttered my name aloud to invite me to join Him for all of eternity. He spoke my name – as Jesus did for Lazarus who was dead and buried. “Lazarus, come forth!” I was spiritually dead, and God spoke my name in a loud voice. He said “Sandra, come forth!”

He didn’t delegate it to His angels. He spoke the word Himself. He spoke my name aloud in heaven to invite me to spend eternity with Him.

I don’t know why, but that does something significant and wonderful in my spirit. There is something special about hearing one’s name. I remember watching the television program Romper Room as a child. I think every child’s favorite part of the show was at the very end when she would hold up her magic mirror and say that she was looking out at all the children watching television. Miss Barbara would then say “I see Tom and Sue and Joe and…” What a thrill to hear her say your name! God speaking my name out for all eternity to hear is way bigger than hearing Miss Barbara speak my name!

At the end of time as we know it, God will give each of us a new name, perfect for us and known only to us. At the marriage supper of the lamb, Christ will take me by the hand (you, too) and lead me to His Father and say “Abba, let me introduce you to my bride. I remember when you spoke her in heaven and I have been waiting for this day to present her to you. Father, I present to you Sandra.” And the Father will look at me and say “Daughter, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you in person. And you will no longer be called Sandra, but you will be called __________” I don’t know what my new name will be, but I know it’s special and perfect for me.

In the meantime, He has called me to bear the name Christian – follower of Christ. And He’s enabled me to become that because He has predestined me to be conformed to the image of Christ.

What a privilege to be called by God. It’s so much more than I had understood it to be!

Tomorrow we’ll look at the rest of the verse – we have been justified and glorified. Stop by to read it. You’ll be glad you did!

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30 (New Revised Standard Version)

Yesterday we looked at verse 28 – God’s promise to work things together for God for those who love Him and pursue Him. Today we’ll begin to look at verses 29 and 30. This is where it gets exciting!

Predestined to be Conformed – It’s a Done Deal!
Setting aside the sometimes controversial question of predestination, let’s unpack what verse 29 says.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
Romans 8:29 (NRSV)

If you love God, if you are called according to His purpose (verse 28), God has predestined you to be conformed to the image of His Son – Think about that – You have been “programmed” to become like Christ. Is Christ loving? (Yes!) You are predestined to become loving. Is Christ compassionate? (Yes!) You are predestined to become compassionate. Is Christ forgiving? (Yes!) You are predestined to become forgiving. Does Christ know what the Father wants Him to do? (Yes!) You are predestined to know what the Father wants you to do!

Read through the Gospels. Everything you see Jesus doing and being – God has predestined you to do and be!

What an encouragement that is for me! It even changes my perspective on some difficult areas of my life. I am programmed, I am predestined, to respond in love, forgiveness and compassion! That’s not my self-image. I know it’s how I know God wants me to respond, but it’s not how I think of myself as responding. But now I see that it’s not only how God wants me to respond, it’s how God has programmed me to respond. To respond otherwise, is an aberration – it’s not who I truly am. So I can begin to think of myself in those terms instead of any other way.

Sometimes it’s easy for me to think of myself as less than God has predestined me to be. Sometimes I think of myself as unforgiving or uncompassionate. Perhaps your self image says you are stubborn or lazy. Christ is neither of those things. So if your self-image includes those characteristics, your self-image is incorrect. (In other words, you’ve bought lies the enemy has been feeding you.) God has predestined you to become like Christ.

When I think of myself as a sinner, it is easier for me to sin. Now don’t get me wrong. Yes, I am a sinner, as are you and everyone else on this planet of ours. But when I get specific – when I think of myself as a liar, for example, it becomes so much easier for me to lie. If I think of myself as a truth-teller, however, it becomes much more difficult to utter things that are not fully truthful. So if I think of myself as conformed to the image of Christ, I think of myself as a truth-teller. When I think of myself as lazy, it becomes much easier for me to waste time than if I think of myself as being about my Father’s business. If I see (and define) myself as stubborn, it’s easier to justify holding a grudge than if I see myself as merciful, compassionate and forgiving.

How we see ourselves has everything to do with how we respond to people and circumstances. I’m convinced that if we see ourselves as the finished product – that is, conformed to the image of Christ – that we will respond to people and circumstances more consistently with the character of Christ. I am excited to be a person who has the character of Christ instead of what I’ve walked around with for too many years. I am excited that I am patient and loving and kind and merciful and compassionate and forgiving.

Lord, change our self image! You have promised that we will be conformed to the image of Christ. Help us see ourselves in the light of that truth!

Tomorrow we’ll look at some exciting aspects of being called!

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30 (New Revised Standard Version)

If you’re Resting at the River’s Edge along with us, you read Romans 8 a few days ago. I was blown away by verses 28 through 30 – they describe a “me” that doesn’t resemble the “me” I think of myself as. I’m going to spend the next few blogs on this passage. I’m confident that God will bless you as you follow along. I wonder if you’ll resemble the “you” you’ll find described there.

It’s All Good – If You Love God
The passage begins with a verse you have probably quote frequently:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 (NRSV)

It’s a strong verse of assurance that gives us hope when we’re facing difficult circumstances. It’s God’s promise that He will bring good out of the horrible mess that our lives sometimes become.

The verse is often misused, however, when it is truncated to include only the promise and not the covenant. I’m sure you’ve heard it used, and perhaps used it yourself, to calm someone who does not have a relationship with Christ or who is clearly walking away from Him. “Ah, honey, you know things will work out. Things always work out for good.” Wrong! Things don’t always work out for good. To believe that is simply fatalism, not faith.

The promise is that God works everything “together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (emphasis mine). We can comfort unbelievers with the promise that if they follow God, He will bring good out of the situation, but to simply say to everyone that things always work out for the good is inconsistent with Scripture.

God’s promises are for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for their lives. Does that mean that God reserves the promises for those who are perfect? For those who don’t sin? Of course not. We read in Romans 7 about how Paul desperately wants to do good, but sin was at work in his body and he continued to choose sin when he wanted to choose righteousness. We are all sinners, both believers and unbelievers. God’s promises are for those who love Him and are working toward choosing God more and sin less. I hope that’s you. It’s the primary way that we apprehend the things God has for us – by loving Him and choosing to walk His way and not our own.

While I often quote Romans 8:28, I also often forget the verses that follow it. Tune in tomorrow for a look at the tremendous progression that God is working and has worked in the lives of those who love Him.

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do 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. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Romans 6:11-18

We are blessed in America to no longer live in a place that accepts slavery as the norm. We don’t live with the consequences of owning other humans and controlling their lives to the extent that a slave master controls the lives of his or her slaves. Freedom is a wonderful thing. I appreciate that I have choices that eventually define my life – choices about where to live, with whom to live, what to do with my time, and even who to talk with. Slaves do not have those choices.

In this passage in Romans, Paul makes it clear that we have a choice to make about who we belong to – who our owner is. Will it be sin or righteousness?

As I get older, I’m becoming more and more aware the reality of this principle. The wonderful strength and optimism (and dare I say arrogance?) of youth is believing that you are in control of your own choices. And to a degree that is true. The reality, however, is that when those choices involve sin we become bound to that sin. The invisible cords that keep us attached to that sin are as real as any visible thing that places boundaries in your life. More real, actually. The more we sin, the more tightly those cords are bound.

When we choose Christ those cords are broken. We have the power to untangle them and walk in freedom. They have been cut and we can walk freely. Better yet, we can run and jump and play freely. Each time we choose righteousness, we step further and further away from the cords gaining more freedom.

Each time we choose to sin, however, we allow the enemy to tie knots in those cords that had been cut and begin to re-establish the bonds from which Christ freed us. Every step back into our old life, every obedience to our old self, is an obedience to our old slave master, sin. Every step toward our new life and in our new self are steps in obedience to our new master, Jesus who is righteousness.

Joshua gave the challenge well after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land and shortly before his death:

¹⁴“Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua was choosing righteousness and freedom. Paul was exhorting the Romans for choosing righteousness over sin. What sin easily besets you, friend? May I encourage you to choose righteousness in that area today? Walk away from the cords that Satan wants to bind you with. Jesus has cut them off and given you the power to choose to walk in freedom from sin – choose righteousness today.

Census, Sermons, the Holy Spirit & Doctrine – All in One Month!

It’s Census Time
Have you ever done any research into your family history? If so, you probably looked at old census records to learn about your great grandparents or great-great grandparents. It’s that time again. Have you received and completed your US Census form yet?

It’s also census time in our Resting at the River’s Edge reading. The book of Numbers records many census that God instructed the Israelites to make. God instructions the Israelites to take several census, and we have the privilege of looking at the records. What always surprises me the most is how many Israelites there really were! This was no small community that God had Moses leading!

Deuteronomy – Moses’ Final Messages
After reading through Numbers, we’ll begin Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is a great book! It’s made up of a series of sermons that Moses preached as he prepared to leave the Israelites. It represents his last advice to those he has led before dying.

Acts & Romans
We’ve already read the first half of Acts and I am thoroughly enjoying it this year. It’s a book chock full of the Holy Spirit moving in people’s lives, and shows how people who were just coming to know the Lord established His Church, which is alive today.

When we finish the book of Acts, we move on to Paul’s letter to the Romans. The book of Romans was instrumental in me coming to Christ. It just made so much sense, portraying God as the just God that He is. You’ll find my favorite verse in chapter 5 of Romans –

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

When I read that verse, my heart was pierced through – Christ died for me when I was so very far from Him – when I was metaphorically kicking His shins and running the other way. It was the point in time in which I quit running from Christ and began sincerely seeking to understand Him.

I pray that as you read God’s Word this month, that He speaks to you and inspires you to pursue Him more diligently. Because He is worth it all.

The recommended reading schedule is below.

To download a PDF of April’s recommended reading plan, click here.