My Online Faith Journal

    These verses in Romans 8:18-30 mention three things that are or will be groaning: creation, the believer and the Spirit.  The creation groans because of the affect of sin.  Creation was created by God and was originally called "good" by God.  But, now has experienced the groans and pains of childbirth, waiting until the glory that God will reveal when he will one day return.  Notice though that verse 18 tells us that whatever suffering we are undergoing now is not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed.     I've wondered to myself if those who talk about global warming have ever researched these verses.  Pollution and toxins in the air are increasing and should be our concern because we are stewards of the world around us.  God gave us that responsibility as humans in the garden of Eden.  But, there is an effect on creation that exists even more than pollution or coal ash spills and it is sin.  The good news is that God is going to return one day and un

3  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,  set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.   2  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.   3  For you died,  and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.     The above verses are from Colossians 3:1-3.  This is one of my favorite little letters in the Bible.  Paul is writing to the church in Colossae.  At this time in history it is a small, out of the way place that Paul had never even personally been too.  He spent the first two chapters talking to them about the supremacy of Christ.  To encourage them to put Him first and not to add on to the gospel with other things.  He will say this a variety of ways in the different letters he writes, but here he simply tells them to "set your hearts on things above."      I spend a lot of time talking to my clients at work about the mind.  Our mind is a powerful thing and focusing on positive things can change and affect our

    Continuing on with our study in Romans 7:1-13, Paul is going to talk about the newness of the Spirit.  Paul begins again with another rhetorical question in verse 1 "Do you not know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?"  Of course, they knew this.  But, Paul wants to draw a metaphor here.  Interestingly, he uses the relationship between a husband and wife.  His illustration is that the husband and wife around bound together as long as they are alive.  But, if the husband dies then the wife is permitted to marry again.      The main idea here is not to teach about human marriage, but about the law.  The law has impact as long as the ones who made it are alive.  But, the believer has a new relationship with the law because of his or her union with Christ.  We have, in a sense, died when Christ died and the law is not something we are under any longer.  We are united to another, the person of Christ.  That is why if you read through the book of

   Romans 6:17-18  But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."      This seems to be one of the major themes of scripture when you look at it.  Paul makes it clear by the way that he speaks about sin.  That the believer is the one who truly has a choice between either living in sin or living in righteousness.  Before we did not have a choice because we only had the flesh.  The flesh is hostile to God and quite incapable of following after God.  But, the believer is now no longer under the chains of law.  We have to opportunity to make better choices to live for God.  We are to use the rest of our time on earth to do just that and to live for God and not for our flesh.      When you do a study of the idea of being free from sin you find this idea both in Jesus words and also in Peter an Paul's writing.