Waiting for Glory to Be Revealed

    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 undo all the damage that sin and the effects of it have done on His creation.  In the meantime, christians should be at the forefront of doing what we can such as recycling to help the environment.

    The second groaning is that of the believer.  In 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 it describes the body as a tent.  A tent has a lot of limitations and is temporary.  Our bodies are also not eternal.  As we get older, it tends to wear down and cause us pain.  We bear an image, Paul says in 1 Cor 15:49 of the earthly, but we shall bear an image that is heavenly.  Part of the groaning is that our spirit longs for that day.  That day when sin and death will be no more and God will wipe away all tears Revelations 21:4.  One gret verse that I found is in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 where it tells us that the light affliction that we now suffer is producing in us something of great weight of glory.  It isn't something seen, but rather it is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is permanent is unseen.

     The third groaning is the Spirit, which intercedes for us.  This should encourage us because the Spirit always knows the will and mind of God.  His prayers are always answered because it is always according to His will.  God can bring about good even when bad things happen.  We should remember that we are called, justified and glorified.  I like how the word "glorified" is not in future tense here, but is a present tense reality. 

Related verses Col 3:4; Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:2; Jer 12:4,11, John 14:16, 17:22; 2 Cor 4:17.

Set Your Heart on Things Above

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 mood.  To set your heart to me is something perhaps even more powerful because our heart is the seat of who we are, where our hope is and where our aspirations and dreams are.  In the world, the media seems to suggest that our dream should be wealth, power, prestige or a combination of all of these or more.  But, as a believer, I am to invite Christ into my dreams, aspirations, goals and allow him to change them all for the better.  In fact, if they don't please him I am to give those things up.  That is part of what it means for Him to be Lord.
      To me, it also means that it should change my definition of what it means to be a success.  The world has a definition of that and it is mainly seen as something external.  I can just a successful person by the Lexus or big car they drive or money they have or where they live.  This also seems to be promoted by the health and wealth, prosperity gospel of today.  But, the truth is that many of the believers in the Bible and even Paul himself would have been considered poor.  In fact, the moment that Paul is writing this is that he is in prison in Rome.   Jesus himself relied on the gifts of strangers to fund his ministry and had very little in terms of material possessions.
      Not just that, but it means to change my definition of what is important.  Its the difference between focusing on what is eternal verses what is temporary.  Money is temporary.  Our society is in love with and worships money.  And we have never as a nation been in more debt, both personal and corporate.  We are also in debt as a nation in spiritual leadership and strength.  Our churches are weak and dying and lacking in power.   That is because our priorities as a country and as a church are in the wrong place.  We are to be set apart and sanctified, not the same as the world.  People are what is important.  To love God and to love others and to remember that the souls of people are eternal.
       

walking in newness of the Spirit

    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 Ephesians you see the words "in Christ" so many times.  When he died we died and when he rose so also did we.  His victory is our victory over sin and death.
    Paul goes on to say that this does not mean that the law is evil.  The law is what makes us aware of sin.  You see this idea also in Galatians 3:24 where it says, "Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith."  It is our tutor in that it teaches us our need for Christ and our sinfulness.  It doesn't make us right with God, though the law is holy.  It makes us aware of our need.  It is faith that justifies.
    The one who died also raised himself out of the grave and therefore we are joined to Him.  In verse 4, it says why we were raised, "that we might bear fruit for God."  We were created with a purpose.  Not just to get a paycheck, but for the purpose of bearing fruit.  Before this was impossible since the flesh cannot please God.  But, now we are able, by his Spirit to bear fruit for Him. And this is important for us to realize.  That everyday gives us opportunities, both big and small to be a witness to be used for His purposes.
    The world tells us to chart our own course, to dream our own dreams, to go where we want.  But, we need to remember that we were created for purposes greater than our own.  In Colossians 1, it tells us that Jesus created all things out of nothing for His own purposes.  It would be wrong for us not to consider, in our own world, at work and at play, what purpose and gifts we have from him that he might use for His own glory.  I like how it says this in Ephesians 2:10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Free to Choose Romans 6:12-23

   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.  In John 8:32 it says, "and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  The again in 1 Peter 2:16 it says that we are to act as free men, to use your freedom to be bondslaves of God.  Galatians 5:1 says that it was for freedom that Christ set us free.  And again in Galatians 5:13 you were called to freedom, therefore, we are not to use this as an opportunity to sin, but in love serve one another.

     You see this idea going back and forth, freedom and slavery.  To Paul, we are always slaves, either to God or to sin.  The end result is either sin resulting in death or God resulting in righteousness and sanctification and eternal life.  The believer has a choice who he is enslaved to.  That is the mark of someone who is truly free.  The truly free person has choices where the slave does not have any choices.  The christian wears chains by choice and not because he or she has to.

     There is a story about elephants, how when they are little they are chained on their leg and a stake is put into the ground.  The little elephant pulls and pulls and eventually gives up trying to get away.  Even after the adult elephant has grown it will no longer try to get away even though it easily could because it has been conditioned to think it cannot get away.   For the believer, we can be conditioned to think that sin is still master over us and we cannot get away.  But, we are actually no longer under the bondage of sin.  We now have a freedom because of what Christ has done to give up those sins, to repent and walk away.  But, we can chose to be under bondage and to act enslaved.  The sad part about this, is that millions of christians still act as though they are enslaved.  They believe the lie of the old chains that say we cannot get away and the believer stops trying.  When God has not designed us to live that way any longer.

Romans 6:1-11

      In my study in the books of Romans, I have come to Romans 6:-11.  Paul begins in verses 1-2 with a rhetorical question "Should we sin more that grace might increase?"  This is apparently what some have accused Paul and Christians of teaching.  Paul gives the reason of why we must live a different way by explaining that since the believer has died with Christ then they have become a new person.
      The idea of death and resurrection and new life is prominent in this passage.  Before we were slaves of sin and unable to please God by our own actions.  Now, Paul says that we have been baptized or immersed in His death.  We are according to verse 4, to walk in newness of life.  The word newness is kainotes which means a new state of life in which the Holy Spirit places in us to produce a new person.
      There are a number of passages which talk about the  newness of life that God calls the believer to.  In Galatians 5:19-24, Paul compares the deeds of the flesh to those of the spirit.  Paul concludes this section with the words "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."  This is also repeated in verses such as Galatians 2:20; 5:24; Col 3:9,10; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 4:25 and Galatians 5:13.
     Paul sees us as a slave to either sin or righteousness.  This is the choice that we now have.  We can cloth ourselves in the new man and renew our minds in truth.  Or the believer can still walk according to the old man and live a life that is in rebellion to the new life he gives us.  That is implied by the command to "put on" the new man.  We have a choice each day about what we are enslaved to, unlike when we were lost and had no choice about it.
    The irony is that even though we are always slaves to something, either righteousness or sin, we are never truly free until we are in Christ.  We are free in the sense that we are doing and living for the purpose of which we were created.  This is what led Jesus to say in John 8:31-32 "Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, "If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
     Paul concludes this section in Romans 6:11 by saying, "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."  This is what Paul considered himself everyday, as dead to the old man and nature and alive to God.  It was Christ living through Him to accomplish his will.  He was not denying that there was an old nature, but he was surrendering that old nature and putting on the new nature.  This is the battle of the believer each day, something that Paul will go into more detail as we go into Romans 6 and 7.

The futility of trying to be "good enough"

    On my own, I have been studying the book of Romans over the last few weeks.  It seems to me that the emphasis in chapters 1 is mainly towards the Gentiles.  There was a large Gentile church in Romans that Paul wanted to speak to.  He told them in no uncertain terms that they had all fallen short of the glory of God.  In chapter 2, the emphasis shifts slightly to Jewish christians.  He reminds them that "there is no partiality with God." verse 11.  This means that even though in their ancestory they had the law and the prophets God does not play favorites.
    There is also at the same time a common thread of Paul emphasizing that while all the law did was make us more aware of our sin it doesn't lead to righteousness.  In Romans 1:17 Paul says, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."  Which is a very important verse that Martin Luther is known to have noticed and led to his leading the Protestant reformation.  Paul goes on to say in Romans 3:21-22 "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction."  In other words, there is no difference between people groups.
      Paul has gone on and on for three chapters declaring over and over what he says again in Romans 3:23 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  By falling short, it means to miss the mark.  Paul was even more graphic in chapter 3:10-11 where he points out that nobody is righteous in God's sight, none of us understands or seeks God on our own.  It is an utterly desperate situation that mankind is in apart from God's grace.  And that is what many people don't really understand.  The pride of the flesh is that we think we are somehow good enough.  We underestimate the goodness and holiiness of God and overestimate our own goodness.
     This also speaks about the absolute inability for us to be good on our own effort or skill.  There is not just something wrong with our actions, but also our heart.  It is not just our thoughts, but our motivations behind the thoughts.  It is an utter depravity of the human mind and will apart from God. It leads Paul to say later in Romans 8:8 "those who are in the flesh cannot please God."  If we grasp these verses, it makes us realize that there is no place for pride in ourselves in God's eyes.
      So, it is not a matter of trying harder.  It is a matter of being a disciple of Jesus and following Him and allowing Him to change us from the inside out.  We need a greater and more radical repentance of our sins and realization that there is something within us that is deprived and broken.  Without faith in Christ and reliance upon the grace of God then we are doomed.  The realization should be that without the cross of Christ and the victory He has over death due to the resurrection we have no chance of saving ourselves.
      I need to pray and I encourage you to pray that God would change us from the inside out.  That He would change our desires and our heart.  We need not to try harder, but we need a new heart.  We don't need to change appearance but substance.  In the Old Testament, this was called a circumcision of the heart.  It says in Deut 30:6 "Moreover the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the Heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live."  This is my prayer also, that God would circumcise my heart to love God with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength.  

How Big Is Your God?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.   Isaiah 55:8-9, NIV

     At different times in my walk with God, I have had times when I prayed and it felt like nothing was happened.  I didn't know if I had done something that had created distance between me and God or if God was simply not ready at that time to answer my prayer.  That item just stays and stays on the prayer list.  You see other things come off and on and still that one remains.  It is difficult to understand what God is up to sometimes and then sometimes it is impossible.  Have you ever thought about why that is?  
     One thing that I think that sometimes christian are guilty of is treating God as if he is simply a bigger human.  We seem to attribute so many human qualities to God it makes it seem like he is just a bigger version of us.  But, if you look at passages such as the above, we see that God is vastly different than us.  God's thoughts and his ways are different than us.  He doesn't operate by the same principles or values that we do.  He does everything in order to glorify His own name, in perfect holiness and love.  He does everything with perfect insight in past, present and future and perfect power to do whatever He wants.
      But, we can be guilty of attributing to God the same temper that people have such as "I did so and so, so God must be mad at me."  Like God didn't know before the universe was created who and what you were.   One of the glorious things to remember about God's love is that God knows you better than you know yourself.  He knows about sins you haven't even committed yet.  He knows the thoughts you will think 20 years from now and every motive your heart has ever had.  He knows all our dark places and yet loves us anyhow.  So, no, he is not like us.  Because I can barely stand myself some times and I don't even understand the depth of the darkness of my own soul like God does.
     And the simple truth is that it is impossible for a infinite God to always communicate everything to a finite being.  It is important to realize that there will be times when we cannot understand what God is up to because it is so much more above us.  Our understanding is limited while His is not.  In those times, we simply have to trust God.  We do that by remember His character and His love for us.  And remember that God doesn't do things just to be mean like people do.  His motives and heart is always pure and good.  He doesn't make mistakes or speak out of turn.  He doesn't need to repent and correct Himself.  He hasn't forgotten about you and there isn't something he should touch that is beyond Him.  We simply have to trust Him that even though God may be quiet, it doesn't mean He is not at work.  I would encourage you to trust Him when you don't understand what He is up to.
      One other thing to remember if your waiting on God is that it is up to God to speak when he is ready and it is up to us to listen.  Your not to speak for Him, but to be still, wait and listen.  Your job is to be faithful doing your part and then let God do His part.  It may seem that God is late, but He is not.  He does tarry at times though to test us and prove us that we might be stronger from having gone through a trial.  He may simply be waiting because it is through that perseverance that you become stronger.