Rm12

In light of all Christ has done for us, our only "reasonable, logical" response to Him would be to offer our entire lives for His service! This is Paul's conclusion after explaining the gospel to the Romans.

How do we do this? By using the gifts that God has given us corporately and individually to accomplish His work. God has given us everything we need to "live in a manner pleasing to Him", yet I often continue to go my own way and do my own thing. Paul is urging me to refocus my life to honor Jesus. He is challenging all of us.

It is the little things that matter! Over time they become the big things. Love without hypocrisy. Detest evil. Cling to good. Love and honor each other. Be diligent. Be fervent. Serve the Lord. Honor each other. Give. Show hospitality. Bless your enemies. Rejoice with success. Weep with those who hurt. Seek peace. Love ALL people. In time, God's work will be evident in you.

What a challenge today.

Rm11

Pride takes credit for our own salvation and looks down on those who don't believe. Humility overflows with gratitude for salvation and desires that all would believe.

The rejection of the Jews brought salvation to the Gentiles. Yet Paul's desires were not judgement but hope! I am ashamed that I often give up on others who haven't believed yet. I don't pray for the salvation of others enough, nor do I thank God enough for saving me.

Salvation is a gift! We should be grateful for our salvation and hopeful for the salvation of others.

Rm10

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." vs.13 I am grateful that I have been included in the everyone in this verse. Aren't you?

Salvation is impossible without faith in Jesus! It is guaranteed for everyone who believes! One condition, regardless of "who", in order to be saved. One work…faith. And still people reject Jesus and seek to save themselves or trust in a non-savior!

The most religious people in the world at the time to this writing were the Jews. The were very devoted to their religion and very pious in keeping the law. They were as devout and righteous as people can be. Yet…they were totally lost! Why? They rejected Jesus and put their faith in something else.

There is only one way to God. 

Rm9

Who are we to question God? He is God therefore He does as He pleases and, what pleases Him is just, merciful and good. If we as men could fully understand God, then He would have ceased to be God.

Paul moves from writing one of the most wonderful chapters in the bible to one of the most difficult. From God's love for us to God's "hatred" for others. From His granting faith to the most unlikely to His rejection of the most likely! Does it make us uncomfortable? Yes. Should it make us question God? No.

Faith begins and ends with God Himself. If we know Him, it is not because of something we can take credit for. We have faith because God has drawn us to Himself. Take joy in God's choice of you today.

Rm8

Question: What can separate us from the love of God? Answer: Absolutely nothing! God's love for us is not rooted in our loveliness, but rather in His Godliness.

Verse 32 is easily one of the most promising verses in the bible. It says, "God did not spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?" Jesus has made everything new and given us an imperishable inheritance!

I love this chapter. Possibly the most encouraging chapter in all of the bible!

Rm7

Imagine what it would be like to have no desire to sin! For now, as christians our desires are in conflict. On the one hand, we want to please God, and on the other hand, we continue to sin. When we get to heaven those conflicts will be no more. We will no longer even have a desire to sin.

Even the apostle Paul recognized the reality of sin living in him. It lives in all of us! As long as we live we will be burdened with our fleshly desires. Apart from God's Spirit, we would not even know those desires are evil.

When we allow sin to be spoken of as "good" we know that we have drifted far from God. When pride, arrogance, greed, lust and other sins become attractive rather than repulsive…we are swimming in godlessness. We live in this day.

Rm6

When sin is desirable, we have closed a blind eye to grace! Grace does not give permission to sin, but rather, the freedom to NOT sin!

God's grace is greater than all our sin; any particular sin and all of our sins combined. To think that forgiveness grants permission to continue in sin is to totally misunderstand what Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus died to free us from sin. Don't continue to let it rule our lives.

Rm5

We were reconciled to God through Christ's death…we are saved by His life! 

I often ask people, "Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?" They almost always get it right. They say, "To save us from our sins." Then I ask, "But why did Jesus have to live for 33 years before he died for our sins?" I rarely get an answer to this question. In fact, most have never even thought about it!

Jesus died for our sins. He lived for our righteousness! The righteousness that we have is not of ourselves. It too comes as a gift from God. His grace grants us the righteousness of Jesus. Jesus' life completed all righteousness! He lived for our righteousness.

Think about that some today.

Eph4

If one could earn salvation, it would not be a "gift". Praise God for His wonderful gift!

God has never been and will never be indebted to us! We have always been and will always be indebted to Him! We deserve His judgement; He has given salvation to everyone who believes. Everyone. He credits believers with righteousness and seals their salvation for the day of redemption. This chapter is so rich.

What kind of people should this beautiful gift of salvation produce? In a word…JOYFUL. Anyone who believes who is not characterized by joy is not fully understanding what has been given to them. What makes us joyful? There should be nothing greater than our salvation.

What a beautiful gift. Don't be distracted by today's trivial events. We have salvation!

Rm3

Everyone has done enough to be found guilty before God! Have we done enough to become righteous before Him?

One sin is enough for God to judge us and condemn us to Hell. "We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Yet, God declares "righteous" those who place their faith in Jesus. The sin was our part, the righteous came only through faith in Jesus.

Salvation is a gift. It cannot be earned. No work or amount of good works can "earn" salvation. But there is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus. He earned salvation for us, but we must trust in Him.

Paul writes, "We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." Thank God for His grace.

Rm2

Which would be a better description of us? 1. Self-seeking, pursuing temporal things or, 2. Doing good for others, pursuing eternal reward. The former will receive God's wrath. The latter will receive His reward.

These are strong and convicting words from the apostle Paul today! Every time I read chapter 2, I am convicted. Not because I feel condemnation, but because I am so easily caught up in the wrong pursuits. Self is a horrible God. Self always demands my life. When I give into myself, I am totally unsatisfied.

Once again, God's word gives us an opportunity to examine ourselves and see if we are pursuing the right things. Life is short and easily spent on things that don't matter. I plan to live my life in pursuit of greater things. Let's run hard together after the things that matter forever.

Rm1

When men reject God's moral absolutes, we embrace all kinds of "degrading passions"! We live in a day where there is no longer "right and wrong"! God help us to get back to embracing His truth.

All men worship. The problem is…all men don't worship God. Paul writes, "They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever."

There is no more appropriate chapter for culture today than Romans 1. Ancient writings still hitting the target of culture and the brokenness of men's hearts.

Ac28

Paul proclaimed the gospel in Rome for two years with "full boldness and without hindrance." What a relief this must have been to him. He lived to expand the kingdom of God. He gave his life to that end.

Today we will be "without hindrance" when it comes to sharing Christ with others. Will we be full of boldness? Or will we simply keep this precious treasure to ourselves? Acts has taught us that the gospel is to be shared with others. The work of the Holy Spirit today is still going strong. The question is: Will we participate in this kingdom advancement.

Share Jesus today. People need to know Him.

Ac27

Hardships are often the means that God uses to bring us to Himself. Don't see hardship as God's punishment, but rather as an opportunity to draw closer to Him.

In every situation the apostle Paul was seeking to honor Jesus. Whether he was in prison writing to the churches, or before judges and authorities seeking to win them to Christ, he was looking for the opportunity to advance the gospel. He knew his life was not his own, but God's. Even shipwrecks were God's opportunities.

We often see difficulty as God's punishment. It is not. If difficulty meant that we were not following Jesus then the apostle Paul was a horribly disobedient disciple. No one had more hardship than him! It was through difficulty that God accomplished His greatest work in and through Paul.

Don't misinterpret hardships today.

Ac26

Paul's message: repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance. Paul never confused "works" with faith, yet he always expected "faith to work"!

I know many "followers" of Jesus who believe that work is not needed to be a Christ follower. Hmm. I agree that we cannot earn our salvation through works. I agree that we cannot pay for our sins by good works. I agree that we do not earn righteousness through works…but mature faith alway works!

How can we call ourselves "Christ followers" if we in fact are not "following Christ"? To not do the works of salvation is to demonstrate we understand little about faith. If I claim to follow Cyclone basketball, but have heard nothing of Steve Prohm, you should question if I am actually a "follower".

Faith works. Period.

Ac25

Are we confident that God uses every circumstance in our lives to bring honor to Himself? Paul was. His imprisonment, though unjust, was the opportunity he needed to write letters to the churches!

Paul had know idea what God was doing when he was in prison. Yet, he was confident that God was using even his imprisonment for good. As he wrote I imagine he felt the strength of Christ in his hands, but did he know he was actually writing scripture? I think not.

Today, I am so grateful for Paul's prison letters! Without them, we would be without much of our New Testament. It was in prison that Paul wrote, "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purposes." He pinned no truer words!

Ac24

Does your sharing of the gospel strike fear in the hearts of unbelievers? Paul's sharing certainly did!

Why are we afraid to tell people the truth about rejecting Jesus? There is a literal hell or Jesus is not God. If He is not God, He cannot save anyone. Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven. He did so in order to call people to faith in His name. We should do the same.

One sin is enough to condemn a man or woman to hell. Faith in Jesus covers any and all sin! Without Jesus, there is no forgiveness of sin and we will face the eternal judgement of God. Our sharing of the gospel should cause unbelievers to fear the certainty of hell. It is the loving thing to do.

Gospel sharing should come with a sincere and loving warning.

Ac23

Are we unwilling to speak about Jesus because of a negative response? If the early believers would have let a negative reaction shut them up, we would have never heard the gospel.

We don't have to be obnoxious or condemning in our methods of sharing Jesus, but we should be bold and clear in our conversations. If we believe that Jesus is truly the answer to this world's problems, we should be bold in sharing Him with others.

Don't let rejection keep our mouths shut. Share Jesus today.

Ac22

Everyone has a story. My goal is to let my story be more about Christ and less about me. What is your story?

Paul continues to take people back to the time that he first encountered Jesus! It was a life changing encounter. Everything changed with a single event. Everything. He had gone from seeking to destroy believers and all testimony about Jesus, to being its leading advocate.

In a sense, this is to be true of all of us. Before we met Jesus, our lives were in desperate need of His grace. After we meet Him, we should be living each day to bring Him glory. Meeting Jesus is a life changing event! Telling your story should never get old.

Tell someone today.

Ac21

It's unthinkable to be beaten for belief in Jesus in our culture, YET is was common for the early believers and it IS COMMON among christians around the world!

I am motivated to pray today for christians, who like Paul, will be beaten and even martyred for their belief today! We are so sheltered in this country. Let's not be ignorant of what is happening to believers around the globe.

Pray today.

Ac20

Are you familiar with Eutychus? He was the first man recorded to have fallen asleep in church. As he slept, he fell to his death! He was awakened with an embrace from the apostle Paul.

Now this is a story! I wonder what it was like for Eutychus the rest of his life? We don't here much of him after this event, but I bet there were stories to be told, jokes made and laughter throughout the years related to this event!

Maybe it is one reason why Paul said he was not a good speaker! I wonder how often Paul thought to himself, "I actually preached a man to death!" Yet Paul was unfazed. He actually went right back to his sermon.

Crazy story.

Ac19

Are we familiar with the work of the Holy Spirit? There is still too little talk about the Holy Spirit! There is no life apart from His indwelling in us. 

Paul asked, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" The Ephesian's response was, "No. We haven't even heard there is a Holy Spirit." With that Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

There is much confusion today about the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us clear instruction in the gospel of John chapters 14-16. The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement. The Holy Spirit is the One who lives inside of us! He is the One who will guide us in every situation in life through the scriptures.

Without the Holy Spirit there is no rebirth. Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again." (John 3)

Thank you Jesus for giving us the Holy Spirit.