verseoftheday

Romans 6:19 NLT [19] Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. Romans 6:19 NLT Paul is using something he hopes the people in the church in Rome will understand as they wrestle with what he is teaching. There's a slavery here, a coming under the authority of, but there's this element of choice involved too. What we let be in charge in our hearts and minds. Is it the righteousness that reflects God's character that I'm choosing to come under more and more? If the main thing is Love, am I choosing to love? Love. (Patience, kindness, etc) Justice. Those on the margins. Maybe that all seems too big and too much, so start with where I am this morning, and how can I express love for God this morning? How can I ...

Well then,  since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning?  Of course not! Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?  You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.  Thank God!  Once you were slaves of sin,  but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.  Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Romans 6:15-18 NLT Does that mean I'll never sin again? Of course not! There's been a status change - I'm no longer sins slave, and I'm free to follow Jesus, to keep stepping towards being the person He envisions for me (see Eph1:4). I'm no longer bound to sins ideas, but free to embrace God's ideas. He is Love and Light so I get to embrace those ideas and ways of being in the world. I now have a way forward, a way out when the pressures of this world, the de...

Romans 6:12-14 NLT [12] Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. [13] Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. [14] Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. Romans 6:12-14 NLT Paul is not weaponising this so that there's a list of things that start with "Do not..." This is part of Ch5 and 6 where he has reminded us how our relationship with God has changed because of Jesus, that it's faith, it's grace, and we have been set free from being slaves to sin, and this is the invitation to live in that. We have New Life, that is a Life of Freedom under God's Grace. So live like it! Take the next step. Choose. Move. "Today I ...

Romans 6:5, 7-11 NLT [5] Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.  (This takes us back to Paul talking about baptism and how that signifies connection with Jesus death) [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.  (A reminder again that we are free from sin's power) [8] And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.  (And we have now entered into Life!  Don't rush past this truth today! "We know we also live with him" - how good is that?) [9] We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. (This is our sign, our security - death no longer has any power over Jesus, and we're alive with him, so we're all good)  [10] When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.  (No rerun needed - it's done.) [11] So you also should con...

Sunday Psalms; In times of trouble,  may the Lord answer your cry.  May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm.  May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings.  Interlude. Psalms 20:1-3 NLT The first part of this song of David's is looking out at the people he cared about.  Looking out, and looking up. Looking out, looking up, and trusting God in "times of trouble". Looking for our God in times of trouble. David invites us to keep it real, and this song of his takes me to Jesus words, the last recorded words we have to his team before he heads towards death... John 16:33 NLT "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have overcome the world." The redemptive strands can be seen from David, to Jesus, to us. There will be, is, times of trou...

Romans 6:5-6 NLT [5] Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. [6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  Romans 6:5-6 NLT We can feel the redemptive strand pulling us from death towards Life. And the things that drove us no longer have to. The things that are not reflective of our God's character, His heart, become less and less...our desires and thoughts and what's most important shift...to align with God's... Love. Justice. Truth. The least. The world, sometimes in league with our own heart desires and the lies of the enemy tries to tell us that this is not freedom, but Paul is reminding us that this is where freedom really is, when we live in the truth that he has been going on about that we are made right with God by Grace that comes through Jesus. And in that is freedom. Breathe that in today... #letters  ##GodsGraceR...

Friday! Proverbs! [3] The Lord will not let the godly go hungry,  but he refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked.  [4] Lazy people are soon poor;  hard workers get rich.  [5] A wise youth harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace. Proverbs 10:3-5 NLT So easy to use these Proverbs as weapons against others. If we start with the first one, well, God's people do go hungry, so it would seem that we're being invited into something deeper... So if I turn this lens that Proverbs gives me inwards what questions does it invite? The injustice that there are poor people? Where is God when people who love Him are hungry? Is there a harvest going on that I am sleeping through? What are the "riches" that come to mind? Is this what God intends for me? What are my cravings that God wouldn't want to satisfy? As you read these Proverbs what jumps off the page for you? Why? What action is our God inviting you towards? What deeper story does it invi...