This morning my devotions took me to one of my favourite chapters in the Bible: Romans 8. This chapter is packed full of encouragement! I love it and usually walk away from it thoroughly encouraged ready to take on whatever the Lord has in mind for me, hopefully in His strength.
But this morning a portion of it caught my eye and it's right in the middle of the last part where it talks about not being separated from the love of God. In verse 36 there is a quotation from the Old Testament, Psalm 44:22:
"For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
Do you see what that says? WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG - WE ARE... SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER!
Let me go back a little. Verse 35 says,
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
I went slowly through this verse and I realized each thing was getting a little worse than the one before. But then you go on to the next verse. I am supposed to be willing to die every day for His sake. Living in North America I don't "see that need." I have all the freedoms I want, especially the freedoms of worshipping Who I want to worship, when I want to worship and where.
Why would He put that there? Because I need to be willing to die for His sake. Die to this world, die to me, and if need be, litterally let my life be taken for Him. Because His love is worth it. In this same chapter He tells us that we have NOT received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption so that I can call Him my Daddy.
This chapter IS full of encouragement, but it also tells me the road is not easy. I shouldn't expect an easy life. I was not born for that. But I was born to be His child and NOTHING can separate me from His love. So when the hard times come, and they do (and in fact are here now), I can rest in His love and be at peace tho the world around me is in chaos and my body itself is failing. He is faithful! And He loves me!
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Apply the Blood
I know that sounds really gruesome for a title but it's really applicable for me this morning, and actually every day.
Recently the Lord has been taking me through a time of pointing out my sins. It has NOT been a pleasant time. Each morning in my inbox I receive a devotional entitled Tozer on Christian Leadership. It's excellent and I usually enjoy them, but almost always find them very challenging. Recently we went through a series entitled Spiritual Warfare And Sin. It was VERY CONVICTING.
On top of that I have been reading a book by Jerry Bridges entitled, Respectable Sins. Another book that touches too close to home.
Then to top it off is the Word of God. Yesterday, He had me in 1 Corinthians, particularly chapter 13.
As I began to read through the "love is..." and "love is not...", greater conviction fell. I felt like I was drowning in my own sinfulness. It's so easy to say I don't do the big sins: Murder, Adultery, Stealing, Lying, etc. but what about the other ones... Ungodliness, Anxiety, Frustrations, Discontentment, Unthankfulness, etc. (Thank you very much, Jerry Bridges!)? Or this statement, "Every man is as close to God as he wants to be; he is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wills to be...." (Thank you, Mr. Tozer). And finally,
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love
does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not
behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices
in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things. Love never fails."
I felt like had failed my friends, my family, my God. I could never live up to being the woman He wants me to be. My own sinfulness, my flesh, is keeping me from it. I can see now why Paul wrote in Romans 7,
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death?
Yet God is SOOOOOOOOO faithful! This morning in Let's Take a Walk Together I was on Day 129 - Apply the Blood. Eunice Free has a way of writing that I feel she's right there with me. As I read through it, she reminded me of the blood Jesus shed. She came right out and asked, "Have you applied the blood of Jesus Christ to your own sinful heart?"
I know I have trusted Jesus Christ as my Saviour; I did that as a girl of 9. BUT I still wrestle with this sinful flesh and I will continue to do so until He takes me home. But there is hope (1John 1:7):
... and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses
us from all sin.
The thing is: I NEED TO CONFESS AND REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR ALL OF THOSE SINS - BIG AND SMALL, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE SINS. I cannot live a holy life on my own, but it's only by His grace and strength that I can. Paul could go on to say,
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I can too!
Recently the Lord has been taking me through a time of pointing out my sins. It has NOT been a pleasant time. Each morning in my inbox I receive a devotional entitled Tozer on Christian Leadership. It's excellent and I usually enjoy them, but almost always find them very challenging. Recently we went through a series entitled Spiritual Warfare And Sin. It was VERY CONVICTING.
On top of that I have been reading a book by Jerry Bridges entitled, Respectable Sins. Another book that touches too close to home.
Then to top it off is the Word of God. Yesterday, He had me in 1 Corinthians, particularly chapter 13.
As I began to read through the "love is..." and "love is not...", greater conviction fell. I felt like I was drowning in my own sinfulness. It's so easy to say I don't do the big sins: Murder, Adultery, Stealing, Lying, etc. but what about the other ones... Ungodliness, Anxiety, Frustrations, Discontentment, Unthankfulness, etc. (Thank you very much, Jerry Bridges!)? Or this statement, "Every man is as close to God as he wants to be; he is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wills to be...." (Thank you, Mr. Tozer). And finally,
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love
does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not
behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices
in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things. Love never fails."
I felt like had failed my friends, my family, my God. I could never live up to being the woman He wants me to be. My own sinfulness, my flesh, is keeping me from it. I can see now why Paul wrote in Romans 7,
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death?
Yet God is SOOOOOOOOO faithful! This morning in Let's Take a Walk Together I was on Day 129 - Apply the Blood. Eunice Free has a way of writing that I feel she's right there with me. As I read through it, she reminded me of the blood Jesus shed. She came right out and asked, "Have you applied the blood of Jesus Christ to your own sinful heart?"
I know I have trusted Jesus Christ as my Saviour; I did that as a girl of 9. BUT I still wrestle with this sinful flesh and I will continue to do so until He takes me home. But there is hope (1John 1:7):
... and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses
us from all sin.
The thing is: I NEED TO CONFESS AND REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR ALL OF THOSE SINS - BIG AND SMALL, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE SINS. I cannot live a holy life on my own, but it's only by His grace and strength that I can. Paul could go on to say,
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I can too!
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