He is for you

One of the most powerful passages in the New Testament is found in Romans chapter 8:31-39. In this portion of Scripture the apostle Paul asks the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In the Amplified version of the Bible the translators add, “Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?” As this passage continues we see how God, in choosing not to spare His own Son but delivering Him up for us all really proved His love for us. Paul is asking “How can you doubt God’s commitment to you when He gave everything He had to make you free?”

The end of this passage drives the point home when Paul pens God’s thoughts to us in this way in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing in all of creation can separate you from His love. Let’s let His love be our motivation for everything as we live our lives on this earth. With all that may be against you in life, be assured of this thing, there is nothing greater or more powerful than our God. He is for you.

You Are The Answer

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

            The truly amazing thing about the Christian life is that we have a God who became like us. How could God communicate His love to people in a more personal way than to become like them?

            Man had a need. God had the answer. He would come as a man, be rejected and crucified. Then He would be buried and raised again three days later. Some would follow, but most would reject Him.

            In the world today Jesus is no longer here bodily. His presence is manifested through His church, the body of Christ. In other words, as Jesus was the answer, (and of course still is) the church is the answer for the world, as we become the feet, hands and mouth of Jesus.

            The Apostle Paul says, “To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)  Paul knew that if the gospel was to be spread he had to do it. He was the answer for the world around him. He said in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.”

            As Jesus came bodily, so must we recognize that we are here in Christ’s stead.  ( 2 Corinthians 5:20) We are the answer for the world around us. Let’s become what we need to become, so that we can communicate to people the love that God demonstrated to us.

Rubber Meets Road

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.  Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. 

James 1:26-27

One of the things I love to do occasionally, (in a responsible way of course), is to floor the gas pedal of my car and spin the tires so I can hear them screeching as I take off from a dead stop. I like the sound of the friction between the tires and the pavement. I don't care about how I look doing it.

In the book of James, the writer speaks about a person who thinks he's religious; one who talks the talk of religion. That's a someone who knows how to play the part. He says the right words at the right time. He wears the clothes that fit the idea of how a Christian should look. This individual may even talk about how he is going to start a new work for God and how the Lord is leading him in a particular direction, but his life just becomes a series of false starts and unrealized dreams. He believes his own words, but his religion, as James says, is useless and empty. There is no change or growth in his life and all the words of vision and action vanish. The person is quite literally deceived. He lives in a religious fantasy, imagining that he is someone who he is not. What a waste of time!

If our religion is real, action, not talk is what will come out of us. The Book says true religion visits the fatherless and the widows. That means we will do things that are not glamorous, but are helpful. The Christian walk is not all glory. It's doing the things that need to be done, comforting those who need comfort, and giving of ourselves in whatever way we feel that God wants us to. It's more guts than glory. We need to stop gazing at the beauty of our polished car, push the clutch in and shift the gears. We need to burn some rubber! A new car might look good in the showroom, but looking good doesn't get you to the grocery store. The car has to leave the showroom. It's going to get  scratched, dinged and dented, and occasionally have a flat tire and might even have to get towed into the shop but it got you somewhere. You took a ride, took a risk. That's what true religion does. It loves the unlovely. It feeds the hungry. It leads people from despair to hope. Rubber....., meet Road.