Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus
Sing His mercy and His grace
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place

When we all, when we all get to Heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be (rejoicing that will be)
When we all see Jesus
We’ll sing and shout the victory (shout the victory)

… Onward to the prize before us
Soon His beauty we’ll behold
Soon the Pearly Gates will open
We shall tread the streets of gold

(Author: E. E. Hewitt, 1898)

I grew up singing hymns of praise such as this one, “When We All Get to Heaven,” thinking the victory in Jesus (another hymn) won’t happen until I pass from this life to the next. Sometimes we act as if what God does is at the end of life.  But that is not the case.  We receive victory as soon as we receive and believe in the Victor!

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ‘ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

(“Victory in Jesus,” Songwriters; E. M. Bartlett,1939)

God gave us Jesus.  Upon believing Jesus as our Savior, we have been immediately cleared and declared “not guilty” of all our sins!  We discard the old lifestyle and embrace a new way of living, step by step with His Spirit that leads to real life that is eternal!  A profound relationship immediately begins with God, because Jesus made us presentable to God by removing our repented sins once and for all!

God welcomes us with open arms and throws the doors to His Kingdom, (and the wisdom of His Kingdom thinking and behaving), wide open to experience His grace and see His glory at work all around us! 

There’s no waiting on aisle three!  The Three-in-One; God, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit stands ready to help us develop the character traits of Jesus as we cannot do this on our own.  We are given gifts and abilities from God that are beyond ourselves to serve others in need of a Savior.  We now love God back with all our hearts, minds, and souls and obey His Holy Spirit who lives within us.  This is the victory—when we see, really see and believe, Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives right now!

God did not wait for us to clean up our act.  Jesus, sent by God, acted on our behalf, while we were yet sinners, to save us.  So, why wait until death looms over us to accept God’s gift of generous grace—the removal of our sins?  And why wait to sing and shout until we all get to heaven?  Sing and shout the victory right now!  Seriously, stop and give Him praise!

Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just want to praise you, I just want to praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you…

(“Shackles”, Songwriters: Erica Atkins-Campbell / Trecina Atkins-Campbell / Warryn Campbell)

Romans 5, The Message

Developing Patience

5 ^1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

^3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

^6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Our response depends on our belief.  Do we really believe what God says about Himself and His Son really real? 

Pause, be still, evaluate, reflect. 

Does my life reflect the victory of Jesus? 

What we truly believe is demonstrated in our behaviors.

Still holding back?  There is nothing you have done that God cannot and will not forgive in Jesus Name.  “At our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of His Son…”Believe and be saved. 

Then sing and shout the victory!

Lord,

Thank you for your sacrifice that saved us and your resurrection power available to us to live in relationship with you!  Thank you for daily cleansing our hearts, renewing our minds, correcting our course, refreshing our souls with new mercies, and restoring the joy ad peace of you in us and us in you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Shine.
Make ’em wonder whatcha got.
Make ’em wish that they were not
On the outside looking bored.
Shine.
Let it shine before all men.
Let em see good works and then
Let em glorify the Lord.

(“Shine”, Newsboys, Songwriters; Songwriters: Angel Taylor / Kevin Hammond / Michael Blue / Mikal Blue)

It’s in our DNA—we all want to fit in and belong to something beyond ourselves.  This need to belong was put into our inmost being as we were being formed by God for God.

“For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:13-18, NIV

God made us, we do not make ourselves.  We do not make Him or decide who God is. God is God. He was at the beginning, is now currently, and will be at the end of time.  I am amused and bit perturbed when people remark, “God is whoever you decide him to be for you.”  That is a lie produced by the enemy who wants to take God’s place and rule over God’s creation.  (But the enemy has already been defeated!)

Paul begins his teaching with what his audience already knows—the story of Abraham who was known as the founding “father” of the nation of the Jews.  Abraham believed God and trusted God to do what He said He would do.  The Jews believe currently that you fit it by obeying all the rules and rituals.  They also believe that you do not fit in unless you were born a Jew and do what Jews do—obey the Law.  Paul carefully and compassionately explains God’s plan and promise from the beginning that goes beyond the story of Abraham to the story of God who will save us from ourselves.

Romans 4, The Message

Trusting God

^1-3 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”

^4-5 If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

^6-9 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are whisked away,
    whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
    whom the Lord does not keep score.

Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don’t we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

^10-11 Now think: Was that declaration made before or after he was marked by the covenant rite of circumcision? That’s right, before he was marked. That means that he underwent circumcision as evidence and confirmation of what God had done long before to bring him into this acceptable standing with himself, an act of God he had embraced with his whole life.

¹² And it means further that Abraham is father of all people who embrace what God does for them while they are still on the “outs” with God, as yet unidentified as God’s, in an “uncircumcised” condition. It is precisely these people in this condition who are called “set right by God and with God”! Abraham is also, of course, father of those who have undergone the religious rite of circumcision not just because of the ritual but because they were willing to live in the risky faith-embrace of God’s action for them, the way Abraham lived long before he was marked by circumcision.

^13-15 That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God’s decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you can’t break it.

¹⁶ This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.

^17-18 We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”

^19-25 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Only by God’s generous gift of grace are we made right with God.  That gift is Jesus, God’s One and Only Son, who was sent to seek and to save the lost without God.

We learn that is not what we do for God but rather what God is doing in and for us, as we trust God.

Fitting in means trusting God in faith to do what we cannot do for ourselves—setting us right with God—a sheer gift of His love, mercy, and grace to us—a gift no one else can give.

Abraham “plunged into the promise” by his faith in God.  We learn that it our faith in God that makes us fit for God!  By believing in Jesus, who died and rose again, as a sacrifice for our sins, we fit in!  Finally, a place to belong—for eternity! Abraham was not perfect.  We are not perfect.  But we are perfectly forgiven by Jesus.  Living redeemed builds our fitness of faith!

Think about it…we sing “I’m standing on the promises of God” but don’t you love the more passionate term— “plunging” from the Word today?  This seems to be a more committed demonstration of our faith in God!  When we plunge into the promises of God, we are committed to diving into what God is doing without wondering where or how we will land!  We simply trust that God does know!

Are we ready to plunge in the promises of God and become one of the “whoevers” who believe Jesus and who will not perish but have eternal life? 

Are we ready to embrace what God is doing all round us and in us? 

Are we ready to bow down in humbled praise to the One who loves us most and has a plan for each one of our lives? 

Are we ready to make the shift from merely obeying all the rules and rituals to get God’s attention as a boastful arrogant servant to growing an intimate, holy, loving relationship with God through Jesus His Son? 

Our faith in God, embracing what HE does not what we do, makes us right with God. Believing Jesus died to save us and rose again to give us life forever makes us right with God.  Believers fit in and belong to His eternal family as a child of the Father, God. Our trust and hope is based on nothing else but the blood shed by Jesus who took our place and redeemed us from sins’ punishment.

Believing is belonging to His family as joint heirs with Christ! We fit in because of a fit faith in God.

Lord,

Make my faith fit for you while you make things right between us.  You gave so I give my life to you.  I’m listening.  I’m embracing.  I’m looking around to watch you at work in me and others.  And I’m grateful, oh, so very grateful for a love like yours that allows all of us to belong and fit in by saying yes to you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Children are constantly growing mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually as they go through the stages of life in becoming adults.  Children learn best from who they think they know they can trust.  They imitate who influences them the most.  When they are hurt and in need of comfort, they will run to loving parents or another significant adult who loves them and cares for them, knowing they will “fix it.”  Parents who love well do not like to see their offspring hurt.  They will run to their aide with remedies to ease their pain with embraces of compassion.  They will indeed try to “fix it.” 

But what no parent on earth can fix is the sin problem we are born into as we entered the world as new born infants.  However, what believing parents can do is point the Way to Jesus, sent by God to remove our sins once and for all.

Only God can “fix it” and set things right in our imperfect world.  Only through Jesus can we reconnect to God and grow in an intimate, loving relationship with God.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Romans 3, The Message

God Has Set Things Right

^21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

^25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

^27-28 So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counterclaims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we’ve learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

^29-30 And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion.

³¹ But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don’t we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Being a Jew does not save us.  Being a Catholic or Protestant does not save us.

Going to church every Sunday does not save us.

Giving to the poor does not save us.

Being the best server in the church does not save us.

Reading the Bible does not save us—Unless we do what the Word says—repent.

Only Jesus saves us from our sins when we bow down to Him and repent of those sins. We simply ask Jesus to remove our sins, believing that He can and will. Jesus immediately forgives us. God’s Holy Spirit moves in to help us live freely for Jesus as Lord of our new lives without sin’s entanglements. This was God’s Plan from the beginning to set us right with Him and to help us by His power to avoid sin. 

Our sins no longer have ahold on us for they are no longer in us!  Jesus removed our sins as “far as the east is from the west”! 

Psalm 103 proclaims this message of reconciliation with God:

“God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel.

Paul showed us and the rest of the world that no one can claim innocence. Everyone has sinned. But through Christ’s death on the cross God has redeemed us.  Willing and ready, God will forgive us if we come to him in faith through believing in Jesus Christ, His Son.

God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.

As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.

As parents feel for their children, God feels for those who fear him.
He knows us inside and out, keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.
Men and women don’t live very long; like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly, leaving nothing to show they were here.

God’s love, though, is ever and always, eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children as they follow his Covenant ways and remember to do whatever he said.” Psalm 103:6-18, MSG

Believe and be saved.  This is the only response that gives life!

Lord,

All have sinned but because of your love you had a plan to “fix” our sin problem once and for all by giving us a way out of sin. Thank you for willingly laying done your life for ours. Thank you for saving me and restoring me from sin’s consequences of hurt and despair.  Help me to make the most of every opportunity to point the Way of forgiveness to others who struggle with not knowing you and your love for them. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

“I was blind.  But now I see.”

“I was one way but now I’m different.”

These quotes are testimonies of people those lives were changed by Jesus.  Jesus changes everything when He enters our lives and begin His work to make us holy and presentable to God.  This change begins by trading our arrogant, rebellious will that leads only to death, for real life now and eternal life later that is only attainable because of what Jesus did to save us.  It is God who freely gives us a choice to say yes to Him or to refuse Him. 

God wants us to love Him back—but only if we willfully desire to love Him back.  We are the same.  What kind of love is it to have your spouse or children love you back only because they were forced?  That’s not a healthy relationship!  And it’s the same with obedience!  To obey God because you feel obligated or you obey only from fear is not what God wants from us.  God is love who wants to permeate our very being with all of Him in all of us. It is His love that changes us from the inside out. By His love we will know God. By loving God back expands his love in us and through us. His love makes all the difference!

As we grow deeper in God’s love it becomes easy and involuntary to love Him back as we realize the depth of love He has for us.  This love causes us to love others with more compassion and less judgement. The more we learn how God loves, we begin to love in the same ways.  Like Father, like son and daughter.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—Jesus was the One laid down His life for removal of our sins. God demonstrated His love for us through His One and Only Son!  Believing Jesus makes the difference!

“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 God looks for those who hearts are completely his.  His love in us is the foundation of our commitment to Him.  God seeks to pour out His blessings over those who will see Him as the only one who is Good, the One who stands ready to give His best to all who seek Him.  Humbled hearts given to God makes all the difference!

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Seeking our Most Holy God with His assurance of being found is one of many tremendous promises of a faithful God!  But it depends on the condition of our hearts! Some of the Jews left God long ago—even as they cared for God’s Word as the Chosen. How did this happen?  By losing grasp of the most important relationship of their lives that continually provided love, mercy, and grace from the One who loves us most.  But there’s hope for our hearts!  He is called Jesus!  Jesus makes the all the difference!

Romans 3, The Message

^1-2 So what difference does it make who’s a Jew and who isn’t, who has been trained in God’s ways and who hasn’t? As it turns out, it makes a lot of difference—but not the difference so many have assumed.

^2-6 First, there’s the matter of being put in charge of writing down and caring for God’s revelation, these Holy Scriptures. So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn’t abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:

Your words stand fast and true;
Rejection doesn’t faze you.

But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God’s rightdoing, shouldn’t we be commended for helping out? Since our lies don’t even make a dent in his truth, isn’t it wrong of God to back us to the wall and hold us to our word? These questions come up. The answer to such questions is no, a most emphatic No! How else would things ever get straightened out if God didn’t do the straightening?

^7-8 It’s simply perverse to say, “If my lies serve to show off God’s truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I’m doing God a favor.” Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, “The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let’s just do it!” That’s pure slander, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat

^9-20 So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

There’s nobody living right, not even one,
    nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
    they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right;
    I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
    their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
    They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
    litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others.
    They never give God the time of day.

This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Love God.  Love Others.  This is a revolutionary lifestyle but it will make all the difference as we go from dark to light!  We must put these words of Jesus into practice so we can learn to love “as if our lives depended on it!”

“Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.” –Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:1, MSG

Peter shows us ways to love like Jesus—

“Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.  Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless – cheerfully.

Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it:

if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything – encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job.

Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

If you’re abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It’s the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others.

If they’re on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that’s a different matter.

But if it’s because you’re a Christian, don’t give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!

It’s judgment time for Christians. We’re first in line. If it starts with us, think what it’s going to be like for those who refuse God’s Message!

If good people barely make it, What’s in store for the bad?  1 Peter 4:8-18, MSG

Paul continues to encourage the church in Rome to be set apart from the world. What the world thinks is different than what Jesus taught us about God who made a right relationship with him possible and available to all people.  God hates sin and desires all to follow him in word and action for their good and His glory.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  John 3:16-17

Lord,

Thank you for making a relationship possible and attainable no matter who we are and what we have done! Thank you for saving my soul and restoring the broken pieces of my life.  You put us back together better than we were before knowing you. YOU make all the difference!  I pray others might see You in us as demonstrated by our love for you and each other.

In Jesus Name, Amen

“GOK” were initials used in the language of teachers in my past.  There is always that “one child” who seems to ace every test, knows the answer to every question, while wondering why the rest of the class does not know the answers, too.  At the end of the year, when standardized tests are given, teachers look forward to seeing the evaluation results that might finally indicate what level this child could actually reach.  But sometimes, the results were inconclusive.  If the child aced even the standardized tests, then the results were translated: GOK— “God Only Knows.” 

ONLY GOD knows all that is known.  God created us and knows everything about us.  God is sovereign.  Sovereign simply means “above.”  That means God, and only God, is above all while being in all He has formed.  He knows the motivations of our hearts, the abilities placed within our beings by Him, along with the number of hairs on our heads!  (See Psalm 139, Psalm 100) 

God is the supreme authority and in control over His creation.  There is no one higher than God. 

God was “at the beginning” who breathed his breath into all His living creation.  God made us, we did not make ourselves.  God is unlimited in His power, and unchanging in His Love for us. God has been and always will be faithful in His love, mercy, and grace.  Everything we are and all that we have is because of God. There is no one like our God!   

God’s Word verifies what God knows.  Paul consistently reiterates and restates to the religious without relationship, (who Paul used to be) who God is from Scripture with what His Son did to save us, change our minds, and transform behaviors by His power working in us.  Jesus changed everything about Paul because Jesus turned everything around for Paul.  Paul, who was one of the “religious elites”, has been changed from the inside out by Jesus.  “It takes one to know one.”  This is his testimony…

Romans 2, The Message

God Is Kind, but Not Soft

^1-2 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.

^3-4 You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.

^5-8 You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you—Real Life for those who work on God’s side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!

^9-11 If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.

^12-13 If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.

^14-16 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.

Religion Can’t Save You

^17-24 If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders frown on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.

^25-29 Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God’s law. But if you don’t, it’s worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God’s ways are as good as the circumcised—in fact, better. Better to keep God’s law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don’t you see: It’s not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” –Jesus, Matthew 7:3-5

Paul is developing Kingdom of God thinking that Jesus wants us to have.  Kingdom of God thinking points the way to salvation for everyone through Jesus.  Kingdom of God thinking leaves all the judging to Jesus for only God, who knows our hearts has the right to judge.  Paul is committed to Jesus with a desire to be more like Him in every way. He reminds us…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”             John 3:16-17

Paul speaks the same words Jesus spoke to the religious elite when He walked the earth.  This is happening all because of God’s intervention in his life.  Paul no longer thinks he knows it all; because now he knows the One who does! 

Paul, led by a new Spirit, God’s Holy Spirit, repeats the words of Jesus concerning the sovereignty and salvation of God.  He also speaks of the useless pursuit of merely adhering to the Law of God without accepting the work of Jesus, God’s Son to save us who reconnected us to God in a growing, intimate relationship with God.

Paul no longer leans on his own understanding of the Law; but wholly leans on God’s Holy Spirit who teaches him to trust God completely, believe in His Son without reservation and timidity, while giving his life to God daily so he can grow in God’s love more and more each day.  Love God.  Love Others.  Jesus said all the commandments hang on these two laws—the Law of Love. 

Paul reminds us that we are not God.  Only God is God.  We have no authority to point fingers and criticize with condemnation.  The only pointing to be done is to point the Way to Jesus!

Know the Enemy enough to recognize him and resist him…

Satan’s best tools of destruction are not from outside the church, they are from within the church. A church will never die from the immorality in Hollywood or the corruption in Washington. But it will die from corrosion within—from those who bear the name of Jesus but have never met him, and from those who have religion, but no relationship.

GET TO KNOW THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU MOST…

Spend uninterrupted time with Jesus today. Tell him your thoughts, dreams, worries, and sins.  He is always ready to bend down, sit with us, wipe our tears, and listen.  Jesus will mend our broken hearts while caring enough to open our eyes to Truth which leads to Real Life.  Call on the Name of Jesus who takes us by the hand and leads us on the narrow, but greater path to everlasting Life. 

(If you want to avoid crowds, this path is the one less traveled.)

Lord,

Thank you for always being with us. Thank you for saving our souls.  Thank you for being for “whoever believes” with the offer of a loving relationship with you—forever!

In Jesus Name, Amen

“Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”  We watch the commercial and wince when a challenged person falls and cannot get up from the fall.  They lie helpless until they are rescued.  If they only had “live alert” hanging around their neck, the advertisement promotes.  But what if our fallen state is spiritual which leads more importantly to our mental, emotional, and intelligent condition of health and well-being?

An uninfected computer can be bought—but an uninfected person? Impossible. Trace a computer virus back to a hacker. Trace our mental viruses back to the fall of the first man, Adam. Because of sin, our minds are full of dark thoughts. Paul’s draws an accurate picture of humans then and now: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:21-22, NIV).

We must admit; Sin messes with the mind. But what if the virus never entered? Suppose a person never opened Satan’s emails? What would that person be like?  Don’t spend much time on that thought because the deed has already been done. However, Our Rescuer provided Way to rise up and out of our fallen state of mind, heart, and soul!

Romans 1, The Message

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

^18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

^24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

^26-27 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

^28-32 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus often said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Mark 2:17, NLT) Read that statement of Truth again—as many times as needed—daily.  This knowing might keep the lid on our arrogance!

Paul reminds us, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 8:28) Those who think they “know it all” are falling for Satan’s schemes to trip them up.  They become as Paul described, “mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags!”  (Tell us how you really feel, Paul!)  Yes, Paul does not hold back! It sounds like he has debated this issue more than once—and he has!  But we need to realize that Paul’s passionate preaching comes from his gratefulness to Jesus who changed his life from being a wretched bully to preaching Jesus who came to rescue us from our falling for sin!

Paul wrote this letter to teach the Christian faith to the first believers in Rome. He taught that no one deserves God’s love.  “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8, NIV 

LIFE ALERT:  Yes, we’ve fallen but we can get up!  Look up to God, reach up for the hand of Jesus and believe what He has done for us and we are saved!  We rise up with Jesus in God’s resurrection power that is incomparable to anything or anyone on or below earth!  Jesus is our Hope.  Jesus is Truth.  Jesus is Savior and Lord.

Sin paints an ugly picture in people and in a culture. Without God’s intervention, we have no way to deal with sin.  I am grateful for the Way to Truth who give Life forever, how about you? (John 14:6)

Paul’s writings will later encourage us with practical ways to live for God along with the power and wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit helping us.  Keep reading, the best is yet to come!

Lord,

We live as a the fallen until you pull us up, dust us off, heal our broken places, and remove all our sins as far as the east is from the west!  You cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls, while continually restoring the peace and joy of you in us and us in you.  Oh, what a Savior!  Lead us, Lord, today.  You are our eternal, inexhaustible Hope—all because of your great love for us.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

It has been good and sweet, encouraging, and sometimes terrifying to read the Acts of the Holy Spirit through men and women called of God to carry The Message of Jesus to the world.  The movement is now well on its way, as many follow The Way.  Thousands are believing that Jesus is indeed the Messiah come to save us—The One and Only Son of God who the prophets told about through the centuries before He came to earth. Jesus is The Way, Truth, and Life—The Only Way to God.

Both Jews and non-Jews learn that Jesus redeemed us from punishment for our sins by laying down His life in our deserved place on a cruel cross.  They hear that God then raised His Son in resurrection power from death to Life eternal three days later.  God then honored Jesus as King of kings, and Lord of lords—forever!  This act of resurrection from death to life secures our hope of eternal life if we believe.  This gift of His Son is our salvation!  This gift is a result of God’s unchanging, relentless, unconditional love for us.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  John 3:16-17, NIV

Although imprisoned for preaching Jesus, Paul does not hesitate in his assignment to proclaim The Message of Jesus.  He sends letters of love and encouragement to all the churches.  The church is growing in the numbers of new lives changed and transformed by Jesus as The Body of Christ.  Paul tells them how each one in the Body of Christ has been given certain gifts and abilities in order to build and encourage each other in healthy ways so that others may know Jesus by the love that is growing because of Jesus in them. 

It’s an ever-growing learning process!  Believers in Jesus are growing in His love and learning to walk in His ways but the church is made up of imperfect people who don’t always “get it right” and need help and correction.  Paul is the one assigned to carefully encourage and correct while still in chains.  He takes pure joy in seeing the church accept everyone, showing no favoritism, and love “like your lives depended on it”!  All people are drawn to those who love well.  Our work is to pass on The Message of Jesus in a spirit of love, Paul teaches.

God’s church today still leans on this wisdom God produced through Paul’s writings for the church.  Jesus is the Cornerstone of His church and Jesus is the Head of the Body of believers.  Jesus began this work with Peter and many other committed disciples. Later we will read and meditate on their letters, too!  But for now, let’s dive into the letter to the Romans!  Commence to learn so we can pass on The Message as “clearly as we should” so others will know and follow Jesus!

Romans 1, The Message

I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God’s words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends.

^2-7 The sacred writings contain preliminary reports by the prophets on God’s Son. His descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master. Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah.

^8-12 I thank God through Jesus for every one of you. That’s first. People everywhere keep telling me about your lives of faith, and every time I hear them, I thank him. And God, whom I so love to worship and serve by spreading the good news of his Son—the Message!—knows that every time I think of you in my prayers, which is practically all the time, I ask him to clear the way for me to come and see you. The longer this waiting goes on, the deeper the ache. I so want to be there to deliver God’s gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes! But don’t think I’m not expecting to get something out of this, too! You have as much to give me as I do to you.

^13-15 Please don’t misinterpret my failure to visit you, friends. You have no idea how many times I’ve made plans for Rome. I’ve been determined to get some personal enjoyment out of God’s work among you, as I have in so many other non-Jewish towns and communities. But something has always come up and prevented it. Everyone I meet—it matters little whether they’re mannered or rude, smart or simple—deepens my sense of interdependence and obligation. And that’s why I can’t wait to get to you in Rome, preaching this wonderful good news of God.

^16-17 It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Letters to imperfect people of the perfect forgiveness of Jesus!  Paul has a definite writing style and position.  In his letters, he begins by going over who we are as believers.  If we know who we are, we will begin to know why we exist, live, and breathe as believers of Jesus. This is the “secret,” he will write to the Colossians, “Christ in us!” (Colossians 1:27).  In the middle of Paul’s letters, the word therefore will appear and change the direction of thee letter from who we are to what we are suppose to do given who we are in Jesus.  “Therefore” is there for a reason an signals the shift! 

Romans is a life-changing letter for people who are willing to admit they are sinners.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul writes to the Romans and as a reminder to us.  In this Holy Spirit inspired letter, Paul explores all the wrong options and takes us to the only correct one. The wrong solutions are pleasure and pride (Romans 1-2); the correct solution is Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21–26). According to Paul, we are saved by grace (undeserved, unearned favor) through faith (complete trust) in Jesus and his work.

Paul’s letter concludes with practical instruction for a growing church, including thoughts on spiritual gifts (Romans 12); genuine love (also Romans 12); good citizenship (Romans 13). The final chapters provide brilliant instruction for dealing with everything from church division to difficult brethren. 

Even though Paul cannot physically visit the churches, God has given him the gift of powerful, Spirit filled wisdom; writing from his imprisonment to those who are imprisoned without Jesus.

The Message: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

Lord,

Thank you for Paul who was believed and was fully committed to you.  Thank you for teaching us through Paul’s letters to the Body of Christ.  Thank you for forgiving us when we get it wrong with loving correction. Thank you for encouragement when we get it right as we you lead us. Give us wisdom to live daily in Your Name for Your Glory in ways that please you. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

As believers we go through the same troubles, trials, and life challenges as unbelievers.  But the difference is this—We can see God at work in the middle of our circumstances!  We can feel His peace replace our fears as we put our trust in Him.  We are reminded daily that we live in this world but we are not of it.  There is a Hope in our being that is higher than our thinking.  Hope lifts us up beyond the ground level of our circumstances when we trust our Father in heaven. God will do what He does with our best interests at heart.  He does not rely on our help, only on our obedience.  He does not expect perfection, on our trust in Him who is perfect in every way.  He is God.  We are not. God always has and always will love us with a love that is relentless and unchanging.

Just look at Paul and his friends!  They shipwrecked in the perfect place!  Malta, an island full of people who welcomed the weary and soaked to the bone and treated them “royally.” The islanders fed them, gave them dry clothes, and took them into their homes.  I love how Dr. Luke, the writer, takes us there with all the details!  We can see it in our minds and almost feel the sand between our toes as the crew of the ship, Paul, and his associates are taken in with care for readily.

Acts 28, The Message

^1-2 Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it.

^3-6 Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its sleepiness by the heat, struck his hand and held on. Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting what he deserved. Paul shook the snake off into the fire like it was nothing. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god!

^7-9 The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days. Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed. Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.

Rome

^10-11 We spent a wonderful three months on Malta. They treated us royally, took care of all our needs and outfitted us for the rest of the journey. When an Egyptian ship that had wintered there in the harbor prepared to leave for Italy, we got on board. The ship had a carved Gemini for its figurehead: “the Heavenly Twins.”

^12-14 We put in at Syracuse for three days and then went up the coast to Rhegium. Two days later, with the wind out of the south, we sailed into the Bay of Naples. We found Christian friends there and stayed with them for a week.

^14-16 And then we came to Rome. Friends in Rome heard we were on the way and came out to meet us. One group got as far as Appian Court; another group met us at Three Taverns—emotion-packed meetings, as you can well imagine. Paul, brimming over with praise, led us in prayers of thanksgiving. When we actually entered Rome, they let Paul live in his own private quarters with a soldier who had been assigned to guard him.

^17-20 Three days later, Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house. He said, “The Jews in Jerusalem arrested me on trumped-up charges, and I was taken into custody by the Romans. I assure you that I did absolutely nothing against Jewish laws or Jewish customs. After the Romans investigated the charges and found there was nothing to them, they wanted to set me free, but the Jews objected so fiercely that I was forced to appeal to Caesar. I did this not to accuse them of any wrongdoing or to get our people in trouble with Rome. We’ve had enough trouble through the years that way. I did it for Israel. I asked you to come and listen to me today to make it clear that I’m on Israel’s side, not against her. I’m a hostage here for hope, not doom.”

^21-22 They said, “Nobody wrote warning us about you. And no one has shown up saying anything bad about you. But we would like very much to hear more. The only thing we know about this Christian sect is that nobody seems to have anything good to say about it.”

²³ They agreed on a time. When the day arrived, they came back to his home with a number of their friends. Paul talked to them all day, from morning to evening, explaining everything involved in the kingdom of God, and trying to persuade them all about Jesus by pointing out what Moses and the prophets had written about him.

^24-27 Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:

Go to this people and tell them this:
“You’re going to listen with your ears,
    but you won’t hear a word;
You’re going to stare with your eyes,
    but you won’t see a thing.
These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.”

²⁸ “You’ve had your chance. The non-Jewish outsiders are next on the list. And believe me, they’re going to receive it with open arms!”

^30-31 Paul lived for two years in his rented house. He welcomed everyone who came to visit. He urgently presented all matters of the kingdom of God. He explained everything about Jesus Christ. His door was always open.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We must be reminded at this point that Paul is a prisoner!  But he is treated with respect as he shares the Good News of Jesus’ salvation for all!  God is good, we say often, but do we realize just how great and good God really is?  God is for us, not against us.  We must remember this Truth in all our trials and challenging circumstances and trust Him through the “shipwrecks” of our lives! 

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? —Paul, Romans 8:31

God is the giver of good who stands ready to lovingly pour out His blessings over those fully committed to Him as his children who trust in all His ways.  How do I know?  Over the years, God put just the right people at the worst times in my life to pull me up out of the pit, brush me off, and set my feet on level ground.  God provided a way over, around or through challenging circumstances, according to His plan, in His rescue of me in each season of life.  God never sleeps or takes time off!  God is, and always will be, our Healer, Provider, Protector, the One who sent His Son to be our Savior and now our Lord who guides us into all that is good and right.  This is our God. There is no one like Him!

Paul is the “hostage of hope” to all who believe and call on the Name of Jesus.  He is not a hostage of his circumstances.  Paul writes to the Romans what the Holy Spirit has taught him throughout his new life in Christ;

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” –Paul, Romans 8:28   

“Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8:34

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

‘For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39

Are you convinced?  Pause to reflect and pray, giving thanks to God!

Paul—The Hostage of Hope to a world seeking rescue while being rescued.  His message: Believe and be saved. 

Lord,

Great are you Lord!  Continue to lead and guide us through all the details of our lives for you said you delight in them!  May we reflect the Light of your Love in all we think, say and do no matter what is happening around us.  Help us to make the most of every opportunity to tell your story of redemption and healing from brokenness.  Thank you for rescuing me with your love and care.  Help us to be Hope not a hindrance.

In Jesus Name, Amen

I’m sailing away
Set an open course for the Virgin Sea
‘Cause I’ve got to be free
Free to face the life that’s ahead of me

On board, I’m the captain
So climb aboard
We’ll search for tomorrow
On every shore
And I’ll try, oh Lord, I’ll try
To carry on

I look to the sea
Reflections in the waves, spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had

We lived happily forever
So the story goes
But somehow we missed out
On the pot of gold
But we’ll try, best that we can
To carry on

A gathering of angels
Appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope
And this is what they said

They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me, lads
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away…

(“Come, Sail Away” Songwriters: Dennis De Young; Sung by Styx)

“Where God guides, He provides” was proved true as Paul and his friends, prisoners in care of a Roman guard, aboard a ship with Rome as the destination so he can stand before Caesar and declare his innocence.  “Come sail away…”

Acts 27, The Message

A Storm at Sea

^1-2 As soon as arrangements were complete for our sailing to Italy, Paul and a few other prisoners were placed under the supervision of a centurion named Julius, a member of an elite guard. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was bound for Ephesus and ports west. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.

³ The next day we put in at Sidon. Julius treated Paul most decently—let him get off the ship and enjoy the hospitality of his friends there.

^4-8 Out to sea again, we sailed north under the protection of the northeast shore of Cyprus because winds out of the west were against us, and then along the coast westward to the port of Myra. There the centurion found an Egyptian ship headed for Italy and transferred us on board. We ran into bad weather and found it impossible to stay on course. After much difficulty, we finally made it to the southern coast of the island of Crete and docked at Good Harbor (appropriate name!).

^9-10 By this time we had lost a lot of time. We had passed the autumn equinox, so it would be stormy weather from now on through the winter, too dangerous for sailing. Paul warned, “I see only disaster ahead for cargo and ship—to say nothing of our lives!—if we put out to sea now.”

^12,11 But it was not the best harbor for staying the winter. Phoenix, a few miles further on, was more suitable. The centurion set Paul’s warning aside and let the ship captain and the shipowner talk him into trying for the next harbor.

^13-15 When a gentle southerly breeze came up, they weighed anchor, thinking it would be smooth sailing. But they were no sooner out to sea than a gale-force wind, the infamous nor’easter, struck. They lost all control of the ship. It was a cork in the storm.

^16-17 We came under the lee of the small island named Clauda, and managed to get a lifeboat ready and reef the sails. But rocky shoals prevented us from getting close. We only managed to avoid them by throwing out drift anchors.

^18-20 Next day, out on the high seas again and badly damaged now by the storm, we dumped the cargo overboard. The third day the sailors lightened the ship further by throwing off all the tackle and provisions. It had been many days since we had seen either sun or stars. Wind and waves were battering us unmercifully, and we lost all hope of rescue.

^21-22 With our appetite for both food and life long gone, Paul took his place in our midst and said, “Friends, you really should have listened to me back in Crete. We could have avoided all this trouble and trial. But there’s no need to dwell on that now. From now on, things are looking up! I can assure you that there’ll not be a single drowning among us, although I can’t say as much for the ship—the ship itself is doomed.

^23-26 “Last night God’s angel stood at my side, an angel of this God I serve, saying to me, ‘Don’t give up, Paul. You’re going to stand before Caesar yet—and everyone sailing with you is also going to make it.’ So, dear friends, take heart. I believe God will do exactly what he told me. But we’re going to shipwreck on some island or other.”

^27-29 On the fourteenth night, adrift somewhere on the Adriatic Sea, at about midnight the sailors sensed that we were approaching land. Sounding, they measured a depth of 120 feet, and shortly after that ninety feet. Afraid that we were about to run aground, they threw out four anchors and prayed for daylight.

^30-32 Some of the sailors tried to jump ship. They let down the lifeboat, pretending they were going to set out more anchors from the bow. Paul saw through their guise and told the centurion and his soldiers, “If these sailors don’t stay with the ship, we’re all going down.” So the soldiers cut the lines to the lifeboat and let it drift off.

^33-34 With dawn about to break, Paul called everyone together and proposed breakfast: “This is the fourteenth day we’ve gone without food. None of us has felt like eating! But I urge you to eat something now. You’ll need strength for the rescue ahead. You’re going to come out of this without even a scratch!”

^35-38 He broke the bread, gave thanks to God, passed it around, and they all ate heartily—276 of us, all told! With the meal finished and everyone full, the ship was further lightened by dumping the grain overboard.

^39-41 At daybreak, no one recognized the land—but then they did notice a bay with a nice beach. They decided to try to run the ship up on the beach. They cut the anchors, loosed the tiller, raised the sail, and ran before the wind toward the beach. But we didn’t make it. Still far from shore, we hit a reef and the ship began to break up.

^42-44 The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so none could escape by swimming, but the centurion, determined to save Paul, stopped them. He gave orders for anyone who could swim to dive in and go for it, and for the rest to grab a plank. Everyone made it to shore safely.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Paul listens to God’s Holy Spirit and relays what God says to avoid.  But others around us who do not believe live for themselves and lean to their own understandings based on previous experiences or from others who have influenced them.  The captain of the ship could have avoided losing his ship if he would have listened to Paul. But he did not.

The storm came with a mighty force.  The risk the captain and crew took was now full of danger and the possibility of lives lost.  However, God’s purpose in Paul will be fulfilled.  He will does not stop the storm but He provides a way through it without any lives lost.  Read that again.  No lives lost! 

Paul and his believing friends were probably the only ones clinging to the ship that was rocking and rolling in a storm that could destroy them who believed God would indeed save them—because He said so.  “Last night God’s angel stood at my side, an angel of this God I serve, saying to me, ‘Don’t give up, Paul. You’re going to stand before Caesar yet—and everyone sailing with you is also going to make it.’ So, dear friends, take heart. I believe God will do exactly what he told me.”

In the middle of the storm, Paul served a meal with encouragement!  Who does that?!  Like our grandmas, Paul says, “Eat something”—while the storm rages!

Does this not remind us of Jesus bringing his disciples together to encourage them, serve the Passover meal, wash their feet, showing the full extent of his love for them beforegoing to the cross?  Paul is not Jesus, and is not perfect, but he is learning to trust God completely!  Paul, through this storm and previous experiences, is developing the character traits of Jesus who he tenaciously loves as Savior and preaches and follows as Lord. 

God sent Jesus to earth to save us.  God guided Jesus’ every step along the way.  “I do what the Father tells me to say and do,” was the mantra of our Lord.  (See John’s gospel)  In the middle of storms, Jesus rose up to calm them because He was God’s Son.  In the middle of His own storm, God provided for Him while He completed the mission to save us.  Here’s the difference, however, between Paul and Jesus.  Only Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, without sin, could save us from our sins.  Paul is merely a called servant of His Master, Jesus who is God and is committed to listen, trust, and obey.  Paul would be the first to affirm this Truth.  Because of Jesus, Paul believes, truly believes, that God will do exactly what He tells him—And God does!

PAUSE TO PRAY:

Do we really believe what God says to be really real?  We must take our time to answer from the depths of our hearts, minds, and souls.  What we feed our hearts will produce our behaviors.  Our demeanors developed dictate our doctrine (what we truly believe).  Ponder then praise God for how he cares, convicts, and corrects us!

Now, take time to praise God for the many ways He provides as He guides us through good times and the challenging times in our lives. 

Trust God—He knows what He’s doing. Come sail away with God as the captain of your ship.  God knows what lies ahead and will protect us as we learn to obey what He says. 

“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” –Paul, Philippians 1:6, NIV

Lord,

What a story of your miraculous provision and care all because of the deep love you have for all of us.  We each could tell stories of your goodness, rescue, provision, and protection!  Thank you for being with us always—just as you said!  You call us to sail away with you—I’m ready!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Okay, so let me repeat what you just said so you can listen to what you are saying:

• You mean to tell me that a man was born through a virgin somehow by the spirit of God, producing a boy child who became a man who was both human and God in the flesh?  That’s just crazy talk.
• You say that I have been loved and planned for since the beginning of time when the world was created? That’s crazy love!
• So, you’re saying that Someone loves me so much that He came to earth to save me from punishment I fully deserve to pay for of all the wrong I have committed in my life?  Willingly? And this sacrifice was preplanned and written down on paper?  That’s crazy talk.  Who would knowingly and willingly do that?
• You say that this Someone not only knows my name, but knows everything about me—and still loves me?  Crazy, there are many times I don’t love me.
• ALL my sins are forgiven and all I have to do is ask?  What’s the catch?
• And when I ask, I have a place reserved for me at God’s place—forever?!  There have to be dues to pay, right?
• Seriously, is this really real?  We have life forever with all sins forgiven and forgotten, slate wiped clean, all because Someone came, loved, taught us about God, lived a perfect example of a sinless life, then was killed for being God in the flesh as a sacrifice for our sins?  AND then rose from death back to life—scars and all?!

This is crazy! –but tell me more!  This is crazy love is this is all true!

Acts 26, The Message

“I Couldn’t Just Walk Away”

^1-3 Agrippa spoke directly to Paul: “Go ahead—tell us about yourself.”

Paul took the stand and told his story. “I can’t think of anyone, King Agrippa, before whom I’d rather be answering all these Jewish accusations than you, knowing how well you are acquainted with Jewish ways and all our family quarrels.

^4-8 “From the time of my youth, my life has been lived among my own people in Jerusalem. Practically every Jew in town who watched me grow up—and if they were willing to stick their necks out they’d tell you in person—knows that I lived as a strict Pharisee, the most demanding branch of our religion. It’s because I believed it and took it seriously, committed myself heart and soul to what God promised my ancestors—the identical hope, mind you, that the twelve tribes have lived for night and day all these centuries—it’s because I have held on to this tested and tried hope that I’m being called on the carpet by the Jews. They should be the ones standing trial here, not me! For the life of me, I can’t see why it’s a criminal offense to believe that God raises the dead.

^9-11 “I admit that I didn’t always hold to this position. For a time I thought it was my duty to oppose this Jesus of Nazareth with all my might. Backed with the full authority of the high priests, I threw these believers—I had no idea they were God’s people!—into the Jerusalem jail right and left, and whenever it came to a vote, I voted for their execution. I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.

^12-14 “One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorizing my action, right in the middle of the day a blaze of light, light outshining the sun, poured out of the sky on me and my companions. Oh, King, it was so bright! We fell flat on our faces. Then I heard a voice in Hebrew: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me? Why do you insist on going against the grain?’

^15-16 “I said, ‘Who are you, Master?’

“The voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down like an animal. But now, up on your feet—I have a job for you. I’ve handpicked you to be a servant and witness to what’s happened today, and to what I am going to show you.

^17-18 “‘I’m sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. I’m sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven, and a place in the family, inviting them into the company of those who begin real living by believing in me.’

^19-20 “What could I do, King Agrippa? I couldn’t just walk away from a vision like that! I became an obedient believer on the spot. I started preaching this life-change—this radical turn to God and everything it meant in everyday life—right there in Damascus, went on to Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside, and from there to the whole world.

^21-23 “It’s because of this ‘whole world’ dimension that the Jews grabbed me in the Temple that day and tried to kill me. They want to keep God for themselves. But God has stood by me, just as he promised, and I’m standing here saying what I’ve been saying to anyone, whether king or child, who will listen. And everything I’m saying is completely in line with what the prophets and Moses said would happen: One, the Messiah must die; two, raised from the dead, he would be the first rays of God’s daylight shining on people far and near, people both godless and God-fearing.”

²⁴ That was too much for Festus. He interrupted with a shout: “Paul, you’re crazy! You’ve read too many books, spent too much time staring off into space! Get a grip on yourself, get back in the real world!”

^25-27 But Paul stood his ground. “With all respect, Festus, Your Honor, I’m not crazy. I’m both accurate and sane in what I’m saying. The king knows what I’m talking about. I’m sure that nothing of what I’ve said sounds crazy to him. He’s known all about it for a long time. You must realize that this wasn’t done behind the scenes. You believe the prophets, don’t you, King Agrippa? Don’t answer that—I know you believe.”

²⁸ But Agrippa did answer: “Keep this up much longer and you’ll make a Christian out of me!”

²⁹ Paul, still in chains, said, “That’s what I’m praying for, whether now or later, and not only you but everyone listening today, to become like me—except, of course, for this prison jewelry!”

^30-31 The king and the governor, along with Bernice and their advisors, got up and went into the next room to talk over what they had heard. They quickly agreed on Paul’s innocence, saying, “There’s nothing in this man deserving prison, let alone death.”

³² Agrippa told Festus, “He could be set free right now if he hadn’t requested the hearing before Caesar.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Paul has just delivered the heart of the gospel of Jesus’ saving work of love, mercy, and grace for all who believe and call on His Name for forgiveness of sins.  Festus is uncomfortable by the Truth.  King Agrippa is almost persuaded to believe the Truth.

Paul was called crazy for believing and telling the Truth of Jesus, but still they listened. They could not dismiss him or look away! Christ fills a believer’s new life with joy, hope, love, and peace. People still in the “old life” can see the difference but do not always understand it.  King Agrippa, Festus, and all listening to Paul can see this joy of Jesus on His face and in his being as he speaks.  It is Jesus in Paul who is doing the talking.  It’s God’ Holy Spirit in the room who is speaking to hearts and encouraging them to listen and believe.

That’s how it is when we tell the story of Jesus to others.  We tell how Jesus changed our lives from “darkness to Light”, as Paul relates what Jesus did for him.  This is our story intertwined in God’s story of salvation for all—for all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.  God wants us, died for us while we were still sinners, and loved us so much He sent a part of Himself to save us.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  John 3:16-17, NIV

I know it sounds crazy, unbelievable, incredible, too good to be true, and too easy—but this is who God is—the Lover of our souls!  He went to hell and back again so that we could free from our sins and live forever with Him—beginning as soon as we say yes, I believe!  This is the Way, Truth, and Life.  This is Jesus who changes everything.

Believe and be saved. 

It’s not as crazy as you think to believe in the One who created us to love Him back.

Lord,

Thank for reminding us through the witness of Paul of your love and compassion for each one of us who you created with purpose.  You are God and we are not.  You did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  You redeemed us and set us free!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Help us to live in your ways by your power working in us.  Give us the words to tell your story to others.

In Jesus Name, Amen

One final thought—

Are you haunted by your past? Are you less accepting of other believers because of their pasts? Take a page from the apostle Paul. God can soften even the hardest heart. Continue to walk forward with him, one step at a time.  You will be amazed!