gladitudes

Todays’s verse is Romans 8:36-39 (ESV)

As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is saying here that in the midst of evil and suffering, the power to conquer and overcome comes through Christ who loved us and in fact nothing–include the trials and pain–can ever separate of from God’s love. God’s love transcends all those things!

The part of this passage that has really been getting to me, though, is verse 37: It says we are conquerors (only) through Christ who loved us. I’ve been thinking at some length recently about my power to do good and specifically how my power to do good–that is: to love–only comes from my beholding the love of God toward me. it says in 1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”

We learn how to love, by first beholding God’s love. Without God’s love for me, I would not be able to love. Without God’s overwhelming blessing, I would not be able to give. Without God’s strength, I would always be weak. My only strength to impact this hurting world for good, is by coming face to face with the love of God and letting it transform me into a person who is able to, in turn, reflect that love brightly.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Read this verse this AM and wanted to share. Here’s the ultimate source of worth and value for any human being.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

When you look at someone, do you see a human being who is made in the image of God or something less valuable? I’m challenged with this thought. May we Christians be people who see all people as being of great value and may we treat them accordingly.

I read My Utmost today and was really challenged by it. Check out this quote:

Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself.

Read the rest…

I’ve been wrestling with some issues of how do I practically, actually live a life of faith? This helps me a lot in thinking about it.

My buddy @jeffjanssen posted this today. I really love it. Think about the heart of this guy. Do we trust God like he did?

2 Kings 18:5-8

[Hezekiah] trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Today’s verse is: 1 Corinthians 6:19

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

This verse is twisted and misunderstood a lot, so sometimes it’s easy to downplay what is is saying. But, I read it last night then again this morning and it’s really been encouraging to me.

In context, Paul is writing to the Corinthians telling them to flee from sexual immorality because their body is now a holy temple of God because God–through his Holy Spirit–lives in them. When they would, then, act in immorality, they would greatly grieve the heart of God who is in them witnessing their sin. I don’t fully understand how it works, but that’s the gist.

At any rate, that’s all good and right and true, but the thing that really hit me when I read this is just how present God is in our lives.  When I’m hurting, alone, frustrated, having a bad day, …whatever it is… God is still there with me. He now lives in me. Thinking about this, I was just really struck with what that means for how I face the world: should I ever feel weak? Should I ever feel unable to obey God? Of course not if God’s Spirit lives in me!

I think there’s a lot of skill we all need to develop in terms of how to live this out, but the thought is really inspiring and makes me want to learn how to trust God more to strengthen and empower me for His good.