kellym40 General

There is No Barrier Between God and His People

This week I want to talk about God’s everlasting love. And more so, His all-powerful, unconditional love. I have said before about the almighty power and glory of God. He is available at any time, so as I said before in my prayer series just open up a conversation with Him.

So now I return to God’s love. I am taking today’s verse(s) from Romans. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he talks about Jesus and the power of the Gospel. In Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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.”

When we dissect theses verses, we see three pairs of thoughts: death/life, things present/things to come, and height/depth. There is nothing in this life and nothing in death that can separate God’s love from faithful believers. We have His love in our eternal life. This holds similarly with nothing in the present or future can keep us from His love. Nothing in all of time. The use of height and depth here represents a place. In other words, there is no place where we can be that could cause us to be away from God’s love.

Romans 8 is about love and life in the spirit. At the beginning of the chapter, Paul talks of those who set their minds on the flesh will live in the flesh, but to “set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Life in the Spirit helps us be closer to God and His love.

One of my favorite verses comes from Psalm 63, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” Again, we honor and praise our God because He is love. He created us so that we receive the never-ending, awesome love, and in turn we love and sing praises to our God. God’s love is also exemplified in this verse from Isaiah, “‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

God loves you. Take that. Hold on to that knowledge, trust, and walk on the path on which you have been called, as Paul tells the Ephesians, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Everyone have a blessed day!

kellym40 General

Live Without Sin and Glorify God

In Romans, Paul tells us we don’t have to do what sin tells us to do. When we believe and put our trust in the Lord, we come to Christ on a spiritual level.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with hi by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

The chains of sin no longer affect us. Paul continues, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be untied with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” (Romans 6:5-7)

Through this, we experience a spiritual death and resurrection that parallels Jesus’ death and resurrection. We have conquered sin, in a way, as Jesus conquered death. His resurrection is our saving grace. Our redeeming power over sin. Although we still might hav a desire to sin, we must turn ourselves to Christ so that we honor and glorify God.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, or make you obey its passions. Do not present your members t sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)

God is to be glorified and loved above all things. Jesus tells his disciples this as he sends them out to do his work, if we follow Jesus we have already won power over sin. In Matthew, Chapter 10, he gives them instructions on what to do and also gives them a warning, that there would be some skepticism and resistance.

As Jesus says in verse 38, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” We must bear all of our worries, doubts and fears to offer to Jesus and he will lift us up and forgive our transgressions so to live a life of everlasting love with Jesus.

By giving honor to the Maker and turning to Jesus when we stumble and fall, when we sin, we are glorfying his name and giving victory over those sinful ways.