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timewithgod.blog-city.com — August 2007
Romans 5 -- I am a friend of God?? YES
He calls me friend!
I remember so very well being in my room at my parents' house one night as a middle-schooler and opening up my Bible (which at the time I rarely did) and reading the first half of this chapter. I remember focusing on verses 3-5 in probably a very "human" way. I was most likely feeling sorry for myself for some reason, and it meant a lot to read that I could have joy in my troubles, because troubles produces patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope. I saw it as a mountain to climb -- something of works -- to get to God's love for me, which was not at all what it meant!
The next part, verses 6-11, were the incredible part that I still marvel at today. They form the basis for the song "Friend of God." Many take that song the wrong way, thinking that it implies a casualness toward God and not a recognition of His Holiness.
But if you read these verses, it is very clear that our friendship with God came about solely by His will, not ours! It was 1) by the blood of Christ's death; and 2) while we were still His enemies.
"While we were God's enemies, He made friends with us through the death of His Son .... now we are also very happy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we are now GOD'S FRIENDS again."
So when I sing that song, I sing it with a sense of amazement, wonder, and awe! It's the same thing I feel if I'm ever the first one picked by someone for their team. HE picked ME FIRST??? Amazing!
Father, thank You for picking me up out of the dirt and picking me for Your team even before cleaning me up! Thank You for all of the unmerited blessings and grace You've bestowed on me in this life ever since! I pray that Josh and Joseph will remember my stories of how You led me to pick them out of all the kids in the orphanage books and that they will apply their experience to the way You called them Your friends as well.
I am a friend of God, He calls me 'friend'!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 6 -- What we need to visualize when we are tempted
our old self on the cross, dead to sin
Paul has already said that we as believers are dead to sin and alive to Christ. But we want to kick ourselves when we sin! He's described our position with God and now he wants us to understand the way this works itself out in our lives. My commentary pointed me to verse 11, which hadn't made just a huge impression on me as I read it. Why that verse??
The old version says that we are to "reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." And it's that old word "reckon" that's the key. "To reckon here means to accept what God says about us as true and to live in the light of it."
Ruth Paxson writes: "This demands a definite act of faith, which results in a fixed attitude toward 'the old man'. We will see him where God sees him -- on the Cross, put to death with Christ. Faith will operate continuously to keep him where grace PLACED him. This involves us very deeply, for it means that our hearty consent has been given to God's condemnation of and judgment upon that old 'I' as altogether unworthy to live and as wholly stripped of any further claims upon us. The first step in a walk of practical holiness is this reckoning upon the crucifixion of 'the old man'. "
So "we reckon ourselves dead to sin when we respond to temptation as a dead man would .... Our cooperation is needed. Only God can make us holy, but He will not do it without our willing involvement.... We must be motivated by love for the Savior, not fear of punishment.... It is not restraint but inspiration that liberates from sin."
Father God, I know how much I chastise myself when I sin. How much better it would be to stop for just a moment and see what You see -- the old 'me' hanging on the cross, dead with all my sins hanging on me. Please help me to visualize that and to accept what You say about my new life as being true -- that I'm no longer a slave to sin. I do want to remain motivated by the love for my Savior and not by fear of punishment. Thank You for Your grace!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 7 What's really happening when I sin
sin works within me
My commentary says that this chapter was mainly written for Jews who had become believers yet still felt they needed to fully obey the Law. The Gentile believers, I guess, were assumed to be ignorant of the requirements of God's law.
One thing that hit me was what my commentary said about verse 12: "The weakness of the law lay in the 'raw materials' it had to work with: it was given to people who were already sinners."
The insidious thing about our sin nature is the fact that forbidding us something doesn't make us say, "Well, that's fine -- it must have been done for a reason." Instead, it fans the flames for something we might otherwise never have thought about doing.
In much the same way, there are things I know I must discuss with Josh as he enters puberty soon, but at the same time, I could be giving him information he's never heard or thought about, and that could set up a desire that he probably doesn't have at this time!
Some people are tempted to use this section to excuse sin in their lives, saying, "Hey, it's not me doing it! It's sin IN me!" And that shouldn't happen. Instead, we should more easily realize when we are being enticed and coerced into evil thoughts and actions by sin, and not depend on our own strength, but constantly seek God's help to defeat sin in our bodies.
Paul says in v. 20 that "he has not found deliverance from the power of indwelling sin, and when he sins, it is not with the desire of the new man," according to my commentary.
Father, all I can ask is that You help me, through Your Holy Spirit, to remember where my strength comes from. Remind me that I am Yours, bought and paid for by Your Son's death. Help me not to disappoint You!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 8:1-17 Consciousness of sonship
I'm God's son! He wants me to call him Dad.
Wow, what a pep talk from Paul!
We aren't judged guilty.... God did what the law couldn't do -- for us!!
So we don't live by our sinful selves anymore, but by following the Spirit. That means we'll have a spiritual inclination NOT to think only about ourselves, not to do only what we want. When our thinking is controlled by the Spirit rather than by our childish, selfish self, we have life AND peace.
The description of what an unbeliever can't do is amazing and eye-opening! They refuse to obey God and indeed they aren't even really able to obey God! Because they can't, they can never please God. Those who use their lives to do what their sinful selves want are dying spiritually.
But the Spirit of God will lead those who are true children of God and who let him. Our relationship with God grows so intimate that we can dare to call Him "Daddy"! We receive a true spiritual instinct that helps us be able to do that.
In verse 3, my commentary said, "Christ died not only for the sins we commit, but also for our sin nature. In other words, He died for what we are just as much as for what we have done."
And in verse 12, it says, "We owe nothing to the flesh, to live according to its dictates. The old, evil, corrupt nature has been nothing but a DRAG..... If Christ had not saved us, the flesh would have dragged us down to the deepest, darkest, hottest places in hell. Why should we feel obligated to such an enemy?"
Finally, in verse 15, it says that Paul's use of the word 'adoption' here refers to "consciousness of sonship". I certainly know that my boys are conscious of their sonship to me. That's the sureness that God wants us to have in relation to our spiritual sonship with Him.
Father, thanks for giving me all of these flags to reveal and confirm my status with You. Thanks for the consciousness of Sonship, especially. It's an awesome and amazing thing to think that I can call You 'Dad' !!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 8:18-30 Ain't No Rock....
gonna shout out in MY place!
This is one of my favorite passages, and I particularly like the descriptions of what's happening with all of the rest of creation that we fail to even realize! Just imagine the Garden of Eden, freshly created by God -- everything is absolutely perfect. A rock that was just given its very existence by God is so appreciative that it sings out praise to its Creator! Each molecule of water is elated with being created to serve the God of the Universe and sparkles and ripples in praise!
Then one day man breaks covenant with God. I'm reminded of a recent TV commercial where everyone is using a debit card to pay, and things move along with absolute precision .... until someone wants to pay cash, and the entire system grinds to a halt!
When sin entered the system and God was forced by His righteousness to curse the ground, everything fundamentally changed. Despite the continued worthiness of the Creator to deserve and receive praise, the ability to issue it was silenced! The rock is still a rock, but now it is totally unable to shout out (however a rock shouts) in praise to its Creator, and this causes unimaginable frustration. Jesus even alluded to this when He stated that, absent all other praise, the rocks themselves would cry out in praise to Him.
Imagine what the soil of Eden must have been like, able to produce huge and delicious fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains in indescribable abundance! Now, that same soil is held back by God's decree from producing with the ability it once had. It cries out in silent protest that it is no longer able to do all it is capable of doing to praise the Creator!
Imagine what our ears will someday hear and what our eyes will see when God recreates the new heaven and new earth, and we are able to watch as rocks, water, soil, and all the rest of creation makes up for the thousands of years they haven't been able to praise God! How incredible that will be, and how much we will probably regret what damage man's sin caused, not only to himself, but also to God and His creation!
But just as creation is stifled by that sin, so is our communication with God. Our spirits cannot adequately express to God what we wish to tell Him, nor can we hear Him as we should to determine His will for our lives. My commentary says that's why we often feel like there's a big question mark in our prayers. Yet God provides the interface -- the Holy Spirit steps in as our translator, making sure that what we pray, even when all we can do is groan, is what God would have us pray.
Our sin nature also seeks to put such guilt on us about our sin that we very often fail to accept the fact that, before the world was created, God not only knew we'd be here, but He also foreknew EVERYTHING ABOUT US. And warts and all, He planned for us to be called to Him. Because that was His plan, it cannot fail to happen!
Father, thanks again for revealing more of Your awesome majesty. As the song says, "Ain't no rock gonna shout out in my place!" I praise You for who You are!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 8:31-39 WHAT sin??
God has not only FORGIVEN them. He's also FORGOTTEN them.
It's been awfully easy in the past for Satan to try and shake my faith and make me doubt God's love for me. How did he do this? Mainly by trying to convince me that my sins weren't forgiven -- that things I've done somehow went beyond the bounds of what God would tolerate or be willing to give up His Son for on the cross.
"God did not spare His own Son but gave Him for ALL of us." God seemed to say, "Gary, that doesn't mean "all of you humans", but instead "all of you, Gary!"
My commentary dared us to follow the logic of what God did: "Jesus was His greatest gift. If He has already given us the greatest gift, is there any lesser gift that He will not give us?? If He has already paid the highest price, will He hesitate to pay any lower price?? If He has gone to such lengths to procure our salvation, will He EVER let us go??"
A man named Mackintosh said, "The language of unbelief is 'How shall He?' The language of faith is 'How shall He NOT??' "
Paul wants us to imagine a courtroom scene. We are the person on trial, but a dramatic shift has come. We stand before the bench as justified sinners. And a call goes out: "Are there any accusers?? No one, not even Satan himself, would dare to accuse someone if God has declared them justified. Another call -- "Who condemns him??" Jesus has been given all power to do this -- to judge the world -- but instead of condemning us, we see Him at God's side begging God for us! One last call: "Is there anyone who can banish the justified from the love of Christ?" Absolutely not! Nothing on earth or in heaven could pry us out of the hands of the most Holy and righteous God of the universe, because it cost Him so much to get us! The things Satan might foolishly try to use in fact only draw us closer to Him. It's not simply that we will triumph. We also bring glory to God, blessing to others, and good to ourselves. Through the power of Christ, we become super-conquerors!
Our worst enemy then becomes simply ourselves. Our unworthiness tries to overwhelm what we know in our hearts from these verses. That's when we have to remind ourselves that, what God has forgiven and forgotten, we can't hold onto. The past is gone. God doesn't remember it. He freely chooses not to. Therefore, if we come to God again about a sin that haunts us, grieves us, and makes us continue to feel unworthy, but which He has forgiven us, God will answer, "What sin???"
Father, thank You for bringing me to the point in my life where I've heard You answer me with "What sin??" It helped me to let go of it, knowing You have, and that You no longer hold it against me. What a weight You've lifted off my shoulders!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 9 -- No, God ISN'T Unfair
He's JUST
I struggled for a very long time with the thought that God had to be unfair. I now know that I had a very incomplete knowledge of God (not that it's complete now) and I was also giving human beings much more credit than they were due.
My commentary did an awesome job of sowing that "the same Bible that teaches God's sovereign election also teaches human responsibility." Our minds are incapable of grasping, much less fully understanding, much of this. For instance, the question is asked, "How can God choose individuals to belong to Himself and at the same time make a bona fide offer of salvation to all people everywhere?" My commentary says, "These twin truths are like two parallel lines that meet only in infinity."
Because we have such mental and spiritual limitations, whenever we fail to be able to resolve such issues, our sin nature attempts to lead us to the conclusion that God must be unfair.
Perhaps the best and shortest example I saw was in verse 21 when Paul is speaking about the potter and the clay. The commentary says, "The clay is sinful, lost humanity. If the Potter (God) left it ALONE, it would all be sent to hell. He would be absolutely just and fair if He left it alone. But instead He sovereignly selects a handful of sinners, save them by His grace, and conforms them to the image of His Son."
Also, "God's sovereignty is never exercised in condemning men who ought to be saved, but rather it has resulted in salvation of men who ought to be lost."
Father, forgive me for the times I doubted You, when in my stupidity I called You unfair. Thank You for molding and shaping this lump of clay that deserved nothing and for continuing to conform it to the image of Christ. I know better now -- only because You chose to show me.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 10 -- Nuggest of pure gold
about salvation
Paul was making some incredibly detailed points about his Jewish brethren and why they should not hesitate to accept the Gospel, yet still they did. But there are wonderful verses in the middle of it all that I like to think of as my personal nuggets of the Gospel:
"The Word is near you; it is in your mouth AND in your heart." -- That speaks so much to me about how available Christ is for salvation. We don't have to go on a pilgrimage or get a degree to be saved. He's right there waiting for us to call out to Him.
"Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disappointed." -- It's a scary thing to completely trust someone else, mainly because we know ourselves too well, and we know that we have agendas which might run contrary to the good of someone trusting in us. Yet it's not that way with Christ. Our trust is very well placed.
"Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved." -- We don't have to worry that we will ask and He will say "No." We don't have to fear being rejected, because Christ died for us while we were God's enemies. He sees us, warts and all, and loves us anyway.
"I was found by those who were not asking Me for help. I made Myself known to people who were not looking for Me." -- I always marvel that God's actions remind me of the sign which reads, "Backdoor neighbors are the best!" because God never seems to come in through the front door, where we'd expect Him to, but almost always He takes the backdoor and moves when and where we least expect Him to. In this case, unbelievers might show up for a totally different reason to an event, not at all expecting to react to and accept the Gospel, yet God tugs at their hearts through something they hear and that tug moves them to accept His Son's sacrifice for them.
Father, thank You for letting me find You all through my day, even when I'm not looking for You. Thank You that You made Yourself known to me so that I could be with You someday!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 11 -- The Tragic Results Of Judicial Blindness
not hearing from God
In verse 8, Paul quoted from Isaiah and Deuteronomy: "God gave the people a dull mind so they could not understand. He closed their eyes so they could not see and their ears so the could not hear."
I know that sounds very harsh. My commentary says about this chapter that "we see two great contrasting facets of God's character -- His goodness and His severity. His severity is manifest in the removal of Israel from favored-nation status. His goodness is seen in His turning to the Gentiles with the Gospel."
Those who become willfully disobedient should naturally expect discipline from God, and I experienced what verse 8 described in my own life. In the midst of judicial blindness, you of course have no idea that it is occurring, but how well I remember asking my Sunday School class, "How do you hear from God? I want to know, because I can't say that I do hear Him!" That should have been the red flag in my life, but because of my judicial blindness, I couldn't even see that.
I find now a special concern for those who end up in the same bind. Unfortunately, it is tough, if not impossible, to override what God has ordained. Only God knows how far down a person must go before he is finally willing to look up to God for help.
I never again want to experience the loss of my close communion with God. Now that I know and understand what that emptiness means, I'm spurred on to keep the channels open and operating daily.
Father, thank You for Your severity, for without it, I might never have discovered what life was like without hearing from You. Thank You for that emptiness that spurred me onward to come back to You. Let me never need to experience it again.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 12 -- Turning mental discipline into reflex actions
only with God's help
Paul tells us how to live so that our behavior will be worshipful to God. The amazing thing about it as I read it today was that there's really more internal work to do than external.
The "offering" we give of our lives should be only to God it says, and my commentary picked up on that word "only" and speaks of the total commitment it implies as being our reasonable service. The reason that total commitment is not overboard but really reasonable is because if Christ died for me, then the least I can do it to live for Him. That's reasonable!
About the internal work: We need a yielded body, a separated life, and a transformed mind to know God's will. "We'll then find that, instead of being distasteful and hard, His will is good and acceptable and perfect," according to my commentary.
The next things Paul mentions can cause us to cringe, but they are vital to renewing our thinking:
1) never have exaggerated ideas of our own importance
2) never be envious of others
3) be happy with the place God's put us
4) seek to exercise our gifts with all the strength God supplies
5) Make sure our love is sincere and without hypocrisy, showing tender affection and not cool indifference or routine acceptance
6) be patient during our troubles
7) continuing always in prayer -- it brings power to our lives and peace to our hearts
8) resist the urge for vengeance
9) don't be wise in our own opinion (note that this is a repeat of #1)
10) don't be needlessly provocative or contentious
11) don't be overcome by evil.
On that last one, two quotes really rang out this morning:
"If my bad temper puts you in a bad temper, you have been overcome of evil"
Also, from George Washington Carver: "I will never let another man ruin my life by making me hate him."
Mental exercises are probably the toughest, but to be effective they must be done on a regular basis. Paul wants us to make them more a reflex action than anything else, so a part of us that they occur without thinking.
Father, I can remember a time when I thought Your will was distasteful and hard. You had lots of renewing to do on my mind, and I'm not there yet. Please develop in me the reflexes that will enable me to live in such a way that my behavior will be worshipful to You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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