I think Romans chapter 8 is one of the most encouraging sections of scripture. And boy can we use some encouragement right now.
It is so sad to see so many suffering from the effects of the Covid virus. Many, many people have lost work and income. Many children are not able to attend school in person. Abuse has increased. And many people have died or have otherwise physically suffered from this virus. It is very easy and very natural to be discouraged and worried right now. But for Christians at least, we need to cling to the fact that present circumstances do not alter the future promise that God has made.
One day, there will be no need to fear death from a virus or anything else. We will be made perfect in the coming Kingdom! That is the hope talked about in Chapter 8, and it is a hope that can not be taken from us.
Until that day comes, be encouraged, fellow believers, in the words Paul shares here. Verse 28 says, 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. That’s encouraging! That doesn’t mean everything will be perfect as we want it to be, but God, in His infinite wisdom knows what is best for our own good even if we do not.
Verse 31b – If God is for us, who can be against us? That is a great statement. What God has put in motion is unstoppable. No one will stop God’s plans, and God’s plans include YOU!
Yes, this pandemic stinks. And it doesn’t seem the end of it is super soon. But we have a certain hope in that coming day, and nothing can take that hope away or prevent that day from coming. Likewise, these momentary troubles can not separate us from the love of Christ. Paul tells us in verse 37 that in regards to these troubles we are “more than conquerors.” We WILL get through these momentary troubles. For that is all they are, in the bigger picture.
Finally, chapter 8 concludes with more incredible encouragement:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.
I hope that is as encouraging for you as it is for me. Take these passages to heart. Remember them when the world seems to be against you or, as now, the world seems to be falling apart. Remember that your creator, your Father, your God is FOR YOU! And nothing can take that, or His future promise for you, away.
-Greg Landry
Today’s Bible reading passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Romans 8-10.
Welcome back to our final chapters in 1st Corinthians!
Chapter 15 must be one of the most powerful and hopeful chapters that Paul has written. There is no one that can leave this chapter feeling defeated with a message taunting Death asking “Where is your victory? Where is your sting?” (15:55). We have a victory in Christ that no one can stop, not even something that feels as permanent and powerful as death.
This year has brought many challenges. People have experienced financial struggles, people have dealt with severe illnesses and deaths, people have experienced mental and emotional turmoil, people have disagreed with those they are closest to, people have felt betrayed, silenced, oppressed, offended, and defeated. It is so easy this year to become discouraged, and no one would blame anyone if they did not focus on something as far away as the Kingdom.
But that focus on the Kingdom must be at the front of our minds daily, because without it, the darkness that is this world today will all too easily take over our own life. Paul calls us to be steadfast, immovable, working enthusiastically for the Lord, and knowing that our work is not in vain (15:58).
In a world where so often the struggles and challenges we face are in front of us due to someone else’s choices, it can be incredibly uplifting to remember that Jesus will abolish all of the rule and power on earth, God will put the enemies under his feet, and our world will be at peace for the first time since the fall of man. There is a point where things will be made perfect, and those who have committed themselves to Christ will have an opportunity to experience that perfection.
What strikes me while reading these passages is how even when though this was written to a specific church however many hundreds of years ago, the message has never changed and is incredibly applicable in 2020. Our God is unchanging, despite our world changing so rapidly away from Him. In this changing world we must put our faith, trust, and hope in an unchanging God. I don’t care how cheesy that sounds!
So where does Paul leave the church in this letter? He doesn’t just finish with a message of hope. True to form, Paul gives the church one more reality check in chapter 16. Verse 13 says “Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.” To me that message is one that you leave when you know something’s coming… Paul wasn’t finishing on a happy-go-lucky victory note because he knows that the victory doesn’t come without a battle. As we grow closer and closer to Christ’s return, we can expect our world to continue to fall. Yes, we have a hope. Yes, that hope should carry us through the hard times. And yes, we should be ready for a spiritual fight.
We shouldn’t be living in fear of the battle, because we already know the outcome. We should be living with the intention of being on the winning side. When we are confidently standing with the winner, we should be finding everyone else we can to bring them to victory as well. That is our mission.
I am so excited to jump into 2nd Corinthians with you all tomorrow! Until then, My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.
-Sarah Blanchard
Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – 1 Corinthians 15-16
Tomorrow we will begin 2 Corinthians (chapters 1-4).
1 Thessalonians 1:3 – We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Work Produced by Faith
Faith is defined as having a firm belief, complete trust and confidence in something. As a Believer, our faith is determined by the extent of which we believe that God is who He says He is and that His son, Jesus the Messiah, was born of a woman, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for the redemption of your sins, was raised to life, is currently sitting on a throne next to his Father, waiting to return again to reign in the Kingdom. IF you and I believe all of that – then our day to day life will be a compilation of evidence of acts done in faith and by faith.
James makes the claim in the third chapter of his letter “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1) that “in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (3:17). And in verse 26 of the same chapter, James writes, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead”.
The Thessalonians didn’t just accept the gospel message, they acted on it. Jesus was both their Savior and their Lord, meaning that they were obedient to the call on their lives. They were doing the work that God had prepared in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:10). Likewise, when we accept the gospel message for ourselves, we have to respond. Jesus tells us in the book of Luke that we must take up our cross (do the work) and follow him (9:23).
Labor Prompted by Love
Mark 12:30 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”. Have you ever wondered why these four domains are identified? Have you ever loved someone so much that there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do for them? You sacrifice all that you have in order to serve them, sacrifice for them, and labor for them. In the following verse, we’re told to love our neighbors as ourselves. Sacrificing ourselves for family members and close friends is one thing…serving and laboring for others beyond our closest relationships is quite another.
This is why we’re told to love with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength – because it’s not easy. Sometimes loving another is labor. It’s hard work. It’s humbling ourselves by putting our own desires off to the side in order to honor others. But it’s what we are called to do. And it is possible if we lean into the strength that is provided through our faith in Christ.
Endurance Inspired by Hope
One of my favorite types of exercise is a 20 minutes HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout. I like it because I don’t have to do it everyday, it’s quick, and efficient. And I get to rest for almost half of the time during the “down” intervals. If I were ever called upon to do something that took longer than 20 minutes, I would be gassed! I do not have the endurance for it. And I have no enthusiasm to train for it!
Walking out your faith knee deep in “works produced by faith” and “labor promoted by love” is not for the faint of heart! It’s not a one time deal. And unlike my HIIT workouts, it’s an all-day, everyday kind of commitment – for a lifetime! This requires an endurance that cannot be faked nor manufactured. The only source for the necessary fuel to keep this faith-centered life going is HOPE. A hope that has a foundation on the love God has for us. When we stay zeroed in to that – we are able to dig deep and and go the distance. As Paul says in his second letter to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. We can have a FULL life that gives us the endurance needed to do the good works.
The Christian life is not for the wimpy. In this single verse out of 1 Thessalonians, we are told that we must work, labor, and endure. I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t seem very comfy. It’s not a life of luxury and indulgence. The ONLY way that we will be able to sustain this day to day living is doing so out of Faith, Love, and Hope. May these virtues fill your heart today.
Jesus – how well do we really know him? It is easy to look at passages like today’s and quickly dismiss them as familiar. Oh, yeah, this is where he talks about the parables of the Kingdom of God for awhile, drives out a bunch of demons (whatever those are), calms the storm and heals some people. He was a pretty cool guy.
Indeed, but if we look at these stories more closely can we learn anything that we might not have caught back in our preschool Sunday School days when we may have first heard these amazing and true stories of the Son of God. I enjoyed reading the Wiersbe NT Bible Commentary that pointed out in these chapters of Mark we see that, “God’s servant, Jesus Christ, is the Master of every situation and the Conqueror of every enemy.” (p101). We see him provide victory over danger (the storm), demons, disease and even death! In a world that still has some very real issues with fear, anxiety and worry (and maybe even demons?) – we would do well to take a closer look at this man Jesus – as well as how people responded to him when they were face-to-face with this one-of-a-kind conquering hero servant.
To help me look at Jesus more deeply, I made a chart of what Jesus DID in these passages – his actions and how he responded to various people (and demons). And, then, as I am also interested in how I ought to respond to Jesus – I included how a broad range of people reacted to Jesus, his teachings and what they personally experienced.
My Jesus column included things like:
Jesus saw – both the crowd and then also individual needs
He touched – Peter’s mother-in-law and Jairus’ daughter
He taught – to the crowd in parables and with further explanations for his followers
He slept – in the boat, through the storm (even though we also know some nights he stayed up praying all night)
He spoke – and the demons obeyed
He went with Jairus
He knew power had gone out from him
He ignored what others said (regarding the girl being dead or asleep)
I love the presence of this man. Not shaken by a storm or by a legion of demons (in the Roman army a legion was a group of 6,000 men) or by sickness or even by the science of death or by those who would argue or laugh at him. He knew what they didn’t. He knew he was the Son of God and God would use him to display God’s greatness and power and compassion and wisdom.
And some people (and demons) of his day would see this – and react in different ways. So, on my chart of how others responded to Jesus I included things like:
Peter’s healed mother-in-law – Got up and began to wait on him
Those who heard of Jesus – Brought demon-possessed and sick to Jesus
Teacher of the law – Vowed to follow Jesus
Disciples – Followed him; amazed at Jesus; still terrified – even AFTER the winds and waves obeyed Jesus; questioned who Jesus was (needed to know!)
Demons – Begged Jesus; recognized Jesus as the Son of the Most High God; and had no choice but to obey him
Those who saw the changed life of the formerly possessed man – Scared of Jesus; pleaded with Jesus to leave the area
The man formerly possessed by “Legion” – Begged Jesus to let him go with Jesus – but followed Jesus’ direction to stay and tell others of what Jesus had done for him
Jairus (synagogue ruler with a very ill 12 year old daughter) – Fell at Jesus’ feet; pleaded earnestly for his sick daughter
Poor, sick, desperate woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and spent all she had on doctors who only made her worse – Found Jesus; secretly touched his clothes, confident this would heal her; when healed and Jesus questioned – she fell at his feet, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth
Mourners – Laughed at Jesus
Jairus’ 12 Year Old Daughter – Raised from the dead and walked around
Even though these events happened 2,000 years ago, there are still those who laugh at Jesus, and those who don’t understand and ask him to leave. I pray our eyes are opened and we spend more and more time, “completely astonished” at what he has done. May we turn to Jesus again and again when we are hurt, scared, fearful, spiritually unhealthy, haunted by demons, and in need of wisdom and hope. May we bring our friends and family to him for healing. May we be active and vocal in serving him and telling of what he has done. And, like the disciples who watched him calm the storm, may we remain a bit terrified at what he can and will do. His reign is not over, in many ways it has not even truly begun. The best is yet to come.
Obviously we can’t take just one passage (of which we still have only brushed the surface) and say we know all there is to know about Jesus. There is still so much more. The things we have already read, like how he told the healed paralyzed man to, “Go and sin no more.” and the stern warnings he had for the ‘holier than thou’ Pharisees. As well as all the exciting things we have yet to read in the coming months and days – washing the feet of his disciples, his prayer for those who will believe, the agony of his crucifixion, the victory of his resurrection, the mystery of his ascension and the completely astonishing coming return of Jesus. Now is the time to get to know him and share him. The best is yet to come!
Tomorrow we will read Matthew 9 & 10. Come follow along as we learn more and more about Jesus and how we can respond to him, on our Bible reading plan…
Seek Grow Love 