pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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In All Things

Reading: Romans 8: 31-39

Verse 37: In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Paul opens our passage with a great question.  He asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us”?  He opens this section with a question and the answer leads to his first point.  That point is that if God have His only Son then He will certainly give us anything else we need too.  God is our ultimate good Father who will give us all good things because He loves us.

The next question, who will condemn, is asked in a similar way – to set up the answer.  It is a legitimate question because in our lives we do much that deserves condemnation from a God who is perfect in all ways.  But condemnation is not what we receive.  Instead we receive forgiveness and love.  Instead of being condemned by the one who was without sin, we are defended by Jesus.  Jesus intercedes for us before the Father.  He who has walked in our shoes speaks up for us in heaven.

The third question has the best answer.  Paul asks, “Who will separate us from the love of God”?  The answer is quite a list.  In reality the answer is nothing can separate us.  Paul lists some of the common things that can separate us – persecution, famine, danger, nakedness, death, demons, worry about the future.  Tying back into our recent parables, these are the thorns and weeds along our path.  Yet when we remain faithful and keep our hope and trust in God, we find that nothing can separate us from the love of God we find in Jesus Christ.  It is a deep and eternal love.  It is an everlasting and encompassing love.  It is a love for which I am very grateful.

The God who is for us, the God who gives forgiveness instead of condemnation, brings us victory.  “In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”.  Thank you God for the victory.


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Welcoming God

Reading: Acts 11: 11-18

Peter at first was hesitant to see how God’s love and grace could extend outside the Israelites.  Centuries of being “God’s chosen people” and many laws and practices that kept the Israelites separate from all other people were all that Peter knew.  History had shown that times of intermarriage and forming alliances always Drew the Israelites away from God.

Yet when he felt led by the Holy Spirit, Peter listened to something new.  He chose to follow where he felt God was leading him.  Peter’s powerful experience at Pentecost had changed him.  Through the subsequent indwelling of the Spirit, Peter was being transformed from the inside out.  The old was being removed as God was at work within Peter to help him more fully understand the vast scope and reach of God’s love.

Change was hard for Peter.  It went against what he knew and was comfortable with.  Each of us do not like change either.  But often change is for the good.  In the end, Peter comes to see that God loves all people, not just the Israelites.  He set aside what he knew to welcome in what God knew.

Today in church we will ask people to do just this.  Two services that sing hymns will be asked to sing praise songs.  Three services that rarely see dramas will be asked to wrestle with a skit that challenges with a difficult message.  People that are used to adults preaching will be asked to hear the Word proclaimed by two high school Seniors.  It will be something new, something different.  But moved by God’s presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will worship together and will each meet God in a powerful way.  For this I say, thanks be to God!