Romans 12: 2

I suppose I will start out with the verse… “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect…”. Though the whole verse is very good i am going to concentrate on only one section of it… “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God” This is a remarkable verse to me. I seem to, regardless of the situation, contemplate whether or not it is in God’s will. Not saying that contemplating your future and where God can use you is a bad thing. However, I think it can very easily lead to complacency. We start giving excuses as to why we are not pursuing things… Okay, so back to the verse…. It says “That by testing”, what i think of when the word test is brought to mind is an exam, particularly school exam. What is one thing you do before an exam, you study. You study the material that will help you pass the test. O. K. but now instead of there being a human fabricated text to study we are fortunate to have God’s very own word. His Word guides us perfectly, and should be the main source we compare or align our lives to or under.

The other inevitable part of testing is failure. However unlike studying spiritual failure is not comparable too scholarly failure. It can be in the sense of not have the biblical knowledge or knowhow it certain situations but that is not how we are going to be looking at it. This failure is for the sake of Christ. This possibly sounds very odd because of the traditional thinking of, ‘if you are in His will there will be not failure’ and this statement is true if you have the proper definitions of “His will” and “failure”. A failure in Christ is actually a glorious one. The reason is because if you are acting in complete faith and love the experience of “failure” will only bring you closer to determining what his “true will” is. Earlier in Romans 8:28 it says ” and we know that in all things God works for good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” or His will. Like was said before if there is love for God and a desire to do his will, then ” failure is within His will. In essence i am saying there is not perfect plan for you life. You do not have to figure out things like whether this job or that job is in His will or this school our that school. You just have to love Him, have faith in Him, do everything for his glory, always rejoice, always pray and always submit to Him. Seems like a daunting task and it is and it is also why so many times we find ourselves not within His will for our lives. A friend of mine had a quote from Franklin once it said ” I have not failed’ Ive found 10,000 ways that don’t work” Though Franklin was not referring to Biblical matters his statement is right on. We don’t ever fail in following God’s will and long as we are following the Bible. This is how the idea “if you are in His will there will be not failure” is actually true if you are in His will, (His will now having a new definition) then you have the proper attitude to handle your “failure” and it will actually bring you closer to being able to more like Christ which is God’s will. However failure can sneak up on you very easily. In fact as soon as you have thought that you fail in following God’s will you have. Not because of the act of which you think is our side of His will, but for doubting that your “failure” won’t be used for good or for the lack of faith.

“You may discern what is the will of God” The bible lays it out clearly that his will is for us to glorify, pray, rejoice, thank Him, love Him and love others, then what is the use of discernment? It seems pretty clear what we are supposed to do, does it not? Of course it is not, we have to and need to discern every action that we take, making sure that we are truly is doing all those things to glorify him. Making sure that what we do is really loving for the other person. Wisdom can be defined as how we take God’s word and interpret it into our every day lives. How we take love and apply it to our friends our spouses our neighbors. We need to discern what is gossip and what is telling for the good of the person. I think as we go about our lives trying to discern theses “smaller things” we will see that they will guide the bigger situations in our lives like who to marry or court, what to do after high school and other big decisions along life’s road.

Realizing truth through friends…

I just got done reading a post written by a very good friend of mine. In it my friend recollected a conversation that we had over poverty verse prosperity. My friend wrote about how during the conversation my friend realized something. My friend’s thoughts were later brought up again during a devotional time when reading psalms 23. Where my friend was convicted and changed a previously thought about the subject. This is not the only time I have noticed my friend get convicted by things that are said, it seems to be a way of life. What i am trying to get to is that my friend has a quality in which a lot of us lack including myself. My friends is always listening always looking to improve self for the Glory and sake of Christ. This includes looking into people that maybe less spiritual mature then what my friend is. No matter the person my friend seems to look for something to learn from them. I personally have learned a lot from my friend and this is just one more area that my friend has unknowingly convicted me.

I just wanted you to know that

To the Glory and Praise of God…

I have stumbled across a verse, that I must admit has become one of my favorites. It has become this for a couple of reasons. One It deals with so many issues in just a few verses and two it gives me a generic lay out of what to pray for an individual person. This is the verse…
“And this is my prayer: that your love my abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.”
It starts out “And this is my prayer”. In this particular instance I think it could be translated ‘and this is what I wish for you’. Not meaning to negate the word “prayer”, because obviously wishing for a person won’t do any good. For me it is a humility factor, it shows concern and love. It makes me think upon the person that I am praying for as a brother or sister in Christ, instead of my worldly desire of wanting it to be a competition of ‘who can be a better Christian’. even though that idea seems like a childish misdemeanor, it is surprising how much I catch myself with those very thoughts. So for me making my attitude from the very beginning be an attitude to serve, in this case serve by prayer, is good way to achieve humility.
“That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” This is a little bit more difficult to explain my thoughts. I had trouble just taking portions of this out because you really need the whole thing for it to be significant. It says “that your love my abound” or that your love will be over flowing, or gushing. Then it goes on and says ” in knowledge and depth of insight” This completely changes the previous statement of “that your love may abound” It is not longer a mushy love or emotional love, but one that is rooted in knowledge and insight… But knowledge and insight of what?? In Proverbs 9: 10 it says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” We should have knowledge of the Holy One or our God and Savior. Why? because it allows us to have a true love that is not wholly based on emotions. It allows us to follow through with what 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us about love, no matter the person. Whether you are detested by them or you are completely infatuated with them. It allows you to act not in emotion but love for what is best for that person and that love should always steer them towards Christ.
“so that you may be able to discern what is best be pure and blameless until the day of Christ” As we see from before knowing who God is and what he has done for you allows you to be able to discern wisely. For me it is always my emotions, generally selfish ones, that get in my way of wise choices. If this love could be attained my discernment would not longer take the route of selfishness but selflessness and that love does cover a multitude of sins.
“Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” Through our faith and knowledge of Christ we produce…(not done yet)
“To the glory and praise of God” I love how Paul raps it up, bringing back to the point of pursuing this love. So that we are able to praise our God and show just a glimpse of His Glory. For any other reason our efforts are futile.

Romans 5

This occurred to me while reading Romans 5..

Since before God spoke the world into existence He knew… We as mere men. or at least I, seem to forget that God does not see the world in this present time, nor does he get caught up in the here and now. In fact there is no here and now, past or present for an always was always will be God. This idea of a non-time dependent God, gives us a dim reflection of the magnitude of which God loves us. Like was stated previously God Knew before he spoke the world into existence. He knew that through His very first man, sin would enter the world. He knew that man would be so corrupt that He would have to destroy nearly all of them. He knew that His chosen people would turn their backs on Him. That they would “worship the creation, instead of the Creator”. He knew that we having been tarnished with sin, could and would, no longer be worthy of His Glory. “but where sin increased, grace increased all the more”. God knew that he would have to send his one and only son as a humble baby destined to be mocked spit upon, beaten, bruised, falsely accused and crucified too suffer an eternity in Hell. He knew that at any moment he had the power to end it all. What is remarkable to me is that God saw all of this before he even spoke the world into existence and yet…He still spoke… That is love. The fact that God chose you knowing what kind of vile person you are, knowing before time literally began, and still chose you. Amazing isn’t it, how God choose us despite our wretchedness and even worse our hesitant faithfulness, but yet we seem to not be able to fully commit to him despite His perfect love and faithfulness.