No, You May NOT Sin to Glorify God

Romans 3:1-8 is the Biblical answer to those who want to blame God for their sins or those who want to say they didn't have the opportunity that someone else may have had to know God. Our unrighteousness serves to show God's righteousness. If our sin leads to the glory of God and His righteousness, it doesn't mean that sin is okay or that the sin itself glorified God. It's the fact that sin can point to other attributes of God's righteousness and holiness. We will still pay the consequences for our sins and without Christ we would die for eternity in Hell.

I think this section of scripture is for people who are more philosophical than I am. I can't really get my mind to think that God is responsible for sin. I can agree that He allows it. I can agree that He orchestrates events that lead men to sin and that he uses man's sins to bring glory to Himself and work out His will and plan. But God is holy, perfect, pure. He does not sin and does not allow sin in His presence. Sin points to how complete and perfect His holiness and righteousness are. Sin also allows us to understand His mercy, grace, and love.

Praise God for His Righteousness.

Live As God Desires, Not As You Do

Romans 2:14 -29 needs to be read. It's hard to break down into my own words, so I'm going to broadly explain it. This section of scripture talks about Jews and Gentiles. I'm going to talk about it as though it is all men because the gospel is for all men. Gentiles did not have the law and Jews did. But salvation doesn't come from knowing the law. Men who live as the law requires become a law unto themselves. On judgment day, God will judge the secrets of men. Men who do have the law often preach it and talk about it but don't live it themselves. Verse 23, "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law."

Don't be a hypocrite! Don't claim to know God's law and then live the opposite way. YIKES!!!! I need God's hand in this. I am nothing but a hypocrite. I am realizing more and more that my life is being wasted. I'm not a light in this dark world. I make things even darker with my life and methods of living. I desperately need God to rule my life, my thoughts, my actions. Only giving myself over to God fully can effect the changes I need to make. Only God can effect that change.

"God, You are Holy. You are Righteous. You are Perfect. You are Pure. You are The Judge. God, I need forgiveness of sins. I need You in my life. I need Your hand on my heart, and I need one over my mouth. I need You to fill all my thoughts and control all my actions. I am desperate for You to rule in my life every minute, every day. Fill me with Your Spirit. Mold me into the man You desire me to be. Use me to draw people to Your amazing grace. Grant me patience, grace, humility, and LOVE. Give me a love for people and a longing to lead them to Your grace."

Pardon the Interruption

Man, I'm having a hard time writing these days. It's not from lack of trying. But I can't seem to make sense with what I'm trying to write.

I have to find a different time to try and write. Sorry, this blog is struggling lately. Bare with me as I try to figure out what to do.

God's Judgement and the Law

I've written two updates to my last prayer request and not posted them. But I can't seem to move on with my devotions without saying something. So, ask me in a private email and I'll tell you all about it.

Romans 2:12-13 talks about judgment and the law. The Jews had the law (plus another set of traditions they had to follow), and the Gentiles didn't have the law, as they were not God's chosen people. But Christ saved both Jews and Gentiles according to their faith in Him. At judgment, we are going to be judged not on whether we heard the law and knew it, but rather if we lived the law and did what the law requires. Now, the law in this case is God's moral law or the ten commandments. Those people who had access to it, both Jews and some Gentiles, will be judged based on there knowledge of the law. Those who did not have access to the law will be judged on the actions of their heart, as God has revealed His truths to all in nature. We, here in America, know the 10 commandments pretty well, as this our country was founded on similar principals and by spiritual people. This was, and still is, a Christian country.

Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments
1And God spoke all these words, saying,
2"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3"You shall have no other gods before me.
4"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13"You shall not murder.
14"You shall not commit adultery.
15"You shall not steal.
16"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Remember these commandments apply today too. After reading them, I feel convicted.

Praise God for the Law.
Praise God for His Righteous Judgment.
Praise God for His Grace.

A Prayer Request - 2

Today I have a meeting with the Captain of the jail. It's not necessarily about "getting my job back" but it has more to do with figuring out what happened and trying to learn from that. He was kind enough to set a meeting with me to discuss what happened and what I need to do for the future. Obviously I still miss that line of work and would like to be there again, but this is just the beginning of trying to figure out what went so wrong.

I ask that you pray that God reveals His will for my life in the meeting today. I'd love to know what direction to head in. If it's with the bank, I need help in enjoying my job. If there's something I can do with law enforcement, I would like to feel confident in that. And, if God has another plan for my life, pray that He reveals it to me. I want to do God's will. I want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. However I can do that best with my career, I need God's help in knowing where that is.

For now, enjoy this Psalm sent to me by a friend. It fits with the Romans study and is an old testament look at God's character with similar wickedness. God never changes.

Psalm 73
BOOK THREE
God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
A Psalm of Asaph.
1Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11And they say, "How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
12Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

God's Righteous Judgment - Part 2

Today's passage is a little toned down from yesterday. Romans 2:6-11 begins by telling us God will "render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." I first thought "seek for glory and honor and immortality" sounded a little like searching for self gratifying things. But after reading further and seeing that self-seeking people are going to receive wrath and fury, I looked harder at what it meant to seek glory and honor and immortality. It is so important to put the whole thing into perspective with the rest of God's Word and the context of the passage. First, we know that salvation is not by works but by faith and the grace of God's calling. So, those who are believers by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality. The only true glory and honor is Heaven in the presence of God for eternity as immortals. We must seek that out. Otherwise, we would live as unbelievers, self-seeking and not obeying the truth. And from that comes wrath and fury...Hell.

Verse 9 "There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil..." Verse 10 "but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good."

God is great and judges without partiality. He is our great God and Creator. Honor Him with your life.

Praise God for His Word.

God's Righteous Judgment - Part 1

So far Romans has been a wake-up call. Today it get plain scary. Chapter 2 starts by telling us that we have no excuse for our sin. We pass judgment on others when we are involved in the same sins. If we think back to the list from my last entry on God's Wrath, we all fall into sins listed in Romans 1:28-31. And we all pass judgment on someone else and that/those persons' sin. If it seemed as though I was passing judgment on homosexuals in the past few blog entries, although homosexuality is a sin and is wrong, it is no worse than the sin I commit. In the same passages about dishonest passions and homosexuality, comes the list of things Paul said are decreed by God to lead to death. "They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." Envy, deceit, gossip, slander, haughty, boastful, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. There's a list of sins proving I'm deserving of death, yet I pass judgment on others and their sin.

That's why I said chapter 2 is "plain scary." Verses 3-4 says, "Do you suppose, O man - you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself - that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" I think far too many "Christians" presume on the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience. I think too often we use the, "my sins are forgiven" card and allow ourselves to continue in sin. WE WHO LIVE WITH HARD, IMPENITENT HEARTS STORE UP WRATH FOR OURSELVES ON THE DAY OF WRATH, WHEN GOD'S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT WILL BE REVEALED. That's a paraphrase of verse 5, but it's a wake up call to think that I sin, but pass judgment on others and their sin, to make myself look as though I'm better. If we are not broken over our own sin, we are probably not saved. If we remain in a life of sin, we are probably not saved. And without brokenness, without turning from sin, we are storing up wrath and on that day of judgment where We will hear, "depart from me, I never knew you." STOP living a lie. Turn from all your sin and lean on God. Realize God's patience and kindness is given for a time, to lead you to repentance. God's judgment will fall on those who do not turn from their own sin, but instead, sit back in judgment of others.

Praise God for His Patience and Kindness.