The Gospel

“A Substitute has appeared in space and time, appointed by God Himself, to bear the weight and the burden of our transgressions, to make expiation for our guilt, and to propitiate the wrath of God on our behalf. This is the gospel.”

— R. C. Sproul

Fitting Together the Ultimate Act of Love

I’m gonna kick out a couple of these today. I just like to write down my thoughts concerning each verse =)



Day 3 – The Law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent His own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours is sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:3

The ultimate act of love. By ourselves we’re goners, absolutely nothing we can do can help us escape sin’s control over us. It was impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. He devised a different plan to save us, sure it would have been easy to make this species that obeyed and did whatever He wanted mindless…but where’s the glory in that? God devised a plan of ULTIMATE glory. Make these creatures KNOWING they will turn from me and loving them anyway then sending my Son as a sacrifice for their sins so that they can choose to be with me forever. It’s amazing.

Day 4 – He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Romans 8:4

Upon first several readings of this verse my thought was “God is not bound by laws. There are no requirements for God” but then I found it. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us. Before Christ came we had to sacrifice animals. It’s not what He wanted and it’s not how he created us, but after the fall took place innocent blood needed to be shed in order to forgive sins. When Christ came his innocent blood was shed once for ALL. You, me, that guy over there, EVERYONE. Those who want to follow the Spirit instead of the sinful nature now have an option to accept this sacrifice that God sent and honor it with their lives. Again….so amazing. It’s like watching puzzle pieces fit together.

Emotions

One of the worst things about being a girl: High flying EMOTIONS. Ugh. I hate when I feel like my emotions are taking me over, a mutiny is what that is. I once read that my feelings are not reality and I try to keep that in mind when I feel like I'm insane. Anger and frustration are big ones for me. It's a family thing apparently. One thing sets me off and I'm through but it only lasts for MAYBE a day. We also throw things, that's fun. My cousin and I were just talking the other day about our habits when we're angry. Apparently it skipped a generation and we inherited our grandmother's love of throwing things, lucky us.

BUT that is not why I'm writing this. I read this today and it hit close..

"Our words can only treat the symptoms. Only God can heal the disease of uncontrolled emotions...Something makes us furious; then someone tries to "talk some sense into us." We feel a little better and pledge to put our anger away forever. Then, here it comes again with the power of gale-force winds. Our emotions negatively ignited can be more powerful than we are. Our best recourse when negative emotions begin controlling us is to fall before the throne of grace and seek God. Take solace in the fact that Christ knows how it feels to be tempted by feelings (Heb 2:18; 4:15)"

yeah....it got me.

Restoring Beauty to His Bride

“Let us suppose, in the manner of some romances, that a king was betrothed to a beautiful wife, whose picture was sent to him before he himself saw her. But when she set out on her journey to him, she fell sick of some loathsome disease, such as the smallpox or leprosy.
But suppose that he knew before she came to him that she should be restored to her first primitive beauty, and that even though he knew he would be troubled by her disaster, distemper, or disease, he easily quieted himself for that little space of time in which her infirmity, though greatly disfiguring her, was to continue. For he himself would be her physician, the only one who could cure her and restore her to her first perfect beauty, which he know he could and should do. Thus he would show all love and peace toward her, even though her disease was loathsome, in full hope of her recovery.

This is the case between Christ and the church.”

— Thomas Goodwin

A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

Free from Sin and Condemation

Today I’m taking on a MAJOR endeavor, memorizing Romans 8. Sojourn Community Church has broken down the chapter so that you memorize over the 40 days of Lent. Needless to say I’m pretty freaking stoked. Pretty sure it’s not normal to be this excited to memorize Scripture. Memorization has been an obstacle that I’ve been trying to surpass for a while now. It is one of those commands that I just passed over. But after memorizing some verses I find that years and months later those verses still come to me, ESPECIALLY when I need them.

I’m a tad late so I’ll be memorizing the first three verses today, which won’t be so bad.
Not only do I want to memorize this beautiful piece of Gospel, I want to meditate on it and hide it in my heart. So that is where this nifty blog comes in.



Day One: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus”
Rom 8:1

This one sentence is SO powerful. You can’t screw this up. You can’t get on my bad side. You belong to Christ Jesus. We’re cool. I’m so thankful for this fact because if there were a way to screw this up…I would find it. But I can’t. I belong to Christ Jesus so there is no condemnation for me, in my past, my present OR my future. But as Paul says “Does this mean we should keep on sinning, NO!” My love calls me to obey. I strive to obey because I love Him.



Day 2: “For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death” Rom 8:2
I see it like this:
Power of Sin --> Death
Power of Spirit --> Life
Power of Spirit > Power of Sin
Hmmm…what to choose.
This verse is also a wonderful reminder to me personally. I struggle with many sins that I just can’t seem to get ahead of. The Spirit’s power is bigger than that, GOD is bigger than my sin. I can’t get ahead of it but God can. And He can not only get ahead of it but CONQUER it. Through Christ I. AM. FREE. Woot.

Obedience and Submission

“But Samuel replied, ‘What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is more pleasing than sacrifice and submission is better than offering the fat of rams” – 1 Sam 15:22




This is one lesson that thousands of years later we still have yet to get through our skulls. So many times I catch myself doing and doing and doing for God, thinking that by these things I gain favor. Then I catch myself. Nothing I do makes my sin less despicable, absolutely NOTHING. The other day I read about 20 men gang raping an 11 year old. I was sick to my stomach. Even thinking about it now makes me sick. And as I prayed for that little girl and for those men God reminded me that my sin is just as horrible to him. It may have different consequences and a lower degree on earth but to Him my sin makes him sick. He loves them just as much as He loves me. I hope He reminds me more often so I can try to wrap my mind around just how much I need a Savior.

Innocent blood needed to be shed in order to cover the people’s sin so God commanded sacrifice. But He doesn’t need dead lambs and first fruits. Nothing we give Him can come remotely close to redeeming ourselves. We are a lost cause. That’s why Christ is SO amazing. He covered us. His perfection stands in front of our imperfection. He gave up His life so that we may have life and live it to the fullest that is why when we accept Christ our life is no longer our own. We give up our sinful ways to God and trust Him to mold and shape us into His image.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship Romans: 12:1

How do we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice? By obedience and submission to the Lord. And we’ve come full circle =)

Love that Surpasses Knowledge

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and love and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love surpasses all knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God -- Ephesians 3:16-19

The more my heart says that verse, the more I can feel his love and strength in me. I know I don't grasp this love that surpasses knowledge, but one day I hope to get an idea of it...and I hope you do to.



God's strength makes me feel like this =)