So in this walk with God, we will all stumble. So I will stumble. I have to give myself credit for trying though. The last couple of days I have had issues getting to my Bible study. Friday morning, I was distracted and just couldn't get to it. So I tried again on Friday night. My Sabbath. I was able to read a chapter in Romans. I am currently on chapter 8. I read the chapter and got confused. I am not really sure why. Maybe I was still to distracted. I have had a heck of time concentrating too.
I tried again to concentrate on the Bible study this morning, same chapter actually. I ended up not getting but through a couple of verses. Arguing with my husband and children. Keeping them on task and then trying to get to church on time. I also noticed that I am incredibly irritable today. I don't know why, but it started yesterday too.
I went out of town on Wednesday and Thursday, had a very good time with a friend. But I realized when I got home how much I had to get done. I usually get down around the beginning of the month and this seems to go with it too. So I have been in a down mood and very moody to top it off. So then I guess I can see how it was hard to concentrate on my Bible study.
Today 3 people in my house are gone, while my other 2 children were watching a nice, Sabbath movie, I took a nap. After that I made cookies and then I did the same Bible study. I am still moody, but feel more able to deal with it now. I also spent some time in prayer with God. Some time in the Living Room. Some necessary time, to get myself back into acting like the Child of God I am.
I ended up using 3 versions of the Bible; a NIV, a NLT, and a KJV study Bible. I also used 2 online commentaries and a SDA Bible Commentary. I only made it through verse 17, but I understand it now, and that's all that matters. I actually went through it verse by verse and rewrote it in my own words. This really helped it to cement into my brain.
The gist of the first 17 verses of ch 8 of Romans is that because Jesus died for us on the cross, his sacrifice has released us from death in sin. We have life, if we live in Christ, according to the Spirit. We must put our old lives of sin to death and be raised up new in Christ. God has adopted us as his children and we are then heirs to his glory, along with Christ, but that also means that we share in his sufferings. This is still a continuation if you will notice of what was being said in ch. 7. The Good News is that Jesus died for us, for our sins, to free us from that sin, but the obligation is now on us to live a life in the Spirit. To truly become God's children in spirit as well as truth.
Now that I understand these verses more fully, I appreciate even more the sacrifice of Jesus. The other thing I liked about this in depth study technique, was the ability to compare other translations and to really delve deep into meanings of words. I also like, really like having a deeper understanding of the obligation I now hold in my body, mind and heart.
I did read ch. 7, while I was out of town and really found a lot in it and quite a bit I want to share with you, so I will post it later.
If you haven't read, really read Romans, then I really recommend you do so. There is a message of hope for Believers that is so reassuring.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Romans 6
So all of that to get to this...
Romans 6
Romans 6:22-23 "But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What promise in those words, what power and what potential!
These final 2 verses are the culmination in Paul's discussion on sin. He starts off asking if we should continue to sin now that we have been covered by grace. The answer is a resounding no! He goes on to explain that if we have been baptized in Christ then we have died to sin just as he did.
As I explained in the previous chapter I have been baptized twice, both by immersion. The SDA church believes that we are called to be baptized just as Christ was. In, Matt 3:13-17, John the Baptist, baptizes Christ in the Jordan river by immersion and when he emerges, he is blessed by God.
But if we take Paul's words in this chapter about dying with Christ in sin and being reborn in Christ, we can think about baptism this way. As Jesus died on the cross, so our sinful self dies with him as we are going under the water. As Jesus was buried in the tomb, so our sinful self is buried, while we are under the water. And just as Jesus rose from the dead, so we emerge from the water a new being; our sinful self dead and left behind. We are in union with Christ. Reborn.
So if like Christ we have died to sin, then we cannot go on to sin, even if we are covered by grace. Does that mean that we wont sin again? Most likely not, we are all human and we will slip up. It does mean that we have a way back and that God is calling to us, especially if you have been baptized in Christ.
I mentioned that I wasn't as committed to Christ as I should have been. I wasn't ready to trust him in a relationship of the magnitude required. But he was working on my heart. He knew what I needed, I just wasn't ready to listen. I never fell into the life I could've because I could feel his call. this kind of ache just at my heart, or like a string being tugged.
But remember one sin has the domino effect. You will justify the one and then the next and then the next, until you are in deep and have to dig your way out. (Remember, no matter how deep, you can always get out, Jesus is there to give you his hand). Its a slippery slope down the wrong road. That is why Paul tells us not to let sin reign. He reminds us that we have a new master and must obey him., "when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness" (6:16).
While sin did not have full reign over me, it was gaining ground, when I was LED to the book and class and Women of Faith. God used those to put me back where he wants me. Obeying him. A slave to God. What a word picture that is. The loving master, who has my best interests at heart, and I am a slave to that! Just saying it makes me feel good.
So I have a question for you - Which one are you? Are you a slave to sin? Are you still trying to justify your sins and sinful life. Or are you like me and becoming a slave to the LIVING God? Have you taken responsibility for your actions and then given them to God to take away, to cover?
God has given us free will, and it is a choice. But it is one we must make. I choose God. I have to do this every day. I have to recommit my life, my thoughts, my words, and my actions. Which will you choose?
Romans 6
Romans 6:22-23 "But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What promise in those words, what power and what potential!
These final 2 verses are the culmination in Paul's discussion on sin. He starts off asking if we should continue to sin now that we have been covered by grace. The answer is a resounding no! He goes on to explain that if we have been baptized in Christ then we have died to sin just as he did.
As I explained in the previous chapter I have been baptized twice, both by immersion. The SDA church believes that we are called to be baptized just as Christ was. In, Matt 3:13-17, John the Baptist, baptizes Christ in the Jordan river by immersion and when he emerges, he is blessed by God.
But if we take Paul's words in this chapter about dying with Christ in sin and being reborn in Christ, we can think about baptism this way. As Jesus died on the cross, so our sinful self dies with him as we are going under the water. As Jesus was buried in the tomb, so our sinful self is buried, while we are under the water. And just as Jesus rose from the dead, so we emerge from the water a new being; our sinful self dead and left behind. We are in union with Christ. Reborn.
So if like Christ we have died to sin, then we cannot go on to sin, even if we are covered by grace. Does that mean that we wont sin again? Most likely not, we are all human and we will slip up. It does mean that we have a way back and that God is calling to us, especially if you have been baptized in Christ.
I mentioned that I wasn't as committed to Christ as I should have been. I wasn't ready to trust him in a relationship of the magnitude required. But he was working on my heart. He knew what I needed, I just wasn't ready to listen. I never fell into the life I could've because I could feel his call. this kind of ache just at my heart, or like a string being tugged.
But remember one sin has the domino effect. You will justify the one and then the next and then the next, until you are in deep and have to dig your way out. (Remember, no matter how deep, you can always get out, Jesus is there to give you his hand). Its a slippery slope down the wrong road. That is why Paul tells us not to let sin reign. He reminds us that we have a new master and must obey him., "when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness" (6:16).
While sin did not have full reign over me, it was gaining ground, when I was LED to the book and class and Women of Faith. God used those to put me back where he wants me. Obeying him. A slave to God. What a word picture that is. The loving master, who has my best interests at heart, and I am a slave to that! Just saying it makes me feel good.
So I have a question for you - Which one are you? Are you a slave to sin? Are you still trying to justify your sins and sinful life. Or are you like me and becoming a slave to the LIVING God? Have you taken responsibility for your actions and then given them to God to take away, to cover?
God has given us free will, and it is a choice. But it is one we must make. I choose God. I have to do this every day. I have to recommit my life, my thoughts, my words, and my actions. Which will you choose?
More about me...
So before I tell you about Romans 6, I need to give you some history of me.
It is a cold, wet day in April, it's early evening and I am doing laundry. I am 16 years old. A few months before, my father had taken a long-haul truck driving job and we hadn't seen him since. My parents had been separated for 2 years at this point. I was not sad or disappointed, nor did I miss him. When he left, the abuse had stopped. My mother had asked multiple times about possible abuse, but I had always denied it. I felt guilty, full of shame and at fault. The master manipulator at work. This was the first year that I had also stopped going to church.
Over the years I had told some friends the things happening in my house, or really at my dad's house. I got one of two reactions. The main reaction was shock and then a kind of distancing. The other was those friends then turning on me or my mother. So by this time, I had 2 very close friends and I had only told one of them. He was great about it, but had made me promise to tell my mother. He had informed me that I told her that night, or he would come over and tell her himself.
So on that cold and rainy night in April, I sat her down and told her. Interestingly she reacted exactly as I thought she would. Outrage, hurt, anger, all of it directed at Dad. She was saddened I hadn't told her sooner. At that time I had blocked a lot of the early abuse and really could only remember about 2 years of it. As I would later find out I had still managed to block the severity of that abuse. That would come to a head in about 2005. But that night was good in that we were communicating. I don't remember much else about that night or even the rest of that school year. We moved to Vancouver, WA. in June, my mom had been transferred.
The next couple of years were new friends, I only found 2 again, new and final school, and settling in. But in my Senior year a lot did happen. First of all Mom and I started going to church again. My sister had her fair share of problems, and church became a refuge for me. I had become the peacemaker in the house.
Another final thing that happened that year? I met the man who would become my husband. I didn't know he would be my husband, but I did know that I had a huge crush on him. We met while we both worked at Dominoes Pizza. I was only 18, so I couldn't drive, and back then they still had separate phone people. He was a driver. We started stopping for a salad or something after work and getting to know one another. I guess you could call it dating, but we never did. Actually he was 2 hours late for our first official date.. it was too funny. I found out he was Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), and I told him I attended an Open-Bible Church. I enjoyed the church and the people. Later, after we started officially dating he asked me to go to church with him. In our discussions I had figured out that they were Christians and that he was adamant about his Sabbath. That was all I knew. I wanted to know more. I hadn't even heard of SDA's before that.
So I went to a church with him. The building was like any other, as were the people. It looked, and felt like a church. The only difference of course is that it was Saturday morning. The pastor of this church was gone and so an elder spoke. A likable enough man, but about a subject that was boring and over the top for this Sunday going girl. None of my questions were really answered. So Tim invited me to go to his home church with him and his Dad, Step-mom and little sister. I really enjoyed both the service at this church and later over lunch (vegetarian :) ) with his family, I had many questions answered.
That would be my last experience with a SDA church, or any church for the next 5 years. Tim and I moved in together 9 months later, married 3 years after that, and had our first child a year later. Alex was 10 days old when we stepped back into a church of any kind, and it was a SDA church. They were very friendly and very nice. I made some friends there while we continued to attend and had discussed Bible study with the Pastor, then we moved. Tim and I moved back to Seattle. Well Auburn actually, close to his Dad's family who had moved up there a few years before. We continued to attend church and I went through Bible Studies to check out the Adventist doctrine and beliefs. To see if they matched with mine.
I found they did so I was baptized by immersion, 2 months after our daughter was born (they are 15 mos apart). Interesting, that although my beliefs matched, for the most part. I didn't have that relationship with Jesus I needed. I was still craving something. I thought by becoming SDA I would "fix" that shame in me. I would be whole. I was wrong. For years we continued to attend churches, in Seattle and later in Longview after we moved down here. I was never whole, I was never fixed. We had problems over the years, lots of them and I will get to some of those as they are reasons I stayed away. But the point I am trying to make is that I decided in 2006 that I needed to be renewed, completely.
In 2005, God had led me to counseling for the abuse, good counseling and after following his direction I haven't had any more problems with that aspect of my life. I have let it go. I had also met some great friends that I was getting closer to, but I was still distant. I still didn't trust completely. This was the closest I came before the last month to completely surrendering to God. I really felt that I needed to be re baptized, and so I was. I was baptized in Toutle River, on a warm summers day, by immersion. in 2006.
That was the day of my true rebirth in Christ. While I may not have stayed as committed as I should have, I still felt that baptism, that union with the Lord. I still felt his call when I would go to far away. I still felt pulled when sin would enter my life. I felt the conflict in me, and I wasn't full yet. But I think I was beginning to see that I could be.
It is a cold, wet day in April, it's early evening and I am doing laundry. I am 16 years old. A few months before, my father had taken a long-haul truck driving job and we hadn't seen him since. My parents had been separated for 2 years at this point. I was not sad or disappointed, nor did I miss him. When he left, the abuse had stopped. My mother had asked multiple times about possible abuse, but I had always denied it. I felt guilty, full of shame and at fault. The master manipulator at work. This was the first year that I had also stopped going to church.
Over the years I had told some friends the things happening in my house, or really at my dad's house. I got one of two reactions. The main reaction was shock and then a kind of distancing. The other was those friends then turning on me or my mother. So by this time, I had 2 very close friends and I had only told one of them. He was great about it, but had made me promise to tell my mother. He had informed me that I told her that night, or he would come over and tell her himself.
So on that cold and rainy night in April, I sat her down and told her. Interestingly she reacted exactly as I thought she would. Outrage, hurt, anger, all of it directed at Dad. She was saddened I hadn't told her sooner. At that time I had blocked a lot of the early abuse and really could only remember about 2 years of it. As I would later find out I had still managed to block the severity of that abuse. That would come to a head in about 2005. But that night was good in that we were communicating. I don't remember much else about that night or even the rest of that school year. We moved to Vancouver, WA. in June, my mom had been transferred.
The next couple of years were new friends, I only found 2 again, new and final school, and settling in. But in my Senior year a lot did happen. First of all Mom and I started going to church again. My sister had her fair share of problems, and church became a refuge for me. I had become the peacemaker in the house.
Another final thing that happened that year? I met the man who would become my husband. I didn't know he would be my husband, but I did know that I had a huge crush on him. We met while we both worked at Dominoes Pizza. I was only 18, so I couldn't drive, and back then they still had separate phone people. He was a driver. We started stopping for a salad or something after work and getting to know one another. I guess you could call it dating, but we never did. Actually he was 2 hours late for our first official date.. it was too funny. I found out he was Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), and I told him I attended an Open-Bible Church. I enjoyed the church and the people. Later, after we started officially dating he asked me to go to church with him. In our discussions I had figured out that they were Christians and that he was adamant about his Sabbath. That was all I knew. I wanted to know more. I hadn't even heard of SDA's before that.
So I went to a church with him. The building was like any other, as were the people. It looked, and felt like a church. The only difference of course is that it was Saturday morning. The pastor of this church was gone and so an elder spoke. A likable enough man, but about a subject that was boring and over the top for this Sunday going girl. None of my questions were really answered. So Tim invited me to go to his home church with him and his Dad, Step-mom and little sister. I really enjoyed both the service at this church and later over lunch (vegetarian :) ) with his family, I had many questions answered.
That would be my last experience with a SDA church, or any church for the next 5 years. Tim and I moved in together 9 months later, married 3 years after that, and had our first child a year later. Alex was 10 days old when we stepped back into a church of any kind, and it was a SDA church. They were very friendly and very nice. I made some friends there while we continued to attend and had discussed Bible study with the Pastor, then we moved. Tim and I moved back to Seattle. Well Auburn actually, close to his Dad's family who had moved up there a few years before. We continued to attend church and I went through Bible Studies to check out the Adventist doctrine and beliefs. To see if they matched with mine.
I found they did so I was baptized by immersion, 2 months after our daughter was born (they are 15 mos apart). Interesting, that although my beliefs matched, for the most part. I didn't have that relationship with Jesus I needed. I was still craving something. I thought by becoming SDA I would "fix" that shame in me. I would be whole. I was wrong. For years we continued to attend churches, in Seattle and later in Longview after we moved down here. I was never whole, I was never fixed. We had problems over the years, lots of them and I will get to some of those as they are reasons I stayed away. But the point I am trying to make is that I decided in 2006 that I needed to be renewed, completely.
In 2005, God had led me to counseling for the abuse, good counseling and after following his direction I haven't had any more problems with that aspect of my life. I have let it go. I had also met some great friends that I was getting closer to, but I was still distant. I still didn't trust completely. This was the closest I came before the last month to completely surrendering to God. I really felt that I needed to be re baptized, and so I was. I was baptized in Toutle River, on a warm summers day, by immersion. in 2006.
That was the day of my true rebirth in Christ. While I may not have stayed as committed as I should have, I still felt that baptism, that union with the Lord. I still felt his call when I would go to far away. I still felt pulled when sin would enter my life. I felt the conflict in me, and I wasn't full yet. But I think I was beginning to see that I could be.
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