11:33-36 The Unsearchable Wisdom and Power of God

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

To all the naysayer's, tell me what are the thoughts of the Almighty?  Upon whom does he depend for guidance or for grace. Where were you when He laid the foundations of the world and what mistake has he ever made?  Silence.
We know not because we believe not.  When put on trial, God has no judge, especially from his creation.  God is above all, through all, and in all.  Amen.

Romans 11:7-12 God's People Are Blind

What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,

eyes that could not see

and ears that could not hear,

to this very day.”

And David says:
“May their table become a snare and a trap,

a stumbling block and a retribution for them.

 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,

and their backs be bent forever.”

We learn here, that aside from His remnant, God himself hard his peoples hearts so that they could not understand.  We might say "Shame on them," but what about the church.  Do all in the church have eyes that can see, ears that can hear, and hearts that understand?  Certainly not!  Aside from the remnant, the church finds itself running in place.  They listen and don't do anything.  They do not esteem Christ, even though he is the source for eternal life.  And they don't live a life of holiness.  So what are they to do.  Repent and turn from their evil ways.  Agree with God about their own sinfulness and turn to him for salvation so that they can be born anew, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit.

Romans 11:1-6 The Remnant of Israel

I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”[a]? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Many people wrongfully think that God has set aside Israel in favor of the church.  Just as the prophets were killed in their zeal to be God's spokesmen, God reserves a remnant of Israelites to fulfill His promises to them.  Salvation has always been in the promise of a Redeemer.  Greater Israel rejected the Crucified Christ, but a remnant have believed in the One True God and it is to them that salvation comes.  Judaism has disrupted belief in the promise by substituting good works for atonement.

Romans 10:14-21 Faith Comes Through Hearing

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”  Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth,their words to the ends of the world.”Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses saysI will make you envious by those who are not a nation;I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”“I was found by those who did not seek me;I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”“All day long I have held out my handsto a disobedient and obstinate people.”   To be chosen by God is a blessing and a hardship.  A blessing because God counts you worthy of fulfilling His good will.  A hardship because if you don't succeed, He will choose another.  Herein comes the strife. We want control over our life, but so does God.  Faithful mothers know that they cannot move forward until they let go, and let God.  Only then will the strife be lessened and the troubles solved.   Daily Prayer:  Empower me, O God, to preach the word to those who have not heard.  For this is my calling and by Your Spirit, don't let me fail.  Open the doors of opportunity and the ears of the people to what You have said for eternal life found in Jesus.  In His holy name I pray Amen.

Romans 10:1-9 Jesus Is The End of the Law

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.   True righteousness is not from man, but from God.  Man is a sinner and can only find righteousness by yielding to True Righteousness found in the person of Jesus Christ.  This is why we can be saved.  It is not through our work that we are judged, but by the works of Christ.  He fulfilled the Law and make a self-sacrifice for our sin so that those who come to Him by faith will not be ashamed.  Call on the namd of the Lord and you will be saved.   Daily Prayer:  Lord, let us quit trying to please You in our flesh, because we cannot.  Instead, let us walk by the Spirit and find new life in Christ Jesus and inherit with Him His kingsom.  Amen and Amen.

Romans 9:4-13 God’s Sovereign Choice

The people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.  Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”  In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.  For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.  Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

God leaves Himself a choice on who He chooses.  He doesn't want a family based on bloodline, but instead wants a relationship based on adoption.  God gives to those He chooses and He sends away those who do not love Him.  Behold He calls and those who know Him respond and those who are strangers wonder away.

Daily Prayer:  Lord God, thank you for calling me and giving me ears that can hear and a heart that undersands.  Bring understanding to those who await Your great salvation so that they may choose you and become sons of the Living God.  In Jesus name I pray Amen.

Romans 9:1-3 Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—  I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race.

Godly love is filled with a willingness of self-sacrifice for the benefit of another. Isiah the prophet fortold the hardness of the Jewish heart toward the Son of God.  They were expecting deliverance from Rome, not from their sins which is their greater enemy.  In these passages, Paul expresses his willingness to give up his own salvation for the benefit of the people.  But he cannot not because his calling is to be the voice to the gentiles.  But his zeal remains and God will give him credit for his inward desires.

Daily Prayer:  Lord Jesus, You indeed laid down Your life in my place to pay the penalty for the forgiveness of my sins.  Let me tell of Your great deliverance to others so that they my turn to You and be saved.  Amen.

Romans 8:35-39 Inseparable Love of Christ

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For those of you who are parents, do you love your child like this?  We tend to say "I am doing my best," but our best doesn't match up to Christ.  You see, we give from our resources and Christ gives out of His resources and he knows all things and can do all things.  The result of this surpassing love is security in our salvation for which he provides.

Daily Prayer:  Lord, give all of us the faith to believe.  When we believe, we inherit eternal life and forgiveness of sins.  Apart  from You, we can do nothing, but with You, we are more than conquers.  Let it be so by Your word Amen.

Romans 8:28-34 Who Is The One Who Condemns?

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified;those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The Bible teaches that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Jesus Christ went to the Cross so that our sins may be forgiven.  They are forgiven, so quit blaming yourself.  The only one who condemns is Satan and his words are false and his power defeated by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  What can we do to show our joy?  Tells others so that they come to Christ and receive His grace.

Daily Prayer:  Lord, the Holy Spirit comforts me in the midst of trouble.  You yourself have won the victory and I was born into the victorious family.  Thanks by to God - Amen and Amen.

Romans 8:26-27 The Indwelling of the Spirit

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

We cannot exist without the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit breaths life into us and makes those of us who were dead alive.  We cannot live a godly life apart from Him because the flesh is at enmity with Him. Finally our eternal life is dependent on Him and He is the gateway between you and me and God the Father almighty.

Daily Prayer:  Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation and uphold me with Your free Spirit. Amen.

Romans 8:18-25 Present Suffering and Future Glory

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to son-ship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Sin is at the root of our suffering.  God said that if Adam and the sons of Adam sin, they will surely die. And in dying comes suffering.  Thank God for Jesus Christ who through the Cross defeated death and gave us eternal life. This is the great hope for the Christian that they will allow the mortal body to die, and put on an imperishable body as they enter eternity.

Romans 8: 14-17 Believers Are Made Sons & Daughters

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

This is why we can count on God's promises.  Because we have been taken in as a child of God, He is indeed our Father and cares for us in a way that only God the Father can do and he does not withhold any good thing from us.  Unlike our earthly father who gives to us from their riches, God the Father gives to us out of His riches and nothing is hard for Him.  God is love and His love is like none other, because it is a loyal love who loves us even when our love fails.

Daily Prayer: Father, give us the faith we need to depend on you apart from our flesh.  Instill confidence in us so that we wait with a confident expectancy for all You say to come true.  In Jesus name I pray Amen.

Romans 8: 5-13 Conditions for living in the Spirit

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The world lives in folly instead of wisdom.  They exchange life for death,

folly for wisdom, temporary for eternal, and violence for peace.  Is this Your life?  In order to change, we must surrender our life to the Spirit and move according to His will.  This means starving our flesh, but building our spirit day by day.  This way you will obtain spiritual maturity and temptations will vanish.

Romans 8:1-4 The Sanctifying Role Of The Holy Spirit

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Did you hear the good news:  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.  Your sins are forgiven and remembered no more.   We have been enabled by the life-giving  Spirit to have our inner man walk free of those sins of the flesh.  This impartation of new life sets us free if we believe in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection from the dead.  Our old ways are not the real me, but the forgiven spirit is what is set free.

Daily Prayer:  Seek the Spirit of life and you will find Him.  When you do, you will be transformed in to righteousness by the  righteousness of Jesus.  Amen.

Romans 7:15-25 The Strife Of Our Two Natures

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This is spiritual warfare described.  The unregenerate man does not have that struggle, because he obeys
Satan's laws of the flesh.  But to those who know Christ Jesus, they have an inner man, the spiritual side of the saved man who desires to yield to Jesus and not obey the flesh.  The longer one is a Christian, the easier it is to obey Christ, by the power of the Spirit, and turn down the temptations of the flesh.

Daily Prayer:  Lord, I know salvation is not through my work, but by trusting in Your work.  Nevertheless, let me walk by the Spirit in the power of Your victory so that my life troubles will be minimized by living in wisdom and faith in You.  In Jesus name I pray Amen.

Romans 7:7-14 We Are Not Made Holy By The Law

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.  I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;  and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Law is a standard too lofty for man to obtain.  It is a school-teacher to lead us to Christ.  It both convinces and convicts us of our sin and deprivation
apart from Christ.  So what is holiness in our lives.  It is belief in the Son of God and trusting Him to take away our sin.

Daily Prayer:  Lord Jesus, You sent  us the Holy Spirit to assist in our sin struggle.  Help us to yield to Him so that we can walk by the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.  Amen.

Romans 7:1-6 Christ Is The Bridegroom Of The Church

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Why is Christ the bridegroom of the church?  Because He replaces that which is dead.  The natural man is married to sin and worldliness, but when the person is united with the living Christ, the old ways are dead and the person takes on godliness and a newness of life.  No longer are they slaves to sin, but instead servants to godliness.

Daily Prayer:  Lord, let us live out the new life that is given to us.  No longer shall we hear words of condemnation, but instead shout words of praise to You who loved us and took us for Your own.
Amen.