Branch Life / Romans 11:13-36

Wild olive branches we are, grafted onto the tree of God’s family. And I love what Andrew Murray says about life as a branch. The life of a branch, he says, is a life of absolute dependence.

The tree does the work—sending out roots, taking in moisture and nourishment. The branch has nothing and must depend on the tree and receive what it gives.

Murray asks, “Is that literally true of my Lord Jesus? Must I understand that when I have to work, or preach a sermon, or teach a Bible class, or go out and visit the poor…that all the responsibility for the work is on Christ? Yes, that is exactly what Christ wants you to understand. In all your work should be the simple blessed consciousness: Christ must take care of it all.”

Our relationship as branches to the tree must be such, says Murray, that “hourly, daily, unceasingly, the living connection is maintained. And just so, my Lord Jesus wants me to take that blessed position, morning by morning, day by day and hour by hour and step by step – I have to abide before Him in utter helplessness, as one who knows nothing, who is nothing, and who can do nothing… For if I am something, then God is not everything.”

Amen, Brother Andrew!

Lord Jesus, I would be nothing that You would be all…

Pretty Feet

Romans 10:14 - 11:12

Romans 9-11 are challenging chapters that often make me wrestle a bit with my picture of God. But as challenging as some of these verses might be to understand, there are a few verses that make plain sense.

For "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!"

The original readers of this letter from Paul would have known that these questions were rhetorical. The answer to each of them is, "They can't!" Without someone going and bringing the good news to them, they can't believe Jesus and be saved.

I don't know about you, but I'm rarely confident I know just what to say or how to identify the "right time" to talk to people about finding new life and forgiveness in Jesus. Regardless, there are a lot of people in desperate need of hearing the message. I'm blown away by the staggering number of people who don't have a church or outreach ministry in their language, and I'm stirred to help make the Gospel real to the people who speak my language. I'm inspired by the fact that God passionately and intensely desires to rescue people in the Chippewa Valley, throughout North America, in the village of Doh in Chad, Africa, in India and China, and throughout the world.

He calls us as his ambassadors; he gives us his authority to relate and connect with people, that they might experience his love and grace through us. So whether we go to China or we go to work or we go outside, we have the privilege of bringing Jesus' message of reconciliation with God to anyone with whom we have relationship. We have an incredible opportunity to give people a glimpse into the love God has for them by the way we love them and respect them. And, whether we're called to go far from home or to remain in our neighborhood, we have the opportunity to be involved in God's work of salvation throughout the world through prayer.

Lord, work in and through me that I might be your faithful messenger to the people in my life today!

Prepared for Glory

Romans 9:22 - 10:13

I find these chapters difficult to understand. "God chooses people
according to his own purposes" (9:11). At the same time, it's possible
for people to refuse the plan of redemption that God has chosen, which
is "the righteousness that is by faith" (9:30 NASB).

A word that we keep encountering is "mercy." God's character never
changes. He is always just, always merciful.

There is another word in today's reading. Maybe we'd rather not hear
it. Still, it's an aspect of God's nature. The NLT bible uses the word
"anger" in 9:22. The Message says, "angry displeasure." Most other
translations say "wrath." I find help in my Word Study Dictionary by
Spiros Zodhiates. The author describes God's wrath as utter abhorrence
to sin, but longing mixed with grief for those who live in it.

Grief. Don Pardun wrote yesterday about Paul's grief for his lost
brothers. It's as though the apostle is letting us in on his own search
for answers as he asks, in effect, "Why, Lord? Why have I not yet seen
your mercy poured out on my fellow Jews? Why do they continue to resist
your will?"

Various translations of 9:22,23 show Paul wrestling with God's apparent
slowness:
"What if God, choosing [fully intending] to show his wrath [anger] and
make his power [and authority] known, bore [has tolerated, endured]
with great patience the objects [vessels] of his wrath - made [fitted]
[prepared] [which are ripe] for destruction? What if he did this [thus
purposes] to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his
mercy, whom he prepared in advance [beforehand] for glory...?"

My mind can't wrap around all that is implied here. I wonder - how can
God be enduring with great patience on behalf of the people he has
fitted for destruction? Zodhiates suggests that the form of the Greek
verb "fit" found in this passage is best understood this way - the
vessels of wrath, or the unsaved, FITTED THEMSELVES unto destruction.
They were not fitted by God for destruction.

If this is so, a person is heading for destruction as long as he or she
refuses God's provision. Was Jesus' death not sufficient? Must someone
ascend to heaven (10:6) and bring Jesus back to complete his work of
redemption? No. Jesus, dying on the cross, knew that his mission was
finished (John 19:28 NLT). The price has been paid.

Must Jesus be raised from the dead again (10:7) as further proof that
he is Lord? No. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead desires
to live within us (see 8:9-11). We have heard the word. The gift of
faith is available. Call on him. He wants to show you the riches of his
glory.

Deetje Wildes

Concern for Others Salvation

Paul continues to relate to and address the Jewish readers by referring to and clarifying the promises which the Lord gave to Abraham.  Notice in this reading for today that the Apostle Paul’s heart is aching for his fellow Jewish people.  Paul himself was a Jew, you remember.  Can we honestly say that we have the same kind of concern and heartache for those of our loved ones and our neighbors...those who do not know Jesus as personal Savior and Lord?  Remember the words so simply put by someone, “You have to have a faith of your own.”  Yes, each of us does need that personal experience of saving faith.  Why not pause now to pray for some of those whom you love greatly and whom you pray will come to know Jesus as personal Savior.  Name them before the Lord…one-by-one.  Note that if you have found some things in this reading that are hard to understand, hard to grasp fully…don’t fret!  Many of us do, too.  But we’ll just keep trying to more fully understand.  Most of all, let us seek to understand and accept all we can, and let’s continue believing that the Lord is in charge and by His Spirit, He does help us to come to a more complete understanding of His Word.  Faith can hold us steady!  Amen, brothers and sisters!

 

Donald E. Pardun

 

Romans 8:22-39

Good Day!

 

I love the Biblical metaphor of adoption.  God uses some 20+ metaphors to describe the gospel in ways that we can understand it.  Having adopted 3 children so far, the adoption metaphor is near and dear to my heart.  But currently we are just weeks away from the labor, birth, and delivery of our first “biological” child.  I am beginning to understand in a more tangible way the “groaning as in the pains of childbirth”.  There is such an anticipation of this new life to begin, yet we are aware that prior to that new life are 9+ months of discomfort, pain, and struggle.  It is interesting that having pain in childbearing is a direct result of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin because our life on earth is filled with similar experiences of discomfort, pain, and struggle yet with the hope of new life with God in heaven! 

 

In both adoption and in natural birth, the child did nothing of any merit to warrant being included in the family.  The choice and work to be included in the family was the choice and work of the parents.  This too is comparable to spiritual things.  God is the one who chose us and did the work to redeem us!  God is the one who in all things works for our good!  He didn’t even spare His own son for us!  God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified us!  The Spirit intercedes for us helps us in our weakness.  And Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  We can say with the apostle Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  

 

God loves us like a parent loves a child.  Think of all the good things earthly parents do for their children.  My mom was the mother of three sons, I feel bad for her now.  We were mostly good kids, but we must have driven her crazy at times.  But even when we were driving her up the wall (as she put it) she still loved us.  Even when we left the house, went away to college, got married, and moved to a state that doesn’t root for the Vikings, our parents still love us.  Nothing can separate us from our parent’s love.  And nothing can separate us from God’s love for us either.  

 

Some may balk at this idea because we want to think we played some part in our salvation.  We want to think that we brought something of merit to God.  We want to try to balance the scales.  That way we can feel better about ourselves and the things we have done for God.  In the business world, a person can work their way up in the company by being competent and by doing excellent work.  Yet even the CEO can lose their job if they stop performing at a high level.  There is always some sense of being motivated by fear.  In the business world, you are a slave to performance.  Now compare this illustration with the biblical illustration of a family.  I don’t really have any fear of not being a Berge if I mess up or do something stupid.  Yet I work hard to please my parents because I am motivated by love and am eternally grateful to them for keeping me alive and well fed for the first 18 years of my life.  This is a much better illustration of our relationship with God.  We have complete trust in Him and in His love for us!  No matter what comes our way in this life, we know that God will get us through and also we have eternity with Him to anticipate. 

 

Won’t some people abuse the gospel though as a permission to sin?  Check out Romans 6:1-4 for God’s answer to that question.

 

 God Bless,

 

Pastor Adam Berge

 

No Obligation

Romans 8:9-21

Okay, so I can't verify this, but I have read somewhere (I think!) that elephants are trained into subservient compliance when they are young, by tethering them bound with multiple layers of strong ropes. Their legs are tied so they cannot move with freedom, nor take liberty to run away. However, when they have been fully mastered and have given in to the power of the ropes over them, the vast majority of the ropes are taken away. Yet that elephant can now be led around and pressed into labor-some service by a single rope -- a comparative string.

What is the lesson of the rope? It may be less that the elephant does not know its strength, but both more that it has greatly underestimated that its status and stature have so changed, and it has monumentally overestimated the power of the rope's current condition.

I believe I may have a case of spiritual elephantitis.

Sin is no longer my master. The Spirit in me has deposed that former dictator! But I am so inclined to feel helpless and powerless before some age-old habits of worry, sharp-tongued-ness, envy, and Doritos. We get to thinking we will only every spin our wheels over some character flaw, and fatalistically consign ourselves forever to some assigned rut.

The rope may still be there, but today's sweet scripture says my status and stature have changed!

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you... Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation [don't you LOVE IT!! -- you are under no obligation!] to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. Romans 8:11-13

Sin IS Dictator for those without Christ and His Spirit. There is no spirit in those other than the one consigned to sin. But for the believer, tho Sin exiled from the throne still pretends to dictate and connives and convinces it is yet in charge of us, the Spirit of Christ says 'NO!' He rules. His Spirit lives enthroned in us! And, with Him is power equal of resurrection!! He tells us we are not stuck, consigned to old helpless patterns; that in His strength we can Execute those old deeds, put that Tyrant of Sin over our lives to death! (True, Sin does its own resurrection impersonation -- we may have to put that Tyrant to death tomorrow too.)

Revel with me, people! By Gospel permission and might, let's break out of some 3-ring sin-circus this day!

Pastor Paul