Easter - 2018

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Long Obedience in Life!

In life....we learn living is not easy....We start off with many dreams and those dreams give opportunities to more dreams and then we grow up into adulthood and we realize that life isn't all about dreams but that the real world needs people to do things other than your dream....Life in reality is not a reality show.

The question that is often raised is: Where is God? Where is God in all this mess? Where is God when I was suffering? Where was God when I lost my job? Or my house was robbed? Or my spouse left? Or when my children started drugs? Or when my baby died? Where was God in all this hard times?

God is still exactly where he has always been. He wants you to know that he has brought you through your suffering and struggle so that you can meet him at the Cross. He knows it is hard and he know that life has not been easy....he does know that life has been necessary so that you know that faith is the only way to survive. 
 
God intends every type of suffering and hard times to sanctify us. The scars of life establish hope for our future. The scars of life drive us to cling to sanctification. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness....It is at the cross that hard times come to a DEAD END!

It is our faith that is realized at the scar on the cross... we are renewed by what Jesus did on the Cross. “A believer's awareness of justification, peace, and access is made authentic in our suffering...in our scars.”
Let's consider Romans 5
     Justified through faith:
          Peace through Jesus
              Access through grace (favor)
                     Rejoice in the hope of the “glory of God” = the cross

Every Christ-following believer should have hope because of the scars of justification, peace, and access to grace. The suffering...the scars call to us...the hard times come to a DEAD END at the cross because they motivate, they produce, and they mark Christ-Followers for the purpose of SANCTIFICATION!!!! ( the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.)

We are working through the long obedience in the same direction together...you know I love ya, Don

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