Hi, Zane.
Lots of sweating going on here in New York with the heat and humidity. And still lots of work to do in advance of the Saturday wedding event. I’ve been assigned more than one project in connection with decorations and setup.
I’m now aware of my making another blooper by not attaching the reading schedule that I mentioned yesterday. Hope I can remember this time.
While I was doing a little project yesterday afternoon in the driveway behind this house, I heard some terrible sounds…like snapping and breaking. Half of a large tree across the street gave way due to internal rot and crashed down across the power and utility lines into the street. Traffic was halted. Jill made the first call. Crews were soon on the scene to deal with the mess.
Have a great day. Love and prayers. Tua/Ray.
Wow! There’s some powerful material here. I sure don’t have to get far into this reading before getting pumped with inspiration!
I happened to hear David Jeremiah make a thought-provoking statement on the radio recently while I was driving. He said something like this: “One of the biggest difficulties I’ve faced in helping people become saved is to first get them lost.” The point is that no one is going to understand the importance of SALVATION if they fail to recognize their desperate condition of LOSTNESS.
Let’s review the facts that are heavy upon us. Firstly, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23)—SINNERS, CONDEMNED—including you and me. In that condition we are all under God’s WRATH. And His WRATH is bigger and more absolute than any puny opposition from any of us. Paul describes it this way in Ephesians 2:1—“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” But now, right here in this short reading, we are presented with one of the most incredible, mind-boggling, and glorious statements contained in Biblical revelation—beyond what the mortal brain could ever process—verse 8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: (I want to capitalize the text in the rest of the verse…because it is of capital importance!) WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.” If that fails to move you, I think you need to see your doctor and be checked out. I think we may very well need eternity to get this amazing reality figured out.
Don’t miss the options we all face in relation to this Sovereign God: It’s either WRATH or PEACE. To help confirm the idea, I want to quote verses 1 and 2 together: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. (Read again 1 Corinthians 15:1-2) "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Verse 9 contains the wonderful phrase that we are “saved from God’s WRATH.”
How much time do you need to think about your answer to this simple forthright question: Which do you choose?—WRATH or PEACE?