Yes, I'm still here. Yes, still on "house arrest" in week 5 of our quarantine. Thankfully my husband had switched to working 4 days at home and one in the office there some time ago....and now, with COVID19 out of control, he is working totally at home--at least for now. I am thanking God that I did not raise a fuss about him switching to being home almost all the time. That has been difficult and I have had to make sacrifices--but God knew what He was doing by getting the new computers etc purchased and set up here before this all hit the fan.
I have a couple of directions I could go in this post...I will see where God leads me.
Last week, I was reading Romans in my time of Penuel (Hebrew for "Face of God" which is what I call my devotional time).One definite benefit of this quarantine is that I am spending a lot more time in the Word and also in prayer....God has been showing me something, a bite at a time. This is where it started: On this day in particular, I was due to read 4 chapters in the book of Romans and I began with Chapter 8 which is likely the most well-known chapter in Romans and one of the most studied chapters of the Bible as well.
When I was in high school, the teens had this "game" or competition in a given book of the Bible which changed each year. It was called "Quiz Team" and it was a competition, (I hate to call it a game....it was dead serious to us back then) where five or six kids from 2 teams from different churches in our district, would sit in a row in front of a panel of judges. The judge would begin to read a question which could be from the most obscure verse in the book of the year and as soon as we thought we knew both the complete question and the answer we would leap from our seats...We were seated on pressure activated pads and once we jumped, a light would go on showing which teen had been fastest....and blocked all the other responses. We would compete, church to church and finally at a district level and ultimately at a National Level.
Anyway, one year we studied the book of Romans...and that meant, basically that we memorized the entire book and were prepared to know ANY question that might be asked about the text. That was about 40 years ago. ( GOOD GRIEF!!!) and while I can no longer quote the book, chapter and verse, I am still quite familiar with it. And this day as I began to read Chapter 8, suddenly I was gripped by the familiar words. The first verse "And there is therefore, no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus" impacted me forcefully almost bringing me to tears. Because you see, I have been struggling with a lot of self-condemnation and therefore it was really hard to grasp that the God who created me and who is Himself, holy and sinless, would not have a word to speak against me; would not have judgement and criticism to pour on me. Yes, I still am blown away by the enormity of this - even after many years of being a follower of Jesus.
How can He love me? How can He not be firing up the flames of hell in preparation for my arrival following Judgement?
I knew that is what I deserve and the beauty of the sacrifice of God's Son, who is God, Himself, is beautiful--and almost beyond comprehension. Yes, even after all these years of being God's Beloved child, I sometimes struggle to understand that when God looks at me, He sees His Son, stretched out on that cross and His precious blood poured out on me, cleansing me from my sin. I thought of my sins....sins that God has now forgotten and deliberately buried in a bottomless sea of oblivion where they will never be dredged up again in His thoughts...but my thoughts about myself are not so loving. The enemy, the accuser of the children of God, loves to bring these failures up and dangle them like rotten fish under my nostrils. (I read a great quote: "When satan reminds you of your past, just remind him of his future!!")
And this is what I want you to understand. In the subsequent verses it is clear that we have a HELPER---a God who is Spirit, who is standing by waiting for the word from us ..."HELP me! Help me, Lord,to forget the things you have forgotten. May they serve only to make me adore you more. May they help me to treasure the blood of Christ Jesus to a greater and greater degree. May they cause me to increase my understanding of your unfathomable Goodness and Mercy. And help me today to live a life worthy of my calling as your child. Help me to say "no" to sin. Give me strength when tempted."
My pastor has been posting a series of reflections on Facebook Live to encourage us through these dark, lonely days as we wait for COVID19 to burn itself out and for a return to normalcy; (a normalcy which, we are now understanding, may take years and may not ever come.) In these segments the pastor has discussed how the Holy Spirit helps us to live a holy life. He helps us to pray - and in fact --prays alongside us and makes our prayers more powerful and holy than they were in our hearts. He is ready and poised to act to help us to live more and more sinlessly as years pass. all we need to do is to ASK---and He will unleash His great power on our behalf.
And this concept of inviting the Spirit to fill our hearts and minds and help us to live holy lives and pray powerful prayers, is echoed in the verses of Romans 8. That morning and in fact the whole day, shone with significance for me. It gave me hope that I am not without resources in my quest to be what God wants me to be. I will leave you with a passage from this chapter...and I wholeheartedly suggest and encourage you to look up this entire chapter (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8&version=NLT )
And read it...slowly, prayerfully...put it to the test. If you have the Spirit of God living in you,(which He IS if you have allowed the blood of Jesus to buy your pardon from punishment), ask Him to help you understand the amazing truth of this chapter. I pray that He will answer you as He did for me. I never got to the other 3 chapters that morning...I read and re-read Romans 8 over and over. It is our "Paid in Full" receipt and declares to us the treasures that we own as God's Children.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 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. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
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