Devotional

Romans 14:13-23, 10 verses to peruse today.

Therefore… that’s a connector word.  Connecting one passage with another. Remember that God is the one that judges?  We can’t judge each other, we are all under God’s authority.    So what should we do instead? 
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 
Make a decision to do this: To not put stumbling blocks in front of each other. Don’t hinder each other in our journey of faith. 

It’s not an easy thing though you know?   Paul gives the example of the type of food we eat or drink… One might consider it clean and another unclean.  If one of your number considers it wrong to do, then don’t do it.  Who are you to cause another to stumble or to wander in their faith?   

14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Remember…what’s our first priority.  Are we serving God?   Are we about the building up of the Kingdom of God?  Are we focusing on righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit?  Pursue these things.   Don’t focus on the divisions and the trivialities… focus on the big picture…the building up of the Kingdom of God. 

20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 
Again see this truth… do not do things to cause your fellow believer to stumble in their faith. 

I have to admit, I struggle with this.
I used to work for an organization that insisted that if I was out in public doing my own thing, and if I had been one to enjoy a beer, if I was on my own time and someone came up from work (I worked in special needs) i would immediately have to stop doing what I was doing or I would be fired or subject to a disciplinary hearing.    I remember thinking… how incredibly unfair is that?!?!?!    I still think that way. Institutional demands of one brand of thinking… there needs to be room for faith to grow and become stronger.

On the same token though, if I knew someone who was struggling with addiction issues, I wouldn’t choose to tempt faith by flaunting whatever they are addicted to in their path.  I want to be a lending hand to help them on their way.
 
 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But
whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not
from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Faith is the key element you see?   If you know by faith that God allows a thing, and you know you aren’t contravening scripture, then do it.  BUT if you have any doubt at all.. don’t do it because you aren’t operating from a faith stand-point.
  
Cause you know ultimately… we answer to God for how we live out our faith. No one else can answer for us.  All we need to do is this…not cause another to stumble in their faith, and to live out our faith as best we can.   That’s it.  No passing judgement.

Again I find this hard.  How do you challenge another without SEEMING to pass judgement?  For instance, those who say you can live in a manner that is sinful, and yet they are firmly convinced that how they want to live isn’t sinful, that it’s just a misunderstanding.   How does one gently encourage them to reexamine scripture?  How does one do this without sitting in judgement?  It’s such a fine line and I’m not sure I always know where it is.   You know what I mean?

What Say You? I’d like to know your thoughts.

 Reading today from Romans 13:8-14.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 
You know, I just read this line and it made me stop and think.  You see I just read a blog post from a gal about how we need to teach our children about wise credit card debt.  And then I read this post “Owe no one anything EXCEPT to love each other”.    And it’s like wow!  How do you owe love to each other?  Or is it that if we are going to owe someone something..it’s BECAUSE of our love for each other??  Which is it?   I don’t know, but I have to say, it makes me think about what my attitude toward how I feel about others matters.   For instance, I don’t like being in debt. I would rather pay cash and wait for something than to pay with a cheque or credit card.   It’s part of who I am… so to be in debt because of my love for someone… That would be huge.   So is my love for others huge?

9 For the commandments, “You
shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal,
You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this
word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
These verses follow up the first eh?   Don’t do all these things.. why?  Cause if you do them you aren’t showing love for your neighbour.  You aren’t showing them that you love them as much as you love yourself.

Think about it.

If you love your annoying neighbour as much as you love yourself..would you act or think differently toward them?   If you loved the man holding up a sign on the street corner as much as you loved yourself… would you be checking to see if he has expense headphones or good footwear before giving anything to him?   If you loved your boss as much as you loved yourself, would it change how you worked for him/her?   If you loved your spouse as much as you love yourself… what would change in your relationship?

Now that’s a telling one eh?  At least for me it is…makes me think about how I act with my hubby… I don’t always treat him in that self-loving way.   🙁  So much room for improvement.
 
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
See something you already know.  It’s time to wake up!  Salvation is at hand, so act like it!     Stop acting like it isn’t, and act like you truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, live to gratify the Lord Jesus Christ, not the temporary desires of the flesh.  

What say you?

Learning today from Romans 13:1-7.

Instructions given to believers.   
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Remember… God puts things in place.  Remember how yesterday we were reminded to leave vengeance to the Lord?  How God is in control of what happens to those who are our enemies, leaving us to just manage our stuff and not worry about the end result of things?   Well here again, God reminds us that HE is the one who is control, and his control is such that all others with authority only get there because he consents to it. 

Think about what that means.   I mean really think about it.  It’s hitting me like a brick over my headachy head… God put those in authority into that position.  And ultimately he’s the one with all the authority.

2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

So if we fight against the authorities placed over us…we are ultimately fighting against God. Now.. I stop and think about this, and how Martin Luther didn’t let the authorities change his spiritual convictions. How he fled from them.   So I don’t know all the answers about how this all plays out sometimes.  It ultimately comes back to this… are you obeying God?  Are you going against the convictions of your spirit if you were to obey an leader using his position incorrectly?  It’s more important to obey God than to heed a ruler acting against God. 

But lest I get too fair afield here… we need to realize Paul’s point here… we need to obey the laws of the land.  And we need to pay our taxes, and respect our leaders, and give honour to those for whom honour is owed.   Why?   Because God put them in the position he did.   So they are meant for our good (at least they should be) and that means they act for God (at least they should).  Ergo… respect them.  Pay your taxes.  Give your respect.

Do as God would have you do. 

What say you?

I still have the thoughts of Romans 11 floating in my head. How we can’t understand how his mind works, but we can give him glory.  

So when I read these first couple of verses of Romans 12, I can’t help but wonder, are our bodies a way to give glory to God?

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our bodies… our spiritual worship.
Our bodies… transformed by the renewing of our minds.

How do we get there?
First off… we can’t go anywhere without the mercies of God.   We just can’t.  Without his mercy given to us, we can’t even come to him, to seek him, to seek after the salvation that he offers to us freely. 
Then we are to present OUR bodies.  Not someone’s, but our very own bodies.  That needs to be our focus at this time.   We are then to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice.  

I need to think about what the means.  My body, a living sacrifice.  A sacrifice isn’t your own, you know?  A sacrifice is something given for a higher purpose. Like people will sacrifice food in order to lose weight… that being a higher purpose then staying at a weight that’s not healthy.   So if our bodies are meant to be a living sacrifice to God, then what are we giving up?  What am I giving up?

Giving up the world… do you see it.. it says in verse two.. DO NOT BE CONFORMED to this world. 

Our sacrifice is to chose to be transformed by the renewal of your minds.

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect.
Renew your mind by.. testing!  Go figure that one eh?  Testing to understand, to discern, to know what the will of God is.  To understand what is good, acceptable and perfect. 

That’s the kicker eh?  To figure out what God considers to be good, acceptable and perfect. 

If we do that then… we can proceed to offer our bodies as a holy and acceptable sacrifice to God.  It all ties together.   That’s our aim here… to be acceptable to God, holy, acceptable, pleasing to God.   Because “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”    So letting ourselves be transformed by the renewing of our minds, letting our bodies become that living sacrifice to him… it’s the best we can do eh?