Romans 9:25-33

verse 30 starts off a new section titled, “Isreal’s disbelief”.  I like how it has the no brainer verse in 31-32.  31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law^[a] instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.  This is definitely applicable to my life.  When ever i tell myself, ok, this is the last time.  i’m never going to do this again.  i quit, i still stumble and fall yet another time.  when i constantly remain in the word, then those bad things don’t really happen anymore.   it brings me back to when my pastor taught a sermon on signs and wonders.  There were many people who followed jesus around looking for signs and wonders.  following signs and wonders didn’t change their lives at all.  Jesus told them to go away.  His disciples how ever, who followed jesus, were able to do signs and wonders on their own.  signs and wonders follow those who follow God.  I need to personally quit looking for signs and wonders in my own life, and i need to follow God, and let the signs and wonders in my own life happen as an offspring of following him.

Romans 9:4-24

This is a pretty nice little tid-bit.  there is alot to take out of this scripture.  i have been reading little bits of this for a week or so, and the little bits  make no sense, but when i stepped back and looked at the whole picture i finally get what he is saying with this.  He is saying that life sucks sometimes.  sometimes life sucks intentionally so that you will be more dependent on God hence a stronger faith.  Sometimes, He hardens hearts so that people will be jerks.  If there weren’t jerks to make other peoples lives suck, then there would be a lack of a need for God.  An example of this in the scripture is when it refers back to the pharaoh. God hardened his heart so that he would not let mose’s people go.  This gave God a chance to flex his muscles so that everybody could see his power.  Now, i know you are probably thinking,  well, it sucks to be deemed a jerkface by God.  it isn’t like pharaoh had a choice to do the things he did.  God only hardened his heart.  He did not make the decision for pharaoh.  There is still a level free will involved when God hardens somebody’s heart.  it is still that persons choice on what he does.

Romans 9: 1-5

Romans 9

God’s Selection of Israel

1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.^[a] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.^[b] God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.^[c]

Just wow…i love how the very first verse states his authenticity of what he is about to say.  It is his disclaimer to help people like me believe and take the next two verses seriously.  I USED to think that i had a heart for the lost…then i read this, and i changed my mind.  Paul had a heart for the lost.  Paul lived for God.  that is established.  He had nothing on earth.  It says that he was “in chains” when he wrote this, which to me implies that he was in jail or taken prisoner, so on that note, he didn’t have a whole lot on earth going for him.  All he had left was the Glory he was going to receive in Heaven.  In his selflessness, he says in vrs 2 that he was willing to be cursed forever by God so that Israel could have relationship with God.  that is right, Paul was willing to be cursed FOREVER by GOD HIMSELF so that his people he doesn’t even know can be saved.  If anybody knows how to curse anybody, i think God could take the gold in that.  just think of everything he did in egypt with the plagues, think about the famines, think about Sodom and Gomorrah, think about the flood, think about everything God has done to those that aren’t faithful to him.  If anybody knows how to curse, It is God.  I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be cursed by God.  would you??? the second half of that says, He would be willing to be cut off from God forever if Israel would be saved.  So basically, that means, he was willing to be cursed by God for the rest of his entire life on earth, and after he dies, he was willing to go to hell.  say whaaaaa??? exactly.  i thought having a heart for the lost was buying them lunch and spending time with them to talk to them, maybe shedding a few tears if it is an emotional prayer session, but the thought of going to hell as a trade for their salvation had never came close to crossing my mind.  just WOW.

i think i have something i need to start praying for ALOT more now. i think i have some people i need to starting waring for like their lives depend on it, because well, their lives do depend on it.

Judges 9:7-15

Today i have read the parable in judges 9 that gideons only remaining son posed to the people of shechem. It is really interesting. as a basic, i know it is saying that everybody plays a role in the body of God. If somebody starts trying to play a different other than what their calling is, then there will be holes left in the body making it incomplete. this results in other people missing out on things that should be fulfilled. For example, it gives the example of the olive tree, and it says that it shouldn’t give up its olives to sway over other trees. Olives are fruits used to make oil which anoints. If he were to rule over the trees, he would be missing his calling and in that same sense people would not be getting anointed as they should. If the fig tree were to give up it’s calling to sway over other trees, he would miss his calling to bare fruit that feeds. If he doesn’t do that, other trees don’t eat or get stirred up. Then if the grape vine were to do it, then his grapes, the fruit made for wine, would not be produced. I’m not sure exactly what the wine is symbolic of though. In the new testiment jesus says, here is my blood, take and drink. so, it could represent what jesus did for us. The bible says “not to get drunk on too much wine” I think in this situation, yes, Jesus did give us a gift, but we’re supposed to take it in moderation. We aren’t supposed to take advantage of it and us it as a get out of jail free card justifying that it is ok to sin. It is like just because I know i will be forgiven, i am going to do this because there won’t be any consequences. In my rebuttal to that though, in the old testiment, it says all over it not to drink wine or eat any unclean things, but that could have been as a punishment, i haven’t investigated those verses in context yet.

Judges 9:1-6

so today is a busy day, but i know what is ahead of me with prom so i am making sure i save time for the word periodically today, but this may be my only post.  On that note, This story starts off pretty intense.    abimelech, the half brother of gideon’s 70 sons, poses a choice, the people can either choose all 70 of gideon’s true blood sons to be the king, or they can choose abimelech, tagging on not to forget that he is their relative.  the people choose him.  In his pride and desire for power, he hires a couple of maniacs to follow him around do what ever he says.  He goes over to gideons house, and slaughters 69/70 of the sons, but the youngest one escapes.  practical application for this, i’m not sure yet, i’ll think about it and get back to here eventualy!

judges 7

is in my notebook for youth. 

Romans 8:35-39

persecution and death? demons? destitution? all creation? death threats?  powers of hell?  All of these things sounds pretty serious to me.  those all sound pretty scary and are not things i’d like to deal.  i think each and every one of those have the potential to alter a life very much.  Although the amplitude of such things, non of them can compare to to the power of Gods love.  The bible lists these things out and follows it by saying that none of these can separate from Gods love.  neither demons or angels or the powers of hell can separate us from Gods love.  it says nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love.   That is a pretty intense.  The practical application of this is that this love he shows for us is supposed to be conveyed through us towards others.  We are supposed to love our enemies unconditionally and all of these mere things listed above aren’t supposed to be able to effect that.  I’m not a very spiteful person at all.  I am actually a rather loving person, but i still find it hard to find myself showing love to certain people.  I can’t say if I saw osama bin ladin walking the street that i would be happy to see him.  If i were to meet one of the people who raped a very good friend of mine, i can’t say i’d be less than mean to them let alone love them.  I have a harder time loving people that have hurt my friends than the ones who have hurt me.  I am normally a very forgiving person, i don’t normally hold any type of grudges, but the key word in that statement is NORMALLY, which means that there are times that i do not forgive, and times i do hold grudges.

Romans 8:31-37

Romans 8:32 “since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’T he also give us everything else?”  (NLT)

I have been very challenged by this verse.  It would take alot for any father to give up the worse of sons.  I am not a father yet (thankfully) so i can only imagine that fathers love for his son.  I do have some good friends i wouldn’t trade for the world if that counts for anything.  Many fathers are willing to give up everything they have so that their children can have it better than they can.  they are willing lay down their lives, their homes, the greatest possessions for their children.  Now think back to our Holy father, He gave us his son, so why wouldn’t he give us everything else?  For he loved the world so much he gave his only begotten son so that we shall not perish but who ever believes in him shall have everlasting life.  (john 3:16)  I can’t even fathom loving something soo much that i would let my good friend die for it, let alone my son that i don’t have yet.  And also, it wasn’t like his son was a nobody, He was perfect in everyway.  He was the spotless lamb, the only sacrifice capable of saving us from hell and infinite damnation.   Now the actually part that is challenging me so much,  How could he give me so much, and me only give him so little in return just because i don’t feel like doing what the bible says i should do.  everything we have is so unworthy of giving back in return, but that is all he asks is for us to do as he commands and go unto all the world and make disciples of all nations.  lets get on it.

Romans 8:31-34

“for if God is with us, who can be against us?”

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

so, i think that verse 33 is a very key verse.  there are two ways to look at this verse,  you could look at is as a justification for why nobody should be able to accuse of us stuff because we are just so perfect.  am i right?  that was the first thing i initially thought of when i read that verse.  Then the flip side of that verse kind of hit me.  How many people have i accused in my own mind of doing things?  How many of Gods people have i dared to judge?  Most of the time i don’t actually speak my accusations, but just because they aren’t spoken doesn’t mean i don’t ponder them.  I can go into work for my closing shift, and find out that NONE of the projects that had to be done by the end of the day were even started by the people before me.  My first thought is, what the heck have they been doing all day?  why are they pushing this work off on me? OH MAN, those people are soo lazy.  I know it could be a perfectly legitimate excuse that maybe they just were busy with customers, but no, I still dare to judge another one of Gods chosen ones and deem them as lazy.  It definitely ties back to James 3 with controlling the tung.  what you say controls what you do.  what you say is derived from what you think.  Not only do i need to work on not speaking badly against people, i need to work on controlling my mind.  sin is conceived and justified in the mind, so i need to either keep it clean and leave no room for it to be conceived by contemplating the word and praying, or i just need to loose my mind, but i think that the first one sounds a little bit better. haha

mathew 21:28-32

so this is the parable of 2 sons.  The father tells the first and older son to go out and work in the feild, and he says no, but later on does it.  Then the he tells the second son or the younger son to go out in the feilds, and he says, yes sir! you got it!! he didn’t end up going though.  Then jesus asked which of the 2 obeyed the father, and then they said the first one did.  He then explained that prostitutes and tax collectors will get into the kingdom of God before they will, because when john the baptist told them how to live, they listened later even though their lives remained the same at the time.  It is saying by this that God doesn’t care what we came from, he cares about what we become.  IF you asked a friend to do you a favor, and they blew you off, but then did it later, did you care that they blew you off at first, or would be happy that they did the favor?  The practical app of this for me is that i need to be more aggressive yet and step up when God tells me to do something.  i need to not say, yup, sure thing! you got it, and then brush it under the rug.  I need to take hold of it even if i don’t want to because it is what God has instructed me to do.