Romans
(**denotes very visual devotion)
Romans
Romans 1:9-10 - Without Ceasing
Romans 1:20 - Without Excuse
**Romans 1:22 - Wise or Foolish
Romans 2:4 - God's Kindness
Romans 3:23 - Sin vs. the Glory of God (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 4:8 - Blessed! (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 5:6 - Your Older Brother (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
***Romans 5:19 - More Than Saved (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 6:23 - Wages vs. Gift
**Romans 6:23 - Choices! (YEA Lesson)
Romans 8:1 - Don't You Know Who You Are?
**Romans 8:5 - Focus
Romans 8:7 - Enemy or Friend?
**Romans 8:28 - Work Together for Good
***Romans 11:33 - The Secret Things of God
**Romans 12:6 - Use Your Gift
Romans 12:10 - Brotherly Affection and Honor
**Romans 12:12 - Be Patient
***Romans 12:18 - Live Peaceably
***Romans 12:21 - Potiphar and Prison
***Romans 13:12 - Counterfeit - Trick or Treat?
Romans 13:14 - Holy Attire
**Romans 13:14 - Put On Jesus (This is a summary lesson for the full armor of God, Ephesians 6:14-17)
Romans 14:4a - Another Man's Servant
Without Ceasing
, , . without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers. . . Romans 1:9-10
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
The Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord
for giving me the things I need:
the sun and the rain and the apple seed.
The Lord is good to me.
These two prayers were introduced to me when I was little. The first one was probably recited to me by a friend during a sleep-over. We were probably telling ghost stories or something equally scary. Why would I say that? Think about the words. Tim Hawkins talks about this prayer and how it is a frightening prayer to teach a child. Children are already afraid of the dark. Then, to make matters worse, this prayer talks about them dying?! The idea of placing our lives in God’s protective care isn’t the overwhelming impression left with young children! The second prayer was what our girl scout troop called the Johnny Appleseed prayer. It was the easy way for our troop to ask for a blessing on our food. I think we liked it because it simply thanked God for the things we needed - and no one person was singled out to say the prayer.
But if these are the only prayers you say, then maybe you need to think a little more about your communication with God.
Jesus gave us a model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(some manuscripts add)
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
It’s a prayer which starts by praising God. That’s always a good thing. Next, there’s a request that God’s kingdom come to this earth. We desperately need that! Following that, there’s a request for what we need for today, not tomorrow, not next week, just today. Then comes a request for forgiveness, based on how we have forgiven others. That’s not usually what people want. They want forgiveness, but they don’t really want to forgive other people. Next, there’s a request to keep us from the evil one - from the schemes of the devil. Finally, Jesus’ model prayer ends with an acknowledgment that God is sovereign and to Him belongs all things, all power, glory and honor forever.
This is a really good outline for our daily talking with God.
So . . . where does Paul’s prayer for the brethren, the saints in Rome, fit into Jesus model prayer? Well, maybe when you’re praying that God will provide for your needs today, maybe you can remember to also pray for the needs of your friend - because it says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Maybe when you pray that God will protect you from the schemes of the devil, you can remember to pray that God will protect your sister or brother from Satan’s wiles too - because it says, “Deliver us from the evil one.” Maybe when you’re praying that God’s will be done, you can remember to pray that God’s perfect will be done in the heartbreaking situation in your friend’s family.
Sometimes I think our prayers become too much about us. We want God to fix our problems, bail us out of the consequences of our bad choices, or keep us from making wrong choices. While it’s not wrong to pray those things, maybe our emphasis should be more on praising God, praying for His kingdom and His will in our lives - and praying for other people as much as (or more than) we pray for ourselves. Notice that nowhere in the Lord’s prayer is there an “I” or a “me.” It’s always “we” or “us.” We are a family of believers. We should be praying to reflect that reality!
We should . . . without ceasing mention each other always in our prayers.
Without Excuse
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Sometimes the Apostle Paul is very difficult to understand. Okay, make that “most of the time.” As we start to dissect this verse to get as much as possible from what Paul’s telling us, let’s take a look at some of the Greek words:
eternal: aidios - eternal, absolutely, without beginning or end
divine nature: theiotes - This is God’s divinity, logically arrived at by observing His might.
creation: ktisis - This is the sum total of what God created; the founding of a habitable place.
world: kosmos - This is the sum total of the material universe.
without excuse: anapologetos - This means exactly what it says: without excuse.
Now, let’s take the verse apart to its basic phrases:
For his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. That helps us understand what Paul’s getting at! God’s attributes are obvious in the things around us. O.K. What things?
Look at hummingbirds - whose wings beat 80 beats/second and who can fly backwards, sideways, and hover in midair!
Look at a Venus Flytrap! Those tiny hair triggers can catch an insect. But if you try to trick your flytrap, it knows! The next day it’ll open and expel whatever you put in which wasn’t an insect!
Look at the stars! There are billions of stars - and that’s just in our galaxy. The Bible tells us the God knows each by name! Even Psalm 19:1 says: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Or look at your own body! The absolute intricacies of how your body works together to function without you even thinking about it! Our bodies didn’t happen by chance. The stars didn’t come into existence by chance. The Venus Flytrap didn’t evolve over billions of years. The hummingbirds are not a product of evolution. They all, and all of creation, testifies that God is God, that He is the One who created it all by His power and might. Look again at the Greek for “divine nature.” It reemphasizes that there is no other logical possibility for all of creation. And creation testifies to the eternal power and divinity of our God. There is no excuse for not recognizing Him as God! The creation is too clear that He is!
He is God. We owe Him everything. We owe Him our allegiance, our love, our obedience, our wills, our very lives.
We are without excuse.
**Wise or Foolish
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22
Materials: toy turtle, markers
There have been some pretty ridiculous things said by people who claim to be wise, or at least smarter than all the rest of us. For instance:
*There’s an idea out there that we need to quit raising cattle for food because they are creating too many greenhouse gases, which is raising our global temperatures and causing the icecaps to melt. That means the polar bears won’t have any place to live and will die.
*Environmental groups stopped the logging industry in the Northwest because they claimed the logging was destroying the environment of the spotted owl, thereby endangering the owl.
*Property owners built a house. When a culvert near the road was blocked with trees and debris, it caused the water which normally drained, to back up and flood their property. When they cleared the blockage, the EPA came in, accusing them of illegally draining a wetland, illegally building a house on a wetland, and fined them daily until they would demolish or relocate the house - even though a local court ruled in the property owners’ favor. (source: Stossel)
But this is nothing new. There have long been those who defied common sense and Biblical wisdom, claiming themselves to be wise.
*George Washington had a common cold. But the medical experts of the day believed you had to let the bad blood out of your body to get over an illness. They drained an estimated 40% of his blood.
*Evolution is based on the assumption that the cells of all living things are simple. Once science proved that cells are enormously intricate, the evolution debate should have been dead. But evolutionists still argue that all life came from a rock.
*Some people (who don’t believe in God) believe in a big bang theory which states that there was nothing. Then nothing exploded into everything. The Bible says there was nothing but God, and God spoke everything into existence.
*Some people believe that the earth rests on the back of a giant turtle. O.K. even supposing that were true, what does the turtle rest upon?? When asked this question, the proponent of this belief said, “It’s turtles all the way down.”
*Some people believe that we need to re-introduce wild animals to areas where they were once found. That means bears, wolves, and mountain lions have all been brought into areas to live where they had almost all been killed. The problem is that these wild animals don’t cohabitate with humans well. There was a good reason why our ancestors hunted and killed some of these wild animals. The Bible talks about wild animals being a curse on the land: Leviticus 26:22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted. Yes, God gave mankind the dominion mandate to take care of the earth. That doesn’t mean we have to reintroduce wild animals to populated areas.
We could talk all day long about the foolishness of humans! But here’s the bottom line: Psalm 119:98 says that God’s laws make me wiser than my ungodly foes. If you reject God, then you are also rejecting the wisdom of God. And if you think you are wise, and yet you reject God, you become a fool.
God’s Kindness
God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. Romans 2:4
I don’t think of using kindness when I want someone to change their behavior. I don’t think of sweetly explaining to them why they are in error. Rather, I want to yell, “Stop that!” or maybe “What do you think you’re doing?” I’ve been this way a long time. When the boys were little and Jennifer just barely saying a few words, there was a day when the boys were doing something I didn’t like. I didn’t sit in my chair and calmly and sweetly, kindly, tell them to stop what they were doing. Oh no! I took a deep breath . . . and then Jennifer looked at me and said, “Nice?” . . . and I let that breath out. I had intended to tell those boys in no uncertain terms what I thought of their behavior. But literally, out of the mouth of babes came some powerful wisdom. Nice. Kind.
I wasn’t thinking nice or kind when I looked out of my bedroom window one day when I was still a teenager at home. I saw one of my brothers at the neighbor’s house with the neighbor’s boys kicking their geese in the seat of the pants, so to speak. When they made contact, the geese would squawk and fly into the air. The boys thought it was great fun. I stormed downstairs. Dad caught me and wanted to know where I was going. I told him I was going to go do that to the boys and see if they still thought it was funny! Dad didn’t think that was my job and sent me back to my room. Well, he was right. It wasn’t my job to make those boys stop tormenting the geese. Mom reminded me that I needed to be nice and she cited Proverbs 25:21-22: If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you. All I heard was that if I was nice, it would make him feel bad. I wanted him to feel bad. Only, you know what? It didn’t work that way. When I was nice to him, he thought that I was okay with his behavior. And I wasn’t! So then I was really frustrated.
So then, here’s this verse: God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. How does that work?
First, God loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8) and gave His Son for us. That’s hard to get our minds wrapped around. While we were still in rebellion against Him, our carnal minds enmity towards Him, God still loved us enough to provide a way for us to be reconciled to Him! The Great God of the Universe thought enough of me to send His only beloved and begotten Son to die on the cross for me.
Secondly, God is patient and long-suffering. Jeremiah records in Lamentation 3:22-23, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Peter states it this way: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV).
And, God is merciful. When Moses asked God to show Himself to him, God passed by Moses and described Himself in these terms: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7, ESV).
Because God is good, because God is patient, because God is loving, He kindly works with each of us to draw us to Himself, to change our hearts, to mold us into profitable servants, to remake us into the image of His Son. God’s work in us is not done in a day, or a week, or a year. We spend our whole lives learning more of Him, becoming more like His Son, and bringing every one of our thoughts into submission to Jesus Christ. Praise God that He is patient with us. We make mistakes, but we can go to Him in repentance and find forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise God that He is loving and doesn’t send lightning bolts when we mess up. Praise God that He is merciful and doesn’t think more of the burning coals of fire heaped on our heads than the change in our hearts.
I told you at the very beginning that my way of getting people to change their behavior is “right now” and it’s blunt, harsh, and demanding. Well, that’s true of who I was when I was a teenager. And that’s true of who I was when the kids were little. But as I’ve grown older and God has mercifully continued to draw me to Himself, I’d like to think I’ve become more gentle, more patient, and more loving. After all, that’s what God has shown to me - as He’s been changing me with His kindness. It’s very true: God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
Sin vs. the Glory of God
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
There are three really interesting phrases in this verse:
The first is “fall short.” It literally can mean “to be left behind in the race and so fail to reach the goal, to fall short of the end; to be inferior; to fail; or to be wanting.” It’s the same word that we see in Hebrews 11:37, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—“ It’s the word translated in this verse “destitute.” It means lacking everything or coming up short. It’s like running a race and being left behind by the rest of the runners, or running the race and not even being able to reach the finish line. The mental image this definition brings to mind is the warped wall in American Ninja Warrior. The contestant has to race up this curved wall fast enough to get enough momentum to vault himself up high enough to grab the top of the wall and pull himself up. Too many times the contestant falls just short of the goal - and he finds himself out of the competition.
The second is “have sinned.” It’s the Greek word #264 which means to miss the mark, thus not qualified to share in the prize. Again, this word, which is translated so often as trespass or sin, has a rich word picture of a competition in which the contestant falls short or misses the mark. But it has an additional meaning of inherent consequence: not being qualified to share in the prize. So imagine that you’re in an archery competition and your arrow is nowhere near the target. You don’t even qualify for a prize because you have missed the mark or goal!
The third phrase is “glory of God.” It’s the Greek word doxa #1391. The Blue Letter Bible lexicon defines the word “glory” (when speaking of God): “splendor, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace, the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity.”
Phillips, Craig, and Dean sing, “How great You are; how small I am! How awesome is Your mighty hand, and I am captured by the wonder of it all! And I will offer all my praise with all my heart for all my days. How great You are! How great You are!! How great You are!!”
Think of how great God is! He’s the Creator and Sustainer of everything. He’s our Savior and Redeemer. He’s our Provider, our Healer, our Defender, our Sovereign! God’s conversation wth Job starts with God asking, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth” (Job 38:4), and then God continues with more humanly unanswerable questions. One of my favorites is, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (38:22-23). Our God is so absolutely, incredibly awesome! And us, His creation? In Ecclesiastes 5:2 Solomon wrote, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” David said it very graphically, “I am a worm . . .” (Psalm 22:6). Isaiah wrote, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). The contrast between who He is and who we are is enormous!
Indeed, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But I have good news. God is changing us. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are being changed into the image of Jesus Christ. There will come a time, because of God’s work in us, that we will share in the glory of God. Paul writes about the work God is doing in each of us: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17).
I can’t help thinking about all these things as we prepare for Passover. The Passover is so very special to those who love God, who recognize just how great God is, because it reminds us of how God made the way for us to be reconciled to Him! Jesus, the dearly beloved Son of our Heavenly Father, was crucified that our sins, our missing the mark, would be forgiven and so that we would have a chance to share in His glory. That’s hard to completely wrap our minds around!
Passover’s just a little over two weeks away. It might be a good idea to spend some time thinking about this verse: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then think about God loving us, you and me, anyway.
Blessed!
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Romans 4:8
Do you know why there are traffic signs? It’s so that cars can get from one place to the other with as few accidents as possible. They remind drivers to slow down for curves. They let drivers know when it’s their turn at intersections. The traffic is supposed to flow - move from one place to another more easily and more quickly. But many people don’t like to obey the traffic signs. They drive too fast. They roll through stop signs. They pass in no-passing zones. They don’t yield to oncoming traffic. And sometimes they get away with it. But sometimes, there’s a penalty. Sometimes when you don’t yield to oncoming traffic, it causes an accident. Sometimes when you don’t yield, the driver who is supposed to be able to go first will shake his fist at the unyielding driver. And sometimes, a policeman just happens to be right there when you don’t obey the signs.
That happened to me one beautiful August day. I was on my way to school - one of my most favorite days of the school year: a teacher work day when I could spend all day in my room getting it ready for a new crop of students. I was excited, and in a hurry, because I wanted to get to school. I didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign. I slowed down and kinda rolled through it. To my chagrin, there was a policeman also pulling up to that stop sign. He flashed his lights and pulled me over. It was, I think, something like a $80 fine. Kinda put a damper on my day.
God’s laws are kinda like traffic laws. They are there for our benefit, to keep us from getting hurt, to help us get along well with others, and to make life work well. But sometimes we don’t like to obey God’s laws. We cut corners and hope that no one is watching so that we can get away with breaking them. Only, unlike the policemen who can’t be everywhere at once, God knows exactly when we don’t obey His laws. And we aren’t getting away with breaking them. Breaking God’s laws is called sin, and there will come a day when God will judge the whole world because of their sin. The payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). That’s much worse than an $80 fine, and it will put more than a damper on a day.
But there was another day when I was driving down the road and broke a traffic law. I was taking the kids to skating and was going 35 mph in a 20 mph zone. A policeman happened to be right there. He flashed his lights. I pulled over. My heart sank. But, he didn’t write out a ticket. He just gave me a warning. I deserved a ticket. I was speeding. But he, for whatever reason, decided to overlook my transgression. I didn’t have to pay the penalty for transgressing the law.
So when Romans 4:8 says, “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin,” how does that work? Is it like what happened with the policeman just giving me a warning? No. Unfortunately, what happened with the policeman just makes the whole thing more confusing because he really didn’t do his job. His job is to enforce the law. I broke the law; he should have given me a ticket. Don’t get me wrong: I’m very grateful that he was willing to just give me a verbal warning, even if he didn’t have the authority to extend that kind of mercy. Because he’s a police officer, the just thing would have been to give me a ticket. God is always righteous. He always does the right thing, the just thing. So when His laws are broken, there is a penalty that must be paid. But God is also loving. So God provided a way for those penalties to be paid - in the crucifixion of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died for the sins that you and I commit. When we break God’s law, we can ask for forgiveness. If we have a relationship with God, if we’ve accepted Jesus as our Savior, we are forgiven for our sin. We don’t pay the penalty - but Jesus did.
The traffic laws of man are sometime very hard to honor. To come to a dead stop at a lonely 4-way in the middle of Iowa with nobody around seems like a waste of brake lining and gas. There are times when the laws of man just don’t fit the situation very well.
Even though God’s laws are also often difficult to keep, they always fit our situations when properly understood. Because we belong to God, we are expected to learn His ways and to imitate Jesus Christ, who never broke God’s laws. We are, through obedience, to be conformed into the image of Jesus. When you sin against God, and ask for forgiveness, there’s an understanding that you don’t intend to keep breaking the same law. You are grateful for God’s mercy, for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and you don’t want to continue living in a way that is not pleasing to God. Jesus didn’t die so that people could trample all over a law that is intended for their good, the laws that keep them safe and help their relationship with God and with other people. On the contrary, the gratitude and love that we feel towards God for paying for our sin should be a huge motivator to do what He says from here on out. We should want to please Him. He has shown such love towards us; how do we repay Him?
Passover is just around the corner. We’re going to be thinking and talking a lot about the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. But don’t just stop with what Jesus did. Consider what it means to you: blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
Do you know how blessed you are? Are you ready to obey God’s laws?
Your Older Brother
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Have you ever wanted something just out of reach? Your arms were just too short. The goal was just out of reach. When you look around, there’s nothing to make you taller, except your older brother. Older brothers can be wonderful! My older brother rescued me more than once and if I’d needed help reaching something, he would have helped.
What if you don’t have an older brother? Maybe you could borrow someone else’s. Perhaps your friend has a nice older brother who might be willing to help you out. That would be wonderful . . . as long as he was available when you needed help.
But what if you weren’t particularly nice to your friend’s older brother? What if, every time you saw him, you hit him? Do you think he’d still help you?
Think of this analogy when reading Romans 5:6: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Jesus Christ is the only One who can help us reach the goal. What goal? The goal of eternal life in the kingdom of God. That goal is totally out of our reach. We all have sinned. We cannot, in any way, earn our salvation. We can’t get where we want to go. We are completely unable. But Jesus can, through His shed blood, His death, and resurrection, help us reach that goal.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Our gracious Heavenly Father planned for Jesus to die and to be raised from the dead. It was our Father’s plan. It wasn’t an accident. It didn’t happen whenever. God planned for Jesus Christ to die, at the right time. Do you know what we call that time? Passover. Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb. He died exactly at the right time, on the day that God’s people had been observing Passover for hundreds of years. They remembered the Passover event in Exodus when the Death Angel passed over the houses where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels. In a very similar way, Jesus’s death, the death of the Lamb of God, paid the price for our sins so that we wouldn't have to die.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Remember our story of the friend’s older brother helping you reach the goal? Remember wondering if he’d help you even if you were not nice to him? That’s the truly amazing part of what Jesus Christ did. He died on the cross, for you and for me, while we were still sinners. We hadn’t repented of disobeying God. We hadn’t been sorry for doing what we want instead of what God wants. God’s ways didn’t matter to us. But Jesus died for us anyway. Romans 5:6 says He died for the ungodly. The ungodly are those people who fight against God, who disobey Him, who don’t listen to His commandments. Jesus died for them, for us, anyway.
Oh, and that older brother part? Because we call God our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Older Brother. He is the One, the only One, who can lift us up to reach the goal. He is the One who died at the right time, on Passover. He is the One who died even though we were not nice to Him.
Passover is coming up this week. I hope you spend some time thinking about your Older Brother.
***More Than Saved (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
Materials needed: candle, matches
The first half of Romans 5:19 says, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” What does that mean? What man? How were we then all made sinners? Adam chose to disobey God’s command in the Garden of Eden. By intentionally choosing to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam was sinning. Sin is transgressing God’s law, disobedience. Because Adam did that, everyone born after him (That’s everyone.) was born with a carnal nature, born into sin. Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 5:1 says that Adam was made in God’s image, made after God’s likeness. But Genesis 5:3 says that Adam’s son was made in Adam’s image, after Adam’s likeness. Romans 5:17 says that sin and death came into the world through Adam.
We are like a candle. Sin is the flame which consumes us. It will continue to burn until the candle is gone - unless it is stopped. Romans 8:13, 20-22, 2 Corinthians 4, and many other verses talk about our earthen vessels (our bodies) which are growing older, getting weaker, subjected to decay. We are headed for death unless something - or Someone - intervenes. (Put out the candle.)
Here’s where the second half of Romans 5:19 comes in: so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Because Jesus was obedient to His Father, even to death on the cross (Phil 2:8), so that we might be reconciled to God (Colossians 1:20). This is more than just having our sins paid for by Jesus’ death. This is repairing the relationship with God, being adopted into God’s family, and being given the gift of eternal life.
It’s interesting, isn’t it. Candles were designed to shine light. And if they burn long enough, they’ll use up all of the wick and wax and be gone. Believers and disciples of Jesus Christ were also designed to shine. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” (Relight candle.) and Daniel 12:3 says, “Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.” The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10). There’s no better way to start on the path to wisdom and shining like the stars forever and ever than to keep His holy days and to recognize that righteousness only comes through what Jesus has done for us.
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
Wages vs. Gift
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
If you work for something, you expect to get a reward, to have some sort of payment for your work. If you do a worksheet correctly in school, you expect to get a sticker on your paper. If your neighbor hires you to mow their lawn, you expect he’ll give you money when you finish. If you work really hard, taking care of chickens, you expect that the hens will give you an egg or two. If you do what you are asked, you expect to get rewarded in some way.
But every once in a while, someone gives you a gift - just because. They felt like it. No one forced them to give you a gift. You didn’t ask. They simply wanted to give you a gift.
Now, what if you work really really hard . . . at being bad. Do you get rewarded for that? Well, yes, but we don’t call it “being rewarded.” We call it “receiving consequences” for our behavior. Some people say they’re getting what they deserve. For instance, if your mom tells you not to track mud into the house and you do it anyway, you’re going to receive a consequence. Depending upon your mom, you might have to clean up your mess, you might be grounded, you might be spanked, or maybe you receive all three consequences. Or if your dad tells you to go to bed and you don’t obey, you’re going to receive a consequence. It could happen that the next morning you might be really tired, and then you would get sick, and then you wouldn’t get to go to your best friends birthday party. Your dad doesn’t even have to ground you or spank you, you get a consequence from your disobedience whether he knows about it or not. Or . . . let’s say that your grandpa agrees to give you a penny for every potato bug that you pick off his plants. If you don’t pick any potato bugs off, you don’t get any pennies. Your wages, what you get paid, depends upon what you do.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you know what sin is? Sin is being disobedient to God. You choose not to do what God says to do. There’s a consequence for being disobedient - a consequence that most people don’t like. If you sin, your consequence is death. That’s just the way it is! God created this world. It’s right and just that we should obey His laws if we want to live in His world!
Have you ever sinned? Have you ever done anything that was disobedient to God? If you have, then what you deserve is death. And, according to God, everyone has sinned. (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20) We all deserve punishment from God. His punishment for our sins is death.
But God has given us a free gift in Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re celebrating this week of Unleavened Bread. God sent his son Jesus to die for us, because of our sins, so that we wouldn’t have to. If we accept that sacrifice for our sins, then we are forgiven. We are cleansed. That forgiveness is free. What Jesus did for us, in dying for us, is not something we can buy. We can’t earn forgiveness. And we can’t earn the free gift of eternal life!
So does that mean we can live any way we want to?! Absolutely not! God has given us a gift. Why in the world would we ever want to displease Him by being disobedient? The gift of God is so great that we spend the rest of our life thanking Him, praising Him, doing what He says and loving Him by keeping His commandments. We can’t earn eternal life in His kingdom. That’s a free gift, but we can show Him how very much we appreciate what He has done for us.
How much do you value what God has given you? Your willingness to please God shows how much you value His gift. As we continue celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread, think about all the ways you can honor God with your life - to show Him how very much you appreciate the gift He has given you through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Choices!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Materials Needed: apple/orange; pen/pencil; bicycle/book; YEA lesson (YE2E.4 - borntowin.net/yea/primaries/)
How many choices have you made today? Did you get to choose what you wanted to eat for breakfast? Did you get to choose what you were going to wear to church today? Did you get to decide what you were bringing to church? Did you get to help make the decision about what your family brought to potluck?
How many choices did your parents make this morning? What route to take to church; how fast to drive; how warm/cool to set the thermostat. Oh we’re completely surrounded by decisions every day.
Most decisions do not have major consequences, at least in the short term. Does it really matter whether you eat an apple or an orange? Does it really matter whether you do your homework in pencil or in pen? Well - that all depends on how many mistakes you will need to fix - right? Does it really matter whether you read a book or you ride your bicycle around the block? The answer to that one requires some more information: How much exercise have you gotten today? How much reading have you done this week? Is it dark outside? Depending on your answers to those questions, it might matter a LOT whether you decide to read a book or ride your bicycle.
Some decisions do have major consequences. When you decide to share a secret you were supposed to keep . . . well, secret, you can lose a friend. When you decide to cut across someone’s property, you might find yourself face to face with a very unfriendly watch dog. If you decide to read the Bible every night before you go to bed, that has major consequences too. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart (Reading the Bible every night can hide God’s word in your heart!) that I might not sin against Thee. Reading God’s word can keep me from sinning - if I’m taking God’s word into my heart and making it a part of who I am.
O.K. So you tell me: is sinning bad? Yes! Sin is the transgression (breaking) of God’s law. And here’s where your memory verse comes in: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
The wages of sin has been death - ever since Adam and Eve first made their choice in the Garden of Eden to disobey God’s command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There are no do-overs. There are no free passes. If you sin, death is the consequence. Except - God has made a way through the free gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
I don’t know about you, but a free gift of eternal life sounds a whole lot more appealing than death. We’re almost at the end of the calendar year. Now would be a good time to start a new habit. Read your Bible every day. Hide God’s word in your heart!! Make Jesus Christ a part of your life every day. It’s a choice that can lead to eternal life.
Don’t You Know Who You Are
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
There’s a Tenth Avenue North song that goes
You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
I’ve made some bad choices. I remember choosing not to keep my finger nails short my freshman year of high school. That was a bad choice. Gwen, our milk cow, let me know about it in no uncertain terms. I wore a hoof-shaped bruise in my midriff for a couple of weeks.
I’ve made some mistakes. Christopher remembers the birthday cake that I made for him one year. It wouldn’t come out of the pan. I took it out in chunks and we had birthday mound instead of birthday cake.
I’ve created problems that caused suffering. When I was a kid, I wasn’t sensitive to poison ivy. But my grandmother was. Once when we’d been playing outside in the trees, we’d gotten into some poison ivy. We came inside, not thinking anything of it, and sat down. Grandma later sat in that chair and she broke out in huge welts of poison ivy. What a problem I created!
But Tenth Avenue North sings that I’m more than those choices. I’m more than the mistakes. I’m more than the problems I create. These things don’t define who I am anymore. Why? Because I’ve been remade.
Remade? What does that mean?
When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, He took the penalty for my sins. But more than that, God gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, to change me from my carnal nature with all of its bad choices and horrible mistakes and painful problems. I’m a new creature, being formed in the image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because Jesus Christ bought me with His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), because He died to pay the penalty for my sin, I am now free to make good choices, to avoid mistakes, and to prevent problems.
Jesus Christ took me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock (Psalm 40:2), the Rock, which is Jesus, where I am secure. As Casting Crowns sings, “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I’ve done, but because of Who You are.” It’s not about me or what I’ve done. It’s all the work of God in me, creating a new creature to glorify Himself. So when Ten Avenue North sings, “Don’t you know who you are? And what’s been done for you,” our thoughts go to the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and the hope that I have because of what He did for me.
When Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” I know that it’s because of what Jesus has done for me. It’s not about me. It’s all about Him and the work that God is doing in me. I am more than the choices that I’ve made. I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. I am more than the problems I create. I’ve been remade. And Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
So I have one question to ask you: Don’t you know who you are, and what’s been done for you?
**Focus
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
Materials: magnifying glass, bottle of water, basin of water, spray bottle, bottle with multiple holes poked in it
If you were to use a magnifying glass, you can bend the light rays coming from whatever it is you want to see and focus them on your retina. This makes the thing appear bigger to you. But you can also use a magnifying glass the other way. (Try this at home only with adult supervision!!) On a bright, sunshiny day, you can focus the light of the sun on a piece of paper and it will get so hot that it will burst into flame. You have intensified the focus of the light and light energy to the point that the paper catches on fire.
In a similar way, if I want to move a bunch of water, it is not effective to use my hands. I can splash some of it toward you, but I can’t focus the molecules with enough energy to make them go to a precise point. However, if I get a bottle with a pop top or a spray bottle (or a water gun), I can focus the water with energy behind it to get it to go farther in a unified direction.
Let’s talk about focus in context of this verse in Romans: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
If your focus is on pleasing God, then you will expend your energy in a different way than if your focus is on yourself or pleasing another person. And really, you have to make a deliberate choice. Are you living your life in a way that glorifies and honors God? Is serving Him and pleasing Him your focus? Or are you making choices according to your wisdom, your wants, your desires, and your goals?
Let serving God be the focusing mechanism for everything you do. Be productive for our God to Whom we owe everything!
Enemy or Friend
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Romans 8:7
Hostile to. At war with. Enmity against. Enemy.
What does it mean to be an enemy to someone?
So what’s the opposite of all these enemy behaviors?
So when Romans 8:7 says that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God,” you immediately ask yourself, “Am I an enemy of God, or, the opposite, am I friend of God?” So you have a list.
Romans 8:7 makes it very clear that if you are hostile to God, you will not obey God. Your attitude towards Him will be displayed in your behaviors. Similarly, if you love God with all of your heart, that attitude will be displayed in all of your behaviors. So, are you hostile to God and His ways or are you a friend of God?
**Work Together For Good
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Materials: zucchini bread ingredients (pre-measured), spoon/spatula, bowl, crock pot
Have you ever thought about eating these food items by themselves? How about a big spoonful of flour? A big bite of shredded zucchini? A slither of raw egg? A slurp of oil? Too much? How about a little spoonful of baking soda or baking powder? Or cinnamon? Even vanilla by itself wouldn’t be all that appealing? The only thing you’d consider voluntarily sitting down and scarfing down might be the sugar, but only if your mom isn’t watching.
So what if we mix all these food items together?
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/8 t. baking powder
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla
2 c. zucchini, shredded
Now who wants a big spoonful of zucchini yuck, I mean, bread dough? It still doesn’t look very appetizing and you probably wouldn’t eat very much of it, would you? So how about we bake it? You’d probably like a slice of warm zucchini bread, wouldn’t you?
Isn’t that just like life? Your life is made up of all kinds of events. Some of them you really like - like sugar. Some of them you could tolerate - like maybe a spoonful of flour. But some of the things that happen in your life are not fun. You wouldn’t choose to have your life made up of them - like baking powder or raw eggs.
And like the mixed up zucchini dough, your life is a combination of events. You don’t get to just spend all of your life at Six Flags. Like too much sugar, you’d soon be sick. You don’t have to spend all of your life doing schoolwork, but it is good for you - like the zucchini.
There’s one other really cool analogy with our zucchini mess. It’s not desireable until it has some heat applied. In the same way, God prepares you to be used by Him by applying some heat to your life - like refrigerators going out or people you thought were friends not being friendly at all (as in, “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”) In other words, you experience some heat, some stress, some trouble. Sometimes people, the ones who really love God, call it discipline from the Lord.
The apostle Paul puts it this way: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). So if you really love God and God has a plan for your life, then all those good parts of your life, and all of the okay parts of your life, and even the yucky parts of your life are all mixed up to produce something very pleasing to Him.
That’s a good thing to remember when life, metaphorically, hands you a raw egg to eat.
***The Secret Things of God
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Romans 11:33
Materials: long strips of paper, tape, scissors, marker
Have you ever seen a Mobius strip? They are used in an advanced branch of mathematics called topology and are used in conveyor and pulley belts. It’s fun to construct your own. Take long strips of paper. Make a 180º twist in one end before taping the ends together. Now draw with a marker along the middle of the paper loop. Even though you’re on the outside of the paper, by the time you get around the loop, you are on the inside. Now cut with the scissors along the line you drew. Suddenly our two pieces of paper have become one complete loop. Now let’s try it again. Only this time, put a complete 360º twist in the paper before taping the ends together. This time when you cut the paper you get two intersecting loops. It’s fun to see what happens every time you increase the number of twists in the paper!!
The first time you see this done, you want to have it repeated because the brain doesn’t think that what just happened could possibly have just happened. And this is just paper! And the construction of the Mobius strip is repeatable. And yet, it takes our brains a while to figure out how this could possibly have happened!
Do you understand how coal put under incredible pressure turns into a diamond? Do you understand how a bee can take nectar from flowers and turn it into honey? We could get someone to explain these processes to us; people have studied them.
So extrapolate out a little bit. Do you understand how a caterpillar can go into a chrysalis, completely turn into goo, and come out a butterfly? Do you understand how the human brain works? Do you understand the universe with its black holes, wrinkles in time, and flexible time?
These are all observable, repeatable actions in our world. But when we start to consider our great God. How can we, who can’t even understand these “simple” things, ever begin to think we could understand God, how He thinks, and why He does what He does. We just have to sit back in awe and thankfulness for His mercy and love toward us. Our great and awesome God!! How incredible You are!!!
Resource: 77 Science Activities, DeYoung, Donald B., BakerBooks, 1982, “Mystery Loops,” pgs. 59-61.
**Use Your Gift
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Romans 12:6a
Materials: hammer, pliers, screwdriver, measuring tape, hole punch, scissors, paint can opener
Did you know that there are lots and lots of different tools in our world? And sometimes it’s very fun to try to figure out what some old tools were actually used for. Sometimes it very fun to try to figure out what present day tools are used for! Each tool has its purpose. It was designed to do a certain job.
In the same way, God designed each of us for a purpose. We each have a certain job to do or role to play. And just like looking at some tools, sometimes it takes a little bit of work to figure out just exactly what gift God has given to each of us so that we can do our job.
Imagine never having seen a screwdriver before. What job might you do with it. You could use it pry open a paint can. You could use the top of it to hammer a nail. You could use it as a chisel. You could even hammer it into the wall and use it to hang your coat on. But once you see how well it can be used for screwing, you understand what a brilliant person the inventor was - to create such a useful tool for putting screws in the right place.
We could have the same conversation about hammers and pliers and scissors or any of the tools we have around us. Or we could have the conversation about each of us. God has given us gifts to use in whatever task He’s set before us. And we praise God for His majesty and awesomeness to have created us with such gifts - like Mozart writing music or Frank Lloyd Wright designing buildings or Alexander Graham Bell creating the telephone. What a shame it would have been if Mozart had spent his entire life building houses, instead of writing wonderful music. And so it is with us: we need to figure out what gift God has given to each of us. Then we need to use that gift. We don’t need to look at the gifts of other people and wish that we’d been gifted in that way. We just need to figure out what God has designed for us to do. And then we need to do it with all of our hearts and minds and souls and strength - for the glory of God.
You have a gift. Do you know what it is? And do you use it?
Brotherly Affection and Honor
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10
When my children were little, we started our school day by just reading through the Bible. When we got to Romans 12:10, Christopher read, “Love one another with brotherly affliction.” It was Jonathan’s snickering that gave him the first clue that maybe he’d read it incorrectly. Unfortunately, although we know Paul tells us to love one another with brotherly affection, sometimes our relationships with each other feel more like affliction than affection. So Paul emphasizes loving one another with brotherly affection with the next phrase: Outdo one another in showing honor.
What does that look like? It’s not having to be the first in line: let others go first. It’s not picking the biggest and/or best strawberry out of the bowl: you offer it to others. You look for ways to serve, rather than always expecting others to serve you. You take advantage of opportunities to help someone else, to serve them. You are generous with your time and your resources. You think about the other person’s wants and needs instead of, or before, your own.
All of these things are contrary to what we’re taught in this society. The culture around us says, “Me first. Take care of number one.” Even that’s unChristian because God is Number One, not you or me. Serving someone else, giving them honor and love instead of looking out for your interests first, that’s not fostered out in the world.
There’s a song: Sister, let me be your servant. What’s the next line? Here’s the key to this whole discussion: Let me be as Christ to you. That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? We love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor because Christ came and gave us that example. He came as the suffering servant, coming to serve and to suffer for our sake. How can we not do the same to our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Sister, let me be your servant; let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey; fellow travelers on the road.
We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
I will hold the Christlight for you in the nighttime of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping; when you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow ’til we’ve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Brother, let me be your servant; let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We love others with brotherly affection. We show them honor. We look for opportunities to serve them because that’s the example Jesus gave for us to follow. But you can’t serve with an expectation that the one you’re serving is going to serve you back. They should. It should be a competition to see who can serve and show honor more. But even if it’s not, even if they just accept your service as their due, you still have honored God in being their servant, in honoring them.
When Jennifer was little [She couldn’t have been more than two or three], I was trying to get her to learn to obey even when she didn’t want to. I gave her two M-n-Ms and told her to take them to Jonathan. Oh, she didn’t want to do it. She really just wanted to pop them into her mouth. It took quite a bit of encouragement to get her to walk across the room and hand them to Jonathan. But she did. When she got there, he graciously took them from her and thanked her. Then he gave her one back. I was trying to teach obedience. Jonathan was teaching brotherly affection.
I can’t help thinking that God gives us the same opportunity. We obey God because we love Him. Just like Jennifer with the M-n-Ms, we do things our carnal nature doesn’t want to do because of the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. I think our Father would be very pleased, when one of us has been obedient, when another one responds with brotherly affection.
There’s the challenge: Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10).
**Be Patient
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12
Materials: An orange to peel, several wrapped boxes nestled inside one another to slowly open, or a pile of nesting cups to take off one at a time
When I ask Pepper if he wants a treat, he is quite adamant that he wants it now - not ten days from now, not ten hours from now, not ten minutes from now, not ten seconds from now. Pepper wants that treat immediately.
We’re not too different from Pepper. If I offer you something special, you want it right now. You don’t want to wait until after supper, or after you get home, or after potluck, or even after church. You want that something special now.
But our world does not deal in everything you want happening right away. In fact, rarely do we get what we really want immediately. We don’t plant tomatoes and immediately pick the fruit. We don’t pick up a guitar and immediately play exquisitely. We don’t buy a puppy and immediately have a well-trained, well-behaved dog. We often have to wait for what we want: a ripe tomato, an accomplished guitar player, a well-behaved dog.
The memory verse in Romans indicates that we also need to be patient when things are not going well, when we’re experiencing tribulation. That’s really hard! We find it hard to be patient when things are going smoothly. So when you are hurting, it’s really hard to be patient. But God has given us a couple of reminders to help. Did you notice where this admonition is? Be patient in tribulation is found sandwiched between two other admonitions: Rejoice in hope and be constant in prayer.
We can be patient in tribulation when we know the suffering will not last forever. And we know the suffering will not last forever because we have hope in God. That is, when we love God and have a relationship with Him, we know God is in control of our lives. We know God will never give us more than we can endure. we know God has our best interest at heart. We know God loves us. Thus, the suffering will end. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
We can also be patient in tribulation because we always can talk to our Redeemer, our Savior, our Help in Ages Past. We know we can come boldly before the throne of grace in time of need. God will hear our prayers - when we have a relationship with Him, seeking to do His will. It doesn’t mean that our tribulation immediately disappears, but we know we can go to the only One who can help and He will hear us.
So what does being patient look like? Is it whining about the situation and what you want? Well, think about it: you can be rejoicing and whining at the same time. So being patient doesn’t involve whining. Is it being agitated, anxious, and mentally jumping up and down in anticipation (like Pepper wanting a treat?) No! It’s waiting, calmly and with the assurance that demonstrates your faith in God.
Being patient doesn’t come easily to any of us. Being patient in tribulation is even harder. But God gives us lots of opportunities to practice. And He gives us instructions. Rejoice in hope. Be constant in prayer. And maybe, just maybe we can learn to be patient in tribulation.
**Live Peaceably
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:18
Materials needed: freshly picked coriander seeds (rosemary, anise, or thyme will also work), small jar, coffee grinder, extension cord, funnel
I saw this saying the other day about crayons: We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp; some are pretty. Some are dull, while others bright. Some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.
Following this analogy, it occurred to me that the only “crayons” that live together are family. And sometimes, it’s the people you are closest to that you need to consider in regards to Romans 12:18. It’s not so much a matter of brown hair, red hair, blond hair, or blue eyes or weird names. It’s more about your actions of respect or disrespect to the people who are closest to you that affects whether you live peaceably.
This week I picked some cilantro that had gone to seed. It’s painstaking work, but eventually I accumulated a little container of coriander seeds. As I was cleaning them, I noticed that if I stir them in the container (aka stirring the pot), I could create enough friction to cause static electricity so that the little stem pieces stick to the side of the container. And although creating static electricity is a very cool phenomenon, it’s not a good idea to stir the pot, create friction among the people with whom you live. Let me explain: I gathered enough of those coriander seeds to make it worthwhile to grind. Hmm. What could I use to grind all of those seeds? Ron’s coffee grinder. Now this presents a dilemma: using Ron’s coffee grinder to grind the coriander is going to make his coffee taste strange the next time he grinds coffee beans. What to do? Ron really likes his coffee. He’s very particular. So I have options: I could grind the coriander, then wait for Ron to grind some coffee. When he comments that it tastes strange, I could deny any knowledge of what could possibly have happened. Of course, that’s lying. So that option is out. O.K. Option #2 is to use Ron’s coffee grinder and not tell him until he grinds and tastes his coffee. Then I tell him what I did. Ron’s pretty easy-going. He’ll probably be okay with this. This is the idea that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. And it’s not a good choice because it’s just straight up disrespectful. So option #3 is to ask Ron before I use his coffee grinder. That’s risky because it is his coffee grinder. And he could say no. And then what would I do? Hmm. What is the right thing to do? I need to respect Ron and take the chance that I have to figure out a different way of grinding the coriander. That’s what Paul means when he says in Romans 12:18, “As far as it depends on you.” You need to do what you can, to the best of your ability, to live peaceably with your family.
Can you think of any examples in your life? What about your church family? What choices are you going to make today that show respect or disrespect? Are you making the choice so that, if possible, as far as it depends on you, you live peaceably with all?
When the rubber hits the road, sometimes it’s harder to make the best choice. But it’s the right thing to do.
**Potiphar and Prison
"Don't let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” - Romans 12:21
Materials needed: mini bowling ball set, balls, bouncy balls, string
God set up laws in our world to make things work smoothly. Can you think of any? Gravity. Friction. Inertia. Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
Dave experienced inertia with the van recently. Also called Newton’s First Law of Motion, inertia is the tendency of an object in motion to stay in motion (or object at rest to stay at rest) until acted upon by an outside force. You might say that the deer ran afoul of Newton’s First Law of Motion - and paid for it with its life.
Also called the conservation of momentum, Newton’s First Law of Motion is why people use wrecking balls. The weight of the ball uses gravity to smash it into the building to be demolished. The wrecking ball continues in motion until it’s acted upon by another force - the building.
Another of God’s laws, Newton’s Third Law of Motion, states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s one of the laws in play when you bounce a ball. What happens if you get in the way of a bouncing ball? You definitely feel the energy - with whatever force the ball was thrown, it’s going to bounce with almost the same amount of energy - right into your chin.
We depend on the consistency of God’s laws to function in our world. For instance, friction is what keeps our cars on the pavement. Ice greatly decreases friction and we know what happens then. You walk out the front door and find yourself on the ground. Friction may have been minimized, but gravity is still hard at work.
So what does this have to do with Joseph and Potiphar? Well, it wasn’t exactly Potiphar; it was his wife. She wanted Joseph to break one of God’s laws; she wanted him to commit adultery. Joseph knew that was wrong. He knew that it was sin - the transgression of God’s law. And he wanted no part of it.
Just as there are consequences for running afoul of God’s natural laws (like inertia, friction, and gravity), there are consequences for running afoul of God’s moral laws. Joseph did the right thing; he got out of there - leaving his cloak in her hand when she tried to grab him. Although it made Potiphar’s wife mad and Joseph ended up in prison, it would have been much worse if Joseph had broken God’s law like she wanted. It’s much worse to have God angry with you.
Your memory verse says, “Don’t let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” Evil is going against God’s laws; doing good is the opposite - keeping God’s laws - and that’s what we’re called to do, to obey and honor God always. You can’t run afoul of any of God’s laws without consequences.
Counterfeit - Trick or Treat?
The day of Christ’s return is almost here. So let us get rid of the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. ~Romans 13:12 (NIrV Kids’ Devotional Bible)
Materials needed: counterfeit money, YEA Lesson (YE2W.9 - borntowin.net/yea/primaries/)
What do you think of fake and/or counterfeit things? Are they good or bad? Why do people want fake things? We were at a wedding last week where the centerpieces on the tables at the reception were fake pumpkins. That was good because they were a lot lighter than real pumpkins - and the way that they were used as decorations was a lot less messy than if they’d been real.
Fake things can be used to trick people. Jim’s fake coffee spill on my piano one sabbath was a lot funnier once I realized it was fake! But using counterfeit money to steal from businesses is not funny at all; it’s just theft and it’s not something God condones.
So what about dressing up in costumes? Do you think it’s wrong for Fredbird to wear a costume as the St. Louis Cardinals’ mascot? I don’t think so. So what’s the difference between someone dressing up as a team mascot and someone dressing up in a costume for Halloween? As long as it’s not something obviously evil (witch, demon, ax murderer, etc.), is there anything wrong with dressing up on Halloween?
Well, let me ask you some more questions: does it glorify God? Does it point anyone to Jesus Christ? Does the day have ties to paganism? Does God say anything in the Bible about getting involved in pagan traditions?
It’s curious that so many people would excuse Halloween as “just a fun thing” for kids to do when it has clear ties to paganism. Your memory verse says, “The day of Christ’s return is almost here. So let us get rid of the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.” If you want to put on something, you should put on the full armor of God; you should want to look like Jesus Christ.
Remember how we started this discussion talking about counterfeit and fake things. Well, that’s what Halloween is. Satan loves to dangle a counterfeit holiday in front of us - especially children - and tell everyone that it’s just a fun event with lots of candy. Who doesn’t love candy?! Don’t be beguiled by Satan’s tricks. Don’t participate in Halloween.
Holy Attire
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
The Greek words in today’s verse serve to highlight the depravity of the carnal nature. It’s for a very good reason that Paul asserts the carnal mind is enmity against God and cannot please God!
provision: pronoia - It means providence, care, prudence, or provision. It’s that thoughtful preparation, and comes from pronoeo which means to know ahead of time. So “making no provision for the flesh” means not planning ahead of time to do act in an ungodly manner.
flesh: sarx - It means flesh, the flesh of men, beasts, birds, or fish. It can also mean the corrupt nature of man subject to filthy appetites and passions.
desires: epithumia - This is the active lust or desire springing from the diseased soul.
put on: enduo - This is array, clothe, endue, put on - in the sense of sinking into a garment.
The way Paul has written this verse seems to indicate that we are to put on Jesus Christ as an alternate to satisfying the carnal nature and its ungodly passions and desires. So how do you do that? Can you think of anywhere else in the Bible that talks about putting something on? Interestingly enough, Romans 13:12 says that we should put on the armor of light. That’s something we can put on: the armor of light or the full armor of God.
Ephesians 6:13-18 lists the pieces of the armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes for the feet - shod with the readiness given by the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. So. How do you put on the belt of truth? And how might this relate to putting on Jesus Christ?
I believe that each piece of the armor is a characteristics of our Lord and Savior:
Truth: John 14:6 - Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is truth.
Righteousness: 1 Corinthians 1:30 - God the Father has made Jesus to be righteousness for each of us. Jesus is our righteousness.
Peace: Isaiah 9:6 - He is the Prince of Peace. 2 Thes 3:16 - He is the God of all peace.
Faith: Revelation 19:11 The One coming on the white horse is called Faithful and True. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of faith.
Salvation: Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Jesus Christ is our salvation.
Sword of the Spirit: Ephesians 6:17 says that this is the word of God. Notice that in Rev. 1:16 and 19:15, Jesus opens His mouth from which comes a sword!
If each of these pieces of the armor of God is Jesus Christ and we’re to put them on, how does that help in making no provision for the flesh?
Truth: If you belt truth around you waist, you are not going to tell a lie, even a little white lie. You’re not going to think ahead of time about how to get out of a potential problem. You are not planning to be deceitful.
Righteousness: If you have a breastplate of righteousness, you are going to choose ahead of time to act in a godly manner. You make no provision to act in a way contrary to the laws of God.
Peace: If your feet are shod with peace, you don’t plan how to cause strife, bickering and trouble with your brothers and sisters either in your family or in your church. This is living Psalm 119:165: “Great peace have they who love God’s law and nothing shall make them stumble.”
Faith: This is a shield, with which to extinguish the darts of the evil one. Satan knows your weaknesses. He knows which buttons to push to entice you to satisfy the flesh. He knows your pride, your selfishness, your ingratitude, your greed, or whatever. But if you truly believe in God, who is able to provide all that you need abundantly, who loves you so much He sent His Son to redeem you, who will settle all accounts at the judgment, then you have a shield to protect you from making provision to satisfy the flesh right now.
Salvation: This is a helmet. This is not a flimsy sun bonnet or straw hat. This is a defensive piece of armor. It protects your head, aka your mind, from those thoughts which could lead you to make provision to satisfy the desires of the carnal nature.
Sword of the Spirit: It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the word of God is a huge defense in our battle against the carnal nature! The psalms tell us, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” Use the Sword, the word of God, to divide truth from fiction. Use the word of God to fight against the carnal desires which can take you captive again!
Then there are two other pieces of protection listed in Ephesians 6. They are prayer and perseverance. Prayer indicates that you are in a personal relationship with God. If you’re not communicating with Him, then there’s something seriously wrong with your armor. Perseverance is similar to prayer in that it’s an indicator of your relationship with God. Isaiah 59:17 describes God having the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. In addition he clothes Himself with vengeance and “wraps himself in zeal as a cloak.” The zeal, the passion, the fervor with which you serve God shows your heart, your commitment to Him, your utter devotion to the things of God. It is zeal which helps you persevere. It’s zeal which motivates you to pray. It’s zeal which inspires you to put on the full armor of God. It’s zeal which is at the center of your worship of Him.
Psalm 96:9: “Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” The alternate translation for “holiness” is “holy attire.” I can think of no better way to worship God in holy attire than to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, which is enmity against God. What about you? What are you putting on today? Is it holy attire?
**Put on Jesus
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ . . . Romans 13:14 (This is a summary lesson for Ephesians 6:14-17)
Materials: poster of full armor of God and pieces
What is the purpose of the armor of God? The apostle Paul says it is so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. Make no mistake, the schemes the devil has against you are not for your good. Rather, they are schemes for your hurt, for your alienation from God, for your ultimate destruction. You want to be protected.
The apostle Paul works us through several pieces in the armor:
*the belt of truth
*the breastplate of righteousness
*as shoes, the readiness given by the gospel of peace*the shield of faith
*the helmet of salvation
*and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Think about each of these pieces for a moment. Who is truth? Jesus is!! In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Who is our righteousness? Jesus is!! 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”
Who prepares us, makes us ready? God does - by giving us the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Who is our peace - the One we spread the good news, the gospel about? Jesus is! Ephesians 2:14 says, “For he himself is our peace,”
Where does our faith come from? Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the author and the perfecter, or finisher, of our faith. Our faith initially comes from Him, and He takes it until it’s completed.
Who is our salvation? The very name Jesus means “salvation.” Psalm 118:21 says, “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.” In context, this is Jesus Christ. Interestingly, this is the last of the psalms called the Hallels, sung at the end of the Passover.
The last piece of the armor of God is the sword of the Spirit. The apostle Paul says this is the word of God. Who is the Word of God? Jesus is. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So when you are putting on the full armor of God, you are putting on Jesus Christ. If you ever wondered what it means to put on Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul gives us the description. You are always truthful. You always choose God’s way, the right way, to live. You are ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people around you. You live in faith, trusting God with your life. You live your life knowing that Jesus is your Savior; there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved! And you study your Bible daily to stay sharp, to know what is truth and what is lies.
In a word, put on the Lord Jesus Christ!
Another Man’s Servant
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? Romans 14:4a
Once upon a time there was a paddling of ducklings in the middle of the pond. [A group of ducks is called a flock (if in flight), a raft, a brace, a team, or a paddling.] There were yellow ones and blue ones, and they were doing their best to follow their mama. There was another little duckling, a pink one, that wasn’t paying too much attention to the paddling of her brothers and sisters. She was keeping an eye on her mama duck but wasn’t paddling in the paddling. She wasn’t a team player on the duck team. So her brothers and sisters made fun of her. They joked about her odd color. They laughed about her method of paddling. They even poked fun at how she poked her head under the water for a yummy bite of whatever ducklings eat under water. And you know what? They were totally wrong in what they were doing. The duckling’s mama was keeping an eye on her. Mama duck knew the little duckling was safe. The little duckling was doing what she was supposed to be doing; she just wasn’t doing it with her brothers and sisters. They should not have been condemning her actions.
Now if the little duckling had been robbing the grocery store, or had been lying about the neighboring geese in the next pond over, or had been disobedient to her mama, then the other ducklings would be right to make a judgment that her behavior was wrong. It is wrong to steal and to bear false witness and to be disobedient to parents. Nevertheless, it would be wrong for them to condemn the little duck and decide that she was never going to be of any value to anyone. But it’s important for all little ducks to make a judgment about behavior, what is right and what is wrong . . . and then make a decision to do what’s right.
Isn’t it funny how we are so much like the little ducklings. We want everyone to paddle with us in our paddling. We want everyone to be a team player on our team - especially when it comes to something really important like worshiping God. We want everyone to do it our way . . . ‘cause then that would mean we are doing it the right way. If they’re doing it differently, sometimes, deep inside, we wonder if perhaps we’re not doing it right. Maybe we’re not paddling the way God wants us to. Maybe we’re not a good team player on God’s team.
But there’s a difference between being disobedient to God and just being different. Not everyone has to like the same colors to be pleasing to God. (It doesn’t matter whether you paint the church walls white or cream - even though I know of a church which split over that!!) You don’t all have to be truck drivers, or garage door installers, or lawyers to be pleasing to God. (I had a high school guidance counselor who told me not to waste my life becoming a teacher even though I thought God wanted me to become a teacher.) You don’t all have to sing well during song service. (God just says to make a joyful noise, even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket.) You don’t have to like everything that everyone brings for potluck. But you do need to be obedient to God. You need to keep the Sabbath. (Not everyone has to keep it with us, but they should honor the Sabbath day by keeping it holy somewhere.) You must not steal or lie or kill. These things are God’s law that you need to keep.
So there’s a difference between being disobedient and just being different. And we all make judgments about the behaviors of the people around us. There’s a lot of freedom within the differences that we all have. It’s okay to be different and still be paddling in the same pond. It’s okay to be different in personal preferences and still be on the same team. We can make a judgment about a personal preference (one that’s not disobedient to God) and decide that we want to do likewise or that we would never do that! If God wants a person to go in a certain direction, He will lead him that way. That person is God’s servant. It’s really not our business if God wants him to live in Wyoming or become an astronaut.
But when it comes to being disobedient to God, it’s a little different. We still make a judgment about the behavior, hopefully deciding that we don’t want to even consider being disobedient, but our response to the other person is different when we’re talking about sin. When it’s a personal preference we are tolerant. When it’s disobedience to God, we cannot be tolerant and just let it go. It’s not in that person’s best interest to ignore their disobedience; we’re not doing them any favors by tolerating their sinfulness. Our tolerance can lead them to believe that we are condoning their ungodly behavior. Our tolerance can make them think that God is pleased with their rationalizations and excuses. When we don’t say anything, we have, in effect, hidden our light; we are no longer an encouragement for that person to come to Christ.
So we have to say something, if God presents the opportunity and prompting. But we can’t be like the little ducklings - harshly criticizing and condemning. We have to gently, lovingly correct - from the Bible. It’s not our opinion that we’re explaining to that person; it has to be the Word of God. And we show them God’s truth humbly because it’s only through the grace of God that we have come to see our own failings and sinfulness.
We are all paddling on the same pond. We bear with one another’s idiosyncrasies because we have more than a few of our own. We exhort and encourage and correct one another because we want to please God. But we can’t spend our lives poking and judging and criticizing someone else’s personal preferences. That’s the exact opposite of exhorting and encouraging. My job is to keep my eyes on Jesus Christ. My job is to follow Him wherever He leads me. My job, if you will, is to keep my own ducks in a row.
(**denotes very visual devotion)
Romans
Romans 1:9-10 - Without Ceasing
Romans 1:20 - Without Excuse
**Romans 1:22 - Wise or Foolish
Romans 2:4 - God's Kindness
Romans 3:23 - Sin vs. the Glory of God (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 4:8 - Blessed! (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 5:6 - Your Older Brother (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
***Romans 5:19 - More Than Saved (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
Romans 6:23 - Wages vs. Gift
**Romans 6:23 - Choices! (YEA Lesson)
Romans 8:1 - Don't You Know Who You Are?
**Romans 8:5 - Focus
Romans 8:7 - Enemy or Friend?
**Romans 8:28 - Work Together for Good
***Romans 11:33 - The Secret Things of God
**Romans 12:6 - Use Your Gift
Romans 12:10 - Brotherly Affection and Honor
**Romans 12:12 - Be Patient
***Romans 12:18 - Live Peaceably
***Romans 12:21 - Potiphar and Prison
***Romans 13:12 - Counterfeit - Trick or Treat?
Romans 13:14 - Holy Attire
**Romans 13:14 - Put On Jesus (This is a summary lesson for the full armor of God, Ephesians 6:14-17)
Romans 14:4a - Another Man's Servant
Without Ceasing
, , . without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers. . . Romans 1:9-10
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
The Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord
for giving me the things I need:
the sun and the rain and the apple seed.
The Lord is good to me.
These two prayers were introduced to me when I was little. The first one was probably recited to me by a friend during a sleep-over. We were probably telling ghost stories or something equally scary. Why would I say that? Think about the words. Tim Hawkins talks about this prayer and how it is a frightening prayer to teach a child. Children are already afraid of the dark. Then, to make matters worse, this prayer talks about them dying?! The idea of placing our lives in God’s protective care isn’t the overwhelming impression left with young children! The second prayer was what our girl scout troop called the Johnny Appleseed prayer. It was the easy way for our troop to ask for a blessing on our food. I think we liked it because it simply thanked God for the things we needed - and no one person was singled out to say the prayer.
But if these are the only prayers you say, then maybe you need to think a little more about your communication with God.
Jesus gave us a model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(some manuscripts add)
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
It’s a prayer which starts by praising God. That’s always a good thing. Next, there’s a request that God’s kingdom come to this earth. We desperately need that! Following that, there’s a request for what we need for today, not tomorrow, not next week, just today. Then comes a request for forgiveness, based on how we have forgiven others. That’s not usually what people want. They want forgiveness, but they don’t really want to forgive other people. Next, there’s a request to keep us from the evil one - from the schemes of the devil. Finally, Jesus’ model prayer ends with an acknowledgment that God is sovereign and to Him belongs all things, all power, glory and honor forever.
This is a really good outline for our daily talking with God.
So . . . where does Paul’s prayer for the brethren, the saints in Rome, fit into Jesus model prayer? Well, maybe when you’re praying that God will provide for your needs today, maybe you can remember to also pray for the needs of your friend - because it says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Maybe when you pray that God will protect you from the schemes of the devil, you can remember to pray that God will protect your sister or brother from Satan’s wiles too - because it says, “Deliver us from the evil one.” Maybe when you’re praying that God’s will be done, you can remember to pray that God’s perfect will be done in the heartbreaking situation in your friend’s family.
Sometimes I think our prayers become too much about us. We want God to fix our problems, bail us out of the consequences of our bad choices, or keep us from making wrong choices. While it’s not wrong to pray those things, maybe our emphasis should be more on praising God, praying for His kingdom and His will in our lives - and praying for other people as much as (or more than) we pray for ourselves. Notice that nowhere in the Lord’s prayer is there an “I” or a “me.” It’s always “we” or “us.” We are a family of believers. We should be praying to reflect that reality!
We should . . . without ceasing mention each other always in our prayers.
Without Excuse
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Sometimes the Apostle Paul is very difficult to understand. Okay, make that “most of the time.” As we start to dissect this verse to get as much as possible from what Paul’s telling us, let’s take a look at some of the Greek words:
eternal: aidios - eternal, absolutely, without beginning or end
divine nature: theiotes - This is God’s divinity, logically arrived at by observing His might.
creation: ktisis - This is the sum total of what God created; the founding of a habitable place.
world: kosmos - This is the sum total of the material universe.
without excuse: anapologetos - This means exactly what it says: without excuse.
Now, let’s take the verse apart to its basic phrases:
For his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. That helps us understand what Paul’s getting at! God’s attributes are obvious in the things around us. O.K. What things?
Look at hummingbirds - whose wings beat 80 beats/second and who can fly backwards, sideways, and hover in midair!
Look at a Venus Flytrap! Those tiny hair triggers can catch an insect. But if you try to trick your flytrap, it knows! The next day it’ll open and expel whatever you put in which wasn’t an insect!
Look at the stars! There are billions of stars - and that’s just in our galaxy. The Bible tells us the God knows each by name! Even Psalm 19:1 says: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Or look at your own body! The absolute intricacies of how your body works together to function without you even thinking about it! Our bodies didn’t happen by chance. The stars didn’t come into existence by chance. The Venus Flytrap didn’t evolve over billions of years. The hummingbirds are not a product of evolution. They all, and all of creation, testifies that God is God, that He is the One who created it all by His power and might. Look again at the Greek for “divine nature.” It reemphasizes that there is no other logical possibility for all of creation. And creation testifies to the eternal power and divinity of our God. There is no excuse for not recognizing Him as God! The creation is too clear that He is!
He is God. We owe Him everything. We owe Him our allegiance, our love, our obedience, our wills, our very lives.
We are without excuse.
**Wise or Foolish
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22
Materials: toy turtle, markers
There have been some pretty ridiculous things said by people who claim to be wise, or at least smarter than all the rest of us. For instance:
*There’s an idea out there that we need to quit raising cattle for food because they are creating too many greenhouse gases, which is raising our global temperatures and causing the icecaps to melt. That means the polar bears won’t have any place to live and will die.
*Environmental groups stopped the logging industry in the Northwest because they claimed the logging was destroying the environment of the spotted owl, thereby endangering the owl.
*Property owners built a house. When a culvert near the road was blocked with trees and debris, it caused the water which normally drained, to back up and flood their property. When they cleared the blockage, the EPA came in, accusing them of illegally draining a wetland, illegally building a house on a wetland, and fined them daily until they would demolish or relocate the house - even though a local court ruled in the property owners’ favor. (source: Stossel)
But this is nothing new. There have long been those who defied common sense and Biblical wisdom, claiming themselves to be wise.
*George Washington had a common cold. But the medical experts of the day believed you had to let the bad blood out of your body to get over an illness. They drained an estimated 40% of his blood.
*Evolution is based on the assumption that the cells of all living things are simple. Once science proved that cells are enormously intricate, the evolution debate should have been dead. But evolutionists still argue that all life came from a rock.
*Some people (who don’t believe in God) believe in a big bang theory which states that there was nothing. Then nothing exploded into everything. The Bible says there was nothing but God, and God spoke everything into existence.
*Some people believe that the earth rests on the back of a giant turtle. O.K. even supposing that were true, what does the turtle rest upon?? When asked this question, the proponent of this belief said, “It’s turtles all the way down.”
*Some people believe that we need to re-introduce wild animals to areas where they were once found. That means bears, wolves, and mountain lions have all been brought into areas to live where they had almost all been killed. The problem is that these wild animals don’t cohabitate with humans well. There was a good reason why our ancestors hunted and killed some of these wild animals. The Bible talks about wild animals being a curse on the land: Leviticus 26:22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted. Yes, God gave mankind the dominion mandate to take care of the earth. That doesn’t mean we have to reintroduce wild animals to populated areas.
We could talk all day long about the foolishness of humans! But here’s the bottom line: Psalm 119:98 says that God’s laws make me wiser than my ungodly foes. If you reject God, then you are also rejecting the wisdom of God. And if you think you are wise, and yet you reject God, you become a fool.
God’s Kindness
God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. Romans 2:4
I don’t think of using kindness when I want someone to change their behavior. I don’t think of sweetly explaining to them why they are in error. Rather, I want to yell, “Stop that!” or maybe “What do you think you’re doing?” I’ve been this way a long time. When the boys were little and Jennifer just barely saying a few words, there was a day when the boys were doing something I didn’t like. I didn’t sit in my chair and calmly and sweetly, kindly, tell them to stop what they were doing. Oh no! I took a deep breath . . . and then Jennifer looked at me and said, “Nice?” . . . and I let that breath out. I had intended to tell those boys in no uncertain terms what I thought of their behavior. But literally, out of the mouth of babes came some powerful wisdom. Nice. Kind.
I wasn’t thinking nice or kind when I looked out of my bedroom window one day when I was still a teenager at home. I saw one of my brothers at the neighbor’s house with the neighbor’s boys kicking their geese in the seat of the pants, so to speak. When they made contact, the geese would squawk and fly into the air. The boys thought it was great fun. I stormed downstairs. Dad caught me and wanted to know where I was going. I told him I was going to go do that to the boys and see if they still thought it was funny! Dad didn’t think that was my job and sent me back to my room. Well, he was right. It wasn’t my job to make those boys stop tormenting the geese. Mom reminded me that I needed to be nice and she cited Proverbs 25:21-22: If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you. All I heard was that if I was nice, it would make him feel bad. I wanted him to feel bad. Only, you know what? It didn’t work that way. When I was nice to him, he thought that I was okay with his behavior. And I wasn’t! So then I was really frustrated.
So then, here’s this verse: God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. How does that work?
First, God loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8) and gave His Son for us. That’s hard to get our minds wrapped around. While we were still in rebellion against Him, our carnal minds enmity towards Him, God still loved us enough to provide a way for us to be reconciled to Him! The Great God of the Universe thought enough of me to send His only beloved and begotten Son to die on the cross for me.
Secondly, God is patient and long-suffering. Jeremiah records in Lamentation 3:22-23, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Peter states it this way: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV).
And, God is merciful. When Moses asked God to show Himself to him, God passed by Moses and described Himself in these terms: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7, ESV).
Because God is good, because God is patient, because God is loving, He kindly works with each of us to draw us to Himself, to change our hearts, to mold us into profitable servants, to remake us into the image of His Son. God’s work in us is not done in a day, or a week, or a year. We spend our whole lives learning more of Him, becoming more like His Son, and bringing every one of our thoughts into submission to Jesus Christ. Praise God that He is patient with us. We make mistakes, but we can go to Him in repentance and find forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise God that He is loving and doesn’t send lightning bolts when we mess up. Praise God that He is merciful and doesn’t think more of the burning coals of fire heaped on our heads than the change in our hearts.
I told you at the very beginning that my way of getting people to change their behavior is “right now” and it’s blunt, harsh, and demanding. Well, that’s true of who I was when I was a teenager. And that’s true of who I was when the kids were little. But as I’ve grown older and God has mercifully continued to draw me to Himself, I’d like to think I’ve become more gentle, more patient, and more loving. After all, that’s what God has shown to me - as He’s been changing me with His kindness. It’s very true: God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
Sin vs. the Glory of God
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
There are three really interesting phrases in this verse:
The first is “fall short.” It literally can mean “to be left behind in the race and so fail to reach the goal, to fall short of the end; to be inferior; to fail; or to be wanting.” It’s the same word that we see in Hebrews 11:37, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—“ It’s the word translated in this verse “destitute.” It means lacking everything or coming up short. It’s like running a race and being left behind by the rest of the runners, or running the race and not even being able to reach the finish line. The mental image this definition brings to mind is the warped wall in American Ninja Warrior. The contestant has to race up this curved wall fast enough to get enough momentum to vault himself up high enough to grab the top of the wall and pull himself up. Too many times the contestant falls just short of the goal - and he finds himself out of the competition.
The second is “have sinned.” It’s the Greek word #264 which means to miss the mark, thus not qualified to share in the prize. Again, this word, which is translated so often as trespass or sin, has a rich word picture of a competition in which the contestant falls short or misses the mark. But it has an additional meaning of inherent consequence: not being qualified to share in the prize. So imagine that you’re in an archery competition and your arrow is nowhere near the target. You don’t even qualify for a prize because you have missed the mark or goal!
The third phrase is “glory of God.” It’s the Greek word doxa #1391. The Blue Letter Bible lexicon defines the word “glory” (when speaking of God): “splendor, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace, the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity.”
Phillips, Craig, and Dean sing, “How great You are; how small I am! How awesome is Your mighty hand, and I am captured by the wonder of it all! And I will offer all my praise with all my heart for all my days. How great You are! How great You are!! How great You are!!”
Think of how great God is! He’s the Creator and Sustainer of everything. He’s our Savior and Redeemer. He’s our Provider, our Healer, our Defender, our Sovereign! God’s conversation wth Job starts with God asking, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth” (Job 38:4), and then God continues with more humanly unanswerable questions. One of my favorites is, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (38:22-23). Our God is so absolutely, incredibly awesome! And us, His creation? In Ecclesiastes 5:2 Solomon wrote, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” David said it very graphically, “I am a worm . . .” (Psalm 22:6). Isaiah wrote, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). The contrast between who He is and who we are is enormous!
Indeed, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But I have good news. God is changing us. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are being changed into the image of Jesus Christ. There will come a time, because of God’s work in us, that we will share in the glory of God. Paul writes about the work God is doing in each of us: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17).
I can’t help thinking about all these things as we prepare for Passover. The Passover is so very special to those who love God, who recognize just how great God is, because it reminds us of how God made the way for us to be reconciled to Him! Jesus, the dearly beloved Son of our Heavenly Father, was crucified that our sins, our missing the mark, would be forgiven and so that we would have a chance to share in His glory. That’s hard to completely wrap our minds around!
Passover’s just a little over two weeks away. It might be a good idea to spend some time thinking about this verse: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then think about God loving us, you and me, anyway.
Blessed!
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Romans 4:8
Do you know why there are traffic signs? It’s so that cars can get from one place to the other with as few accidents as possible. They remind drivers to slow down for curves. They let drivers know when it’s their turn at intersections. The traffic is supposed to flow - move from one place to another more easily and more quickly. But many people don’t like to obey the traffic signs. They drive too fast. They roll through stop signs. They pass in no-passing zones. They don’t yield to oncoming traffic. And sometimes they get away with it. But sometimes, there’s a penalty. Sometimes when you don’t yield to oncoming traffic, it causes an accident. Sometimes when you don’t yield, the driver who is supposed to be able to go first will shake his fist at the unyielding driver. And sometimes, a policeman just happens to be right there when you don’t obey the signs.
That happened to me one beautiful August day. I was on my way to school - one of my most favorite days of the school year: a teacher work day when I could spend all day in my room getting it ready for a new crop of students. I was excited, and in a hurry, because I wanted to get to school. I didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign. I slowed down and kinda rolled through it. To my chagrin, there was a policeman also pulling up to that stop sign. He flashed his lights and pulled me over. It was, I think, something like a $80 fine. Kinda put a damper on my day.
God’s laws are kinda like traffic laws. They are there for our benefit, to keep us from getting hurt, to help us get along well with others, and to make life work well. But sometimes we don’t like to obey God’s laws. We cut corners and hope that no one is watching so that we can get away with breaking them. Only, unlike the policemen who can’t be everywhere at once, God knows exactly when we don’t obey His laws. And we aren’t getting away with breaking them. Breaking God’s laws is called sin, and there will come a day when God will judge the whole world because of their sin. The payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). That’s much worse than an $80 fine, and it will put more than a damper on a day.
But there was another day when I was driving down the road and broke a traffic law. I was taking the kids to skating and was going 35 mph in a 20 mph zone. A policeman happened to be right there. He flashed his lights. I pulled over. My heart sank. But, he didn’t write out a ticket. He just gave me a warning. I deserved a ticket. I was speeding. But he, for whatever reason, decided to overlook my transgression. I didn’t have to pay the penalty for transgressing the law.
So when Romans 4:8 says, “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin,” how does that work? Is it like what happened with the policeman just giving me a warning? No. Unfortunately, what happened with the policeman just makes the whole thing more confusing because he really didn’t do his job. His job is to enforce the law. I broke the law; he should have given me a ticket. Don’t get me wrong: I’m very grateful that he was willing to just give me a verbal warning, even if he didn’t have the authority to extend that kind of mercy. Because he’s a police officer, the just thing would have been to give me a ticket. God is always righteous. He always does the right thing, the just thing. So when His laws are broken, there is a penalty that must be paid. But God is also loving. So God provided a way for those penalties to be paid - in the crucifixion of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died for the sins that you and I commit. When we break God’s law, we can ask for forgiveness. If we have a relationship with God, if we’ve accepted Jesus as our Savior, we are forgiven for our sin. We don’t pay the penalty - but Jesus did.
The traffic laws of man are sometime very hard to honor. To come to a dead stop at a lonely 4-way in the middle of Iowa with nobody around seems like a waste of brake lining and gas. There are times when the laws of man just don’t fit the situation very well.
Even though God’s laws are also often difficult to keep, they always fit our situations when properly understood. Because we belong to God, we are expected to learn His ways and to imitate Jesus Christ, who never broke God’s laws. We are, through obedience, to be conformed into the image of Jesus. When you sin against God, and ask for forgiveness, there’s an understanding that you don’t intend to keep breaking the same law. You are grateful for God’s mercy, for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and you don’t want to continue living in a way that is not pleasing to God. Jesus didn’t die so that people could trample all over a law that is intended for their good, the laws that keep them safe and help their relationship with God and with other people. On the contrary, the gratitude and love that we feel towards God for paying for our sin should be a huge motivator to do what He says from here on out. We should want to please Him. He has shown such love towards us; how do we repay Him?
Passover is just around the corner. We’re going to be thinking and talking a lot about the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. But don’t just stop with what Jesus did. Consider what it means to you: blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
Do you know how blessed you are? Are you ready to obey God’s laws?
Your Older Brother
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Have you ever wanted something just out of reach? Your arms were just too short. The goal was just out of reach. When you look around, there’s nothing to make you taller, except your older brother. Older brothers can be wonderful! My older brother rescued me more than once and if I’d needed help reaching something, he would have helped.
What if you don’t have an older brother? Maybe you could borrow someone else’s. Perhaps your friend has a nice older brother who might be willing to help you out. That would be wonderful . . . as long as he was available when you needed help.
But what if you weren’t particularly nice to your friend’s older brother? What if, every time you saw him, you hit him? Do you think he’d still help you?
Think of this analogy when reading Romans 5:6: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Jesus Christ is the only One who can help us reach the goal. What goal? The goal of eternal life in the kingdom of God. That goal is totally out of our reach. We all have sinned. We cannot, in any way, earn our salvation. We can’t get where we want to go. We are completely unable. But Jesus can, through His shed blood, His death, and resurrection, help us reach that goal.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Our gracious Heavenly Father planned for Jesus to die and to be raised from the dead. It was our Father’s plan. It wasn’t an accident. It didn’t happen whenever. God planned for Jesus Christ to die, at the right time. Do you know what we call that time? Passover. Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb. He died exactly at the right time, on the day that God’s people had been observing Passover for hundreds of years. They remembered the Passover event in Exodus when the Death Angel passed over the houses where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels. In a very similar way, Jesus’s death, the death of the Lamb of God, paid the price for our sins so that we wouldn't have to die.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Remember our story of the friend’s older brother helping you reach the goal? Remember wondering if he’d help you even if you were not nice to him? That’s the truly amazing part of what Jesus Christ did. He died on the cross, for you and for me, while we were still sinners. We hadn’t repented of disobeying God. We hadn’t been sorry for doing what we want instead of what God wants. God’s ways didn’t matter to us. But Jesus died for us anyway. Romans 5:6 says He died for the ungodly. The ungodly are those people who fight against God, who disobey Him, who don’t listen to His commandments. Jesus died for them, for us, anyway.
Oh, and that older brother part? Because we call God our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Older Brother. He is the One, the only One, who can lift us up to reach the goal. He is the One who died at the right time, on Passover. He is the One who died even though we were not nice to Him.
Passover is coming up this week. I hope you spend some time thinking about your Older Brother.
***More Than Saved (Holy Day Lesson - Passover)
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
Materials needed: candle, matches
The first half of Romans 5:19 says, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” What does that mean? What man? How were we then all made sinners? Adam chose to disobey God’s command in the Garden of Eden. By intentionally choosing to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam was sinning. Sin is transgressing God’s law, disobedience. Because Adam did that, everyone born after him (That’s everyone.) was born with a carnal nature, born into sin. Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 5:1 says that Adam was made in God’s image, made after God’s likeness. But Genesis 5:3 says that Adam’s son was made in Adam’s image, after Adam’s likeness. Romans 5:17 says that sin and death came into the world through Adam.
We are like a candle. Sin is the flame which consumes us. It will continue to burn until the candle is gone - unless it is stopped. Romans 8:13, 20-22, 2 Corinthians 4, and many other verses talk about our earthen vessels (our bodies) which are growing older, getting weaker, subjected to decay. We are headed for death unless something - or Someone - intervenes. (Put out the candle.)
Here’s where the second half of Romans 5:19 comes in: so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Because Jesus was obedient to His Father, even to death on the cross (Phil 2:8), so that we might be reconciled to God (Colossians 1:20). This is more than just having our sins paid for by Jesus’ death. This is repairing the relationship with God, being adopted into God’s family, and being given the gift of eternal life.
It’s interesting, isn’t it. Candles were designed to shine light. And if they burn long enough, they’ll use up all of the wick and wax and be gone. Believers and disciples of Jesus Christ were also designed to shine. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” (Relight candle.) and Daniel 12:3 says, “Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.” The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10). There’s no better way to start on the path to wisdom and shining like the stars forever and ever than to keep His holy days and to recognize that righteousness only comes through what Jesus has done for us.
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
Wages vs. Gift
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
If you work for something, you expect to get a reward, to have some sort of payment for your work. If you do a worksheet correctly in school, you expect to get a sticker on your paper. If your neighbor hires you to mow their lawn, you expect he’ll give you money when you finish. If you work really hard, taking care of chickens, you expect that the hens will give you an egg or two. If you do what you are asked, you expect to get rewarded in some way.
But every once in a while, someone gives you a gift - just because. They felt like it. No one forced them to give you a gift. You didn’t ask. They simply wanted to give you a gift.
Now, what if you work really really hard . . . at being bad. Do you get rewarded for that? Well, yes, but we don’t call it “being rewarded.” We call it “receiving consequences” for our behavior. Some people say they’re getting what they deserve. For instance, if your mom tells you not to track mud into the house and you do it anyway, you’re going to receive a consequence. Depending upon your mom, you might have to clean up your mess, you might be grounded, you might be spanked, or maybe you receive all three consequences. Or if your dad tells you to go to bed and you don’t obey, you’re going to receive a consequence. It could happen that the next morning you might be really tired, and then you would get sick, and then you wouldn’t get to go to your best friends birthday party. Your dad doesn’t even have to ground you or spank you, you get a consequence from your disobedience whether he knows about it or not. Or . . . let’s say that your grandpa agrees to give you a penny for every potato bug that you pick off his plants. If you don’t pick any potato bugs off, you don’t get any pennies. Your wages, what you get paid, depends upon what you do.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you know what sin is? Sin is being disobedient to God. You choose not to do what God says to do. There’s a consequence for being disobedient - a consequence that most people don’t like. If you sin, your consequence is death. That’s just the way it is! God created this world. It’s right and just that we should obey His laws if we want to live in His world!
Have you ever sinned? Have you ever done anything that was disobedient to God? If you have, then what you deserve is death. And, according to God, everyone has sinned. (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20) We all deserve punishment from God. His punishment for our sins is death.
But God has given us a free gift in Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re celebrating this week of Unleavened Bread. God sent his son Jesus to die for us, because of our sins, so that we wouldn’t have to. If we accept that sacrifice for our sins, then we are forgiven. We are cleansed. That forgiveness is free. What Jesus did for us, in dying for us, is not something we can buy. We can’t earn forgiveness. And we can’t earn the free gift of eternal life!
So does that mean we can live any way we want to?! Absolutely not! God has given us a gift. Why in the world would we ever want to displease Him by being disobedient? The gift of God is so great that we spend the rest of our life thanking Him, praising Him, doing what He says and loving Him by keeping His commandments. We can’t earn eternal life in His kingdom. That’s a free gift, but we can show Him how very much we appreciate what He has done for us.
How much do you value what God has given you? Your willingness to please God shows how much you value His gift. As we continue celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread, think about all the ways you can honor God with your life - to show Him how very much you appreciate the gift He has given you through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Choices!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Materials Needed: apple/orange; pen/pencil; bicycle/book; YEA lesson (YE2E.4 - borntowin.net/yea/primaries/)
How many choices have you made today? Did you get to choose what you wanted to eat for breakfast? Did you get to choose what you were going to wear to church today? Did you get to decide what you were bringing to church? Did you get to help make the decision about what your family brought to potluck?
How many choices did your parents make this morning? What route to take to church; how fast to drive; how warm/cool to set the thermostat. Oh we’re completely surrounded by decisions every day.
Most decisions do not have major consequences, at least in the short term. Does it really matter whether you eat an apple or an orange? Does it really matter whether you do your homework in pencil or in pen? Well - that all depends on how many mistakes you will need to fix - right? Does it really matter whether you read a book or you ride your bicycle around the block? The answer to that one requires some more information: How much exercise have you gotten today? How much reading have you done this week? Is it dark outside? Depending on your answers to those questions, it might matter a LOT whether you decide to read a book or ride your bicycle.
Some decisions do have major consequences. When you decide to share a secret you were supposed to keep . . . well, secret, you can lose a friend. When you decide to cut across someone’s property, you might find yourself face to face with a very unfriendly watch dog. If you decide to read the Bible every night before you go to bed, that has major consequences too. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart (Reading the Bible every night can hide God’s word in your heart!) that I might not sin against Thee. Reading God’s word can keep me from sinning - if I’m taking God’s word into my heart and making it a part of who I am.
O.K. So you tell me: is sinning bad? Yes! Sin is the transgression (breaking) of God’s law. And here’s where your memory verse comes in: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
The wages of sin has been death - ever since Adam and Eve first made their choice in the Garden of Eden to disobey God’s command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There are no do-overs. There are no free passes. If you sin, death is the consequence. Except - God has made a way through the free gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
I don’t know about you, but a free gift of eternal life sounds a whole lot more appealing than death. We’re almost at the end of the calendar year. Now would be a good time to start a new habit. Read your Bible every day. Hide God’s word in your heart!! Make Jesus Christ a part of your life every day. It’s a choice that can lead to eternal life.
Don’t You Know Who You Are
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
There’s a Tenth Avenue North song that goes
You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
I’ve made some bad choices. I remember choosing not to keep my finger nails short my freshman year of high school. That was a bad choice. Gwen, our milk cow, let me know about it in no uncertain terms. I wore a hoof-shaped bruise in my midriff for a couple of weeks.
I’ve made some mistakes. Christopher remembers the birthday cake that I made for him one year. It wouldn’t come out of the pan. I took it out in chunks and we had birthday mound instead of birthday cake.
I’ve created problems that caused suffering. When I was a kid, I wasn’t sensitive to poison ivy. But my grandmother was. Once when we’d been playing outside in the trees, we’d gotten into some poison ivy. We came inside, not thinking anything of it, and sat down. Grandma later sat in that chair and she broke out in huge welts of poison ivy. What a problem I created!
But Tenth Avenue North sings that I’m more than those choices. I’m more than the mistakes. I’m more than the problems I create. These things don’t define who I am anymore. Why? Because I’ve been remade.
Remade? What does that mean?
When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, He took the penalty for my sins. But more than that, God gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, to change me from my carnal nature with all of its bad choices and horrible mistakes and painful problems. I’m a new creature, being formed in the image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because Jesus Christ bought me with His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), because He died to pay the penalty for my sin, I am now free to make good choices, to avoid mistakes, and to prevent problems.
Jesus Christ took me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock (Psalm 40:2), the Rock, which is Jesus, where I am secure. As Casting Crowns sings, “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I’ve done, but because of Who You are.” It’s not about me or what I’ve done. It’s all the work of God in me, creating a new creature to glorify Himself. So when Ten Avenue North sings, “Don’t you know who you are? And what’s been done for you,” our thoughts go to the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and the hope that I have because of what He did for me.
When Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” I know that it’s because of what Jesus has done for me. It’s not about me. It’s all about Him and the work that God is doing in me. I am more than the choices that I’ve made. I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. I am more than the problems I create. I’ve been remade. And Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
So I have one question to ask you: Don’t you know who you are, and what’s been done for you?
**Focus
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
Materials: magnifying glass, bottle of water, basin of water, spray bottle, bottle with multiple holes poked in it
If you were to use a magnifying glass, you can bend the light rays coming from whatever it is you want to see and focus them on your retina. This makes the thing appear bigger to you. But you can also use a magnifying glass the other way. (Try this at home only with adult supervision!!) On a bright, sunshiny day, you can focus the light of the sun on a piece of paper and it will get so hot that it will burst into flame. You have intensified the focus of the light and light energy to the point that the paper catches on fire.
In a similar way, if I want to move a bunch of water, it is not effective to use my hands. I can splash some of it toward you, but I can’t focus the molecules with enough energy to make them go to a precise point. However, if I get a bottle with a pop top or a spray bottle (or a water gun), I can focus the water with energy behind it to get it to go farther in a unified direction.
Let’s talk about focus in context of this verse in Romans: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
If your focus is on pleasing God, then you will expend your energy in a different way than if your focus is on yourself or pleasing another person. And really, you have to make a deliberate choice. Are you living your life in a way that glorifies and honors God? Is serving Him and pleasing Him your focus? Or are you making choices according to your wisdom, your wants, your desires, and your goals?
Let serving God be the focusing mechanism for everything you do. Be productive for our God to Whom we owe everything!
Enemy or Friend
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Romans 8:7
Hostile to. At war with. Enmity against. Enemy.
What does it mean to be an enemy to someone?
- You don’t want to be around them.
- You try to prove that you’re better than they are, show them little respect that they deserve.
- You put your desires before theirs.
- You try to hurt them and sabotage their goals.
- You try to influence others negatively against them.
- You dismiss their achievements as nothing, or give the credit for their achievements to someone else.
- You certainly wouldn't want to do anything they said.
- You are against them in every way that you can possibly be.
So what’s the opposite of all these enemy behaviors?
- You want to be with them.
- You acknowledge their abilities and show them the respect they deserve.
- You put their desires first.
- You try to help them and work with them to do what they want to do.
- You say good things about them to others.
- You give them the credit for their achievements, acknowledging the value of what they’ve done.
- You try to please them by doing what pleases them.
- You are unified with them in every way that you can possibly be.
So when Romans 8:7 says that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God,” you immediately ask yourself, “Am I an enemy of God, or, the opposite, am I friend of God?” So you have a list.
- Do you want to be with God or as far away from Him as possible?
- Do you acknowledge that He is the greatest or do you think you’re more important than God?
- Do you seek to do His will, or do you want Him to serve you?
- Do you work against God’s ways or do you try to serve Him?
- Do you give a good report about who God is to others or do you talk badly about God? This can also be seen in your behaviors. If you call yourself a Christian, but you don’t act very Christlike, you are making others think badly about God.
- Do you acknowledge that God is Sovereign; He’s the Creator; He’s our Redeemer? Or do you think that there are many ways to heaven, that we all got here by chance, and that maybe someone else is more powerful than God?
- Do you obey God or disobey Him?
- Are you following God’s ways, or are you going in the opposite direction?
Romans 8:7 makes it very clear that if you are hostile to God, you will not obey God. Your attitude towards Him will be displayed in your behaviors. Similarly, if you love God with all of your heart, that attitude will be displayed in all of your behaviors. So, are you hostile to God and His ways or are you a friend of God?
**Work Together For Good
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Materials: zucchini bread ingredients (pre-measured), spoon/spatula, bowl, crock pot
Have you ever thought about eating these food items by themselves? How about a big spoonful of flour? A big bite of shredded zucchini? A slither of raw egg? A slurp of oil? Too much? How about a little spoonful of baking soda or baking powder? Or cinnamon? Even vanilla by itself wouldn’t be all that appealing? The only thing you’d consider voluntarily sitting down and scarfing down might be the sugar, but only if your mom isn’t watching.
So what if we mix all these food items together?
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/8 t. baking powder
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla
2 c. zucchini, shredded
Now who wants a big spoonful of zucchini yuck, I mean, bread dough? It still doesn’t look very appetizing and you probably wouldn’t eat very much of it, would you? So how about we bake it? You’d probably like a slice of warm zucchini bread, wouldn’t you?
Isn’t that just like life? Your life is made up of all kinds of events. Some of them you really like - like sugar. Some of them you could tolerate - like maybe a spoonful of flour. But some of the things that happen in your life are not fun. You wouldn’t choose to have your life made up of them - like baking powder or raw eggs.
And like the mixed up zucchini dough, your life is a combination of events. You don’t get to just spend all of your life at Six Flags. Like too much sugar, you’d soon be sick. You don’t have to spend all of your life doing schoolwork, but it is good for you - like the zucchini.
There’s one other really cool analogy with our zucchini mess. It’s not desireable until it has some heat applied. In the same way, God prepares you to be used by Him by applying some heat to your life - like refrigerators going out or people you thought were friends not being friendly at all (as in, “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”) In other words, you experience some heat, some stress, some trouble. Sometimes people, the ones who really love God, call it discipline from the Lord.
The apostle Paul puts it this way: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). So if you really love God and God has a plan for your life, then all those good parts of your life, and all of the okay parts of your life, and even the yucky parts of your life are all mixed up to produce something very pleasing to Him.
That’s a good thing to remember when life, metaphorically, hands you a raw egg to eat.
***The Secret Things of God
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Romans 11:33
Materials: long strips of paper, tape, scissors, marker
Have you ever seen a Mobius strip? They are used in an advanced branch of mathematics called topology and are used in conveyor and pulley belts. It’s fun to construct your own. Take long strips of paper. Make a 180º twist in one end before taping the ends together. Now draw with a marker along the middle of the paper loop. Even though you’re on the outside of the paper, by the time you get around the loop, you are on the inside. Now cut with the scissors along the line you drew. Suddenly our two pieces of paper have become one complete loop. Now let’s try it again. Only this time, put a complete 360º twist in the paper before taping the ends together. This time when you cut the paper you get two intersecting loops. It’s fun to see what happens every time you increase the number of twists in the paper!!
The first time you see this done, you want to have it repeated because the brain doesn’t think that what just happened could possibly have just happened. And this is just paper! And the construction of the Mobius strip is repeatable. And yet, it takes our brains a while to figure out how this could possibly have happened!
Do you understand how coal put under incredible pressure turns into a diamond? Do you understand how a bee can take nectar from flowers and turn it into honey? We could get someone to explain these processes to us; people have studied them.
So extrapolate out a little bit. Do you understand how a caterpillar can go into a chrysalis, completely turn into goo, and come out a butterfly? Do you understand how the human brain works? Do you understand the universe with its black holes, wrinkles in time, and flexible time?
These are all observable, repeatable actions in our world. But when we start to consider our great God. How can we, who can’t even understand these “simple” things, ever begin to think we could understand God, how He thinks, and why He does what He does. We just have to sit back in awe and thankfulness for His mercy and love toward us. Our great and awesome God!! How incredible You are!!!
Resource: 77 Science Activities, DeYoung, Donald B., BakerBooks, 1982, “Mystery Loops,” pgs. 59-61.
**Use Your Gift
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Romans 12:6a
Materials: hammer, pliers, screwdriver, measuring tape, hole punch, scissors, paint can opener
Did you know that there are lots and lots of different tools in our world? And sometimes it’s very fun to try to figure out what some old tools were actually used for. Sometimes it very fun to try to figure out what present day tools are used for! Each tool has its purpose. It was designed to do a certain job.
In the same way, God designed each of us for a purpose. We each have a certain job to do or role to play. And just like looking at some tools, sometimes it takes a little bit of work to figure out just exactly what gift God has given to each of us so that we can do our job.
Imagine never having seen a screwdriver before. What job might you do with it. You could use it pry open a paint can. You could use the top of it to hammer a nail. You could use it as a chisel. You could even hammer it into the wall and use it to hang your coat on. But once you see how well it can be used for screwing, you understand what a brilliant person the inventor was - to create such a useful tool for putting screws in the right place.
We could have the same conversation about hammers and pliers and scissors or any of the tools we have around us. Or we could have the conversation about each of us. God has given us gifts to use in whatever task He’s set before us. And we praise God for His majesty and awesomeness to have created us with such gifts - like Mozart writing music or Frank Lloyd Wright designing buildings or Alexander Graham Bell creating the telephone. What a shame it would have been if Mozart had spent his entire life building houses, instead of writing wonderful music. And so it is with us: we need to figure out what gift God has given to each of us. Then we need to use that gift. We don’t need to look at the gifts of other people and wish that we’d been gifted in that way. We just need to figure out what God has designed for us to do. And then we need to do it with all of our hearts and minds and souls and strength - for the glory of God.
You have a gift. Do you know what it is? And do you use it?
Brotherly Affection and Honor
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10
When my children were little, we started our school day by just reading through the Bible. When we got to Romans 12:10, Christopher read, “Love one another with brotherly affliction.” It was Jonathan’s snickering that gave him the first clue that maybe he’d read it incorrectly. Unfortunately, although we know Paul tells us to love one another with brotherly affection, sometimes our relationships with each other feel more like affliction than affection. So Paul emphasizes loving one another with brotherly affection with the next phrase: Outdo one another in showing honor.
What does that look like? It’s not having to be the first in line: let others go first. It’s not picking the biggest and/or best strawberry out of the bowl: you offer it to others. You look for ways to serve, rather than always expecting others to serve you. You take advantage of opportunities to help someone else, to serve them. You are generous with your time and your resources. You think about the other person’s wants and needs instead of, or before, your own.
All of these things are contrary to what we’re taught in this society. The culture around us says, “Me first. Take care of number one.” Even that’s unChristian because God is Number One, not you or me. Serving someone else, giving them honor and love instead of looking out for your interests first, that’s not fostered out in the world.
There’s a song: Sister, let me be your servant. What’s the next line? Here’s the key to this whole discussion: Let me be as Christ to you. That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? We love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor because Christ came and gave us that example. He came as the suffering servant, coming to serve and to suffer for our sake. How can we not do the same to our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Sister, let me be your servant; let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey; fellow travelers on the road.
We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
I will hold the Christlight for you in the nighttime of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping; when you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow ’til we’ve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Brother, let me be your servant; let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We love others with brotherly affection. We show them honor. We look for opportunities to serve them because that’s the example Jesus gave for us to follow. But you can’t serve with an expectation that the one you’re serving is going to serve you back. They should. It should be a competition to see who can serve and show honor more. But even if it’s not, even if they just accept your service as their due, you still have honored God in being their servant, in honoring them.
When Jennifer was little [She couldn’t have been more than two or three], I was trying to get her to learn to obey even when she didn’t want to. I gave her two M-n-Ms and told her to take them to Jonathan. Oh, she didn’t want to do it. She really just wanted to pop them into her mouth. It took quite a bit of encouragement to get her to walk across the room and hand them to Jonathan. But she did. When she got there, he graciously took them from her and thanked her. Then he gave her one back. I was trying to teach obedience. Jonathan was teaching brotherly affection.
I can’t help thinking that God gives us the same opportunity. We obey God because we love Him. Just like Jennifer with the M-n-Ms, we do things our carnal nature doesn’t want to do because of the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. I think our Father would be very pleased, when one of us has been obedient, when another one responds with brotherly affection.
There’s the challenge: Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10).
**Be Patient
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12
Materials: An orange to peel, several wrapped boxes nestled inside one another to slowly open, or a pile of nesting cups to take off one at a time
When I ask Pepper if he wants a treat, he is quite adamant that he wants it now - not ten days from now, not ten hours from now, not ten minutes from now, not ten seconds from now. Pepper wants that treat immediately.
We’re not too different from Pepper. If I offer you something special, you want it right now. You don’t want to wait until after supper, or after you get home, or after potluck, or even after church. You want that something special now.
But our world does not deal in everything you want happening right away. In fact, rarely do we get what we really want immediately. We don’t plant tomatoes and immediately pick the fruit. We don’t pick up a guitar and immediately play exquisitely. We don’t buy a puppy and immediately have a well-trained, well-behaved dog. We often have to wait for what we want: a ripe tomato, an accomplished guitar player, a well-behaved dog.
The memory verse in Romans indicates that we also need to be patient when things are not going well, when we’re experiencing tribulation. That’s really hard! We find it hard to be patient when things are going smoothly. So when you are hurting, it’s really hard to be patient. But God has given us a couple of reminders to help. Did you notice where this admonition is? Be patient in tribulation is found sandwiched between two other admonitions: Rejoice in hope and be constant in prayer.
We can be patient in tribulation when we know the suffering will not last forever. And we know the suffering will not last forever because we have hope in God. That is, when we love God and have a relationship with Him, we know God is in control of our lives. We know God will never give us more than we can endure. we know God has our best interest at heart. We know God loves us. Thus, the suffering will end. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
We can also be patient in tribulation because we always can talk to our Redeemer, our Savior, our Help in Ages Past. We know we can come boldly before the throne of grace in time of need. God will hear our prayers - when we have a relationship with Him, seeking to do His will. It doesn’t mean that our tribulation immediately disappears, but we know we can go to the only One who can help and He will hear us.
So what does being patient look like? Is it whining about the situation and what you want? Well, think about it: you can be rejoicing and whining at the same time. So being patient doesn’t involve whining. Is it being agitated, anxious, and mentally jumping up and down in anticipation (like Pepper wanting a treat?) No! It’s waiting, calmly and with the assurance that demonstrates your faith in God.
Being patient doesn’t come easily to any of us. Being patient in tribulation is even harder. But God gives us lots of opportunities to practice. And He gives us instructions. Rejoice in hope. Be constant in prayer. And maybe, just maybe we can learn to be patient in tribulation.
**Live Peaceably
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:18
Materials needed: freshly picked coriander seeds (rosemary, anise, or thyme will also work), small jar, coffee grinder, extension cord, funnel
I saw this saying the other day about crayons: We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp; some are pretty. Some are dull, while others bright. Some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.
Following this analogy, it occurred to me that the only “crayons” that live together are family. And sometimes, it’s the people you are closest to that you need to consider in regards to Romans 12:18. It’s not so much a matter of brown hair, red hair, blond hair, or blue eyes or weird names. It’s more about your actions of respect or disrespect to the people who are closest to you that affects whether you live peaceably.
This week I picked some cilantro that had gone to seed. It’s painstaking work, but eventually I accumulated a little container of coriander seeds. As I was cleaning them, I noticed that if I stir them in the container (aka stirring the pot), I could create enough friction to cause static electricity so that the little stem pieces stick to the side of the container. And although creating static electricity is a very cool phenomenon, it’s not a good idea to stir the pot, create friction among the people with whom you live. Let me explain: I gathered enough of those coriander seeds to make it worthwhile to grind. Hmm. What could I use to grind all of those seeds? Ron’s coffee grinder. Now this presents a dilemma: using Ron’s coffee grinder to grind the coriander is going to make his coffee taste strange the next time he grinds coffee beans. What to do? Ron really likes his coffee. He’s very particular. So I have options: I could grind the coriander, then wait for Ron to grind some coffee. When he comments that it tastes strange, I could deny any knowledge of what could possibly have happened. Of course, that’s lying. So that option is out. O.K. Option #2 is to use Ron’s coffee grinder and not tell him until he grinds and tastes his coffee. Then I tell him what I did. Ron’s pretty easy-going. He’ll probably be okay with this. This is the idea that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. And it’s not a good choice because it’s just straight up disrespectful. So option #3 is to ask Ron before I use his coffee grinder. That’s risky because it is his coffee grinder. And he could say no. And then what would I do? Hmm. What is the right thing to do? I need to respect Ron and take the chance that I have to figure out a different way of grinding the coriander. That’s what Paul means when he says in Romans 12:18, “As far as it depends on you.” You need to do what you can, to the best of your ability, to live peaceably with your family.
Can you think of any examples in your life? What about your church family? What choices are you going to make today that show respect or disrespect? Are you making the choice so that, if possible, as far as it depends on you, you live peaceably with all?
When the rubber hits the road, sometimes it’s harder to make the best choice. But it’s the right thing to do.
**Potiphar and Prison
"Don't let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” - Romans 12:21
Materials needed: mini bowling ball set, balls, bouncy balls, string
God set up laws in our world to make things work smoothly. Can you think of any? Gravity. Friction. Inertia. Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
Dave experienced inertia with the van recently. Also called Newton’s First Law of Motion, inertia is the tendency of an object in motion to stay in motion (or object at rest to stay at rest) until acted upon by an outside force. You might say that the deer ran afoul of Newton’s First Law of Motion - and paid for it with its life.
Also called the conservation of momentum, Newton’s First Law of Motion is why people use wrecking balls. The weight of the ball uses gravity to smash it into the building to be demolished. The wrecking ball continues in motion until it’s acted upon by another force - the building.
Another of God’s laws, Newton’s Third Law of Motion, states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s one of the laws in play when you bounce a ball. What happens if you get in the way of a bouncing ball? You definitely feel the energy - with whatever force the ball was thrown, it’s going to bounce with almost the same amount of energy - right into your chin.
We depend on the consistency of God’s laws to function in our world. For instance, friction is what keeps our cars on the pavement. Ice greatly decreases friction and we know what happens then. You walk out the front door and find yourself on the ground. Friction may have been minimized, but gravity is still hard at work.
So what does this have to do with Joseph and Potiphar? Well, it wasn’t exactly Potiphar; it was his wife. She wanted Joseph to break one of God’s laws; she wanted him to commit adultery. Joseph knew that was wrong. He knew that it was sin - the transgression of God’s law. And he wanted no part of it.
Just as there are consequences for running afoul of God’s natural laws (like inertia, friction, and gravity), there are consequences for running afoul of God’s moral laws. Joseph did the right thing; he got out of there - leaving his cloak in her hand when she tried to grab him. Although it made Potiphar’s wife mad and Joseph ended up in prison, it would have been much worse if Joseph had broken God’s law like she wanted. It’s much worse to have God angry with you.
Your memory verse says, “Don’t let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.” Evil is going against God’s laws; doing good is the opposite - keeping God’s laws - and that’s what we’re called to do, to obey and honor God always. You can’t run afoul of any of God’s laws without consequences.
Counterfeit - Trick or Treat?
The day of Christ’s return is almost here. So let us get rid of the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. ~Romans 13:12 (NIrV Kids’ Devotional Bible)
Materials needed: counterfeit money, YEA Lesson (YE2W.9 - borntowin.net/yea/primaries/)
What do you think of fake and/or counterfeit things? Are they good or bad? Why do people want fake things? We were at a wedding last week where the centerpieces on the tables at the reception were fake pumpkins. That was good because they were a lot lighter than real pumpkins - and the way that they were used as decorations was a lot less messy than if they’d been real.
Fake things can be used to trick people. Jim’s fake coffee spill on my piano one sabbath was a lot funnier once I realized it was fake! But using counterfeit money to steal from businesses is not funny at all; it’s just theft and it’s not something God condones.
So what about dressing up in costumes? Do you think it’s wrong for Fredbird to wear a costume as the St. Louis Cardinals’ mascot? I don’t think so. So what’s the difference between someone dressing up as a team mascot and someone dressing up in a costume for Halloween? As long as it’s not something obviously evil (witch, demon, ax murderer, etc.), is there anything wrong with dressing up on Halloween?
Well, let me ask you some more questions: does it glorify God? Does it point anyone to Jesus Christ? Does the day have ties to paganism? Does God say anything in the Bible about getting involved in pagan traditions?
It’s curious that so many people would excuse Halloween as “just a fun thing” for kids to do when it has clear ties to paganism. Your memory verse says, “The day of Christ’s return is almost here. So let us get rid of the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.” If you want to put on something, you should put on the full armor of God; you should want to look like Jesus Christ.
Remember how we started this discussion talking about counterfeit and fake things. Well, that’s what Halloween is. Satan loves to dangle a counterfeit holiday in front of us - especially children - and tell everyone that it’s just a fun event with lots of candy. Who doesn’t love candy?! Don’t be beguiled by Satan’s tricks. Don’t participate in Halloween.
Holy Attire
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
The Greek words in today’s verse serve to highlight the depravity of the carnal nature. It’s for a very good reason that Paul asserts the carnal mind is enmity against God and cannot please God!
provision: pronoia - It means providence, care, prudence, or provision. It’s that thoughtful preparation, and comes from pronoeo which means to know ahead of time. So “making no provision for the flesh” means not planning ahead of time to do act in an ungodly manner.
flesh: sarx - It means flesh, the flesh of men, beasts, birds, or fish. It can also mean the corrupt nature of man subject to filthy appetites and passions.
desires: epithumia - This is the active lust or desire springing from the diseased soul.
put on: enduo - This is array, clothe, endue, put on - in the sense of sinking into a garment.
The way Paul has written this verse seems to indicate that we are to put on Jesus Christ as an alternate to satisfying the carnal nature and its ungodly passions and desires. So how do you do that? Can you think of anywhere else in the Bible that talks about putting something on? Interestingly enough, Romans 13:12 says that we should put on the armor of light. That’s something we can put on: the armor of light or the full armor of God.
Ephesians 6:13-18 lists the pieces of the armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes for the feet - shod with the readiness given by the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. So. How do you put on the belt of truth? And how might this relate to putting on Jesus Christ?
I believe that each piece of the armor is a characteristics of our Lord and Savior:
Truth: John 14:6 - Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is truth.
Righteousness: 1 Corinthians 1:30 - God the Father has made Jesus to be righteousness for each of us. Jesus is our righteousness.
Peace: Isaiah 9:6 - He is the Prince of Peace. 2 Thes 3:16 - He is the God of all peace.
Faith: Revelation 19:11 The One coming on the white horse is called Faithful and True. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of faith.
Salvation: Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Jesus Christ is our salvation.
Sword of the Spirit: Ephesians 6:17 says that this is the word of God. Notice that in Rev. 1:16 and 19:15, Jesus opens His mouth from which comes a sword!
If each of these pieces of the armor of God is Jesus Christ and we’re to put them on, how does that help in making no provision for the flesh?
Truth: If you belt truth around you waist, you are not going to tell a lie, even a little white lie. You’re not going to think ahead of time about how to get out of a potential problem. You are not planning to be deceitful.
Righteousness: If you have a breastplate of righteousness, you are going to choose ahead of time to act in a godly manner. You make no provision to act in a way contrary to the laws of God.
Peace: If your feet are shod with peace, you don’t plan how to cause strife, bickering and trouble with your brothers and sisters either in your family or in your church. This is living Psalm 119:165: “Great peace have they who love God’s law and nothing shall make them stumble.”
Faith: This is a shield, with which to extinguish the darts of the evil one. Satan knows your weaknesses. He knows which buttons to push to entice you to satisfy the flesh. He knows your pride, your selfishness, your ingratitude, your greed, or whatever. But if you truly believe in God, who is able to provide all that you need abundantly, who loves you so much He sent His Son to redeem you, who will settle all accounts at the judgment, then you have a shield to protect you from making provision to satisfy the flesh right now.
Salvation: This is a helmet. This is not a flimsy sun bonnet or straw hat. This is a defensive piece of armor. It protects your head, aka your mind, from those thoughts which could lead you to make provision to satisfy the desires of the carnal nature.
Sword of the Spirit: It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the word of God is a huge defense in our battle against the carnal nature! The psalms tell us, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” Use the Sword, the word of God, to divide truth from fiction. Use the word of God to fight against the carnal desires which can take you captive again!
Then there are two other pieces of protection listed in Ephesians 6. They are prayer and perseverance. Prayer indicates that you are in a personal relationship with God. If you’re not communicating with Him, then there’s something seriously wrong with your armor. Perseverance is similar to prayer in that it’s an indicator of your relationship with God. Isaiah 59:17 describes God having the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. In addition he clothes Himself with vengeance and “wraps himself in zeal as a cloak.” The zeal, the passion, the fervor with which you serve God shows your heart, your commitment to Him, your utter devotion to the things of God. It is zeal which helps you persevere. It’s zeal which motivates you to pray. It’s zeal which inspires you to put on the full armor of God. It’s zeal which is at the center of your worship of Him.
Psalm 96:9: “Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” The alternate translation for “holiness” is “holy attire.” I can think of no better way to worship God in holy attire than to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, which is enmity against God. What about you? What are you putting on today? Is it holy attire?
**Put on Jesus
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ . . . Romans 13:14 (This is a summary lesson for Ephesians 6:14-17)
Materials: poster of full armor of God and pieces
What is the purpose of the armor of God? The apostle Paul says it is so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. Make no mistake, the schemes the devil has against you are not for your good. Rather, they are schemes for your hurt, for your alienation from God, for your ultimate destruction. You want to be protected.
The apostle Paul works us through several pieces in the armor:
*the belt of truth
*the breastplate of righteousness
*as shoes, the readiness given by the gospel of peace*the shield of faith
*the helmet of salvation
*and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Think about each of these pieces for a moment. Who is truth? Jesus is!! In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Who is our righteousness? Jesus is!! 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”
Who prepares us, makes us ready? God does - by giving us the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Who is our peace - the One we spread the good news, the gospel about? Jesus is! Ephesians 2:14 says, “For he himself is our peace,”
Where does our faith come from? Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the author and the perfecter, or finisher, of our faith. Our faith initially comes from Him, and He takes it until it’s completed.
Who is our salvation? The very name Jesus means “salvation.” Psalm 118:21 says, “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.” In context, this is Jesus Christ. Interestingly, this is the last of the psalms called the Hallels, sung at the end of the Passover.
The last piece of the armor of God is the sword of the Spirit. The apostle Paul says this is the word of God. Who is the Word of God? Jesus is. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So when you are putting on the full armor of God, you are putting on Jesus Christ. If you ever wondered what it means to put on Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul gives us the description. You are always truthful. You always choose God’s way, the right way, to live. You are ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people around you. You live in faith, trusting God with your life. You live your life knowing that Jesus is your Savior; there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved! And you study your Bible daily to stay sharp, to know what is truth and what is lies.
In a word, put on the Lord Jesus Christ!
Another Man’s Servant
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? Romans 14:4a
Once upon a time there was a paddling of ducklings in the middle of the pond. [A group of ducks is called a flock (if in flight), a raft, a brace, a team, or a paddling.] There were yellow ones and blue ones, and they were doing their best to follow their mama. There was another little duckling, a pink one, that wasn’t paying too much attention to the paddling of her brothers and sisters. She was keeping an eye on her mama duck but wasn’t paddling in the paddling. She wasn’t a team player on the duck team. So her brothers and sisters made fun of her. They joked about her odd color. They laughed about her method of paddling. They even poked fun at how she poked her head under the water for a yummy bite of whatever ducklings eat under water. And you know what? They were totally wrong in what they were doing. The duckling’s mama was keeping an eye on her. Mama duck knew the little duckling was safe. The little duckling was doing what she was supposed to be doing; she just wasn’t doing it with her brothers and sisters. They should not have been condemning her actions.
Now if the little duckling had been robbing the grocery store, or had been lying about the neighboring geese in the next pond over, or had been disobedient to her mama, then the other ducklings would be right to make a judgment that her behavior was wrong. It is wrong to steal and to bear false witness and to be disobedient to parents. Nevertheless, it would be wrong for them to condemn the little duck and decide that she was never going to be of any value to anyone. But it’s important for all little ducks to make a judgment about behavior, what is right and what is wrong . . . and then make a decision to do what’s right.
Isn’t it funny how we are so much like the little ducklings. We want everyone to paddle with us in our paddling. We want everyone to be a team player on our team - especially when it comes to something really important like worshiping God. We want everyone to do it our way . . . ‘cause then that would mean we are doing it the right way. If they’re doing it differently, sometimes, deep inside, we wonder if perhaps we’re not doing it right. Maybe we’re not paddling the way God wants us to. Maybe we’re not a good team player on God’s team.
But there’s a difference between being disobedient to God and just being different. Not everyone has to like the same colors to be pleasing to God. (It doesn’t matter whether you paint the church walls white or cream - even though I know of a church which split over that!!) You don’t all have to be truck drivers, or garage door installers, or lawyers to be pleasing to God. (I had a high school guidance counselor who told me not to waste my life becoming a teacher even though I thought God wanted me to become a teacher.) You don’t all have to sing well during song service. (God just says to make a joyful noise, even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket.) You don’t have to like everything that everyone brings for potluck. But you do need to be obedient to God. You need to keep the Sabbath. (Not everyone has to keep it with us, but they should honor the Sabbath day by keeping it holy somewhere.) You must not steal or lie or kill. These things are God’s law that you need to keep.
So there’s a difference between being disobedient and just being different. And we all make judgments about the behaviors of the people around us. There’s a lot of freedom within the differences that we all have. It’s okay to be different and still be paddling in the same pond. It’s okay to be different in personal preferences and still be on the same team. We can make a judgment about a personal preference (one that’s not disobedient to God) and decide that we want to do likewise or that we would never do that! If God wants a person to go in a certain direction, He will lead him that way. That person is God’s servant. It’s really not our business if God wants him to live in Wyoming or become an astronaut.
But when it comes to being disobedient to God, it’s a little different. We still make a judgment about the behavior, hopefully deciding that we don’t want to even consider being disobedient, but our response to the other person is different when we’re talking about sin. When it’s a personal preference we are tolerant. When it’s disobedience to God, we cannot be tolerant and just let it go. It’s not in that person’s best interest to ignore their disobedience; we’re not doing them any favors by tolerating their sinfulness. Our tolerance can lead them to believe that we are condoning their ungodly behavior. Our tolerance can make them think that God is pleased with their rationalizations and excuses. When we don’t say anything, we have, in effect, hidden our light; we are no longer an encouragement for that person to come to Christ.
So we have to say something, if God presents the opportunity and prompting. But we can’t be like the little ducklings - harshly criticizing and condemning. We have to gently, lovingly correct - from the Bible. It’s not our opinion that we’re explaining to that person; it has to be the Word of God. And we show them God’s truth humbly because it’s only through the grace of God that we have come to see our own failings and sinfulness.
We are all paddling on the same pond. We bear with one another’s idiosyncrasies because we have more than a few of our own. We exhort and encourage and correct one another because we want to please God. But we can’t spend our lives poking and judging and criticizing someone else’s personal preferences. That’s the exact opposite of exhorting and encouraging. My job is to keep my eyes on Jesus Christ. My job is to follow Him wherever He leads me. My job, if you will, is to keep my own ducks in a row.