Month: January 2005

RECOVERY BEGINS BY FAITH

Romans 4
Abraham Justified by Faith
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

When we realize that there is something in our lives that we want to change, we will try and try again using whatever power we have. Most of the time, our efforts become futile. This happens not because we really don’t want to change, but that we have not yet reached the point in our lives where we are fully ready to give up that behavior that has such a hold on us.
True faith works best when we have hit bottom and have run out of hand-holds. We then realize that the only way up is to give up and depend on our “higher power” to rescue us. Faith grows as we hear the stories of others who have traveled the recovery road for some time, and we can find encouragement and help from others. As they share their experience, strength and hope, our faith is built, and we move further along the road to recovery.
It is God who rescues us, and he chooses to use people in community for His purpose. Through a community of people of faith, help is realized, and lives are changed. When we isolate ourselves, help is fleeting.

Abraham did not really do anything except believe God. What has to happen in our lives to make us start believing God?

Have you ever experienced “The more hurriedly I go, the behinder I get”?

How do you feel when you hear about the experience, strength and hope in others?

RECOVERY FOR ROMANS
1-21-2005
WHO IS MY BROTHER?

Romans 3
God’s Faithfulness
1. What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2. Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4. Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”[a]
5. But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6. Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7. Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8. Why not say as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved.
No One is Righteous
9. What shall we conclude then? Are we any better[b]? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11. there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”[c] 13. “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”[d] “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[e] 14. “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[f] 15. “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16. ruin and misery mark their ways, 17. and the way of peace they do not know.”[g] 18. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[h]
19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Righteousness Through Faith
21. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24. and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished– 26. he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30. since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

We humans have a propensity for wanting to have a good reputation, but we still want to get away with doing selfish acts. God’s law is written on our hearts, but when that writing gets in the way of our own desires, sin is conceived. If we act on our desires and ignore God’s law, sin is born. We have become so good at doing this that no longer recognize that law that God has written, and we have to be reminded by laws that man has recorded. In Luke 10:25 an expert of the law asks Jesus “What must I do to be saved?”, the answer comes back as “Love the Lord your God with all your soul, strength and mind, and love you neighbor as yourself”. This answer wasn’t good enough though. The lawyer wanted to know exactly “Who is my neighbor?”. Jesus replied with the familiar story of the Good Samaritan. I challenge you to change the word Samaritan to whatever people group you perceive as least deserving of God’s favor. This could be Muslim, Lawyer, Car salesman, Telemarketer, Street Person, Politician, whatever.
The point is, we frequently ask God to spell out what we should do to be good enough, and His reply is there is nothing you can do to be good enough, quit trying, and just live your life as best as you can to love God and others.

Do you feel you must earn your way to heaven?

How can your life here be better by following the law?

RECOVERY FOR ROMANS
1-14-2005
NO EXCUSES

Romans 2
God’s Righteous Judgment
1. You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
5. But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”[a] 7. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8. But for those who are selfseeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10. but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11. For God does not show favoritism.
12. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15. since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16. This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
The Jews and the Law
17. Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; 18. if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19. if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth 21. you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22. You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23. You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24. As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”[b]
25. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26. If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27. The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the[c] written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
28. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
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What is good? What is bad? God has written on our hearts his code of ethics for getting along in this world. People aren’t good just because they espouse a certain set of moral or religious beliefs. You can have all the beliefs you want, but if you don’t practice kind and respectful acts toward others those beliefs aren’t worth a hoot. The problem isn’t that we don’t know how to be good (unless we suffer from some sociopathic disorder) the problem is the self-centered choices that we make. Just because we say we know God or follow Jesus doesn’t make us automatically good or righteous. It is truly an act of the heart. I know many atheists and agnostics who life much better lives than many Christians. We are all basically self centered people. To deny this is to deny the truth. We all practice sin when we know better.

When you chose to disobey as a child, how did you feel at the time? Did you know better?

Do the first words that a child learn to say reflect anything about mankind’s selfish nature?

RECOVERY FOR ROMANS
1-7-2005
WHO IS YOUR HIGHER POWER?

Romans 1:16-32 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
God’s Wrath Against Mankind
18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen.
26. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30. slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31. they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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The first two steps on the road to recovery are to acknowledge that we are powerless and that we need a higher power to bring sanity to our lives. Here in this passage Paul hammers that point home by showing just how people become when they refuse to allow God in their lives. Without a place for God in our lives, our impulses and addictions take over and our lives become an unmanageable quest for comfort and pleasure.
It’s an easy thing to point our fingers at others and say that they are the ones that Paul talks about in the last paragraph, but we have to be honest and see that those qualities are found in our own hearts as we seek to serve ourselves rather than God and others. The sad fact is that instead of serving ourselves, we end up becoming a slave to our very own lustful desires, and in becoming a slave, our lives become more and more unmanageable. Ultimately the solution is to invite the higher power Jesus Christ to become part of our daily living, and help us to overcome our hurts, habits and hang-ups.

Can you see God’s eternal power and divine nature in your day to day life?

Would your life seem easier if you were aware of God’s presence in your life each day?

How does the complexities of creation show the awe and wonder of God?

How things can we do each day to help us become more aware of God’s presence in our lives?