Victory In Jesus!

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Fort the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestations of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willing, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn amoung many brethern. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justifed, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how she he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, Yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For i am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angel, nor principalities, not powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:18-39

This last week I was on a missions trip to the island of Dominica. I have never been on a missions trip prior to this and had expectations of what the trip would entail, but it was much different than I expected. If you have never been on a missions trip, I highly encourage you to go on one. When someone would mention "missions trip", I had the notion that it involved going to a deprived country to help others less fortunate than us and spreading the gospel. And though some of that may be true for most trips, I had a much different experience than I expected. I feel that though we were a blessing to them, they were much more of a blessing to us. The people we worked with are on fire for God and are passionate and genuine about serving and living for God.

We were in a more Christian-friendly country so we didn't have to worry about being persecuted for spreading God's Word. But there are countless countries where church services are held underground and in homes. In China, many church services are held throughout the day so people can gradually trickle in as to not arouse suspicion. Those of us who live in a country where Christianity is legal are fortunate.

When we were in Dominica, we saw a video of a teenage girl who attended a prayer meeting in a Hindu country and was beaten by a mob and eventually lit on fire to burn alive. This is a sobering fact that as we sit here in our comfortable environment, taking for granted that we can get up and go to church when we want and preach in the street without being set on fire; others are being tortured, crucified, persecuted, and dying for Christ. This has led me to believe, after a lot of thinking, that those who are persecuted are more committed to serving God than those who have the luxury of never having it cross our minds. They could easily hide their faith and avoid the persecution, but instead, proudly bear Christ's name. I feel that we have grown complacent here in America. Those who experience what it really means to love God are the ones who not only grow closer to God, but understand the rewards of suffering for Christ and will receive those rewards.

I see our country starting to lean that way. We are fortunate to attend church without worrying about law enforcement cutting in, but Christianity is attacked harder in America now than it ever has before. Christianity has been labelled a hate religion and is the only religion that cannot be "tolerated". The government is starting to regulate churches and in many states, outlaw certain things that can't be preached. If a Christian speaks the truth out of love or attempts to lead a lost soul to Christ, they are rejected, ridiculed, and even dying. Yes, people are being killed and imprisoned in America for being a Christian or trying to live out Christian beliefs. So the question now lies, if you have to face severe persecution for your faith, will you, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and like that teenage girl, stand firm?

I want to now call you think. Our souls were created for eternity, not this earth. When we die, our souls are taken from our bodies and continue to live for all eternity. This body and life are temporal and will pass away. Everyone will die at some point unless Christ comes to take us up in the near future. So the question for you Christian is this: Would you rather be persecuted and die for Christ to reap the Heavenly and eternal rewards, or would you live for yourself to extend your life and livelihood but for a short time longer, only to find the rewards that you could have had? I am not taking persecution lightly by any means. To live for Christ and to be persecuted is not an easy thing, nor something to be taken lightly. We can all say that we are willing to die for Christ, but if put to the test, how many of us would pass?

I feel that it is easy to imagine the extremes, such as death, and say that we will endure through the persecution, but let me ask you something. Would you be willing, right now, to live for God if it means persecution? I do not mean torture or physical death. I mean ridicule from your friends or coworkers. I mean the rejection from your family. I mean the hard decision to throw out a friend because they are taking you down a sinful path. I believe this is one of the hardest persecutions people face in America. When compared to what many of our brothers and sisters in Christ face, ridicule doesn't seem that bad. But take heart, God gives hope.

We are only here for a season and "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." I love this passage because it gives hope that the sufferings here on earth are only for a short time. God will give us the strength to face persecution if we ask and if we endure to the end, we will received the rewards that cannot be compared to what we gain in this life.

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." When we read through Romans 8:18-30, we see the future glory in Christ when we reach Heaven. But when we go into verses 31-39, we see the ultimate final victory in Christ. We may suffer and may be persecuted, but God is still with us. God allowed his Son to die and are we any better? Jesus said that people will hate us because they hated God first and He set the ultimate example for us. Are we any better than our Savior? We are each appointed to die and I ask, who will you die for? Who will you suffer for? Who will you live for? Yes, we may suffer on this earth, but when we reach Heaven and look upon His glorious face, we would gladly come back to suffer ten times worse for the glory of God. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and nothing less." When you face persecution, remember the One for whom you live. If you do not face some form of persecution, you should maybe be asking yourself who you are really living for.

This may seem like a depressing thought, but as I said before, our bodies were only created to inhabit this earth temporarily, but our souls are created for eternity. When we think of the short time here compared to eternity with Christ, our suffering is but a small stepping stone to the glorious place we will enjoy in eternity. I leave with one question: When death comes and you face Jesus Himself, will you be able to say "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Will you hear Jesus say, "Well done, good and faithful servant?" That will be worth it all, when we have victory in Jesus.

They Know Not What They Do

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Romans 1:18-32

Photo: From My Utmost For His Highest

I thoroughly enjoy reading through Romans. It starts with the fact that we are sinners and why we are sinners. Then it goes into how our sins result in death and ultimately Hell. But the good news comes when it shows how Christ came and died for us and is now our way into Heaven and it tells us how to be saved. After that, it shows who we are as Christians (our new identity) and how we grow as Christians. When someone accepts Christ and is new to Christianity or is not well educated, I recommend starting with Romans because it is, in poor man's terms, a summation of Christianity. I love reading through this book and as I read each book, I seem to always come back and read through this book.

One of the last times I read through Romans, the above passage really stood out to me. Not that I hadn't understood it before. I've even used this passage prior in speaking with people about these issues, but it wasn't until recently that I was led to really study it, and it's amazing how well it sums up our world today. I know it's a long passage, especially to use in a blog, but it is by no means dry and it all comes together to bring a powerful message. I want to, as short as I can, break this passage down and really evaluate it with you.

The chapter starts with Paul's introduction. He tells the Romans that he is not ashamed of Christ and how the Christians are separate from the Gentiles (unbelievers), then goes right into this passage. This first chapter starts off with how man is a sinful race. Verses 18-20 talk about how God has revealed himself both through creation and by placing awareness of himself in the human heart.

Nowadays, this is evidently disregarded. With the school systems and science trying to use evidence, that is not there, to back evolution to avoid admitting that there is an ultimate creator of the universe. But these verses show us that God has shown himself to us through the "invisible things" that scientists try to explain without a supernatural creator. They try to deny that there is a God, yet every nation, village, and group of people have the knowledge of God ingrained into them. Even the most remote village has some form of a god with the desire to worship.

We see this also in verse 21 where it says the people knew God but didn't acknowledge him. I am led to believe that the anti-God agenda today is nothing new and that they had a similar issue when this was written. More amazingly, we go into verses 22 and 23 where man proclaimed himself to be wise without God's wisdom and changed God's creation and revelation into something of their own interpretation. Man took God's creation and began to worship it. Is this not happening today? No, we don't bow to carved out idols (at least mostly, in America), but do we worship "science" as being the last say and ultimate decision of what is truth? We have taken the natural laws and amazing phenomena that God created and designed and "worship" it as the ultimate creator through evolution and Mother Earth. They have to go as far as to say we were created from the creation, but deny that the creation was created. This is the definition of the perversion of Gods image. 

Verses 22 and 23 dive into what I really took from this passage. After we saw that the people rejected God, started worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, and refused to acknowledge him, God let them live as they wanted. When God allows a person to live as he wants, that's a very dangerous place to be. God essentially says "you want it your way, have it your way". But when that happens, God removes his protection and perverts their minds. We are shown that God gave them over to unclean minds. It doesn't say that he gave them unclean minds but that he let them take their minds where they wanted to and in this case, to do with their bodies that God did not intend.

I love how in the middle of those verses, explaining that God gave them over to uncleanness, he magnifies God by recognizing him as creator. But he does this right before going into the heavy stuff. When he starts out the next verse, he says that because the people turned from God and wanted things their way, God let their minds draw to the most vile things, and in this verse, we see is referring to homosexuality. When people say that they are gay, it is one of 2 things: either they turned from God and God gave them over to it as we see here. Or two, his family or himself has a curse of "vile affections" that he is born with (but that will be covered in another post).

In addition to turning them over to their own affections, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Reprobate comes from the Greek word adokimos which literally translates into unapproved, rejected, or worthless. Christians have the holy spirit guiding us and guiding our minds and even non-Christians have a sense of right and wrong. But when God gives them over to a reprobate mind, they no longer have a sense of right or wrong, what is morally right or perverted. We know this because it says that they were given to reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient. It follows by saying they are filled with all unrighteousness and lists the sins and type of people that are the fruit of that curse.

This passage, and chapter, ends with saying that people have the knowledge of God ingrained in them and even having the knowledge of God, chose to follow this path, they are condemned to death. They are condemned to death by two reasons. One, because we are told in Romans 6:23 that "The wages of sin is death". But in this case, there is something else. Each of us is born with sin, but also a conviction and opportunity to accept Christ. However, when someone is given over to their own ways as described in this passage they can no longer see right from wrong, they can no longer understand that they require a savior, and ultimately won't understand that they need to accept Christ which we know, results in eternity in Hell.

But it gets even worse. When you have someone who is deep into their sin, turns from God, and their mind turned over to them, they take pleasure in their vile ways. They no longer care if they hurt people, they don't see anything wrong with homosexuality or abortion. Unwed sex is just something you do.

I am convinced that the problems we have in our world today are not new. As Solomon said, "there is nothing new under the sun". Our country started as a godly nation and has degraded. I think that is why so many people think that our country is the worst off spiritually and believe Christ will come soon. I don't doubt that Christ's return is imminent, but just because our country has now fallen to sin, doesn't mean we are the only nation, nor that other nations have been in sin much longer than us.

So why are we to be surprised that our country is where it is? Why should we be surprised when people live blatantly in sin without any recollection? It is heartbreaking, but we should not be shocked when people follow a path that leads to a destination that Paul already described. When you encounter someone that has no problem with sin, remember this passage. There's a chance that no matter what you say to them, they will never be able to understand the truth. Take heart, though! I do not want to discourage you from spreading God's word and witnessing to people. But I also don't want you to become frustrated when you pour your heart out to someone and try your hardest to show them they need Christ and they don't see it. It is unsettling, but God reveals this to us and give encouragement to those who follow him.