On the Way to Wonder

         I vividly remember my last spanking.  My sister and I had been sent to get our dolls at a friend’s house and return for lunch.  I popped my head in our door and realized we were late to return so I pushed my sister in first.  My father asked, “Who came in first?”  I replied, “My sister.”  I received two spankings, one for being late and one for lying.  I felt I was right in my own heart for she had technically “entered” first but deep inside I knew I was just trying to being in the wrong.

         Paul so far in Romans has been defining “righteousness”, being right with God, as a gift that we do not deserve because we have all sinned.  That’s pretty general and we can agree in principal.  But Paul returns in chapter 10 to Israelite history.   They received the Law on Mt. Sinai and tried hard to obey it, establishing lots of rules that defined the general law and made it more obvious, perhaps, for someone to know if they were being obedient.  Like me, obeying the law is like saying who technically came in the door first.  I point to obedience rather than faith.  Obedience can become self-justification, which easily slips into an attitude of entitlement.  The righteousness Paul is talking about is based on the humbling of self and admitting our need for God and inability to find him without his help rather than being based on a faulty perception of our track record of obeying rules.  Romans 10:9-10 are some favorite verses:

^“9 becaus^e if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”

         It seems that Paul ties together hearts and lips.  Faith is a holistic involvement of our whole being.  It is not just some belief we hold privately but must be integrated into our whole life.

         Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to shine his flashlight of truth into our lives today and show us any way in which we are trying to justify ourselves when we need to lean in faith on Jesus for forgiveness.  Blessings.

         Paul in Chapter 9 of Romans continues and seems to anticipate an accusation of unfairness against God.  Remember how last week we dealt with the long list of theological terms: predestined, called, and justified?  God had a master plan determined before time about what he was creating. His dream, his design for his creation was that the beings created would reflect his image, would therefore have free will to choose relationship in response to their faith.  Paul is now showing how God makes obvious his plan by blessing those who are less likely and humbling those whom we might consider deserving.  Salvation is a gift of faith.  Paul points out that Abraham, the starting point of many people, responded in faith.  God foretells that twin #2, Jacob, would be blessed, and Pharaoh who thought he was God would be humbled.  If we look at the genealogy we see a list of deeply flawed people who trusted God.  David was an adulterer and murderer, Rehab a harlot, Ruth a foreigner and many more flawed people, sinners that are in the family line of Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus.  All this Paul posits is to magnify the mercy of God to give hope to the humble and to humble the proud.  It is possible for a person to cry, “Unfair,” if that person wants to win the game of life without following the guidelines but we must realize we are arguing with the God of the universe who gave us free will.  Our struggles with God draw us into interaction with him and are designed to draw us closer, ultimately.

         So as we reflect today, we might ask if there is some area where we feel life is unfair.  Perhaps it is with our body type, our political powers in government, or a medical diagnosis we just received.  Addictions are another major area.  It is so easy to develop a victim mentality.  Let us take our own issue to God in prayer and one of the major issues facing our world today.  May God be glorified in our struggle.

         Paul makes an interesting point in Romans as he continues his introduction to the people in Rome that he hopes to visit.  Paul has gone back to Abraham and reminded them that Abraham believed God’s promises before the Mosaic Law was given and before the covenant of circumcision.  At that point Abraham was no different than the “Gentiles” or we might say heathens.  In fact, he is no different from all people.  Paul has spent several chapters pointing to faith.  Salvation is a gift from God received through faith in his promises and thus for all people.  Paul now makes another interesting point.

     Abraham had children by several women. He first bore Ishmael by Hagar, Sarah’s maid.  He bore Isaac by Sarah.  After Sarah died Genesis 25 tells us Abraham took another wife, Keturah, and had six more sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.  And so we sing, “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham.”

         Paul points out that being of the bloodline of Abraham does not necessarily guarantee salvation.  All along Abraham had many sons but it was only people of the promise, who believe that are included in the covenant.  This issue of family lines is becoming more common to us these days as blended families are becoming very common.  Many know the pain of family “discussions” over who gets what of the inheritance.  We often hear of hurt feels and accusations of “unfair.”

         So what do we take away from this today?  Perhaps the concept of “family” is different in the kingdom of heaven than here in the kingdom of this world.  We are spiritually related to a host of people we do not feel required to give Christmas gifts to and with whom we may fight just as openly as we do with our blood siblings.  Our spiritual family though is a body where Christ is the head and where we all serve a purpose and is called to work together.

         Let’s take a moment today and think of a friend who is not our biological sibling but who has blessed us.  Let us thank God for that person and pray a blessing for that person …or… think of a way to express your appreciation.

         One of the stories explaining the origin of Valentine’s Day tells of a Roman citizen who had a home church.  A Roman soldier, against the law, wanted Valentine to marry him to his girlfriend.  The soldiers arrested the congregation but allowed Valentine to go free because of his social status.  The Christians were to face the beasts in the arena.  Valentine sent messages on red heart shaped pieces of paper to encourage his friends and offered to die in their place in the arena, fighting the beasts.

         Paul in Romans 9:3 laments over those who are Jews like him but who have not chosen to believe in Jesus.  “³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”  Paul has reasoned that faith, not adherence to the Law or circumcision is what brings people into a saving relationship with God.  So what is the purpose of the Old Testament and the Jewish heritage?  Has Christianity superseded Judaism?  God has worked marvelously and historically with the Jewish people.  Divine adoption places all believers in one family regardless of their ethnic origins.  One tribe is not better than another.  Paul would be willing to die if more Jews would believe.

         Perhaps you carry in your heart today the burden of an unsaved child or spouse or relative or neighbor or friend.  We may not be able to go to the arena for them as Valentine did or be willing to be cursed so they would be saved as Paul says but we can pray.  Take the name of the person you are praying for and make an acrostic of their name and take each letter and think of gifts you might give to show God’s love.  For example Joe:  J is for joy at seeing him, O is for an orange you could give for no reason, and E could be a note of encouragement.  Blessings as you pray for that person on your heart.

^“35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35)”

         Paul is reaching one of the most cherished verses for many.  Note, separation is a product of an outside force.  Situations that bring suffering are listed.  Amazingly, Paul does not mention sins.  Circumstances affect believers and non-believers alike.  Could it be that believers stand in solidarity with the non-believers in the midst of the dynamic events, as a kind of witness that God has not abandoned us, for God is present in us.  As we go through these experiences we are also challenged to identify with Jesus who went through death, to the cross, in solidarity with his creation.  I think of scenes from the movie Titanic where an old couple embraced as they gave seats to the young and another as a mother lay in the bunk with her children reassuring them as they faced death.  And the hero makes sure the heroine lives.  Situations cannot separate us.  But none of those are personal sins.  Christ died for sin so Paul is speaking to events in life that try to defeat us and convince us God is absent.

         Paul continues,

^“37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)”

This is a verse worth memorizing and remembering on dark days!

         Perhaps there is a situation in your life right now that the evil one is trying to convince you that you have lost God’s love.  If the situation is from your sinfulness, then confession and repentance is in order.  But discouragement, fear, anxiety and doubt because of events cannot separate you.  If you have not memorized this verse, take a minute and read it through several times and let your heart rest in it.  Blessings. 

         Tomorrow’s psalm praises God for supplying our needs.  Our text will be the feeding of the 5,000+ with two fish and five loaves.  The miracle takes place in a context of death, lack of resources, and hunger.  We will look at how those dynamics are still present today and drive us to seek Jesus in the wildernesses of our life when we face tough times.  Perhaps you can think of a rough bump in the road of life this week where you felt God’s presence.  A praise team sings the psalm put to music.  Sit back and enjoy.  I don’t think it is too rowdy!  Blessings. 

         When we think of pros and cons, we might think of a piece of paper divided into two columns.  On one side are all the reasons for doing something and on the other side are all the reasons for not doing it.  Whichever side has the best reasons, we follow.  Or as kids, we pulled the petals off flowers saying, he loves me, he loves me not.  The last petal tells the answer.  I had students who firmly believed that if they died while angry, for sure they would never go to heaven.  Others think there might be an angel on each shoulder.  One writes down our good deeds and one writes our bad.  The longest list determines our fate in eternity.  Maybe we think of God like Santa Claus, making a list and checking it twice, wanting to see who’s naughty and who’s nice.

         Paul says it this way in Romans.

^“31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. (Romans 8:31-34)”

Paul asks who can bring a charge against us for to do so is to say God is wrong as he is the one who justifies us as a gift, through faith and the cross.  And also Jesus is standing with God, God incarnate who died for us and is interceding for us.  Can we get our minds and hearts around this truth?  We know that true friends stand with us when we are sick, when we are pregnant, when we have dementia, or when we can’t afford gifts.  O’Henry wrote the beloved Christmas story of a man who sold his family pocket watch to buy combs for his wife’s beautiful hair.  But she had sold her hair to buy him a gold chain for his watch.  God stands for us while we were yet sinners and justifies and redeems us.          Can you think of a time when a friend went out of their way to help you or surprised you with a special gift?  Paul asks, who can condemn a gift of love from a person who loves you like that.  Let’s thank God for his proactive love that “pays it forward.”  Paul says there can be no con side on God’s list.  He created, he incarnated, he wiped clean our debts and he waits for us to want relationship with him.  Thank you, Lord.

         In the movie Finding Forrester, Forrester, who wrote a famous book, is living the life of a recluse in an inner city Chicago apartment overlooking a basketball court local youths shot baskets at.  One boy, Jamal, is actually a gifted writer and Forester takes him under his wing.  One of the lines I remember is Forester encouraging the kid not to ask soup questions.  Ask questions to learn and not just create noise.  The Apostle Paul now strings together big, theological words that talk about Christian growth and words Christians have disagreed about and have divided about.  These are not soup words.

^“29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30)”

Foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and sanctified are all huge theological words that go way beyond the scope of a devotional but are indeed foundational to our faith and how we understand God’s love for us.  I heard this explanation that I like.  Similar to the builder of a house, a floor plan is drawn up before anything happens.  The dream is defined.  God, before creation, determined that the being, the humans, he created would grow to look like him, in his image or the image of his Son who was already the Word.  He determined he would interact with them, incarnate to them, call them into relationship. As we have been reading Paul, he argues that the ones who are in relationship are justified by faith as a gift not by earning the right to speak to God.  Sanctification is the growth in faith as we become more and more like Christ, culminating in eternity.  It is not dissimilar to a child that is born and us debating how much the child looks like either parent or other relative.  As the child grows, the child takes on more and more characteristics of the family as well as their own unique giftings.

         For me, the realization that God has a plan for life that leads to a good end of glory is comforting.  God forgives our flaws and keeps shaping us.  Our future has hope.  We are not chained to our past errors.  Also God is personally involved in molding us.  Creation is not a record of rights and wrongs written in some book in the heavenlies that will be held against us on judgment day.  We do not climb up to God but he incarnates and relates to us in this growth process.  Thirdly, these words imply to me that I keep my identity and do not reincarnate as a bug because of bad deeds or dissolve into perfection, uniting into “the force.”  God created me with integrity, with purpose, and I am cherished.

         Pick one of those big words that catches your attention: foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and sanctified.  Write a definition in your own words and pray about it.  Blessings.

^“28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NRSV)”

         This has also been translated, “We know that God works for good in all things according to his purpose for those who love God.” 

         The order of words give a slightly different flavor to the verse but it is still one of those verses that is good to tuck away in our memory.  This verse does not promise that we will not have experiences that hurt.  Nor does it say we will understand what the eventual outcome will be good.  It does say, though, that God is working on our side.  He is working for us and not against us when we face disappointments and are sure evil has the upper hand.

         I also note that the promise is within the context of a loving relationship.  It is as we look at life through the glasses of love that we can frame our understanding of events and open our eyes beyond our own selfish desires to consider what the hand of God might be doing.  Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the Nazi refugee camp, imprisoned for helping Jews, famously said, “God never closes a door without opening a window.”

         I’m guessing most of us can name some issue we are wrestling with before God.  None of us are living happy-ever-after.  It might help to write the issue on a piece of paper and then list our desired outcome but then also try to think outside the box on how God might be using the situation for his glory.  Pray about it and ask God to open your eyes to see his purposes.  Blessings.