Making Sense of Pain

Romans 8:26,27
This process produces a weakness in us that causes us to blindly cry out to God. But we are not alone in this. God's powerful Spirit knows us in the deepest recesses of our hearts. He also knows exactly Where the Father is headed with us. Thus, He can turn our groans into useful requests aligned with our loving Father's plan

A Universe in Labor

Romans 8:18-25
Our good Father has a plan to put this entire universe at risk. He has immersed us all in a process of corruption and decay in the hope that it will give birth to a new order of freedom and glory breaking us free from the slavery of sin and death. But keep in mind childbirth is never easy. There is groaning and pain and suffering involved. And since the infusion of God's Spirit in us has started to bear fruit in us we groan in anticipation too. But there is also the joy of hope that it will all soon be over. So use this time of hoping to learn perseverance.

Daddy!!

Romans 8:12-16
So, you see, our obligations to the flesh are all gone. Our flesh is connected with the old realm of death and every time we try to live by it we step back into that painful treacherous world and start to experience death again. Then in desperation we yield to the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, and start to live again. Now we are back on track and led by God's Spirit recognizing we are God's children with with all the pleasures, rights, and privileges that come with that position. There is no fear in this relationship. The spirit of slavery from the past life is gone. We are adopted to Father God by His Spirit and we innocently cry out with arms outstretched, "Daddy!!". From deep inside His new Spirit within us says, "That's right. You're My child now."

From Obsession to Possession

Romans 8:1-11
This way out begins when we realize that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This new life of the spirit will set us free from the power of sin and death. Our weak and vulnerable flesh was not helped by law but God sent His Son in the image of our sinful flesh. He was condemned and paid for our sins in the flesh. So now all the requirements of the law have already been met for us. We no longer walk according to fleshly desires but according to His Spirit. Fleshly people are obsessed with fleshly primal urges but spiritual people yield to the promptings of God's Holy Spirit who now possesses them. A fatal obsession with ourselves results in hostility to God because it opposes God, His order, and everything He stands for but yielding to His life-giving Spirit within us produces a joyful life of peace. We must make a distinction here between those fleshly people who are not possessed by God's Spirit who don't belong to Him and You who have this Dynamic Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, Who now lives in you and powerfully gives your dead body the same kind of life He gave Christ.

The Cycle of Wretchedness

Romans 7:15-25
Here's how the process works: First I am doing the very things I hate, not what I would like to do and I don't understand why. Though I long to follow that good law something deeper is controlling me. That thing is sin. So I see that my flesh is shot through with sin. I have this spiritual longing to do good but wind up practicing the very evil that I hate. It's as if sin takes on a life of it's own. So I conclude that I want to follow God's law one moment and the next thing I know my body wages war on what I know to be right. I am a wretched prisoner to a body that belongs to the realm of sin and death. Now that I realize what a hopeless situation I am in I start looking outside of me for hope. I can now say, "Thank you God. You have provided a way out through Jesus who you've designated to take over my life.

Time Bomb

Romans 7:7-14

This might lead us to think that law is sin. No, not at all. In fact, I myself would never have come to a knowledge of sin except through law. I thought I had my life under control until I realized the law said, "You shall not covet." That's when sin got a foothold in my life. It produced in me an obsession with every kind of lust imaginable. Before this sin had no power. Sin lay dormant in me waiting for an opportunity but when the commandment became alive to me those sinful desires took on a life of their own. They deceptively used that law to produce in me a painful shameful death. I can't blame laws commands and rules for this. There is nothing wrong with them. No, its the sin that was always there in me. God must use this process to awaken us to the fact that there is plenty of sin hiding within us. He uses this spiritual law to continually show us our bondage to sin.

What a Jerk!

Romans 7:1-6

Now let's look at this from a legal point of view. The law only has jurisdiction over the living. For instance, a married woman is legally bound by law to her husband but if he dies she no longer has any obligation to him. If, while he was living she joined herself to another man she would legally be an adulteress but when her husband dies she is free from the law and can live with whoever she chooses. In a similar way, friends, you, through the body of Christ died to the law so that you might rise from the dead and be joined to Him so we might bear fruit for God. This death and resurrection were necessary because of the effect this old "husband" had on our hearts. He brought out the worst in us and since we were living in a realm of death only death could result but we are dead to the law and it's demands. We live a fresh spiritual life now and not in an oppressive legal system.