August 31, 2020                                   STRENGTHENED  AND  FILLED
Ephesians 3:16-19 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
What a prayer for you and I! We may give a lot of attention to our outer man and we may spend much time and energy meeting the desires of this outer man; the outer man has all sorts of cravings-to look good, to get attention, to do the things that make us ‘happy,’ to impress others-and the list goes on. The scriptures refer to living according to the outer man as living according to the flesh. For those who do not know the Lord, their only option is to live according to the outer man-or the flesh. This is not to say that our physical bodies or evil or any such thing; God made us and gave us an amazing physical body, and we should take proper care of it. The condition of our inner man, our inner person, is of upmost importance because it is the core on our being and it truly defines who we are and it is the primary motivator of our lives. God desires that our inner man be strengthened through His Spirit who lives in us. The goal is not that we will just be strengthened, but that we will be strengthened so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith! Let us not skip over that-Christ, the Son of God wants to dwell in our hearts!! Because Christ is holy and pure, without sin, and will not co-habit with sin, our hearts must be pure-and it is the Holy Spirit that prepares our hearts. For this reason, we must listen to the voice of the Spirit and be quick to obey His voice and to work with Him as He works in us. We are not perfect, but we do have the Spirit of God enabling us to live in a manner that pleases our Father. The important thing is that we yield to the Spirit rather than to our flesh. When Christ lives in our heart, we experience abundant blessings. One blessing is that we will be “routed and grounded in love.” This love is not human love, but the love of God, and this love of God that is rooted in us can be expressed to others; it is the same love Jesus demonstrated while on earth. Also, when Christ lives in our heart, we will begin to comprehend just how awesome and how far-reaching the love of God is. We will discover that the “love of God surpasses knowledge,” and we will be “filled up to all the fullness of God!” The one that does not know God personally, is limited to limited human knowledge and is void of the transformational power of the love of God. Let us yield to the work of the Spirit and be strengthened in our inner man-so that Christ may live in our hearts.
Colossians 2:6.9: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”  “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.”
Blessings,
Buddy
​

 
August 28, 2020                                  WALKING  THE  TALK
Psalm 128:2 “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.”                                                                                                                                                                         2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”                                                                                                      Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”                                                                                                                                         Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”     Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ Jesus forgave you.”
The Christian faith is built on the super-natural; the bible records the super-natural acts of God, and Jesus demonstrated the super natural. As believers, the fact that we have been made new creations and given hew hearts, new minds, and a new spirit, is a super-natural work of God; the Holy Spirit working in us is super-natural. However, the scriptures are replete with instructions on how our super-natural life impacts the practical-the nitty-gritty of life. (An old preacher friend of mine once said that “some Christians are so spiritually minded that they are no earthly good.” There is some truth in that statement.) The super-natural work God has done and continues to do in us brings life to all we do, even as we go about the daily routines-doing the things that we need to do. The living, active relationship we have with our Father should be the motivator, or the source of all we do. Colossians 3:23 instructs us this way: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for man.” That is an amazing verse. Whether you are leading a bible study, or mowing the lawn, do it heartily and do it for the Lord-and not for the praise of man. If our motivation for doing a good job is to impress someone else, then we miss the point. We may want to please someone and bless them by doing a good job on a particular project or whatever, but our deepest motivation should be that it pleases the Father and is a demonstration of the life of Jesus in us. I understand that there are some things we have to do that we do not enjoy, and that sometimes there is a sense of drudgery in what we do. Oswald Chambers has said that “Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times of inspiration.” His point is that drudgery, or routine, is not a bad thing and is actually an essential part of life. Again, even in the drudgery, we have the life of God at work in us. I find it refreshing to know that ‘heartily’ doing whatever we do is an opportunity to demonstrate the life of Jesus in us and it frees us from trying to please man. It is an awesome thing to know that God is the motivation and the power for all we do! There will be some drudgery, and some things we do not enjoy doing in life, but let us have a bigger and higher mindset in the process; let us have the mind of Christ as we go about life, knowing that we can glorify and honor Him in all we do.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
August 25, 2020                                         GAINING  CHRIST
Philippians 3:7-8, 13-14 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for who I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”       “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
I fear that the message of the gospel we have heard and been exposed to for many years has been an insufficient message-not that the gospel is insufficient, but the presentation of it. Primarily, the message we have heard is that the basic thing we must do is to trust Christ as Savior, be involved in church, then one day we die and go to heaven. That may be a little over-simplified, but you get my point. The bulk of our knowing Christ is knowing Him as Savior. I think that what we have missed, what has been insufficient in our understanding, is found in the verses above. I must admit, what I am sharing is a challenge to me personally. Here is the challenging truth for each of us: is knowing Christ, not just as Savior, the supreme desire of our life? Do we count other things as ‘rubbish’ compared to knowing Christ? Just as was the case with Paul, we should understand that we ‘have not laid hold of it yet.’ Even though we may be older and have been active in the church for years, it may be that our knowledge of Him may be shallow. Our maturing in Christ and increasing in our knowledge of Him involves a fight; we must fight against and reject the things that would distract us from the goal of knowing Him more fully; each of us have potential distractions that we must be on guard against. One distraction for some is their past successes and failures, their hurts and disappointments and unmet desires and dreams. Paul said that he forgot what lies behind-and so should we; the past is the past and we can do nothing about it. Having knowing Christ as our supreme desire in life does not mean I must quit my job, leave our family and move in to a monistairy; God tells us to work and provide, to be about life, etc. If gaining Christ is the supreme desire of our life, it will be evident and we will set out hearts and mind on a course to learn of Him through reading and meditating on His word, prayer, worship, and sharing life with other like-minded believers. Here is the really good news. We may have difficulty considering all other things as rubbish compared to knowing Him. However, Paul spoke two words that are key; if we see the ‘surpassing value’ of knowing Christ, then other things will seem as rubbish. We lose nothing but gain everything when knowing Him more fully is the desire of our life. One essential truth we will discover as we pursue Him is that we have been joined to Him, given a new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit. As He becomes our desire, the Holy Spirit will be at work revealing just how awesome our God is.
Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways!”
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Ephesians 1:18-19b “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
Blessings,  Buddy  

 
August 22, 2020                                     SOWING  AND  REAPING
Galatians 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”
2 Corinthians 9:6, 10 “Now this I say; he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”  “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”
If you want to prosper, then sow bountifully. In our culture, gathering rather than sowing has become the norm. Galatians 6:7 begins with the admonition to not be deceived; we are deceived when we do not live with a conscience awareness of the law of sowing and reaping. God has established certain principles that cannot be altered by man, and when man does not live in harmony with these principles, he does so to his own detriment. (The law of reaping and sowing is universal, applying to believers as well as to non-believers. However, for the one who knows and loves God, the principle of reaping and sowing takes on a new dimension as he or she can sow to the Spirit of God and reap a harvest that is of God.) This passage in Galatians simplifies the matter of sowing; even as believers, we are always sowing either to the flesh, or to the Spirit. Being focused on what is best for me and what makes me ‘happy’ is sowing to the flesh. Again, looking out for self is the norm for many and it is the acceptable thing to do in our culture-and sad to say, all too often it is the acceptable thing to do among believers. Sowing to the Spirit is being focused on the things of God and being about the things He has called us to do and to be. The challenge is that our human nature tells us that we need to get-whatever it is we think we want;  it seems like common sense to look out for number one-us. The problem for many is that what they think they need or want is not really what satisfies the longings of the soul. The good news is that because God created us and designed us, He knows what fills the longing of our souls. One facet of our design is that God designed us to be givers, or sowers; Jesus is the example-He came to give and to sow the seeds of the kingdom of God. Now, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we have the privilege of sowing seeds that will produce an abundant crop. Here is more good news-God will give us seed and will multiply our seed for sowing and increase our harvest of righteousness! (See verse above.) There are endless ways of sowing-even giving a glass of water can be a way of sowing; a kind word, helping, encouraging, meeting a need, praying for someone, giving financial assistance as the Lord leads-etc. The point is that we have the life of God in us, if we know Him, and we can share His life with others in infinite ways. Let us set our mind and our hearts on sowing what God has put in our hearts. We may not win the lottery just because we sow, and we may not see an immediate harvest, but the harvest we will see beats the lottery by a long shot.
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
August 19, 2020                                         KEYS  TO  FORGIVENESS
Hebrews 12:14-15 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
Colossians 3:12-13 “And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Forgiveness is central to the gospel; without God’s forgiveness, we could not be reconciled to Him or to each other. We know that God is a God who forgives, but let us not overlook the fact that we are called to be ones who forgive just as He forgives. Tragically, countless books could be written about relationships that have been destroyed because of unforgiveness. Refusing to forgive when wronged does in deed allow ‘roots of bitterness to spring up, causing trouble.’ Some say that forgiving others who have hurt us is hard to do. That viewpoint of forgiveness is a tell-tale sign of a deeper issue in the one who finds it difficult to forgive. The insight found in Luke 7:47 is amazing; it gives an important key to forgiveness. “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” The crucial point we must get is that of realizing how much we have been forgiven; being conscience of how much God has forgiven us makes it ‘easier,’ and even natural, to forgive others. Knowing how much we have been forgiven produces in us a love for others, even for those who have wronged us and it takes away a judgmental spirit in us.  Love and forgiveness are hand and glove-they go together. Not forgiving others puts us in an emotional and spiritual prison and causes trouble and hurts all close to the situation. Not only are we to forgive others if we are to be spiritually healthy and enjoy good relationships, we must also forgive ourselves for the wrongs we have done. Perhaps we are not guilty of some ‘great’ sin, but sin is sin and we were born with a sin nature, separated from God and in need of forgiveness. Unless we know how much we have been forgiven, perhaps forgiving ourselves is more difficult than forgiving others. It is our pride that stands in the way of us not forgiving ourselves; we simply do not like to ‘mess up’ and we do not like admitting we have done wrong. Many live with the memory of past sins and wrongdoings, and many have to live with some of the consequences of bad choices of the past. Even though forgiving ourselves does not erase all consequences of bad choices and past sins, it does free us to admit our wrongs and to own our wrongs. The response that God would have for us is “Yes I sinned, and I regret it, but God has forgiven me and I am no longer in bondage to my past.” There is great liberty in ‘owning our stuff’ and living with the knowledge and the experience of God’s forgiveness.
Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgives you.”
Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as Christ also has forgiven you.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
August 16, 2020                                              TRUTH  LIBERATES
John 8:32 “Then you will know truth, and the truth will set you free.”
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
 God knows us completely and intimately; He knows the complexity of our makeup as well as the deepest desires of our hearts. Even though we may not be able to clearly define just what our deepest desires are-it may be that we just have an awareness that something in missing. God is keenly aware of the plight of man apart from Him, and not only is He aware of it, He gives a remedy or solution that sets man free and fulfills the longings of his or her heart. His remedy, is His word. His word does not contain truth; His word IS truth. John 17:17. Only as we know the truth found in God’s word will we experience true freedom.  True freedom is living as God designed, and in the study of His word we discover that design and our true identity. The word of God is not just another text book; the word of God is supernatural and it touches every part of our being-our mind, our soul, and our spirit; it cuts to the very core of our being. Hebrews 4:12. His word gives discernment, wisdom, direction, admonishes, and corrects us when we needed. A major benefit of His word is that it reveals the true identity of who we are as the sons and daughters of God; without knowing our true identity, we will continually live with a sense of incompleteness, trying to find what truly satisfies. It cannot be over-stated: we can be free only by the truth we find in God’s word, and we will not find that truth unless we read and study His word. There are many things that vie for our time and we are constantly confronted with promises of ‘happiness’ if we only do this or do that, or buy this product, or whatever. May we set our hearts to look to the word of God, knowing that only in His word we find life to the fullest.
Psalm 119:130 “The unfolding of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple”
Matthew 4:4 “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
1 Peter 2:2-3 “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
August 13, 2020                                        NO  OTHER  WAY
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
Matthew 7:8a “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Sometimes we forget the basics. The most basic truth, the truth we must not stray from is that of seeking Him first, with all of our hearts. Unless we do just that, we will not experience Him in a significant way. This may sound alarming, but in a very real sense, God hides Himself, waiting to be sought after, and waiting to be found. In our day and time, there is much emphasis placed on certain things we must do if we are to be ‘good’ Christians. We are convinced that if we do the right thing, then God will work in our lives and will be pleased with us; if we go through the routines of prayer, bible study, church attendance, giving, and etc., we believe that we are then living the Christian life. Also, we may tend to think that if we do what the scriptures tell us to do, things will get better-even though we may not be seeking Him with all of our heart. Often, in marriage counseling, the emphasis is on the husband and wife doing certain things in order for their relationship to improve. Don’t misunderstand, it is a good thing to do the things God says in His word to do, but even though we may do the ‘right things,’ we still will not experience the fullness of God and will not truly find Him unless He is the desire of our heart. Let us not fall into the trap of trying to improve our life by simply obeying the scriptures. A key point for us to know is that being precedes the doing. In other words, as we discover who we are in Him, as we begin to discover how wonderful and awesome He is, we will find that it is our nature and our desire to do the things that please Him and also blesses others. The old adage of ‘not getting the horse before the cart’ is another way of saying this. One might wonder how do we seek Him with all our heart-what does it look like to do so. All I can say to that is that it is a matter of the heart-what is our heart’s desire; is finding and having ‘my way’ the most important thing-the thing that drives me, or is my greatest desire to know Him. It starts with knowing and remembering that God, our Father, created us, that He sent His Son to save us, that He calls us to Himself, and that only He holds the keys to life. There are times when we realize that our desire for Him has waned; in such times the doing-whether we feel like it or not-is important; we may need to stir up the gift of God which is in us, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, and we may need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, Romans 12:2. God did not make us robots; we have the power of choice. We can turn our thoughts and our hearts to the things of God; we can draw near to Him. God is desiring that we find Him and experience Him and He will gladly reveal Himself to us when He is the desire of our heart. The things I mentioned above-bible study, prayer, church attendance, and giving, or all good things; just let them be a result of knowing Him and having Him as our chief desire and not an attempt to make our life better or to earn His approval.
James 4:8a “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
Blessings, Buddy

 
August 10, 2020                                     NO  LONGER  A  SLAVE
Galatians 4:6-8 “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.”
Galatians 5:1,13 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”           “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
It is a spiritual breakthrough for us when we come to known that we are sons and daughters of God; it is only by the Holy Spirit revealing this truth that we will come to know such a wonderful truth. To have a mental agreement that God is our Father is one thing, but to know in our spirit that God is indeed our Father is something else. Today we will focus on the slavery aspect of these verses. We would all be quick to say that we are not slaves, but free individuals. Is it possible to be a slave even though we think we are free? It’s my belief that the most common type of slavery today for believers, and for everyone, is slavery to self. (Drug and alcohol addiction, selfishness, habitual wrong thinking, over-eating, and being undisciplined are just a few forms if slavery to self.) This idea of being slaves to self runs counter to our culture which believes that gratifying self and making self ‘happy’ is the main priority in life. However, as you read the scriptures, you soon discover that living according to ourselves-the flesh, prevents us from knowing and experiencing the life that God has made available to each believer. The call to die to self is something we had rather not talk about; we view dying to self as something that would rob us of what we want in life. This drive to satisfy self and the focus on acquiring the things we want is being a slave to our own desires. God sent His Son that we might be born again into eternal life, be set free from sin and a life focused on self, be made new creations, and become sons and daughters of God. Living as a son or daughter of God is far different and cannot be compared to living life not knowing God-it’s a new day when we come to know God as Father. When we are set free from slavery to self, we discover life in the kingdom of God, a life that satisfies the deepest yearnings of our souls. We were created to live as sons and daughters of God, not to be slaves to sin and to self. The most monumental thing we can do in life other than trusting Jesus as Savior, is to die to ourselves. We may not know it up front, but when we die to self, we then discover that dying to self is actually finding real life. To lay aside our life in exchange for His life is the best deal we will ever make. Dying to self is simply choosing to walk in His ways and to do the things that please Him-to love one another, to serve one another, to encourage one another, to think like He thinks, etc. To die to self is to reject the notion that we have to satisfy ourselves in order to be happy. Let us walk in the truth that Christ came to set us free and to make us sons and daughters; let us live in the liberty we have in Christ. We are no longer salves; we are new creations and members of the kingdom of God, and in His kingdom, there are no slaves.
Romans 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
 
August 8, 2020                                    NEW  EVERY  MORNING
 
Lamentations 3:22-25: “The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”
For those who seek God and wait for Him, there is one sure and steadfast truth, and that is that His mercies are new every morning. We live in a world where uncertainty is the norm, where things are unsettled and unsure and where we do not know what tomorrow holds for us. In contrast to the ways of the world, the ways of God are certain and unchangeable and when we are living according to His ways, we can know and experience confidence and peace in the midst of a turbulent world. Believers are not exempt from troubles and trials, but in the midst of difficulties, they are sustained and strengthened by the kindness and compassion of God. There is one “catch” however; the one who waits for Him and seeks Him is the one who experiences and knows first-hand the kindness and compassion of the Lord. (It is true that all people to some degree experience the kindness of God to some degree-the fact that a person is alive, that rain waters the earth, etc. is expression of the kindness of God.) Note that the loving kindnesses of God NEVER cease and that His compassion NEVER fail! We may become weary and may face discouragement, but in such times we can stop and experience His loving kindnesses and His compassion. What a wonderful Father we have. Even though God has made us new creations with new hearts and minds and put His Spirit within us, He still remembers the frailty of our physical being. In Psalms 103:14 we read: “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” The absolute greatest thing we can do in this life as believers is to seek Him and wait for Him, for in so doing we will find that His mercies, His loving kindnesses, and His compassions are new every morning and they never fail! When we awake each morning, let us know that God is already expressing His love for us-even before we arise from our sleep.
Psalm 139:5-10: “You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.”
Blessings,
Buddy

 
August 4, 2020                                 WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY
Romans 8:31-34 “What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all these things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes 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?”
You must read all of chapter eight to see what leads up to the question “What shall we say to these things?” What Paul presents in this chapter is certainly a central message of the gospel and we could spend weeks digesting the truth presented. In a very brief overview of this chapter, Paul begins by reminding us that there is no condemnation for those in Christ because the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. Paul says much about the peril of living according to the flesh and the blessings of living according to the Spirit; those who live in the flesh cannot please God. In verse 13, we are told that if we are living according to the flesh, we must we die-that is, die to ourselves. It is also clear from this chapter that believers will face difficulties and trials, even while living according to the Spirit. We learn that we are children of God and that we are heirs of God if indeed we suffer with Him-but the suffering is worth it because we will see His glory. Even though we have the ‘first fruits of the Spirit,’ we yet have this ‘groaning’ within us awaiting our full adoption of sons. We have been saved and made new, but we still have a hope for what is yet to come. We do not always understand, but God works all things for good to those who are called according to His purpose. We are the elect of God and He is our protector. The above is at the most just a snap-shot of chapter eight. The point for us today is that no matter what circumstances we face, no matter what questions we may have about life and how God is working to bring about His purposes-we can know and rest assured that because God is for us, no one can undo or stop what He is doing in us or hinder His plans. That truth we can celebrate.   
Romans 8:37-39 “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, not angles, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, not depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God , to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Blessings,
Buddy