Romans 5:8

Ugh. Today I have to tell you something that I really don't want to confess. So please be kind and gentle and understanding and forgiving as I share how God is working on me...

Last week I posted this on my Facebook page:

And it occurred to me yesterday on my (almost) daily 2 mile walk that lately, God has been telling me to "pull myself together", after all, I am a child of the Most High God. 

So here's the deal, a few weeks ago, I was reviewing another memory verse, Psalm 139:2-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Now usually, I focus on the "anxious thoughts" because, well, I tend to have anxious thoughts sometimes. But on this special day, my mind wandered over to the "offensive way" portion of the passage. And so I dared to ask God, is there any offensive way in me?

Me: God, is there any offensive way in me?

God: You want to know what I find offensive? I'll tell you what I find offensive - the words that come out of your mouth. 

Me: That?

God: Yeah, that. What about that other verse you've memorized...Ephesians 4:29-32?

Me: Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

God: Go on...

Me: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

God: Go on...

Me: Git rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

God: You want to be my witness? Work on this. You are my child. I love you. 

And so as I work on becoming more conscientious about the words that are coming out of my mouth, I am also processing Romans 5:8. 

Knowing that I am a sinner, knowing that I'd have imperfect issues, habits, behaviors, and thoughts...Christ still died for me. That is mind-blowing. He didn't die for me because I was already righteous or even a good person (Ro 5:7). He died for me precisely because I wasn't those things; because I needed him to die in order to be made right before God. 

God is a good, good Father (title of a great song by Chris Tomlin, by the way...) and there is no end to his mercy - not giving us what we deserve - and grace - giving us what we certainly do not deserve. 

His forgiveness is gentle and healing and draws us in to a deeper relationship with Him. 

His love cannot be measured or matched. And it is because of this love, that he disciplines his children. He instructs us and guides us, so that we can experience as the Psalmist writes, the way everlasting. 

So, if you happen to stumble upon this post and you haven't yet taken God up on his offer of eternal life because you think that you're not good enough, let me tell you that you'll never be good enough, but God definitely is. And that's all that matters. 

Let God love you and forgive you. Accept that you are one of the ones that Christ died for. Yes, even you. 

Romans 3.23

Continuing on my quest to memorize 100 verses recommended by Robert J. Morgan in his book, 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, I'm now working on what is referred to as the Roman Road, a set of verses that provides a framework for sharing the Good News. 

This simple verse pretty much sums up our need for receiving Jesus as our Savior. There's no getting around the phrase, "for ALL have sinned". No matter how nice and kind and generous and compassionate we are, we are all sinners.

This concept, I don't think, is too difficult to accept. Sure, I easily acknowledge that I will never be perfect like God who is the essence of purity and holiness. And when I have had conversations with others about this, they agree that they're sinners too. After all, it's impossible to be perfect. 

And so many people want to have a comfortable agreement with God that living a "good" life will be "good enough" to spend eternity in the Kingdom. But the cold, hard truth is that it's not good enough.

But verse 24 gives us some much needed hope. It says, "and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus". 

Translation: We are marked for good and made legitimate for free, at no cost to us, other than our belief that the debt Jesus paid on the cross was sufficient to set us right before God. 

This is the part that messes with people's heads, I think, because how can just believing this message be what God wants from us? How does that take all the wrongs in my life and make them forgiven? Having faith in Jesus can't be enough, can it?

It is. 

Over and over again in the New Testament we are instructed that faith in Jesus is all that is required to be washed clean of the sin that has accrued in our hearts and minds. 

This is what makes the Good News, so very wonderfully good enough.