Romans 10 Salvation comes by the Grace of God

Romans 10 (The Message)

"It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"

 ^11-13Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it."

I know that the month of March is over but I am determined to read through the book of Romans until the end! So I am extending my study of Romans into April!
So exciting to know that we don't have to "do" anything to obtain salvation but believe in our hearts and ask the Lord to become our Lord and Saviour. The moment we do this with all of our hearts he comes and makes all things right between us and makes all things right in our broken lives!

Ephesians 2:8-10 (The Message)
 ^7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Gracefully Daisy

Romans 9 Don't miss it

I have read Romans so many times before in English, Spanish and in many bible versions but I love this chapter in the Message. I feel the emotions that Paul is experiencing as he writes this letter to the Romans. He wants them to understand how he loves his fellow Israelites but also that they missed it-Him- The Messiah! He walked among them and they killed him because they wanted a deliverer in the physical not realizing that they needed a spiritual deliverance more! So Paul wants to make sure that the Romans don't miss it as well, now as we read it-don't miss it-Him- The Messiah!

Romans 9 (The Message)

^20-33Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well: 

   I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
      I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.
   In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!"
      they're calling you "God's living children."
   Isaiah maintained this same emphasis: 

   If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
      and the sum labeled "chosen of God,"
   They'd be numbers still, not names;
      salvation comes by personal selection.
   God doesn't count us; he calls us by name.
      Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
   If our powerful God
      had not provided us a legacy of living children,
   We would have ended up like ghost towns,
      like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn't seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. 

And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
   Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
      a stone you can't get around.
   But the stone is me! If you're looking for me,
      you'll find me on the way, not in the way."

Let us not become to self absorbed with all the projects we expect ourselves to do "for God's Glory" that we miss his Glory! Let's be very careful to always trust God with our lives so that he can mold us into men and women according to his heart!
I want you God! I want my life to savor the sweetness of your glory everyday! I want to always know that you are the reason for every season of my life! Please help me to stay focused on you and not on myself! I don't want to always be in control I want you to control my life! Remind me when I am getting to busy and help me to slow down even if that means tripping over you like a huge rock in the middle of the road! but after I  trip Lord pick me up and take me in your arms so that in your embrace I can find forgiveness and wholeness!
I long for you, I don't want to miss you!

Gracefully Daisy

Romans 8-adventurously expectant

Romans 8 (The Message)

vs 9-28

"But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

^12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

 ^15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

 ^18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

 ^22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

 ^26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

 I couldn't leave any of these verses out I actually wanted to copy the whole chapter!
My little guy Sam, is 7 months old. Even at this age he was in my belly longer than he has lived in our home! These verses remind me of that adventurous expectancy! we were so excited to get to meet Sam and hold him in our arms beginning a new adventure together!

How much more with God! He makes us alive in Him to live an adventure with Him here on earth as he guides us to the biggest adventure of all eternity with Him! So let this expectancy be joyful for you! Know that the Lord truly has awesome plans for your life! This waiting makes us stronger, teaches us patience and helps us put things in perspective! Will you get tired while you wait? absolutely but that's ok because the Holy Spirit is right there with us as we wait guiding us, teaching us what to do, and helping us pray!
in summary 

"He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

Praise the Lord!
Gracefully Daisy

Romans 7 in this life of contradiction

This is what living out our faith and life in this world is all about! This has been the Ultimate struggle in my life. I know that good that I want to do! I want to revel in the Lord's commandment I want to follow them and live them out but everyday it is a struggle because the flesh that my spirit lives in is not spiritual and still longs to do the exact sin that I want  to stay away from!

Reading this passage has always brought great  comfort to me because Paul a huge faith  warrior had the same struggle I deal with everyday! Praise God there is hope for me!

Romans 7:14-25

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

^"14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

 ²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

   So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature^[d] a slave to the law of sin."

Here is another way to say the ending of this chapter from the Message 

Romans7:24-25

" ²⁴I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

 ²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different."

The Hope for me is called Jesus! he is the answer! He has made things right "in this life of contradiction" He is with us always-as he promised! With him we can do all things for he gives us strength. (phil 4:13) This includes serving him! Praise the Lord because has thought of  everything and has given us all the answers because he wants us to spend eternity with him! Hallelujah! 

Romans 6 Through His Death he gave us Life!

Romans 6 (New International Version, ©2011)

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

 ¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

So sin no longer holds us in bondage we are free from sin! To live the new life that the Lord has given us through his death and resurrection. it is a free gift from the Lord claim it today and claim life!

 ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

 ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

 ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So Christ came to die for us and will never do it again! He has paid the ultimate price and has conquered death and death no longer has power over him! through this same power when we give our lives to Christ and turn away from sin we are no longer under the power of sin! 

 ¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

So under grace we do not allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies instead we offer ourselves to God as an instrument to bring about good and blessing! This is why one of my favorite acts of worship is baptism! How wonderful it is to know that it is more than symbolism it is an act in which we bury our mortal bodies as a sign of death to this world and its desire and are resurrected into a new life with God! The everlasting abundant life that only can be found in him! 

Because he is the only way the truth and the life no one can Come to God except through Jesus Christ! John 14:6

In a nutshell... Romans 5

Last Sunday we had a guest speaker at our church for the Missions convention, and something that speaker said gripped me. Dr. James Bradford said this phrase during his message, "The God who created us has also acted to rescue us." Such a simple truth but so awe inspiring it leaves one speechless. This is why I love these next verses from Romans 5 as written in the message.

^"18-19Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

 ^20-21All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end."

God has set it all right and ready for us to choose to live in him so that we can have everlasting life with Him through Christ Jesus!

Our creator not only created us and left us to fend for ourselves he also set in motion our plan for salvation since the beginning. His love for us surpasses our understanding but he chose to love us even in our weakest state and honored his commitment to us by sending his only son to pay the price for us so that we can be forgiven and invites us into life with him!

Thank you Lord!

Romans 2 God is Kind but he is not Soft.

Romans 2 (The Message)

^"3-4You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change." 


Let us not be deceived that we can live and not realize that all of our actions an decisions have consequences. 
Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.


I pray that I will be able to always live out the radical life change that the Lord requires of me, because he holds me by the hand and has given me the tools I need to live out and walk out his truth. I pray that I see the sin in my life and repent and walk in the way of the Lord. That I don't judge others in hopes of numbing the sin that wants to take home in my heart. Lord cleanse my heart. 
I want to follow after you~

Roman's 1 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie

Romans 1 The Message

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

 ^18-23But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.

What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

 ^24-25So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!
 ^26-27Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either—women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

There is so much in this chapter! 

This passage grips at my heart and I am humbled before the Lord. 

I pray Lord please forgive us, forgive our nation, forgive our generation and save us...

The time is now when we should turn back to our God-our creator because when we turn away from him Life  truly becomes a downward spiral...

But the Lord continues to stand with outstretched arms Longing to Save us and for us to know Him completely!

2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Praise the Lord for abundant Grace!

March Bible Study-The book of Romans

So excited to Start a New Bible Study with my friends Christina from get Joy and Jenilee from My Awake JourneyI thoroughly enjoyed blogging through the Bible Study on Galatians, Philippians, Ephesians and Colossians that we did in November!
Come Join us! The Lord has great things to show us this month I believe it!Romans has 16 chapters and the plan is to spend two days on each chapter!