Lesson for 7/31

Hey all, the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 6:1-4,12-22 "Death Becomes Life" This is a very fascinating set of scriptures that honestly speaks and teaches itself! If we briefly recall from previous lessons, we know that as believers in Christ, we are saved by grace. Its not about our works, but what Jesus did! Here we find verse 1 of Romans 6, Paul poses the question, "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? You could imagine Paul asking this because as humans, we often try to find a loophole or reason within our thoughts to make something wrong, seem right. "Someone may say well, if I go ahead and lie or fornicate, just to name a few, God will keep forgiving me! So i'm good, right?" Wrong! As proclaimed followers of Christ, we acknowledge that we have died to our sins! Not to say we won't make a mistake or mess up at times; but we are not to continue to LIVE in it. Meaning, day after day after day with no effort of doing better. Verse 4 "For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." The lesson jumps to verse 12, but I challenge you to read 5-11 for an even deeper revelation! Verse 12, "Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give into sinful, lustful desires." Very challenging at times, to speak for myself. But we must stand strong and deny our flesh; One way is stay rooted in prayer and reading, another way could be surrounding ourselves with other believers, on top of that, distancing ourselves from unwise areas or situations helps tremendously too. The lesson continues on, Verse 13-14 - "Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. We should use it to do what is right for the glory of God! Sin is no longer our master, and we no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace." The powerful verse 17 says "Thank God, Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey that doctrine that was delivered to you." Pause, ever remember going to church because your parents made you? Or sticking with something that you really didn't want to do, but you had to? You may have felt someone would judge you otherwise, or you may have been "doing church" to impress someone. Well to tie this together; now we as Christians go to church, sing, minister, encourage, put our best effort forward, because we feel compelled to! We fellowship or have bible study or small groups, because we wholeheartedly want to better serve God! We are not BOUND by same law the Pharisees were inflicting back then, however Paul is telling us that because we are made new in Christ, that should MOTIVATE us to try and keep it! For example, we know the law says do not kill, so as Christ followers, we aim to upkeep that law by not killing others, whether physically, verbally, or emotionally. Sin should not be our master, we should live each day striving to please our Heavenly Father more and more. I encourage you to continue reading, I will close with the last verse 23 of this lesson. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal live through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks for reading, God bless!

Lesson for 7/24

Hey all, the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 5:1-11. Its titled, "Not Without Hope." As I began to read this lesson, I fell in love with what Paul is writing here. Its a powerful set of scriptures that honestly speak and teaches itself. Verses 1 - 5 "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. - Those first verses are amazing, my favorite began with the transition into verse 3. What it is saying is, we can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials. For endurance develops strength of character, which in turn strengthens our confident hope of salvation. It kind of reminds me of working out, we condition, tear our muscles, only to build them up and make us stronger! The lesson continues -  " But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

Enough said right there! This, the pinnacle belief of our faith; we must remember, that without hope or faith, it is impossible to please God; our hope is found in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for our sins so that we  may be reconciled! Gods love has been poured into us, may we continue to rejoice in the midst of adversity and keep confident as we acknowledge our hope of the salvation we are promised.

Thanks for reading - leave a comment!
God bless

Lesson for 7/17

Hey all, the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 3:21-31. Its titled "God Sets Things Right." Our lesson continues on in our series where Paul is addressing the Jews of Rome. As a brief recap, we recall the Jews of that time and how they withheld the Mosaic Law to the highest standard; they were self-righteous and believed their works alone would give them eternal life. Here we find Paul in verse 21 saying, "But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago." Verse 22, we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God. Verse 24, "Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins." To pause for a moment, again we recall the Jews of that time who did not want to believe Paul's teaching here. They were still stuck on obeying the law and refused to believe Jesus was the Messiah. They felt Paul's teaching of "grace" gave people free reign to do what they wanted; If we look at Ephesians 2:8 we see that  "For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Again, the Jews of that time were big on their self-righteousness; Paul reminds them that as Jews, they are no better than the Gentiles. Verse 25 "For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.." God declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, verse 27-28 brings out that is not based on obeying the law. Its based on faith! Whether Jew or Gentile, there is only one, and He makes people right with himself by faith! As we reflect on what Paul is saying, let us note that it is not about our works, or self-righteousness, but it's about what Jesus did! We can't make it on our own strength, but our trust should be in God, through Christ Jesus! God sets things right, in the midst of any and everything that may be transpiring in our lives, and in this world right now. We must have faith that God is in control, "for without faith, it is impossible to please God." - Hebrews 11:6.

Thanks for reading, God bless!!

Lesson for 7/10

Hey all,

The Sunday school lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 3:9-20. It's titled"We're all under sins power" as in reflect on this title I can help but agree with how true it is. Verse 9 brings out that we are no better than another, all are under the power and influence of sin. Each of us at some point has turned away. The scriptures continue on with detailing this. As you read, pray for clarity and understanding! We all deserve the penalty of death, due to sin but thanks to God's grace and mercy, through Jesus, we are saved! May we continue to strive and build our relationship with our heavenly Father and seek what pleases Him and not ourselves or each other!

God bless! Thanks for reading!

Lesson for 7/3

Hey all, the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 2:17-29, its titled "Ignoring God's Truth Within Us" - I encourage you to pray then read Romans 1 to provide insight on the events leading up to this lesson. To provide some background, Paul is referring to the Jewish Christians in Rome. During this time, the Jewish leaders heavily believed on the value of circumcision. As they were God's chosen people, they began to enforce the law on the Gentile (non-Jew) Christians. Paul opposed the Jewish leaders for being proud and doing wherever they wanted, however, he was not against the circumcision itself, IF practiced as part of obeying God's whole Law. Lets elaborate, Verse 17 Paul says "You who call yourself Jews are relying on God's law, and you boast about your special relationship with him." 18 "You  know what He wants; you know what is right because you have been taught His law." In verse 19 I find it neat how Paul nearly quotes Isaiah 42:16 when he says "You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness." Can you pause for a moment and just imagine how they thought of themselves? The Jews of that time had been given God's instruction, guidelines to pleasing Him. They felt a since of pride, as they again were a chosen people, responsible for teaching God's law to others. Paul boldly says to them in verse 21 "Well then, if you teach others, why don't you teach yourself?" It brings out that the Jewish religious leaders tell others not to idolize, commit adultery, or steal - yet they do it themselves. Verse 23 speaks volume to me "You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it." I am reminded of the warning written in James 3:1, "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." - higher accountability for knowing better, and ignoring. Back to the lesson, the Bible continues on; again, the Jewish ceremony of circumcision was highly valued during that time. Paul says to them in verse 25 that this only has value if you obey God's law. If you don't obey, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. Gotta love verses 26 and 27 "And if the Gentiles obey God's law, won't God declare them to be His own people? In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God's law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and posses God's law but don't obey it!" Paul then says to them, "you are not a Jew because you were born of Jewish parents. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people."

To bring this all together, we can apply this to our lives as Christians today. As men and women of Christ, we know the Word of God, as we study and obtain knowledge, lets not ignore or do contrary to what God has shown us is right. May we circumcise our hearts! For example, we can't habitually commit sin, and expect our church attendance or tithing to mean anything. We are God's chosen generation, followers of Christ. May we continue to shine our lights where ever we are! Standing firm and not ignoring the truth that God has given us! Not just hearers, but doers!!

Thanks for reading, 

God bless you!