Wednesday Night Study on February 27th

This Wednesday we took a look at Romans 8:28-39. This passage of scripture is probably one of the more popular quoted passages of scripture today. It seems in any movie we see that when someone faces great opposition they turn and say this “If God is for us who can be against us?” Though that question is asked in this passage the main focus of our talk was verse 28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

This scripture can be very encouraging but I believe it can often be very misunderstood and the misunderstanding can create a sense of friction between those that bad things are happening to and God. I believe that as we read this scripture in its context and think about the rest of the gospel we find that good doesn’t always mean 3 cars, a big house, lots of friends, and lots of money. I believe it rather means this; that God is working to carry out His purpose and will and this is good. We used the example of Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ friends and family at the time probably were not feeling too great about Him being unjustly (by human standards) tried and killed. The situation of our friend who never hurt anyone being killed because someone did not like Him doesn’t seem fair. I believe that was the way that all His friends saw the situation. We however have the ability to see it from a very positive perspective because his payment for our sin is the only way that we can get into Heaven. We come to the conclusion that even through evil and bad things God has the ability to work for His good. On a personal level we receive Heaven as Christians; that is pretty good.

The second point we made is on an individual level He works for the good of those who love Him. How do we know we love Him? I believe that answer is also in this passage. After the author writes about those who love Him, he then describes them. He tells us this if we love Him we will be about His purpose and business.

Thirdly we described His purpose. I believe all Bible stories from Adam and Eve to the Revelations reveal to us His purpose. In every miracle God does or doesn’t do, He does what He does so that His glory might be known in all the earth and that He might receive glory from all nations. In other words we should be about spreading what He’s done in us with everyone else so that they may give Him glory also.

I believe the author of this passage is telling us and the readers a simple truth. As we live our lives to glorify Him, He pours Himself out of us and into others. Through this time we will be faced with hardship, difficulty, and maybe even death, but scripture goes on to give us an incredible promise: Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ!

We closed with a challenge to trust in the love of Christ and give our total life to Him and we also challenged those who are Christians to live their life without regret of not sharing Christ.

Wednesday Night Study on February 20th

This week we talked about the story of Gideon. We looked at the time when Gideon was initially called by God to defeat the Midianites. We probably all know the story of Gideon. He took 300 men and defeated an army of around 100,000. We however, looked in a little closer. We looked to Gideon’s call. God called Gideon out of hiding and fear. I feel that most every time God calls me it seems I always have to deal with a fear. Immediately Gideon began to ask God why? God didn’t have to answer Gideon’s questions. Likewise God doesn’t have to answer our questions because He is God and because He already has. We made note that John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world.” Jesus gave this warning and promise for a reason. If we spend all our time asking the question “Why did this happen?”, we fail to receive the peace that comes in Him overcoming the world. The second response Gideon gave was “I’m not strong enough”. We all can relate to that because Christ living in us is the only way we will ever have the strength to overcome and do the things that He has called us to do. We closed with a challenge to trust Jesus with our fear, questions, and weakness. I hope this has informed you and hopefully encouraged you.

walk brave, dustin