As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

No post yesterday because I spent most of the day in the hospital with a friend. I left off with Paul saying they should not judge one another because of what they ate. He goes on to say, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” (Romans 14:ll) That is so powerful. It does not matter who you are, what you believe, or what you think. There will come a time for all of us when we will come face to face with God and in that moment we will remember who we are, why we are here, and we shall give an accounting of ourselves.  

Paul goes on talking about not being a stumbling block and at the end he says, “Hast thou faith? Have it to thy self before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” (Romans 14:22)

I absolutely do not think that we can just go off and do our own thing and still please God. God organized the earth for us, created it and placed upon it every needful thing. While I have a horrible fear of snakes I know they were put here to control the population of rodents, but why the rodents are here I have not figured out. Squirrels and rabbits are good for food, but mice I fail to see the purpose.  Nevertheless, I leave that to God. When he put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden it was not without instructions and laws and organization. You eat the fruit of this tree and this will happen. You eat of that tree and this will happen. And God talked with Adam, he talked with Noah and Abraham and Moses and others. When Christ came to the earth to atone for our sins he came to the Jews who had the laws and were the organized church. Yes, there came a falling away as Paul told the Thessalonians there would. (2 Thessalonians 2:3) But there has also come a renewing, a restoration of the laws and covenants, and organized church.   

Doubtful disputations among those that love the Lord?

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eatheth herbs. Let not him that eatheth despise him that eateth not.” (Romans  14:1-3)

The first thing I see here is that we are supposed to get with each other in the church. If someone is a herb eater (vegetarian) don’t pick on them and start arguments with them.  This hits home with me. I have discovered through experience that as much as I love chocolate covered cherries I can expect to get a horrible headache within a half hour after consuming chocolate of any type. Add corn syrup to the chocolate and I not only have a headache but I get dull of mind and cannot think. Further if corn oil is in the food I will double over in cramps and wind up in bed.

I’m not going to condemn anyone for being vegetarian or for having any kind of special diet, because I am sensitive to all kinds of foods. The hardest thing for me was to give up was beef. The Jews were told not to eat the meat of animals with cloven hoofs except those that chew their cud. They can eat beef, but not pig. I must not have any Jewish blood in me at all because pork and chicken are the only kind of meat I can eat without it making me sick.

Related to that subject is those who drink strong drink. Some cultures drink alcoholic drinks in small amounts without any seemingly harmful effect while others cannot take even that first sip. We all have predispositions to addictions of some kind. Not just alcohol but sugar, butter fat and etc. We are all weak in some area and need not condemn another for their weakness

By Grace are we Saved

In the scripture I gave yesterday, the one about being transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may, “prove what is good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)  Paul goes on to say, “Through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think, soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)  He goes on to talk about how we are many members in body, but we don’t all have the same office. “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.” (Romans 12: 4-6)  

By observation we know that we were each born with different personalities and talents. Some were born with a love of music and bless us in singing praises to God. Some of us are healers and nurturers who become parents, teachers, nurses and doctors. Some are builders and so on.  Tho here he is talking about the organization of the church. He is specifically talking about prophets, seventy (Luke 10: 1 & 17) priest, deacons, preachers, teachers and so on. But we can apply the concept to each of ourselves.

  I got to thinking about this word grace. What does it mean?  It is obviously a gift from God but he uses the word grace and gifts in the same sentence so here is what my bible dictionary says.

Grace is divine means of help, or strength given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ. Through the grace of the Lord, through faith in the atonement in the Lord Jesus Christ we repent of our sins (accept the atonement of Christ and get rid of our sin) we receive strength and assistance in good works. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold of eternal life and exaltation beyond their own abilities. Hence it is ”by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

Paul said to the Romans that they should “not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12: 2)

In my old age I certainly need my mind to be renewed. I have actually seen this happen in several cases. I knew a young single mother who had a boy who was about the age of ten. This young man had some sort of disability and was a problem at school, at church, and in the neighborhood. It is not unusual for Sunday sermons to counsel us to read our scriptures daily. After one such sermon this young single mother decided to start daily scripture reading with her little family. Perhaps it was at parent teacher conference at school, the young man’s teacher demanded the mother tell her what was going on at home. At first the mother though, Oh! No. What has he done now?”

“No. it’s a good thing,” the teacher said, and went on to rave about how much progress he had made.  Scripture reading was in no way a cure for his disability, but it helped to bring light and peace to his chaotic mind.

Another experience was when we lived in Michigan we planned to travel to Chicago for a special religious service. My husband had to work late the night before and to get there on time we had to leave at 4.00 AM the next morning. All the way to Chicago my husband grumbled about the weather, the traffic, problems at work and all kinds of things. Add to this his blood shot eyes, and his tired, tense demeanor. He was rude to those who met us at the door and those who happened to be in line ahead of him. I was embarrassed, but this was the Lords house. The Holy Spirit was strong that day and it touched his heart and renewed his body and mind. I went home with a different man that the grump I had come with. The change in him was astounding. His eyes were clear, he was alert and he kept saying, “I’m so glad we came.”

The third example has been me. Since I have been doing this blog I have noticed that it is easier for me to focus. I am definitely more organized and my mind is clearer. I have had a renewing of my mind as I have sought knowledge in the Scriptures of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ.  

There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek or the Baptist or etc.

As Paul continues his letter to the Romans he says, “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10: 12 13)

I really like that. It does not matter if you are Methodist, Mormon, Hindu, a Satan worshiper or something else. There is only one Lord over us all who created the earth and all that is in it. We may not recognize him or give him homage, but he exists nevertheless.

 My daddy used to tell me that Satan knows God lives and he’s angry about it. It was from him that I first learned that Satan once lived in Heaven. The Book of Job gives some insight into this and Luke 10:17 &18 the seventy returned again with joy saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lighting fall from heaven”  In other words. “Yeah, I know all about him, and Father cast him out.”

Paul goes on to say to the Romans, “How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?”  (Romans 10:14)  

I also love that last line. How shall they preach except they be sent? Many come saying lo here and lo there, but how can one tell who is sent of Christ?  And how would we recognize the truth except we believe and have faith. So it is a process. We seek, we hear, we believe, we have faith and if we persevere we will have Knowledge.  What good does it do if we hear, but it falls on deaf ears because we are not ready?