1. Message: There is so much going on in Romans 8! Some of the most popular scriptures that Christians talk about are found in this chapter but it comes together as one fluid thought when you read the entire chapter in context. It begins with “there is no condemnation for those in Christ”. My version actually says “no condemnation exists for those in Christ” and reading it this way jumped off the page for me! My whole life I have read this as a verb type of statement. “There’s no condemnation” sounded to me like a rule. “Don’t feel condemned- don’t be condemned” -as if condemnation was a feeling and somehow it was up to us to control it. This statement literally says it does not exist. It’s a statement of fact that says God doesn’t condemn those of us who are in Christ. As I followed this thought further, I thought about what it means to be in Christ, and why we feel condemned when the bible says it doesn’t exist. The rest of the chapter talks about our constant battle with the sin nature within us. Verse 5 says to walk in Christ is to live in the mindset of the spirit. To walk in the flesh is to walk in the mindset of self-gratification. Our mindset has everything to do with the direction we walk, and this directly determines whether or not we are condemned. According to this scripture, condemnation comes when we are not in Christ. We are not walking in Christ when we are walking according to our sin nature. Not the temptation of sin, but the intentional acting out of sin. Verse 11 says that “if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, then He will also bring our mortal bodies to life”. I’ve always read this as a scripture pertaining to us leaving earth and going to heaven someday, but in this context it seems Paul is talking about our current life here on the earth right now. He’s telling us that our sinful nature is trying to kill us by trying to get us to focus on gratifying our selfish wants. But when we walk in Christ, (keeping our mindset on the Spirit) the Spirit brings us to life and defeats that sinful nature. It’s not that we won’t be tempted. It’s that when we are tempted we redirect our focus. Redirect our mindset from self-gratification to the mindset of the Spirit. This scripture makes a direct comparison of this to Jesus defeating death by resurrecting from death. When we walk according to our sin nature, there is condemnation, but when we walk according to the spirit there is no condemnation. The choice is not in how we feel. It’s in what mindset we choose to follow.
2. Command: Walk in a mindset of the spirit, not in a mindset of self-gratification.
3. Promise: The spirit of God will resurrect our souls from the death grip of our sin nature to the life of the spirit if we set our minds to walk in Christ.
4. Warning: We can’t just expect this to happen just because we want to serve Jesus. We have to choose this mindset. If we don’t intentionally choose the mindset of the Spirit we will gravitate to the sin nature every time.

Application: This was a huge game changer to read this in full context. My goal for myself is to list some of my weakest areas and identify the mindsets behind them. For me some of these areas will involve toxic thinking, and other areas will be less spiritual sounding things like my mindset behind healthy eating and habits that contribute to my weight.

1. Message:  In Romans 7 Paul uses their understanding of the Mosaic Law in regard to marriage in order to explain their relationship to the law after receiving Christ. According to the law, when a woman married a man she was bound to him legally until his death. She was free rom the bonds of that marriage covenant after his death, and was able to marry another. If she gave herself to another man while he was still living, she was considered an adulteress, even if they were divorced. Paul used this example in comparison to their spiritual marriage bond to the law that ended in death when they accepted Jesus. They died a spiritual death to their old life in order to join in marriage to another- Jesus. I see a lot of Christians get tripped up here because of the appearance of the law of Moses being used in the New Testament. The point of this text was not to condemn divorced people. We take similar vows in marriage and they are very serious, so this is not to say that we don’t also hold marriage to a serious standard. Paul’s use of this example was powerful to the Jews because they lived under the Mosaic law their entire lives and were struggling to transition to their new covenant with Jesus. Paul further explained how the law was holy but their relationship to it brought sin because of their inability to keep the law. Christians also get tangled and confused by this because most don’t understand that the Law of Moses was for the 12 tribes of Israel and their descendants. It was never intended for the gentiles. We read about it in the old testament because it gives insight and understanding to the new covenant. The physical things that the Jews had to do are tied to spiritual principles of the heart that we all deal with. As gentile believers we weren’t bound to the Law of Moses, we were bound to our sin nature. We ended that covenant in death when we died a spiritual death to our carnality and gave ourselves to another- Jesus. Because we are the spiritual bride of Christ we belong to him. We are in an internal war with sin, similar to the internal struggle the Jews had with the law (which produced sin in them). Since we are the bride of Christ, we no longer sin against just ourselves.  What we do (or don’t do) is a reflection of our faithfulness to Him.
2. Command: Honor my relationship with Jesus as a faithful bride.
3. Promise: We belong to Christ.
4. Warning: Sin continues to be an internal struggle, but since we are the bride of Christ, our sin is not longer against just ourselves. When we give ourselves to sin it reveals our unfaithfulness to God.
5. Application: This really weighed on me in the area of faithfulness. Since I have been married 25 years, I read this with a different understanding that our sin is not just against ourselves. It is a direct reflection of our faithfulness to God. I understand this concept in my marriage so well because anything I do directly affects my marriage, just like anything my husband does directly affects our marriage. There can be no secrets or decisions made without each other. We are two individuals but everything we do as individuals affects each other physically, emotionally and spiritually. We have a reputation together as well so what we each do as individuals affects the integrity of our reputation. I had always understood that we are the bride of Christ but still viewed my issues as my own. Today I looked at that in the context of faithfulness in marriage and it jolted me a little. My takeaway today is to examine my current behavior. Every attitude, every response, every word spoken and ask myself if it reflects well on my relationship with God. Not, “am I in trouble”? but “am I representing us well?” “Am I acting as a faithful spouse both to my husband and to my God?”

1. Message:  In Acts 6 Paul answers the questions that tangle up so many Christians. Now that we are “free from the law” is it acceptable to continue in sin knowing that God’s grace will be multiplied to cover it all? What Paul is explaining to them is that before salvation we were enslaved to sin. We owned ourselves and the consequences that came with that. Our salvation and baptism into Christ is a reverse mirror reflection of the death Jesus died when he denied his own desires, rights and privileges in order to save us from our slavery to sin. The Jews had an understanding of the cost of sin because their slavery to the law meant they had to abide by 613 commands for things that they did, or even things that happened near them, like someone dying and making them unclean. I can’t imagine how much of their lives were consumed with constantly trying to become clean again only to find themselves having to start over again. This not only cost them time, but they had to sacrifice perfect animals for each sin. This was their livelihood, so the cost of sin was expensive! When Jesus came, he became the last and final sacrifice. The Jews were no longer required to abide by all of those requirements anymore. His death not only fulfilled the punishment that came from their inability to follow the law, but it was a direct and unequal exchange. His perfect life for our tainted lives. His death in exchange for our lives means we die a spiritual death in order to live for him. We die a death of our obedience to our own sinful desires, rights and privileges that were bent toward selfishness, and we live a resurrected life surrendering all of us to God for his use and for his pleasure. We no longer live to serve ourselves, we live to serve God. We can no longer say “it’s my life” because we exchanged that right for a better one. We belong to God in both obedience and in blessing. We can’t pick and choose the parts of ourselves that we want to hang onto. It’s an all or nothing exchange. This might be a silly example, but if you’ve ever watched “What Not to Wear” it’s a show where somebody with terrible fashion sense allows fashion experts to come in and show them how to dress stylish and in a way that flatters their body type. They start the show by looking at what the person typically wears, and then they go shopping and buy them an entire new wardrobe to begin their new lives. The catch is: They have to give up their entire old wardrobe. All of it! They aren’t allowed to hang onto anything. They literally trade in their entire closet for a new one. This sounds amazing until you see the conflict in people. There are comfort items, and ugly favorite shirts that people really struggle to let go of. It’s emotional and yet we all relate to it because we have all hung onto things that were holey, stained and ugly because they were comfortable and familiar. We wouldn’t go dumpster diving for our old broken worn out stuff if someone came in and replaced it all with brand new beautiful things, but we do even worse than that when we try to hang onto or return to old sin once we have been renewed. I’m not saying we will all transform in a day. I’m saying that once we have been saved, we no longer have the right to hang onto sin. Paul says that just like death no longer rules over Jesus because he conquered it, sin no longer has rule over us.
2. Command: Die to our sinful selves.
3. Promise: Jesus has made a direct and unequal exchange for our lives.
4. Warning: We are constantly tempted to serve our old master of sin because it is familiar and more comfortable that change.
5. Application:  For me that old sin master shows up in the form of a bad attitude. I may be able to conceal it with compliant behavior, but if I don’t silence the bad attitudes, they will take control of the direction of my life. Gradually and subtly they will steer me into a direction I don’t belong in. I need to remind myself that I’m not a slave to my emotions and I don’t have a “right” to be angry. My submission is not to the will and selfish desires of other people, but to God who directs my life.

1. Message: In Romans 5 Paul had just established that we have righteousness through faith. Yesterday we talked about how easy it is to get this backwards and try to prove our righteousness through works. But when we understand that we were made righteous while we were still a hot mess, we can stop fighting the “good enough” battle and instead pursue intimacy with God knowing we don’t have to earn the right to see him face to face without being ashamed. When we spend time with God we are changed as a result. At the beginning of chapter 5 Paul talks about the peace that comes when we understand that we are justified, and this grace gives us hope. So much so that we are able to rejoice in our affliction knowing that the affliction produces endurance, the endurance produces proven character and the proven character produces hope. Once again this all seems backwards. I have always read and understood that we should rejoice in our affliction, but as I read this in context with chapter 4, I began to see how important it is that we have a firm understanding that we are justified by faith. Because if we think we are responsible for earning our right standing we will be in big trouble when afflictions come. We will think God is punishing us for missing the mark and if we think God is punishing us we lose our intimacy with him because we are now feeling isolated and offended. What a messy circle of death! On the other hand, if we have a real grasp that we were made right before God in spite of ourselves, we will feel the peace and confidence to come face to face with him. When afflictions come we will run to him for strength and encouragement instead of running from him. We will develop the endurance to handle hard things and when we come through to the other side of hard things, we develop a new confidence that not only is God for us, but he is with us. This gives us hope, not just for the resolution of our situations, but hope that we can make it through anything because we know we are not alone. We have such a strong capacity for suffering when we know are accepted and not alone.
2. Command: Don’t allow anything to interrupt my intimacy with God.
3. Promise: God made us righteous in spite of our mess so we can stand before him without guilt or shame and allow him to navigate us through our issues.
4. Warning: Guilt & shame disrupts intimacy. As soon as we stop being intimate with God we fall into a cycle of sin and destruction that keeps us further and further from him.
5. Application: As I read this I saw myself on both ends of this. There have been times that I walked through some really tough things knowing God was with me. I could talk to God all day long about everything feeling absolutely no veil of shame or guilt. Like a little girl content and loved in her daddy’s arms.  But there have been some times that I have allowed things to disrupt my intimacy with God. The lack of intimacy caused guilt and the guilt produced a bigger divide. I would try to talk to God and something just didn’t feel right. I realized that I had developed an offense with God because I was experiencing something really hard and it didn’t feel like my circumstances were changing. I felt punished and stuck and it caused a rift in my own heart and it affected my ability and my desire to talk to God. There were days I tried to pray and felt too broken to compose any words. I literally sat silent before God. I’m so thankful because in my mess God remained faithful. He never left me even when I felt isolated. My take away from this is to keep mindful of the importance of intimacy with God. Don’t let anything get in the way of it. Intimacy is the life of any relationship, and our especially in our relationship with God. When I’m feeling quiet and distant, that is the time I need to pursue God the hardest.

1. Message: In Romans 4 Paul used Abraham as an example to show that he was credited as righteous due to his faith before he was even circumcised. The idea of having right standing before God without being circumcised was a huge stumbling block to the Jews because this was the sign God required of them and anyone who lived among them. They wanted the new gentile converts to also be circumcised but Paul is teaching them that faithis what made Abraham righteous just like faith is what makes a Christian righteous. He further explained that Abraham accepted the physical reality that he was 100 years old and his wife was past the years of child bearing, but because God had promised that he would be a father of nations he knew that God could and would make it happen. Faith is a big topic in Christianity and we often use faith as the basis for things that we want, but our biggest testimony of faith is our salvation. Just like Abraham accepted his physical reality and had faith that God would make him a father, we accept the reality that we are born into sin and can’t be made right by our own doing. Our faith is the understanding that in our sinfulness, God makes us right before him and he works a miracle in our hearts that changes our sin nature. Abraham still had to participate by being intimate with his wife, but God worked the miracle of conception in her barren womb. Likewise, we still participate by intimate with God, and he works the miracle of conception in our hearts. Sarah birthed her promised son that would multiply and make Abraham a father. We birth life and multiply the kingdom of God.
2. Command: Let the miracle of salvation draw us to intimacy with God.
3. Promise: Our promise is salvation through faith.
4. Warning: If we are not intimate with God we fall into a pattern of trying to obtain our salvation through works just like the Jews believed their salvation came from circumcision.
5. Application: We don’t struggle with circumcision, but we carry other traditions and ideas that we believe make us a Christian. When we understand that the miracle of salvation came from God, we stop trying to make it happen by our own works. In other words, we stop trying to “act like a Christian” and we start to truly become one. We accept the miracle of our salvation by faith and our intimacy with God reveals that miracle because it produces good works. Our good works and our faith is multiplied out onto others as our lives becomes a living, breathing testimony. We make this more complicated than it really is but the point is that we don’t earn our righteousness. It’s impossible. Some people really struggle with the idea that God makes them righteous and they are never able to move on into intimacy with God that brings the miracle of change. Instead they struggle and struggle to make themselves right. My challenge to myself is a little different today. I have already accepted the miracle of salvation and I have experienced intimacy with God, but I feel an urgency to help people turn this around in their hearts so they can truly be set free. When people are truly set free they will multiply the kingdom just like Abraham’s seed multiplied the earth.

1. Message:  In Romans 3 Paul uses a lot of compare and contrast to explain the righteousness of God. He poses the question: who is better off? Jews or Gentiles? He answers his own question and many others by explaining that the law was never meant to bring salvation. I have always understood that the law was intended to show us what sin is. But reading today, I also see that the law was also intended to show the perfect righteousness of God. If we don’t understand that God is perfect, we will struggle to accept that he is also perfect in his judgment. I believe this is where the majority of people struggle with God. It isn’t that they don’t believe he exists. The problem is that most people (including Christians) don’t trust that his judgment is righteous. We like to decide for ourselves what seems fair and right but we don’t have the mind of God. Test this theory by reading jut a chapter of the old testament and seeing how many times you cringe when you read about some of the punishments. We all struggle when we hear that people dropped dead just by accidentally entering somewhere that was unauthorized, or touching something that was set apart as holy for God. Everything inside us screams because our view of fair and righteous is flawed by our human sin nature. We don’t really see ourselves as filthy as we are under sin, so we don’t understand just how contrasting our sin nature is to the perfect nature of God. We don’t understand that we are under sin simply by existing, so we don’t appreciate why we so desperately need the righteousness of God. These contrasts help us understand that there is no justification for our actions. We can’t excuse our way out of anything. We are justified only by the blood of Jesus.
2. Command: Obey God because I was made righteous, not in an attempt to become righteous.
3. Promise: We were equally doomed, so we are also equally made righteous.
4. Warning: We will never understand the judgment of God if we don’t first understand the perfection of God.
5. Application: The law was given to not only show us how sinful we are, but to show us a reflection of how perfect God is. As I read this I realized that we all get offended at God because of his judgment.In our flawed human eyes we see it as harsh and because of this we often take a few giant steps back. We want a God we can relate to when it comes to our sin, but we also want a God that is all powerful and mighty when it comes to miracles and blessings. God is who he is without apology and his righteousness exposes our sinfulness. We don’t like the way that feels so we want God to tone it down and accept us with our sin. Instead he used his perfection to justify us. He accepts us in spite of our sin and accepts us because of his righteousness on us. It really sunk in that even on my best behavior, I could never even come close to pleasing God on my own because without the blood of Jesus I am under sin just by existing. Sometimes we get a self-righteous attitude after a while of serving God under obedience because we feel like we have eliminated most of the ”big sin” in our lives. This also feeds our offense at God when we see his judgment because we forget just how sinful we were before he saved us. This is a reminder that working out our known sin issues is a response to salvation. It’s not what makes us saved. Even on our best day ever, we are just as filthy and just as deserving of death as a murderer. The law shows us that we never stood a chance on our own, and the law shows that only Jesus ever could. Nobody is “more lost” than anyone else no matter what kind of sin they are into, just like nobody is any closer to salvation just because they do things that are morally good. Reading this reminded me that we can’t fully understand his judgment because we can’t fully understand his righteousness. When I am tempted to feel angry or afraid of God for his judgment, I need to remind myself that we were all doomed and he used his judgment to punish his son in our place, and he also used that same judgment to make us righteous in his sight.

1. Message/Application: In Romans 2 Paul pulled away the crutches that we all use to prop up our own perceived righteousness. For the Jews it was circumcision and the law. They saw themselves as privileged and untouchable regardless of how they lived as long as they were circumcised. Paul called out their hypocrisy and the judgment that awaited them because they would quote the law at others while doing the very same things. They called uncircumcised people “unclean”, but Paul explains the purpose and intent that circumcision was supposed to have by introducing the idea of “circumcision of heart”. He told them that their circumcision had made them uncircumcised spiritually because they believed that as long as they physically and outwardly showed an appearance of obedience that their inward heart condition didn’t matter. Jesus called this out as well during his ministry written in Matthew 23 when he called the Scribes and Pharisees “whitewashed tombs who looked beautiful on the outside but were full of dead bones and everything unclean” inside. He reminded them that God’s kindness was intended to bring repentance, but because they were hardened and unrepentant, they were storing up wrath and judgment on themselves. In verse 6 he says God will repay each one according to his works. This scripture messes with a lot of people because out of context it appears that he is saying that our works secure our salvation. He is actually telling us that our works are the evidence that we have salvation. We don’t do good works to earn our salvation. Our salvation transforms us and good works are the result. He is not just speaking to the Jews. He is speaking to all of us using the Jews as an example. Modern day Christians hide behind the word “grace”. We love to talk about the benefits we receive by the blood of Jesus just like the Jews liked to talk about their privileges from being God’s circumcised, chosen people. As soon as we talk about the  blood of Jesus continuously transforming the sin and disobedience out of our lives we get defensive. As Christians we aren’t required to be circumcised physically, we are required to be circumcised in heart. The physical act of cutting away flesh represents the spiritual cutting away of our flesh and our will. Jews were unable to fulfill the law but they hid behind the promise it came with. Christians are unable to be righteous on our own but we tend to hide behind the promise of grace. There should always be a tension between our understanding that we can’t earn salvation or righteousness, and the understanding that salvation is supposed to provoke such a dramatic change in us that we live in the fullest extent of righteousness. Not to earn it but to express it. Today I’m asking God to reveal the areas in my heart that are unsurrendered and rebellious toward him. The things I do that I excuse away because grace. Lord please forgive me for hiding behind the promise of grace to allow my control, sin and rebellion to continue.
2. Command: Don’t hide behind grace to allow sin and rebellion to continue.
3. Promise: Salvation and face to face relationship with God is our promise.
4. Warning: We have the same tendency to hide behind the promise as the Jews had.

1. Message: In Romans 1 I noticed a dramatic shift in Paul’s approach. When he was ministering to the Jews he was pleading with them to search the scriptures and see that Jesus was the promised Messiah. His approach with the Jews was to share his testimony of how he was once like them before he came to understand this. He was working with their respect and honor for God by using scripture from the Torah to point in the direction of Jesus. He also used the credibility of known and respected prophets and fathers of the faith like Moses. His letter to the Romans is very different. After a kind and beautiful greeting, he starts off by saying there is literally no excuse for mankind to reject God. He explains that all of mankind knows of God but has refused to glorify him. When mankind refuses to glorify God, he chooses himself above all else which is a worship of himself.  The worship of self means that he accepts no accountability for sin because his rejection of God has elevated his own status in his own mind. It seems this is exactly what the serpent was talking about in Genesis when he questioned why God didn’t want them to eat the fruit-because they would become “like God.” Not “like God” in character but they would see themselves as their own authority in place of God. Worship of “self” caused the creation of idols like a backwards reflection of God who created man in his own image to worship him. Man created idols in his own image and worshipped his own created reflection of himself.  Sin is the result of the breakdown of God’s place of authority in the lives of mankind. In Romans Paul explains that God sees that breakdown and doesn’t fight for his place of authority in their lives. Instead he gives people over to their desires and lets their own desires punish them. He uses homosexuality as an example but he expands way beyond that to show that the love and worship of self is the root of all sin.
2. Command: Worship God only.
3. Promise: God’s authority in our lives puts us back into our rightful place and into protection and relationship with him.
4. Warning: Chasing our own selfish desires puts us at odds with God because either he is our authority, or we are. We can’t serve God and remain selfish.
5. Application: This really challenges the parts of me that still believes I am running the show. The whole gospel is about denying ourselves and the first chapter of Romans really brought clarity to why that is so important. My challenge to myself is to identify some things that I’m still trying to take charge of. I have relational things in mind and I see where sometimes I have a desire to see someone conform to righteousness for my own benefit. This is not God in charge, this is me in charge trying to stamp God’s approval on it.

1. Message: In the last chapter of Acts Paul and the shipwrecked crew washed up on the beach of the unknown island where they ran their ship aground. The people were good and hospitable to them but they didn’t know them so they were watching and speculating. When the snake latched onto Paul’s arm, they speculated that he was a murderer who escaped punishment at sea. They watched Paul shake it off, but waited to see if he would swell up or drop dead suddenly. When he didn’t, they speculated that he was a god. I find it interesting just how quickly and easily the speculation came and then shifted directions. None of it had anything to do with Paul’s behavior, reputation or character. They knew nothing about Paul so it was solely based on what happened to him. The rest of the story shows that they trusted him after he didn’t die from the snake and that after he healed the leader’s sick father they all came for healing of all kinds of things. I found it interesting that he gained so much favor and performed all of those miracles but there is nothing mentioned about him sharing the gospel. It seems these were completely unreached and unknown people and Paul had clearly found favor with them.  He received their favor and provisions and went straight to Rome. The first thing he did in Rome was call for the Jews. He preached to them from dawn until dusk for days. He told them that he wore the prisoner chains for the hope of the Jews. They finally left him when he quoted the prophet Isaiah telling them that they listen but never understand and look but never perceive because their hearts were calloused. After they left it says he stayed there for two years being guarded in a rented house. He welcomed all the people who visited him teaching about the salvation of Jesus with boldness and without hindrance. It doesn’t mention who he was teaching but it implies that he was teaching gentiles who came to visit him after the Jews left. I’m not making any accusations at the apostle Paul but he was certainly human with flaws like the rest of us. We see a pattern here of God calling Paul to reach the gentiles, but in spite of that we see Paul was constantly hanging onto his pursuit of ministry to the Jews. The more he tried to reach them, the more they rejected Jesus and launched Paul right back into ministering to the gentiles. I’m not saying that Paul was disobedient, but it seems God had a plan for him to reach the gentiles and no matter what Paul did, that was the only plan that was being blessed. He endured a lot of suffering in his pursuit of the Jews but all roads always led right back to the gentiles for Paul. This isn’t to say that the Jews weren’t reached. It just seems that Paul was not the one called to do it even though his heart carried the burden and desire for them. Paul seemed to believe that his affinity for the Jews would give him the reach. He might have believed they would trust him based off his history and reputation with them. He was a highly educated Jew with high ranking before he was saved so he might have been relying on his own status, reputation and education in his hopes to persuade the Jews. It’s interesting that he was most successful at reaching people that were nothing like him and had no prior knowledge or connection to him. Even the people on the unknown island with their quick speculations trusted him very quickly. If he had shared the gospel there he may have even won them all over.
2. Command: It’s a common thing for people to say “follow your heart” but doing so can lead us into all kinds of things that God has not called us to. It’s much better to follow God’s voice.
3. Promise: God will bless the things he has called me to do.
4. Warning: If I am pursuing something based on my own desires, qualifications, past reputations or experiences I may need to examine the fruit of it to see if I am spinning my wheels to make it work while God has other plans for me.
5. Application: As I observe this from the outside I wonder what I may be pursuing that God has not called me to. Am I relying on my own qualifications, past reputations and experiences to minister in one way, when God is calling me to do something completely different?  

1. Message: In Acts 27 Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner to face Caesar but he was treated kindly and respectfully by the centurion taking him. Paul warned them that their voyage was headed for disaster and they would suffer heavy damages and that even their lives were in danger, but they listened to the captain and ship owner instead of Paul. They thought their plan to avoid the storm and winterize the boat was working when they were taken off guard by a wind bearing down on them. The storm continued and Paul reminded them that he had warned them (nothing like an “I told you so”.) He advised them again and told them that an angel had shown him that they would continue to suffer damages to the extent of losing the ship but they wouldn’t lose their lives. They just had to run the ship aground. When things were looking their worst Paul encourage them to eat food and strengthen themselves for the fight ahead. He reminded them again that they would lose everything but not their lives. They were encouraged and they ate and then began tossing everything into the sea to lighten the load. When daylight came they found themselves in an unrecognized place that was perfect to run their ship aground into a sandbar. Every one of them made it to shore.
2. Command: Be quick to humble myself in the crisis knowing God sees what I don’t.
3. Promise: God is faithful to navigate us through our storms.
4. Warning: Though it’s often the wise choice to be advised by and trust the experts, we have to listen closely to the voice of God when he warns us of things. God knows and sees things that even the experts couldn’t possibly prepare for.
5. Application: As I read this I thought about the mindsets that had to change as they literally navigated throughthis life threatening storm. They went from navigating through a difficult voyage to trying to avoid the storm, to trying to protect the ship and its cargo and finally to just survive. That is a whole lot of reality to accept but it came as they accepted their lack of control with each loss until all they had left was their will to live.  I have never been shipwrecked but I have experienced loss. Loss or the threat of loss changes our perspective and quickly prioritizes what is most important to us. They weren’t ready for Paul’s insight when they felt like they had things under control. As they lost their grip even in their area of expertise, they became more willing to listen to the warnings Paul gave from God and sacrifice what they were previously trying to preserve. Several years ago my daughter went through a depression and was cutting herself. I did all I could do as a mom to navigate through it but the real break through  came when I acknowledged that as a parent I was completely out of my area of understanding. I tossed aside everything I thought I knew about parenting and begged God for help. At that time grades or accomplishments were the least of my concern. I just wanted my daughter to survive this crisis. As I listened to God I was encouraged and did what he told me to do one step at a time. Not only did we survive the storm that tried to claim her life, but we are closer than we have ever been and she is a thriving young adult who loves Jesus with all her heart!

1. Observations: Today I’m not writing about any particular lesson applications. I picked up some interesting observations and I’m just going to share them. In Leviticus 25 Moses wass giving the law pertaining to the properties they owned, the fields they harvested and the debts they owed. Every seven years the debts were cleared, and every seven years they were commanded not to plant anything and let the land rest a year. They were supposed to live on the extra that was provided in excess in the previous year. They were supposed to let the ground produce naturally whatever it produced but they were not allowed to harvest it. They were supposed to leave it for the poor and the foreigner. This seven year pattern follows the seven day pattern of the sabbath day of rest even to the excess that was provided on the 6^th day. I find it interesting how many things we unknowingly follow in our modern day culture that came from this. For example, bankruptcies follow the seven year pattern of restoring credit, we are required to save only the last seven years of files and some companies provide sabbatical leave time which is earned every seven years of employment.
2. In Acts 26 I noticed that Paul had to go through another hearing with King Agrippa because he appealed to Caesar. Festus had heard his story and acknowledged he hadn’t done anything worthy of death, but wanted to do the Jews a favor by sending him back to Jerusalem for a trial that was a ploy to kill him on the way. After King Agrippa heard his case he too agreed that Paul had done no wrong, and ended the trial by telling him he could have been set free before reaching him but since he appealed to Caesar the case had to be heard. Paul was found innocent by every Roman leader who heard his case, but he was not set free because each of them had a working relationship with the Jews and wanted to do special favors for them.

1. Message: In Leviticus 24 two men got in a fight and one cursed God. God told Moses to take the man outside the camp and have everyone who heard him curse come out, lay hands on his head and then stone him to death. Then there were instructions about how to punish someone and make restitution if they were to kill an animal, injure someone or kill someone. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. As I read these words, I felt the overwhelming heaviness of the law and I felt so relieved that we don’t live under that. It also reminded me that we easily forget the cost of our sin because we didn’t pay for it and we weren’t there to see Jesus pay for it. When we sin against people we sin against God and because we know our sin is covered we don’t truly feel the weight of what it cost to make our restitution. We might feel bad about it (if we have any kind of heart) but we usually don’t want anyone else to make us feel bad about it. If we actually had to think about the weight of having to prepare our own restitution or endure a punishment, and then saw Jesus go in our place every time we sinned I think we would be a lot less careless about our sin, and a lot more intentional about our obedience. I hear a lot of Christians who love to talk about grace try to also insert “karma” as part of a belief system and it doesn’t make sense to me. Karma is a Muslim belief system of how to get to heaven because they don’t believe that Jesus paid for sin. They live their lives trying to keep an unknown tally on their “good deeds” vs their “bad deeds” in the hopes that it will all balance out so they can go to heaven. It’s the same “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” judgment that the law carried, only it’s the idea that an outside spiritual force will inflict this punishment upon sinners. If we believe that Jesus was the final restitution that paid for all sin, we are not only freed from making our own restitution for sin, but we no longer have the right to carry any kind of expectation that those who offend us should receive punishment either.
2. Command: Treat our sin as something that costs more than we are able to pay, because it is.
3. Promise: Grace is the beautiful promise that we are all enjoying because Jesus paid what we couldn’t.
4. Warning: If we don’t understand the cost of our sin, and internalize the weight that should have been our responsibility, we will treat grace like a cheap gift.
5. Application: If I’m honest, I struggle through reading Leviticus but today the weight of this really hit me. We don’t have to prepare sacrifices, and endure punishments like this for our sin because Jesus took it for us. We know this academically, but since we have never been required to do these things before in our lives, we don’t understand the actual relief of responsibility that we have and how much our part affects other people. As I was reading about all of the clean and unclean situations where people had to stay quarantined until they were pronounced clean I also felt the weight of what they went through under the law. This wasn’t even for sin issues, it was just for regular life things like coming into contact with a dead person or animal, or having a period. I related this in just a small portion to what a hassle this COVID virus has been. We have to clean everything we touch, wear masks and be conscious of who we are around. I had a coworker who had to miss 2 weeks of work because her temperature was 99 degrees one day. She never got sick but she had to worry about being around other people just in case. People going through this pandemic are stressed out by the worry and the measures we all  have to take to keep not only ourselves, but other people protected. This may be just a tiny bit what it was like to live under the law. What if we had a sudden guarantee that someone had come in and rid the world of this plague? Can you imagine the relief? This is just a tiny example of the relief we experience because Jesus did rid the world of the plague of sin. My challenge to myself is to contemplate everything I do as if I had to live under the law and see how loose I am with applying “grace” in order to delay my obedience and roll around in my sin a little longer.

1. Message: In Acts 24 Paul finally saw his day in court as promised. The high priest came in with his lawyer and began his suck-up statements to Felix and presented fabricated accusations that Paul was disturbing the peace that the Roman government had so graciously provided. Paul defended himself by simply asking for the proof and the people who witnessed these things and then went on to publicly acknowledge the gospel of Jesus Christ and his association with “The Way”. Felix dismissed with orders that Paul be held, but given his freedom and permission for his friends to come in and serve him. Felix came back later with his Jewish wife so he could hear Paul speak more about the gospel, but he stopped him when it got convicting. He came back many times over two years because he expected that Paul might give him money. Eventually he was replaced by a successor but he left Paul locked up as a favor to the Jews. Reading all of this reminded me of reading the news today. Everyone has a motive, and as long as everyone has a motive, truth cannot and will not be found.
2. Command: Examine every motive in my own heart.
3. Promise: God promises that when we hunger and thirst after righteousness we will see him.
4. Warning: Our own ideas sound good to us, and might even fool people around us but our motives do not fool God.
5. Application: I was recently praying for our government and our health system as we navigate through this COVID-19 crisis. I was frustrated that there were so many people involved with motives because the decisions they make affect the livelihood of our country- both physically and economically. I saw a picture of this here as I read about all of the people involved with a motive. As long as people have motives they are unable to receive truth. Even if they want to hear it. When I apply this to my own life I have to be honest with myself. What motives do I have when I approach God? Am I coming to him with an open heart and asking him to show me what he is doing and show me truth, or am I coming to him with my own agenda and asking God to make it so? So many things sound like a good idea, but today I challenge myself to evaluate every motive to the core and see what is holding back my growth or changing the way I pray. Lord, please show me what you are doing among us and help me to see truth and cooperate with your plan!

1. Message: In Acts 24 Paul was under the protection of the Roman government because the Jews had made accusations and were plotting to kill him. You can clearly see the working relationship between the Jewish council and the Roman government and how the Jews used the government to perform their dirty work. As brutal as the Roman government was with their punishments, they appear to be organized and somewhat fair. They became fearful and immediately stopped the punishment process of lashes on Paul when he told them he was a Roman citizen and that the punishment was illegal. They kept him in custody and when the plot to kill Paul was brought to their attention privately, they took it seriously and took measures to protect Paul and give him a fair hearing to handle the accusations made against him. Paul understood the working relationships well and he even used his understanding between the Pharisees and the Sadducees to gain favor of half the angry mob by simply telling them he was a Pharisee and was being accused because of the hope of the resurrection. He was well aware of this firm argument between the two groups and this worked like a charm. We also see that so far, everything he was warned about in Jerusalem was true. The Jews would not hear his message and were plotting to kill him, but the Roman government was protecting him and opportunities to share the gospel with them were beginning. This kept Paul right on track with God’s plan for him to reach the gentiles.

Application: I didn’t write anything for the command, promise and warning because what I read in here felt more like an observation than hard facts pointing to what was right. I’m honestly not sure I understand why Paul went to Jerusalem against the warning of all the godly people in his life, and even the voice of God who told him from the beginning that the Jews would not listen to his message. Paul was determined and he went anyway. He had accepted that he might die and wanted to die trying. He may have seen himself in them and wanted to exhaust all possibilities to save their souls because he himself had been saved. It seems like he felt he could reach them by talking to them and relating to them with his story and he needed to try. I have felt this way SOO many times. I have felt that if I could just talk with someone who is acting irrational that I might be able to win them over. This doesn’t work with irrational people and especially those who are living in a state of rebellion. You will never word it just right to make an irrational or spiritually blind person see, and there are times I literally felt God telling me to shut my mouth. What I observed in this story was the grace of God working that when Paul insisted on trying to speak to them, God kept him safe with the Romans. God’s will was for Paul to reach the gentiles and even in spite of this, God had him on track to do just that.

1. Message: In Acts 22 Paul had been accused by an angry mob, turned over to the government and beaten until he told them he was a Roman citizen. He stood before them and tried his hardest to relate to them by speaking in the Hebrew language and sharing his testimony. He shared his whole story, reminding them that he once stood accusing and punishing believers just like they were doing. As he shared the details of his salvation he spoke about God telling him from the beginning to get out of Jerusalem because they would not accept his testimony.
2. Command: Heed the warnings God gives me.
3. Promise: God will not leave us even when we allow our determination to take over.
4. Warning: God will warn us but he won’t stop us.
5. Application: We know that Paul had been warned numerous times to stay away from Jerusalem and God had blessed his ministry to the Gentiles but Paul was so determined that he went anyway and he suffered greatly for it. This isn’t to say that God wasn’t with him and didn’t bless his work, but he suffered hard through all of it just as he was warned. I think sometimes we get so determined for something and in spite of warnings from those who love us, we suffer exactly what we were warned about. God doesn’t leave us alone in these situations and he certainly blesses what we do in his name. We just suffer as a result of our determination and God won’t stop us from doing it.

1. Message: In Acts 20 Paul was stopping at different places on his way to Jerusalem and saying goodbye to them all. There were several who heard warnings from the Holy Spirit about the sufferings Paul would go through. They begged him not to go but he had already resolved and accepted in his heart that he would suffer and even die for the name of Jesus. He knew what he was getting into and was firm in his decision to go.
2. Command: Listen to the council of godly people, and weigh it heavily, but your path is determined between you and God because only you know in your heart what kind of risks you have already accepted and are willing to walk through.
3. Promise: God will be with you anywhere you walk.
4. Warning: There will be trouble and hardship everywhere we go, don’t let the fear of those things determine where you will go.
5. Application:  I struggled a little bit knowing that the people who warned Paul were full of the holy spirit and so was he, yet they were pulling in different directions. We always seem to believe there is only one “right way” to go, but truthfully, when we are walking with Jesus the “right path” has more to do with staying in tune with him and following his ways and his character than anything else. We will have all kinds of job opportunities and paths to choose throughout life. Each has it’s own set of challenges and hardships. We can’t view them as right or wrong based on what we go through. As long as we are not chasing after sin, we have the freedom to choose all kinds of paths. I’m sure Paul would have faced challenges anywhere he went, but in this case, he had already determined in his heart that he was willing to accept the challenges, hardships and even death. Where we get into trouble is when we assume that choosing “the right path” means that it will be an easier path or a trouble-free path, or that if God is really with us, we won’t go through hardships. If we haven’t already determined in our hearts that we are willing to accept whatever comes at us knowing that God is with us, we won’t do well on any path. The understanding that God being with us means his will is accomplished and he will comfort us and walk with us though hard things keeps us sustained and determined so we can confidently choose any path-as long as it is not a sin path.

1. Message: In Acts 20 Paul was saying is final goodbyes to some of the churches because he knew the Holy spirit was warning him about some tough times ahead. The Jews were constantly plotting against him and he seemed to believed this would be how he would end. He spoke to them at length and told them that their blood would not be on his hands because he had truthfully presented the gospel to them without holding back. Paul was clearly tying the loose ends of his ministry and preparing for the end. He seemed to be in a rush to get to Jerusalem where he believed he would face the worst and he was preparing everyone for it. He wanted to leave no stone unturned, and no loose ends to his ministry. He wanted to say goodbye to people he cared about, and he wanted to give them instructions to continue the church before he died.
2. Command: Live like you may not see tomorrow. Leave nothing unsaid or undone. Share the gospel and resolve any conflict that is undone.
3. Promise: Living like this will make us more fruitful, more honest and more effective.
4. Warning: Don’t fear the end. Prepare for it. Paul was preparing but he was trying to get to Jerusalem as quickly as he could. He was not running from the things he thought would end him. He was facing them head-on.
5. Application: If you have ever faced a near death situation or have walked with someone who had been given a diagnosis with a poor prognosis, you have probably seen the kind of preparation that Paul was doing. When people know they are dying they want to tell their loved ones that they love them, they give things away and share their last wishes or instructions with those who will still be living. After I had a brain hemorrhage in 2016 I remember realizing I had a close brush with death and it gave me that kind of urgency for preparation. I wanted to make sure nothing I would say or do would leave any shame if my family were to discover things I wrote or things I saved after my death. I wanted to make sure my girls had the password information to my blog so they could carry it on, and I wanted to make sure there were no secrets left to be discovered. I felt this way for quite a while because I had faced the possibility that I could die at any time without warning. Even though I wasn’t leading churches all over the world, my story is similar to Paul’s. Like Paul, I felt like my end might be near and I made mental preparations for it. My life was far from over and neither was Paul’s but that’s a spoiler alert for the weeks to come. What is important is that we constantly live in a state of preparation. We are not promised tomorrow and although we should plan for our future, we should also live in a way that puts us at peace if we were to die today. Paul made sure he shared the gospel without holding back and that other people would be able to carry on what he left behind. We need to live like that too. If we do we’ll find that we procrastinate less and that we do more things on purpose in our lives.

1. Message: In Acts 19 there is an interesting mix of events that completely disrupted Ephesus. The itinerate Jewish exorcists saw the miraculous things going on when Paul ministered in the name of Jesus. They weren’t believers, but they saw it was working so they tried to use the “name of Jesus whom Paul preaches” to cast out some demons. This did not go well for them because the spirits recognized that they had no spiritual authority whatsoever and they overpowered these men. This brought fear and opened up the gospel to lots of people. When they turned to Christ they turned from their idolatry and this greatly impacted the business of selling idols. The silversmith in Ephesus was very upset about the loss in revenue. He was so upset that he riled up the townspeople and they rushed into the amphitheater in a state of confusion. They fought for the goddess they served-not because they believed it, but because it was a money-making business to them. In the cases of both the Jewish exorcists and the craftsmen of Ephesus, they saw the power and evidence of Jesus Christ at work, but they looked past it and chose what they knew. It seems like this is the case for a lot of people. They see the power of Jesus at work, but they don’t want to disrupt what they have worked so hard to achieve so they deny it.
2. Command: Let it go. What we think we are controlling or gaining from is a false security anyway!
3. Promise: If we surrender absolutely everything to Jesus and accept the loss of our own control, he gives us something even better and it comes with peace and freedom from guilt.
4. Warning: When we surrender, we will certainly feel the loss of the perceived benefits of things we were holding onto. This could be power, financial gain, our false sense of security or even relationships.
5. Application: This story had more to do with salvation, but I believe even those of us who are saved see things in God that we recognize as powerful and life-changing and are afraid to surrender to the change. We are afraid of how it will disrupt our comfort zone, or disrupt the things that we believe we are gaining from-whether it be power or income, so we don’t fully surrender ourselves to the change. We might even talk about it from the outside, but deny the power of change on the inside. Our surrender costs something. There is no question about that, but our soul is worth the sacrifice of anything that would stand in the way. The most miraculous part of it all is that if we sacrifice those things for he sake of gaining our soul, we find that the rewards beyond our salvation are even better than what we once held onto-and there is no longer any guilt attached. My challenge to myself is to pay attention to the things I’m hanging onto and check myself for things I know are true, but haven’t surrendered over completely. This could be an attitude or a mindset, or even a behavior.

1. Message: In Acts 18 Paul had been trying to win over the Jews for quite some time and being a Jew himself who had previously persecuted the church, he was now being viciously attacked by the Jews. When he realized they didn’t want to be won, they just wanted to argue and attack, he told them he was finished and that their blood was on their own heads. He moved on in ministry to preach to the gentiles. Priscilla & Aquila were a couple that Paul spent some time with in ministry. When Paul left, they found a Jewish man named Apollos preaching the gospel in the synagogue. He was very well taught and described as “eloquent” in speech, but was missing some of the later pieces of the gospel. Priscilla and Aquila took him home and taught him accurately and as he continued on in ministry, the local church wrote to the other churches urging them to welcome and accept him. He publicly refuted the Jews and prove through scripture that Jesus was the Messiah. As I read this I saw the beauty of the church in action. Paul had a powerful testimony and ministry. He founded churches everywhere but the Jews would not hear the gospel from him because they were so bent on attacking him. When Apollos came along he was able to reach them in a different way. This didn’t make him better than Paul. He just spoke with a different approach. Paul was no longer spending his efforts trying to fight with the Jews so this made him more available to reach the gentiles in a way that only he could.
2. Command: Go where and how God leads me and listen to God for the time to move on.
3. Promise: God will make me fruitful if I listen to him and follow his lead. He will also provide for what he calls me to walk away from.
4. Warning: Trying to be everything to everyone will waste time, energy and resources.
5. Application: I really saw the beauty of the differences in the body of Christ as I read this. We often get caught up trying to compare people and ourselves to other people. The truth is that we all have different approaches, styles and personalities. This is so necessary because there are so many different types of people. Where one person is unable to reach someone, another person can. I also found it interesting that Apollos didn’t become known until Paul said he was done trying to fight with the Jews. It was necessary for Paul to move on to reach the gentiles, but God still provided someone to pursue the Jews. This challenges me to pay attention when I realize I am trying to compare myself or fit into the style of the people I am with. I’m different by design, and though I may not relate to some people, there is another tribe of people who will relate to me. We need to not only know who we are talking to, but we need to know who we are as well.

1. Message: Acts 17 shows a few different ways people hear and receive truth because everyone processes differently. The people in Thessalonica responded well at first, and several were persuaded, but the Jews became jealous, found some “scoundrels” to form a mob, twisted the message by saying that Paul & Silas were coming against Caesar’s decrees because they were promoting Jesus as king and then started riots in the city. I think it’s interesting that they got some scoundrels to do the dirty work because likely they were trying to keep themselves pure from breaking the law by sending someone else. The Bereans welcomed the message with eagerness and they searched the scriptures daily to verify that it was true, and then in Athens the philosophers debated with them but had an open mind to listen because they regularly enjoyed hearing and telling new things. Reading this I saw all types of people we encounter daily, and it also reminded me of the parable Jesus told of the seed sown in various places. Some people respond to the gospel quickly, but they don’t pursue it any further and they eventually fall away or live in a lukewarm state. Some receive well immediately and seem to catch fire as they continue to study. Some debate their way through because they are very careful in making educated decisions. This changes how we talk to different people and we really have to understand who we are talking to in order to understand and work with them. I’m always fascinated by Paul’s approach because he found some sort of common ground and built from there. With the philosophers he acknowledged their religious ways and he actually used the “Unknown God” they had as a common ground starting point by telling them “I see your unknown God there and I can tell you who he is!”
2. Command: Share the gospel with all people, but find an approach that works for who you are talking to.
3. Promise: God will show me how to relate to people and those who are ready will hear.
4. Warning: There will always be disrupters. Don’t get side tracked by them. This actually made me think of all the people on social media that just want to argue about everything. They aren’t interested in learning anything and they can suck your time and energy if you let them.
5. Application: Reading this really brought people to my mind that I talk to on a daily basis. I see these different types of personalities and I know that I can’t relate to them all the same way. This really encouraged me in my approach and challenges me to pray for each one and ask God to show me how to share with them in a way that they will respond. It also reminds me that just like the Jews who got jealous and stirred up trouble everywhere the gospel was preached, there will always be those who try to stop the message. Paul was not distracted by them and he did not engage them and we shouldn’t either.