Month: July 2026

Jesus, you make everything beautiful in your time, you placed eternity in me.

”You cannot see Me, yet all around you are the signs of My presence. My creation shouts out to all the world proclaiming My Presence. You are constantly experiencing My grace and my love in your life. If you stop to consider, you know I am working all the time. Yet at the same time there is so much hate, pain, sorrow, fear, loneliness in the world. In all that, I am working to make everything beautiful again like it was in the Garden. I am working in your life and in everyone of my children’s lives to renew and beautify you all. It will be finally accomplished when you all are with Me in My glory one day.”

We come today to the great hinge-point in the letter. Up to now Paul has been explaining what God has done for us through Jesus. This has consequences in our lives and this is what He is going to address now. The first two verses of ch 12 summarise the message of the rest of the letter. Please read them: Romans 12:1,2.

Notice verse 1 starts with “Therefore”. In other words what he is going to say now flows directly from what he has said up to now. That was summarised in ch 1:16,17. Everyone, Jew and Gentile have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and are therefore under God’s wrath. Jesus has come to take that wrath on Himself so that we can be free. All we need to do is accept that, by faith. In the light of that God is calling us to respond. Note that we respond to what He has done for us and His attitude of love, we do not earn it or deserve it, it is all according to His mercy. This order of things is extremely important. We cannot earn our salvation, nor can we earn God’s love and goodness in any way even after our salvation.

So what is the appropriate response to all God has done for us through Jesus? We are not called to go and make sacrifices, as under the Old Covenant. We are called to offer ourselves. Not just our minds or intellect, but our whole bodies to Jesus. What does that statement mean to you personally? He is calling us to place our whole lives at His disposal, nothing less than complete and active surrender to Him. That, Paul describes is true worship. Not just going to church, singing spiritual songs, praying reading your bible. These are all very appropriate things to do, but true worship is giving our whole bodies to Him, every part of our live and thinking.

But how are we going to manage that? It is a huge ask. So it is important to understand that in our own strength we cannot accede to that statement, therefore vs 2 is key. We can only give true worship, offering ourselves completely if our minds have been transformed. When we truly come to know Jesus, our minds are not just changed a bit. They are completely transformed. So only a real, born again Christian can truly, wholeheartedly obey this instruction. And let me say because our minds are transformed we can do this with great joy and relief, as we become part of God’s family and kingdom.

At the same time we still have the battle with our old nature going on and therefore this process, as radical as it is meant to be, grows over time. As we deal with those things that are holding us back. With God’s power, we are able to make this act more and more complete. What does this surrender look like? Well that is what the whole of this last part of the letter is about.

But maybe you should stop and ask yourself today. What does it mean for me to offer my body to God? How does that look? How well am I doing? You will only grow if you are constantly asking yourself this and repenting where you fall short. Asking God to renew your mind and give you guidance and strength to go forward.

God bless you all till next week.

Christ my sure and steady anchor in the winds of the storm.

” I have likened myself to a rock – in fact the hymn ”Rock of ages” confirms that. But a rock alone won’t hold you – so you need an anchor. My son Jesus – came and died on a cruel cross so that He could become the anchor who would hold you fast to Me when the storms of life strike you. Perhaps the greatest storm is unbelief, Unbelief in the face of adversity on the one hand and prosperity on the other. So make sure that you are in Jesus so that you may be securely anchored to Me, despite your circumstances and despite whatever emotions you may be feeling.”

Today we come to the final conclusion to the first 11 chapters of Romans. Paul announced at the beginning of the letter that he as going to speak about the most important subject, which he calls “the gospel”. For the next 11 chapters he has carefully unpacked exactly what he meant by that term . As he comes to the conclusion he is almost carried away by the wonder and mystery of this great God we serve and pours out a beautiful poem of praise which has been called a doxology. This word is made up from “doxa” – glory and “logia” – the word or expression.

Please read Romans 11:33 – 36. This passage is maybe easier to understand than it is to fully comprehend, so I suggest that you read it through carefully a few times, asking God to give you full comprehension. The first two verses focus on God’s wisdom, knowledge, judgment (or discernment) and His mind, which all describe how amazing His plans and purposes are that He has and continues to work out. He then asks the question God asked Job “who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His Counselor”.

Now I find myself from time to time casually saying “God’s ways are far higher than my ways”. When I don’t understand how things are working out in my life or anywhere else actually. But I need to stop and really think what this means. What have I created? What plans do I have, for myself or for anyone else for that matter? Compare this to the created world around me. Comparing an ant to an elephant doesn’t come near it. In Ephesians Paul speaks of a God who is able to do immeasurably more than what ask or imagine. I fear our small finite minds have great difficulty in grasping the huge difference.

Who are we then that we should question God’s judgements, His way of doing things? Ever done that? I’m afraid I have often done that. I am sure there is nothing wrong with telling the Lord you don’t understand something, but that is different to questioning Him. Questioning His motives or His ability to bring the conclusion you would like about.

Vs 35 God owes us nothing. Everything we receive from Him is a product of His mercy and grace. In fact the healthiest way of seeing things is by continually reflecting on the fact that our whole life and everything we have and everything that we experience is a gift from Him and thanking him for it.

Then, finally vs 36 reminds us of this most important fact that wraps everything up and that is God’s providence. Just read that carefully: from Him, everything we have and all that happens to us and to the whole world proceed from Him. How does everything work out? Not detailed here but through the actions of Jesus, His Son and the Holy Spirit. They are ultimately working out the plans God has for the whole universe. Not just some things but all things.

Do we have no say? Yes God gives us the freedom to continually make choices, but ultimately He meshes all things so that His plans will be accomplished. We still have responsibilities but He is backing us up all the time.

No wonder Paul calls out in the end to Him be glory forever!

Friends, what a mighty and amazing God we serve! We need passages like this to remind us, in the midst of a fallen and broken world of who is really in ultimate control, so that we can put our trust fully in Him and worship him with all our hearts. Next week we will start seeing how to do just that.

I call upon your Name, the Name above all Names, oh God of wonder, God of grace.

“I create each human here on this earth with the built-in ability and desire to call on My Name and to seek Me and I have promised to all those who seek Me that I will be found of them. Yet the battle in the spiritual realm draws man away from that quest. I have allowed that so that each person may have the freedom of choice, yet I have not left it to chance, My hand is on those who truly seek Me to draw them into a love relationship with Me.”

We come today to the climax of Paul’s argument which he started in ch 9, trying to weld the Gentile and the Jewish believers into one body. Please read Romans 11:25-32.

Verse 26 And so all Israel will be saved” Has caused a lot of debate and furious difference of opinions about the meaning of this verse. Many people take this to mean that the State of Israel still has an important role to play in the “end times”. To fulfill this expectation there must be a different way of salvation for all those Israelites, who are alive at Jesus’s second coming. They would also support any actions of the State of Israel. This does not however take into account all Paul has said so far. Nor the fact that the majority of the Israelites living today are fiercely Zionist but reject any thought of God’s hand on them especially the role of Jesus.

So what does this last passage teach then? It simply draws the thoughts of Paul on this subject together. He has made it clear that only a remnant of Israel will be saved, due to the hardness of their hearts. The Gentiles have benefited from this by being grafted into the olive tree which was originally only limited to the descendents of Israel. Paul uses the term fulness to describe both the number of Jews (vs 12) and the number of Gentiles (vs 25). In other words, all those who Paul has been carefully describing as those chosen by God, the true believers, both Israel and Gentile all these, Paul promises, will be saved.

In the verses 28 – 32 should be read as “They” being the unbelieving Israel, and “You” the believing Gentiles. So the grounds for the confidence of the readers of the letter are 1. God’s election is irrevocable. 2. God has a future for His people because of His great mercy.

So in the words of John Stott, the conclusion is that “All men are bound over in the dungeon of sin. Yet all those whom God has elected will receive mercy, without distinction (not without exception).”

AsI have said before this subject is rather remote for us here, except in how we may view what is happening in the Middle East. May God bless you all till next week.

All I have is Christ – You bore the wrath reserved for me, now all I have is grace.

”Yes what an exchange – My wrath for My grace. The one totally deserved the other completely undeserved and free. Make full use of this amazing gift, share and minister My grace with others that they too may participate and receive it. This is an eternal message and will take you into everlasting eternity. Never, never underestimate the vastness and value of My grace. It cost My son Jesus’s life to give it to you. “

Today we continue through this difficult section of Romans as Paul seeks to level the playing fields between Gentile and Jew. Since, though the principle of equality in the Church is important today, we no longer have these two distinct groups Paul was dealing with, I will not take us into the details of Paul’s argument, just highlighting a few important principles. Next week we will unravel the statement that “All Israel will be saved” . Read Romans 10:16 -11:24.

The opening vs 10:16 sets the tone which is rounded off in 11:32. Not all Israel accepted the good news. Paul goes on using several questions to carry his argument.

10:18 Did they not hear? Of course they did.

10:19 Did they not understand? Basically no, because their hearts were hardened.

11:1 Did God reject His people? By no means. 11:5 At the present time there is a remnant.

11:7 What then? What Israel sought earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. This refers back to God’s souvereign right to elect and show mercy to some.

11:11 Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. This was an opportunity for the Gentiles to be included.

He then uses the example of an olive tree with some branches broken out – the Jews who were hardened, and others grafted in – the Gentiles. Following this with a warning that the Gentiles should not be arrogant as God can easily graft the natural branches back in, if He wants to.

That is basically the flow of his argument. What I took from all this is a picture again of the incredible complexity of God’s program and at the same time His supreme souvereignty, used with love and mercy. What a God we serve and what comfort we can take from this as we are reminded of our own security with Him.

God bless you all till next week.

”When I survey the wondrous cross – see from His head, His hands, His feet sorrow and love flow mingled down.”

”No human on this earth will ever be able to fully plumb the depths of the sorrow and love which flowed down from my head my hands and feet on the cross, where justice and mercy kissed. But all you need to do is to believe and accept this fact and the reason I did it so that you will be able to start realising the full height, length, depths and width of my love, not only for the whole of my creation but for you personally. As you believe and accept it you will grow into it and it will continue to change you.”

Romans 10:14-16 complete the teaching of last week, please read it. It is a quotation from Isaiah 52:7 which comes between the statement in 52:10 “the Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God”, which is set between the description of all the difficulties that God’s people were experiencing over time before that and the prophecy of the “Suffering Servant from 52:13. So the Good News of Isaiah is that God is sending His servant to save His people. This explains the immediate statement in Romans 10:16, “But not all Israel…… as Paul returns to the subject of the equality of the Jews and Gentiles in the church.

We take as our reading today 10:14,15, it is a simple passage to understand and easy to gloss over. However may I emphasize that as easy as it is to understand, at times how difficult it is to carry out and how important it is. There are and have been many fellow Christians who have taken this injunction to heart and spent their lives doing just that. Many others know the passage, but feel inadequate beacuse the perceive that they are not doing this and therefore failing as Christians.

Let me suggest that not all Christians are called to do this. Those that do are praised and described as having beautiful feet. They are also called and gifted to do this. But each of us is described as being a witness in the book of Acts. Once again we are not told to “go out and witness”, our role is to be a witness. To be a witness is to live an authentic Christian life which shows in various ways as God changes one supernaturally eg in Romans 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful. In prayer and bless those who persecute you. These are not natural actions and require that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It stand out in our “barren society”. This authentic way of life leads people to want to get to know what is different about you. It is far more effective than going to someone and pouring out a lot of words, which may also be necessary from time to time as well.

Next week I am going to deal with the rest of this teaching on the Jews and Gentiles. This teaching doesn’t affect us personally so I am not going to try and unravel Paul’s whole argument. I will mainly deal with the statement in 11:26 “And so all Israel will be saved”. It is a verse that has caused some controversy and wrong views as to Israel’s role in the world to day.

In the meantime enjoy the winter cold and be warmed by God’s word every day, till next week.