"A Debtor Redeemed - How I Love To Proclaim It!"

Our family is memorizing Romans Chapter 8 together as part of our family worship... it's going slower than I first expected, but God is REALLY teaching us all some awesome truths from it as a result.

I try to study and stay ahead of everyone so I'll be able to teach the deep Truth of this rich passage and as I was studying this morning... still in bed with one leg hanging our from under the covers... half awake but having an awesome time in the Word... you get the picture. As I was there, in that moment, God was overwhelming me with His Goodness of how we DO NOT deserve to be loved, in any way, by Him... yet He chose to love us anyway. He doesn't need us, but we must have Him to even exist. He is "completely complete" without us, but we are a "walking corpse" without Him. He sees the disgusting depths of our hearts (a.k.a. all our hidden deceitful feelings and motives, our hidden hate, our slothful spirit, having a "quenchable thirst" for the Word when we should actually never be able to get enough... He sees it all... He sees it all and still chooses to love us... how truly ungraspable this is to me!

Romans 8:12-17 tells us how we should be living - AS DEBTORS TO GOD! We are more than conquerors through Christ, but it's not because we have done something to merit that victory, that peace, that life - no! It is because God chose, God saved, GOD REDEEMED US!!! NOT because He owed it to us, but because He loved us... He still loves us, His sheep, His children.

We have no right to boast (Eph. 2:8-9) because it is God that saved us - not us impressing God enough that we "became saved". No, He has saved us because of love, not our works, not our craftiness... and certainly not because of our blogging skills :0-).

I ask myself if I'm living as a grateful debtor...I wish I could tell you I was. I wish I could tell you that I've never missed an opportunity to praise Him for redeeming me, that I've always been faithful to give Him the credit for the blessing in my day to day life... I wish I could say that I truly understood how great of a cost our Great God paid in order to set me/us free from sin... to redeem us, to save us.

I pray God continues to help me grow closer to living as more of a debtor to Him each and every day. How? I think the best way for me is to continue to realize how depraved my flesh really is and that I need to continually crucify it every day (several times at that).

Let us walk together in the Spirit brothers and sisters and grow in knowing more and more how much of a debtor we really are to Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior!

PT

"God Needs Our Help?!"

As I was studying Joshua this week I was once again struck by the fact that God used Rahab, in an extremely excellent way, in spite of her lying about the spies being hidden on her rooftop. I think it's important to point out that lying wasn't uncommon for a "lady of the night" like Rahab, but God still chose to use her in spite of it all - just as He does us.

Therefore, I would lie.. I mean like, to purpose a question that, Lord willing, will be answered in this Sunday's sermon. So give me some feedback and share your thoughts and Biblical backing concerning the following question:

"In God's eyes, is it ever "RIGHT" to lie?"

Many say yes, but God says no; hence the 9th Commandment... Does He ever "honor" someone for lying? Does He ever consider lying unsinful or God honoring? Is there such thing as a "God honoring lie"? What about the Bible smuggling saints that have snuck into countries that forbade them to do such a thing? What about those, like Corrie Ten Boom, who hid the Jews; was it "o.k." for them to lie about having Jews hidden in their household? What would've/could've happened if they told the truth? What about lying to protect your own family from "big brother" and the like, all in the name of "freedom" of course?

Our question again is: "In God's eyes, is it ever "RIGHT" to lie?"

So, is it?

Ah yes, one more question: have you ever been personally put in a position where you had to make a decision like this? To sin and lie, or trust God and tell the truth? Which did/do you think honored God the most, or in the way He wanted to be honored?

I look forward to your feed back.

PT