Romans 8:1

So these past few weeks, I've been going through the book of Romans studying it. It's a wonderful book that requires many reads to fully understand everything that is written in there. In Romans 8:1 Paul says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". This is such a wonderful verse because it promises such a wonderful thing. There is no condemnation for those in Jesus! In verses 3-4, Paul says "... He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..." The Law was death to everybody who tried to keep it because nobody was righteous enough for the Law. But because Adam sinned, this sin was passed down to all of his descendants, the entire human race. We needed a mediator to come in between us and God. This is where Jesus steps in. He became human in order that he may fulfill the works of the Law. Upon his death, Jesus paid the price for the sins of all who would choose to believe in him. This means that for those who believe in the redeeming work of Christ, all sins have already been paid. Past, present and future. Everything. We are saved by grace, not by works. Jesus became our propitiation and paid for all our sins. As a result, the Christian no longer needs to fear the wrath of God because Jesus took that wrath upon himself at the cross. Does this mean that we are now free to sin as we please? No. Due to the fact that we are in the Spirit, we will no longer want to sin. When grace comes upon us, we are open to a new life. One that aims to please God in everything that we do. However, we are all human and there will be times when we will stumble in our walk. It is at these times that this verse becomes active in our lives. As humans, we prove our love to each other by what we do for each other. When we encounter God, we come with this view of love. However, God loves us unconditionally and when we had nothing to offer, He still chose to love us. When we sin, we become afraid that God will no longer love us because we didn't do what He wanted us to. But there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Bad and good things do not happen to us because we sin or we don't sin. That's a view of God's love that is based upon our works. God has taken all our sin into account and it has already been paid for. As a result, we no longer need to enter God's presence with fear. God wants us to go to Him so that we may be reconciled to Him. God doesn't want us to be like Adam who tried to hide when he first sinned. God wants us to come freely into His presence with the knowledge that our sins have been paid for and all we have to do is ask for forgiveness and receive His grace.

Isaiah 59:1-2

For the past several weeks, I've been reading the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is a very wonderful book to read. It contrasts the message of destruction with the promise of redemption. Today I was reading Isaiah 59 and the first two verses struck a chord within me. They say "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." (ESV) This made me think of how people often question God's sovereignty. They say that if He is all-powerful why doesn't He just stop all the evil and suffering in the world? And the answer is right here in Isaiah. Man wants God to step in and solve all their problems, yet they refuse to submit themselves to God's perfect will. Sin creates a barrier between mankind and God. It was this barrier that Jesus came to bridge. But when people refuse to take that bridge and continue in their sins, they refuse to accept God's sovereignty over everything. As believers, we give our lives over to God. We recognize that He is in control of everything because He knows best. Unbelievers refuse to submit. So how can God help a rebellious people out? WHY would God help out a rebellious people? God isn't subject to what people want Him to do. Unbelievers want a servant God. Someone who cleans up their mess but whom they don't have to listen to. And unfortunately for them, that's not the way God works. If God wanted to, He could easily step in and save the day. Get rid of poverty, world hunger, racism, genocide and all the other horrors of our world. But would that really make people worship Him? Or would it just be more of an incentive to make God their servant when things start going wrong again? God wants to help us, but he wants us to realize that WE are His servants, not the other way around. Our sins create a gap between us and God, but praise be to Jesus for bridging that gap. Once we recognize that our sins have caused a separation between us and God and choose to trust in Jesus for our salvation, we will begin to see how God works to protect His children.

God's Sovereignty

I've been reading The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink. It's an excellent book which I recommend to everybody. Each chapter is a different attribute of God and the book really makes you think about how wonderful God is. In the chapter talking about God's sovereignty there's a quote which I love. That quote is by Spurgeon and it says "There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of god's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all" I love this quote because I've been going through a tough month but through it all, I've had faith that God has a reason for what I went through. Although there were times when I just wanted to give up on everything and lose faith that God was there, it was too hard for me. As Jeremiah said, "His word is like a fire in my bones..." (Jer. 20:9). Throughout my tough times, I held fast onto the belief that God had a reason for everything and that there was something better on the other side.
God's sovereignty was what helped pull me through. If I didn't believe that there was a reason for my suffering or that there would be something better for me, there would have been no hope in my life. But praise be to God that His will is sovereign over everything and He is in control of even the most minute details.

CYUAG

So last night, I went to CYUAG which stands for Christian Youth United for the Advancement of the Gospel. (I think). It was a really cool experience. It was for Free Worship night which was an interesting concept where you just come and worship. I was blessed by God last night in many ways. One of the things I loved was that all the people there were so friendly! So many people approached us after the service and just talked to us and asked about our lives and such. They kept asking us to come back Sunday and in the future. It was something that I loved and due to their friendliness, I hope to go again in the future.
Last night, I got to thinking however, about the church and how friendly it was. I thought it was kind of sad that I was surprised by how friendly they were, but that's the truth. Many churches don't go out of their way to make newcomers feel welcome. Even within InterVarsity, it can be hard to make new friends because people already have their groups of friends and don't often go out of their comfort zone. I've had conversations with people who say that they try to arrive after the service has started in order to avoid the awkwardness of being alone. But last night, even before we entered the main area of the church, we had people asking for our names and welcoming us in. I loved it!
So if you're ever at church and you see somebody new, go up to them and talk to them. Make them feel welcome. It's something I hope to be able to work on in the future.

Pain

I finished reading The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis a few weeks ago. It's a book I recommend as Lewis talks about why humans go through pain and how God uses it to grab our attention. Lewis says that pain is God speaking through a megaphone telling us to approach Him and give our all to Him.

Right now I'm going through a tough time emotionally and I'm feeling a lot of pain in my life. They say that God has a plan for everything and everything always works out for the best, but when you're in pain, it's hard to see that. When you're in the midst of the storm, it's hard to see the sunlight waiting on the other side. I understand that God has something better out there, but when I'm in the midst of pain it's hard to fully comprehend that. As humans we love to live in the here and now. We're all about gratifying our immediate desires. As a result we often find it hard to fully understand the big picture. Like Job, sometimes God puts us through a troubling situation in order that we emerge from that troubling time with more blessing.

Psalm 34:18 says that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and that's a verse I've been clinging onto for the past several days. That's the beauty of Christianity. When it seems like everything is dark and meaningless, we have hope to cling onto. No matter what we're going through, we have the hope of Jesus Christ and the Comforter that is among us, the Holy Spirit. God has promised to always be with us and God never goes back on His promise. Jesus himself went through much pain in his earthly life so Jesus can identify with our pain. He knows what we're going through. But by the grace of God, we have the Holy Spirit, our link to God's presence to comfort us through everything that we go through. Although it can be hard to want to worship God in the midst of pain, that is when we should worship Him the most. Sometimes God has to put us through the fire in order that we emerge as refined gold. And though the pain may hurt, God will never put us through something that we won't be able to bear. And we must always remember that in the midst of pain, we have the Lord of the universe at our side in order help us through the tough moments. So don't be afraid to cry or to get angry. Embrace your emotions. Let the tears come. Let the anger show. But never forget that God is still there by your side.

Taste and See

Taste and See has to be my favorite track on this album. This song tackles the goodness of God. God is good in everything that He does. He cannot not be good. I love this song just because these past few weeks, I've been repeating those same words to myself. God is good. It's a phrase that's pulled me through many stuff that has happened. God is good no matter what happens.
Shai talks about how God's goodness is seen in everything. "From rocks and minerals to toxic chemicals" the goodness of God is seen in all of this. He goes on to mention that God's goodness can be seen from the beginning of history. Even though Adam and Eve left "us in a greasy condition with slezy addictions but Jesus' afflictions free those believing He's risen". Even though Adam and Eve condemned humanity to a lifetime of suffering and pain, God demonstrated His goodness by allowing His Son to come down to earth and die for the sins of everybody.
Shai demonstrates a mastery over the lyrics in this track as he keeps a rhyme going on for about half a verse before switching over to another one. While listening to this song, I am truly reminded that God is good in all that He does.

The Glory of God (Not To Us)

The Glory of God was the first single released off of the album. It was released back in July, several months before the album came out. I love this song simply because all of it is about the glory of God. Nothing points to anybody else but God here.
The song starts off with the creation and how it all points to God's glory. Only God could pull off something so majestic as creating an entire universe out of nothing. To God alone belongs all the glory because of who He is.
Although the song doesn't mention it outright, there is another issue that came to mind as I listened to it. How humans often try to take the glory that belongs to God and redirect it at ourselves. Satan was cast out of heaven for trying to ascend to God's throne. In short, he wanted the glory that God received for himself. And out of this original sin, comes every other type of sin.
When we sin, we tell God that we believe we can do better than He can. We wish to bring the glory to ourselves so that people may be in awe of us. We love when people praise us or tell us that we're good at something. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, a part of us wants to be like God. We want people always telling us how good we are or what an excellent job we did at something.
However, although there is nothing wrong with being praised for doing a good job on something, when that becomes the focus of our being is when it turns into something wrong. When everything we do is so that people tell us how amazing we are, we are merely seeking glory for its own sake.
Psalm 115:1 reminds us that the glory should always go to God. God alone is worthy of all glory. His presence itself should inspire us to always give glory to Him. We must remember that God is a jealous god and He shares His glory with none.