condemnation and conviction

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” Rom 8:1.

Webster defines condemnation as “damnation; a declaration of being unfit for use.” Condemnation, is an emotion associated with the flesh and carnality, and initiates a sense of hopelessness, despair, and internal questioning of “what’s the use”?

God rebukes his children, but with the reproof there is always the challenge to do better.

“As many as I love I rebuke and chasten;(rebuke) be zealous therefore and repent.”(Challenge).

“I have some what against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, remember from whence thou art fallen (rebuke) and repent, and do the first works”. (Challenge).

Through the Bible and prayer, God gives us convictions that allow us to overcome the caustic feelings of condemnation. There is hope when God sends conviction. Through conviction, not only can we as a church, see a clear picture of the infraction, but  also an even more clearer picture of the cure.

Condemnation overwhelms, grace gives more grace, to stand.

Lance Meyers

God is Love

“God is love”
We have no influence upon Gods love. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly”. We have no more control over Gods love than the wetness of water, or the blueness of sky. The writer did not say, “God is sometimes love”, or “God is conditional love”. Instead he asked “what can separate us from the love of Christ?” No, God’s feelings of charity towards us transcend our actions. If our actions altered Gods devotion to us, then God would not be love, but human, for this is human love.
God loved us when we were unlovable.
You can not earn or dis-qualify yourself from it.


God is love.


LM

Carving a God out of my own imagination

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Self deception is so easily accomplished, because we all want to believe our feelings are right.

God may not share my feelings about his children.

"Shall we call fire down from heaven?"






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Every man dies alone

In the garden, Jesus facing, the death of the cross, prayed,
 “if it is possible let this cup pass from me.”

He later chastised his followers because, they could not sense the magnitude of the moment, and help carry any of his sorrow.

While He prayed - they slept.

This picture shows us, one of the harshest facts of life.  
When you die, you will die alone.

Death is the one constants in living for God.

For he only uses broken and humbled vessels, so death must continually visit our lives.

In the natural when death visits your frame, the room may be full of friends and family, but you’ll face death alone.

In many of life’s situations, the death of a dream, a relationship, a friendship, a hope, you may be surrounded by many who love, care and feel for you, but you’ll have to face this death alone as
well.

“Can you not watch with me forone hour?” 

 I have often felt like shouting the same at those I love in my times of suffering. But if God has
allowed a death to enter your life, don’t charge those around you falsely. When you come out of your time of sorrow they will be there to share the joy of the resurrection.

Remember this fact; "when you die you will die alone."

Jesus said;” I will never leave you or forsake you”,

Only God can walk with you, in your time of sorrow,  and He is always enough.

lm.


I wrote this in 2004 for the church bulletin ... little did I know the import of these words upon my life.