The Abiding Life: Part 6 Romans 6:11

Romans 6:11

 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Even so? Even so what? Today's verse is a continuation of Part 4. We slipped Colassions 2:12-14 in there yesterday because it works well in this series BUT Romans 6:11 is a pivotal part in truly believing in an Abiding Life.

A one verse lesson? Well yeah, look at the power in that single verse. From the moment of your baptism, your acknowledgement if Christ's sacrifice for you, you may consider yourself dead to sin....

Consider??? Doesn't that mean think?? As in you think you might possibly be?? Nope.. In this case the word consider has more depth. When you ask someone to do a favor a response could be "Consider it done". As in you can put the very possibility of it not being done right out of your mind. So it isn't a case of waffling between seeing it done and hopping maybe it's true. No, in this case, in God's case it's a matter of it's already done. Know it, believe it.

Sometimes it's hard because we get list in the translation. But when we remember that God doesn't deal in maybes. God deals in absolutes. He has declared us dead to sin and Alive to Christ. Embrace this...revel in it.

Shauni





*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

The Abiding Life: Part 5 Col 2:12-14

You may have noticed that I am going back and forth between this Abiding Life Series and my Daily Psalms Series. I am doing this because I want to follow our discussions in our Sunday class.

We are discussing first knowing our faith and the using our knowledge to live an abiding life in Jesus. Then finally how to use that knowledge of our faith to witness and share that faith.

Colossians 2:12-14 

12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 
 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Buried with Him - of course we were not physically wrapped in linens and buried in the tomb with Jesus but spiritually, that's a different matter. In His death, He gathered our tattered souls riddled with sin and took them with Him. Upon rising from His death He returned to us a new soul, cleansed of any sin and surrounded by the Holy Spirit.

With our baptism, we acknowledge His sacrifice. Thereby dying with Him and rising from the waters a new being.

Think About it -clean slate-  with a new spirit, alive in Christ.

ALL of our Sins have been forgiven. Not just the ones we are aware of, not just the ones we have committed, but ALL of them. Past, present and future.

Cancelled our certificate of debt.

Best analogy??
It's like a credit card, we accumulate debt and once a month we receive a statement. We can either pay a monthly amount, keeping us in debt, or we can pay off the entire bill.

God has paid our debt in full. Only we don't receive a monthly statement. We get that one time, when we stand before the throne. Fortunately for us, our bill will be stamped Paid in full.

All of our Sins have been forgiven. That doesn't mean we should run out and sin Willy, nilly. No, we need to continue to strive to live a Christ like life.

But.. when we stumble, when we fail, God has already created a way we can continue on.


1 John 1:9 

 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We know that God has as already forgiven our Sins but we still need to acknowledge our unrighteousness. We need to confess these sins and allow God to show us His faithfulness.

We are a truly blessed people! All we need to do is grab a hold of the promises God has made us and we can live that abiding life in Christ.

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

I Will Recount Your Wondrous Deeds

 Today all I can think of is how often God takes care of those who proclaim His name. Yes, life is hard and even with those words the devil is attempting to sway my thoughts. Life is hard, people suffer, sometimes even those who have committed their lives to God.
  But by remaining true to God, there is peace. A joy in the life we are living.

Psalms 9: 1-4
1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
 3 My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.

Oh Wow! Think About this. When we stand righteous before God, when we praise Him most High. He stands with us and our enemies will fall. I don't mean our enemies in war rather our enemies in spirit. The bullies, the mean spirited, the gossips. Those that would tear you down.

But beware, it works both ways! You must stand righteous with God or you might find yourself the enemy being torn down. I know in my arrogance I have been torn down until I am once again humble before God. Sadly, more than once.

Psalms 9: 9-10
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 
10 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

There are those who swear that "religion" is a crutch. While I don't consider my faith a "religion", rather a relationship with God, I do see the point. God becomes the staff we can lean on when times are hard. Why wouldn't we take advantage of something that will hold us up when we are in jeopardy of falling? I am through being too proud of leaning on the shoulder that God is providing for me. His shoulders are broad and able and willing to bear my burton.

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

The Abiding Life: Part 4 Romans 6: 3-4

Romans 6:3-4 

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.


There is an interesting concept among believers, it started in the early church and in some ways continues to this day.

Concept: 
The more we sin, the better we show God's grace.. *snort* 

You have to give them credit.. that particular concept allows us to almost unaccountable for our sins. But people that's just not it!

If you want the full context you need to read vs 1-13. 

Sure we were born into sin but we died to sin in our baptism. We rose with new souls clean and pure. Why would we then choose to tarnish it with sin. Instead we should strive to remain dead to sin and show God's grace by our commitment to Him.

"Our victory over temptation begins by what we KNOW about ourselves" Tom Schoeneck

We have been baptized in Christ,
    Baptize- Immersed, signifies Change

So we KNOW:

• we have been Baptized in Christ
• we have risen with a new heart and a new spirit
• that God has shared His spirit with us

So instead of sharing God's grace through sin we must walk in the newness of life.

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

The Abiding Life: Part 3 Ezekiel 36: 26-27

Yesterday I spoke of the need for a new heart. Fortunately for us, God is willing to give us that heart AND a new spirit as well.. He is willing, in fact he truly desires to do just that, to remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

God promises us three things in these verses..

1. 1. A New Heart
2. 2. A New Spirit
3. His Spirit.

In one promise He says He will basically renew us, not repair the old heart and spirit but give us NEW ones. 

*an interesting side discussion came up during our class & something worth noting. God says He will remove our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. We as Christians often refer to the flesh as being part of our sinful nature. God is NOT replacing our hearts of stone with a heart with a sinful nature, we already took care of that.. Here it means He will replace it with a softened heart open to Him

Another explanation is he will take away Satan's pride. 

IS 14: 13-14

13 "You said in your heart,“I will ascend to the heavens; 

I will raise my throne above the stars of God;

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

Think about how a heart can harden into stone and make these statements or lead us to lead such a prideful life. 

Our pride will offer cold comfort when we are cast from God's presence. But God offers to remove that dead and hardened heart and to replace it with a living breathing part of Him.

Seriously!! Hallelujah!! 

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

The Abiding Life: Part 2 Mark 7:20-23

Mark 7:20-23 

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 

21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 

22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 

23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Basically what is being said here is that all of our sins come from the heart of man. When we remain without God's Guidance, help, spirit we remain a sinful being. 

We can be extreme discipline and work become one of the "good" people. People who want to do good who help others and try to live a decent life but we retain our sinful hearts and are sure to eventually fail. It can't be helped we can not be Godly using our sinful heart. We will stumble at beast falling into the vices of the flesh. Be it greed, jealousy, vice, whatever.. We are more susceptible to fall .

In order to serve God, truly and faithfully, we need an entirely new heart. We need God's spirit to cleanse us of our fallen flesh and rejuvenate us with His heart and Spirit.

We will still be tempted, we might still stumble and we might still fall but that will be when we deny ourselves of God's Spirit and Heart.

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

The Abiding Life: Part 1, Gen 1:26-27

We recently started a Bible Study on verses that help with our Abiding Life.. And how that can lead into discipleship. I thought I would use the verses for my individual Bible Study. To further study each verse. Then the light bulb went on and I decided to go ahead and post my thoughts here. It's time I got back to my bog and this was an excellent place to start.

I have discovered over time that it really helps me to put my thoughts about such class discussions into writing thus making it even easier to share with you all.

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Interesting fact.. This is the only time in the Bible when the words image and likeness are both used. Usually they are interchangeable but the nuances of the words matter this time.

Image - 1)Copy or Replica 2)Able to express the essential nature of something.

So when we were made in God's image we were created to express God's essence. Not so much as His looks and form but rather the spirit. The part that makes Him God. We were created to share God's essence..

Likeness - True representation, like a picture.

This is more what we think when we say image. We were created in God's likeness. We are not God we are representatives. It's like a picture, that's our likeness on paper but it lacks our essence. But Good took care of that. He created us in both His image and His likeness.

So there you have it, Mankind was created to represent the essential and true nature of God.

Now that we hold such an awesome gift from God, how should we use it? We need to remember that we share God's image, His essential essence and let that shine through.

Most Christians (actually most people) are judged not by what they do (Like Dr, Lawyer, Cook, Bottle washer, etc..) but in who we are. What are essence is. Think about it.. you have a brilliant doctor.. great at his job but he's a total jerkface. While we might appreciate his talents we don't want to socialize with him. That's his essence we don't particularly like.

The easiest way to start witnessing to others is to allow God's essence to shine through in our everyday life. Make that who we are.

Shauni

*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.