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This week’s post is in memory of my sister Marne’s father in law, Benjamin Dharmaraj who went home to be with the Lord on May 5th, 2017. Benjamin was first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ and if you’ve met him or his family, you’d likely know that this verse very much applies to them:

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15b)

Benjamin was a devoted husband; having faithfully, lovingly and intentionally kept his marriage vows until the very end. He was a father, a grandfather, a best friend, and much more.

I did not know Benjamin well but I have some glimpse into his impact on his family and my family. He raised a son Ajit, who would become my brother in law; a perfect match for my sister, and that has been evident since the two fell in love many years ago.

Benjamin’s wife Renuka shared with me that the two of them were born and raised in Christian families, however she said it wasn’t until the late 1990s that “God got a hold of them”.

They were attending a non-denominational church, learning and growing and then decided to be baptized out of obedience to the scriptures. Renuka shared this is when they really started growing in their faith; she also shared her belief that praying for others and others praying for them made a significant impact.

Meditating on Romans chapter 9 this week and thinking about the rich heritage in the Benjamin family, the theme of this verse kept hitting me:

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (Romans 9:30-31)

Any of us who pursue the law or traditions out of the sake of tradition can miss the righteousness, the gift, and the joy of knowing Jesus through faith.

Benjamin’s family has a rich tradition, a legacy, but their deep rooted faith was evident this week. With the mourning of the earthly loss, there has been joy and acknowledgment that Jesus is King, and through his death on the cross, there is hope and promise of an afterlife with our Father God in Heaven.

Our prayers continue for the family of Benjamin.

The remainder of today’s post was written by my sister Marne as a reflection in her time of grief.

Grieving is like an invisible wind whose predictability blows neither here nor there. One never knows when it is coming or how powerful its strength will be. A certain fragrance or a sound of laughter, an unrelated event or a gesture of a stranger can suddenly ignite grief’s presence into such force that it tosses the victim into the eye of a storm and dangerously lands them in the unknown to pick up the shattered debris.

Grief has an element of creativity. It is often brought on spontaneously and is unstructured. It colors one’s life like a canvas of unexpected shadows, designs, paths of light or jagged lines. It seems like a mistake, or even a highly dangerous medium to explore, and yet it has an intriguing beauty at it’s very core.

For in our despair, we are not left without hope. In our emptiness, we are not left alone to sort through the brokenness. In our doubt, He is still trustworthy. In our pain, we are never without His love. Jesus has never abandoned us in any circumstance, in the past, present or whatever is to come. Because of His rich love for us, we look ahead with confident expectation of His goodness, mercy and loving kindness.

We look forward to His creativity and how He masterfully designs everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. (2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT)

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians ‭4:16-18‬)

Today’s Reading: Romans 6

Good Morning,

Today we have one of our regular guest writers over the last couple years Kris Walker.  Prayers for all of us as we continue this awesome journey together. No longer be slaves to fear and enjoy these words to a song that we will live fearless as a child of God! 

As we look in Romans, I once again find myself gravitating towards music. I can’t help it. It’s how I’m wired.

“I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God”.

 Romans 6:11-14
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

I feel like the song leaves out some important thoughts! I love how verse 13 says you have to offer yourself to God for this to happen! We have to make that conscious effort!

I also like how there is still accountability. There are some people that would say, “well, I’m saved now, I’m a child of God. Why strive to do better? Why push to serve with righteousness?”

Romans 6:15-18
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I feel this is so important, because we cannot abuse our grace we are given. We are no longer slaves to sin, but we have to make ourselves be slaves to righteousness! So, we still are slaves… but we are VOLUNTEERING ourselves! We have to! It’s how we should serve!

The biggest take away from this?? Obviously is the reward for being a slave to righteousness.

Romans: 6:22-23
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is my hope, OUR HOPE, as we serve together, as brothers and sisters, that we can all be in everlasting life together! We can live in holiness! I can’t even imagine! I know personally my life is constantly filled with disaster. I look forward to a time to live in everlasting holiness. And, all we have to do, is make that choice, and become a willing slave to righteousness!

No Longer Slaves  – Jon David & Melissa Helser

 

 

“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.”

I think these words above could be enough of a devotional for me today… wouldn’t you agree? The first verses of Romans 5 completely spoke to my heart as I prepared to write about Romans 5 for this Monday morning, and I can’t help but think that perhaps Jesus wanted to remind us that we are ENOUGH as we start off another new week.

I don’t know about you all, but I certainly do not have my act together 100% of the time. Scratch that… I don’t have my act together MOST of the time, and that fact is becoming more apparent the older I get! You see, for a while, I was really good at pretending that I had everything in my life tied up with a pretty little bow. I was good at saying “no” when my calendar got too full, but I avoided any reasons to let the world know that sometimes my house got messy, I wore yoga pants all day, or that I struggled with something much deeper than yoga pants. In fact, deep need to always be enough and to be perfect even began to impact my relationships. Often, I kept people in my life at arm’s length so that they would never know that I was not, in fact, perfect… that I struggled, that I doubted, that I became frustrated and angry and overwhelmed easier than I cared to admit. In case you were wondering, the very pursuit of being enough on my own left me lonely and feeling like anything BUT enough!

Friends, I’m convinced that the longer we run that race and try to reassure the entire planet that yes, we’re perfect, we’re enough, we have it all together all the time and can balance all the things without dropping the ball, the more we WILL begin to realize how false that is. As a result, we’ll realize our deep need for Jesus, because He is the only way we are enough. Yet, in a world that praises hustle over harmony and in a culture that believes one must be busy to be blessed, running that race to become enough seems to be what’s expected of us.

Let me step into your day really quickly (hopefully, before your busy start to your week begins) and remind you that there is another option available for us as children of God. All we have to do is slow down enough to see it and to take it. Read those first few verses of Romans 5 with me again today:

“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.”

“…we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus.” Breathe that verse in as a sigh of relief this Monday and picture yourself throwing open those doors to invite God into your week, only to find that He has already thrown open the doors for us, just as those verses above say. This week, you can start off “out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory…” THAT is what Jesus offers to us. With Him, you are enough.

Happy Monday, indeed. 🙂

Romans 2

What comes to mind when you hear the word “judge” or “justice” or “judgment”? I would like to focus on these three themes today as we read Romans 2.

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

The first word “judge” brings many images and thoughts to mind. Based on your own standards, expectations, morals, values, upbringing, etc., you have an idea of how you like to lead your life or how you think the world should operate. Do you sometimes carry that over into criticizing how others lead their lives? Or in your mind do you think , “I would not have handled the situation that way”? “That is not the way to parent that unruly child!” “Wow, those clothes are not appropriate.” In today’s world of imagery and social media, we are flooded with messages by which to judge others, but we shouldn’t, because God is the ultimate judge. My friend Jan and I have this saying “stay in your lane”. We refer to this motto when we are talking about our kids, our friends and parenting. If the situation at hand doesn’t affect you or your child, don’t get involved or judge. If it does present harm to you or your child, obviously, there is a time to jump in, but in general, it’s none of your business. Easy to say, sometimes hard to do.

The second word that comes to mind in reading this chapter is “justice”. Justice in our world today is carried out through our legal system. Unfortunately, I had a very rocky divorce over ten years ago (and you may be judging me know by writing about it here??). Multiple hours spent in the McLean Country Law & Justice Center, with the outcome of my life and my kids’ lives being determined by a judge. Was I capable enough to be given sole custody of my kids? Which holidays was I “assigned”? How much money would I be given or would I have to pay? It was pure torture. I can remember daydreaming in the courtroom thinking “here is this judge deciding our outcome without knowing the situation, me as a person/parent or my children. This is absurd. And how many times each day does this judge get to decide the fate of others and doesn’t know them either?”

However, I consoled myself thinking God truly decides in the end. He is the ultimate judge. His judgment is what matters. Justice will be served. The best part is that he knows us. He knows our thoughts, words, and deeds. His vote is the one that counts. It is based on the truth.  He gives us the gift of eternal life if we choose to take the opportunity and strive for it.

⁵ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”^{[a] 7} To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

Consider the three words and the words written in Romans 2. How can we all live a better earthly life and not judge others? Are you upholding the laws? Are you upholding what the Bible says or how it suggests we act? Do you show repentance for your sins and ask for forgiveness? Do you believe? How will you be judged? I hope to continue to do better each day seeking his glory, honor and immortality.