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Eva Conner | Transformation From the Inside Out

You are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20

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Romans 9:17-24 – Where Do We Fit In?

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See how you fit in God's master plan.

Let’s see how we fit in God’s master plan.

17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” 18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

 

Romans 9:17-24

Paul goes by the Word.

In verse 17, we see Paul says “for the Scriptures say…”  Let’s follow Paul and go to the Scriptures. We need to know the Word and get it deep within us so that we know truth from untruth. So that we can test those things that come along against the Word. Paul knew the Word and he knew how to use it. In this verse, Paul is referring to the Pharah of Egypt and the plagues that came against the Egyptians because the Pharaoh would not release the Israelites from captivity. News spread throughout the earth about “the God of the Israelites” and His great power. God used Pharaoh. This may sound harsh but we cannot understand God’s ways. His very Word tells us that His thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

God used Pharaoh to show the world His Sovereignty.

So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen (verse 18). One thing we need to keep in mind in reading these verses is that God knows beginning and the end. To Him time is not the same as it is to us. He doesn’t live by the constraints of time. He GAVE us time!

Why does He harden hearts of some? My thoughts on this are that God knows who will choose to accept Him and who will choose to reject Him. He knows our choices before we are ever created because He knows beginning and end. Therefore, He will use those who choose to reject Him and harden their hearts.  Please understand these are my own thoughts.  This is one of those areas in Scripture that we have to know we will never understand fully. And that’s okay. He will reveal things to us as we are capable of understanding. Other things will remain hidden.

Here is a quote I found recently: “Men are not lost because they are hardened, they are hardened because they are lost.”

Verse 19 further shows us that God is Sovereign and we have to respect that He knows ALL. We know a small, teeny little piece of what God knows. Our knowledge would be but a speck of sand compared to His knowledge. He is Knowledge. How can we question His ways?  How can we question the One who created us?

The sooner we accept who we are – who He made us to be – the sooner we’ll understand that we don’t always have to understand. God is Sovereign. It is His will do anything that He chooses. But God is merciful too. He loves us and He chooses us. And He will use us to advance His kingdom if we open ourselves up to Him fully.

Don’t be afraid.

The words “do not fear” appear in the Word of God 365 times.  I think this is intentional on His part so that there is an instance of these words for each day of the year. Do not fear being used by God.  Do you fear your salvation? He made it so easy for us. Believe. That’s it. One Word. Believe. He didn’t tell us that we have to climb the highest mountain in the world to be saved. He didn’t say that we have to do the impossible to be saved. He made it super easy. Believe.  So why do we think that if He calls us to help Him advance His kingdom that it would be any more difficult.  Let me tell you from experience.

When He calls you, you are already equipped and ready to step into action.

Go and don’t look back. Step into your calling with both feet and let Him guide. You’ll be amazed at how He will use you when you just open up and say “Here I am, Lord. Use me.”  We each have talents and gifts that are uniquely ours. In the Body of Christ, no one has the talents and gifts of another. What I’m trying to say is there is no other person ever who will have the talents, gifts and calling that you have. Step into it. I can’t encourage you enough. When you step into your God-given destiny, your life will never be the same. Fear not!  The Potter made each of us with a specific purpose. And we will glorify the Potter when we are used for that specific purpose.

We are vessels of God’s mercy.

Not one of us in the Body of Christ deserve to be there but because of His mercy, there we are! Because of His great mercy for us, we are saved. Not because of any works that we did or anything that we could ever do because it is not about us. It is about Jesus Christ and His love. Not our love for Him but His love for us. We can NEVER love Him enough. We will always come up short like Peter did when he denied knowing Christ 3 times. Our love is a mere shadow of what love is. Love is God. God is love.  And God pours His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Do you see how merciful He is?

We are truly incapable of taking care of ourselves without Him. We are utterly helpless and that’s not a bad place to be. It shows us our great need for a Savior.  The Word above goes on to tell us that we are among those whom He selected – both from the Jews and from the Gentiles (verse 24). We are chosen; therefore, we are special.

It was always God’s plan to include us Gentiles. Let’s look at a couple verses in Isaiah:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.

Isaiah 42:1

He says: 
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6

In the Old Testament, God had us on His mind. He knew He was going to call out the nations to be a people for His name. What a special place we’ve been given as a Bride for His Son.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

 

 

Romans 9:6-16 – God’s Chosen People

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Jacob and Esau and A Sovereign God

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. 11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15 For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

Romans 9:6-16 (NLT)

Not all born into Israel are truly members of God’s people.

Ishmael was born to Abraham. But we know that Ishmael is not of the Nation Israel.  Esau was born to Isaac and was Abraham’s grandson but he is not considered God’s people. Why not? His twin was Jacob – born of the same parents. Why is Jacob a child and Esau is not?  FAITH.  Spiritually, Esau did not have faith.  Jacob, even though he deceived people, had faith in God. We know this because He wrestled with God and would not let God go until God gave him a blessing. Someone without faith would not care about God’s blessing.

In verse 8, we see the promise of Christ. In the KJV, we see it

That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Romans 9:8 (KJV)

This verse in the King James Version helped me understand a little more. Not all of Abraham’s descendants are spiritual, some are of the flesh (earthly).  When it refers to “of the flesh” it means that they are not children of God because they are not spiritual. The last part of this verse shows that the promise is only “counted for the seed” which means Jesus. Anytime in the Word we see ‘the seed’ it refers to the lineage of Jesus Christ.  Let’s look at one more verse in the King James Version for further clarification:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Galatians 3:16 (KJV)

Ishamel was born in response to the flesh.

Sarah doubted God’s promise and persuaded Abraham to have a baby with her maid, Haggar. Together they had Ishmael. He was not the promise from God. Isaac was that promised child – the spiritual child. This is a perfect picture of law and grace.  Salvation could be accomplished through the law –  through the efforts of the flesh. It could only be accomplished through the efforts of the Spirit through grace.

Esau was not in the lineage of Christ either. Christ came from Jacob’s line.

The Sovereign God.

There are some things in Scripture which are very difficult to understand with our finite minds. The next few verses are among those that are difficult.  We need to keep in mind that God is Sovereign over all. He sees beginning and end and all that falls in between. We are so extremely limited in our thinking. We need to remember this as we read the next verses.

In God’s Sovereignty, He knew which of Isaac and Rebecca’s twins would be absent of faith. God knew that Esau would one day sell his birthright for a bowl of stew. He sold his birthright for a fleshly desire – hunger. This is why God told Rebecca that her older son would serve her younger son.  God loved Jacob and rejected Esau.  Paul goes on to answer the same question that is in all of our heads! Is God unfair? And he gives us his emphatic answer – “Of course not!” (verse 14).

It is God’s right to deal with people how He sees fit.

As noted in verse 15 above, God told Moses that He will show mercy to anyone He chooses and compassion to anyone He chooses. It is His right. He is Sovereign God of the entire Universe. He created everything out of nothing. Who are we to say that He is being unfair? We can only see a teeny tiny limited view.

Through the prophet Malachi, God sheds a little more light on Jacob and Esau:

“I have always loved you,” says the Lord.

But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

And the Lord replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, 3 but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”

Malachi 1:2-3

God loved Jacob to show Israel His love.

He chose faith over flesh.  Grace over law.  Christ over Adam.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Marriage – The Roads We Travel

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Don't let Satan in your marriage

God desires to work through each of us.

When we allow God to work in us and through us, He uses us to lift and encourage others. Fellowship and sharing are very important to God and should be to us as well. It’s when we share a word we’re given with others that we encourage and build one another up.

In the wee hours of the night I was thinking about marriage and images of roads kept popping in my head.  Marriage, done God’s way, is wonderful.  God wants us to put our spouse before ourselves, even before our children.  

This is a tough one for moms.  Especially today’s moms!

In my lifetime, I’ve seen a shift in who controls the family unit. When I was young, parents did not live their lives for their children. But now I see the complete opposite. Children rule the house. Children dictate what the parents are going to do and when they are going to do it.

Children are involved in so many activities, they need a personal assistant (MOM!) to manage their schedule.  You know what happens to Dad… he takes a backseat to the children in Mom’s life.  This happened in my own life.  I can attest to the hurt and damage that spouses can inflict on each other because of neglect – whether it is intentional or unintentional. Thankfully this was many years ago in our marriage and we’ve done a lot of healing and growing since those years. But we are called to share our experience and our past heartache to help others avoid the same. We are all called to share our testimony and it is Biblical:

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:5

I’m sharing this word that God gave me to encourage you.

If your life is a little crazy and hectic because of your children’s activities, maybe you need to cut back so that you have more family time. More time with your spouse. More time around the dinner table without having to eat in the car on your way to the next activity. More time to just sit on the porch and listen to the rain with your spouse.

Your marriage is worth a thorough evaluation of your priorities. Marriages are being attacked by Satan more now than ever. Satan knows if he can attack a marriage, he can keep a powerful duo from charging after the lost and sharing Christ. When we’re caught in his snare, we are useless in avancing God’s kingdom.

What is the answer?  Bring Jesus into your marriage and keep Him there.

Easier said than done, right?  To have a marriage the way that God intended, we need to be intentional. We can’t take our eyes off of Jesus for one second. He needs to be involved in our marriage – and in every aspect. When both husband and wife are focused on Jesus, He ties our hearts together.  Did you catch these words?  Keep your gaze on Jesus – not on each other.

When our gaze is on one another instead of Jesus, we put our spouse above where God should be in our lives. This is not fair to anyone – us, our spouse and especially not our children. No one, not even our spouse, can take the place of God in our lives. God and God alone is to be above all others.

What road is your marriage on?

I mentioned earlier that I saw roads reflecting where we are in our marriage. The first vision was two people – husband and wife – standing back to back walking away from each other as in a duel.  The only time they turned around to see each other was when they were taking a shot at one another. They were going opposite ways on the road.

The second vision was two roads that ran parallel to each other but they never intersected.  The husband was on one road and the wife on the other. This reflects a husband and wife (or maybe it’s better to say a man and a woman) living two separate lives.

The last vision was two people on the same road, going in the same direction and travelling at the same speed. This is the Godly marriage. It’s not always easy to keep in sync but if you have a prayerful life, it is possible. Will you have the occasional bumps causing you to get out of sync?  Absolutely!  But when you pray regularly for your spouse and with your spouse, God will see that you get back in sync.

If your marriage is on the first or second road, don’t despair.

Get quiet before God and ask Him to change your hearts. Ask Him to put you on the same road as your spouse, going the same direction at the same speed.

Without God, a good marriage is impossible.

But with God’s presence and His love and grace, a good marriage is possible.

He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

Luke 18:27

If you don’t already pray for your spouse, start doing so today.  Pray for your spouse often. Pray with your spouse every day. It’s amazing how God will work in a person’s life through another person’s prayer and even more amazing how God will work in a marriage through united prayer.

Here’s a prayer for each of our marriages:

Dear Father,

Thank You for Your Word. You are so faithful to show us how to live every area of our lives if we will just take a minute to look in Your Word. Help each of us get more intentional about praying for our marriage and our spouses. Father, we ask that You create in each of us pure hearts and renew steadfast spirits. We ask that You turn our vision toward Jesus.  Each day, Father, we commit our love and our marriage to You. Lord, protect our eyes from looking at anything that would detract our attention from our spouse. Help us to be pleasing and honoring to You.

Fill our hearts with Your love so that we can love one another as You do. Keep the enemy from our homes, from our marriage and from our children. We plead the blood of Jesus over our homes, our our relationships, over each of our lives and over the covenant of marriage that we made as one with You.

We ask that You guide our prayers. And we thank You and give You all the honor, praise and glory.  

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen♥

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Romans 9:1-5 – The Blessings for the Israelites

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7-Fold Blessings for Israel

A Seven-Fold Blessing for the Nation of Israel

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Romans 9:1-5

The Nation of Israel was and always will be God’s chosen people.

It grieves Paul’s heart that his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters could not open their eyes to see Jesus Christ as their Messiah.  Let’s look back in the book of Exodus where we’ll see that the same thing also grieved Moses’ heart. Paul and Moses were both willing to sacrifice their own eternity with God for their Israel. What deep love, deep pain, deep sorrow they each had for the Nation that they loved.

31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves. 32 But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”

Exodus 32:31-32

In this first part of Romans Chapter 9 (verses 4 and 5), we see a seven fold blessing with Israel.  Let’s take a closer look at these last two verses above.

They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. (Blessing #1) God revealed his glory to them. (Blessing #2) He made covenants with them and (Blessing #3) gave them his law. (Blessing #4) He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and (Blessing #5) receiving his wonderful promises. (Blessing #6) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and (Blessing #7) Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen

Romans 9:4-5 (emphasis mine)

Blessing #1 -God revealed His glory to the Israelites.

God revealed His very glory to the Israelites unlike He’s ever done with any other nation. One example is in Exodus 19, we see God’s glory descend on Mt. Sinai in the form of smoke.  There are many other examples in the Old Testament of God’s glory becoming manifest in smoke, fire, and clouds.  The glory of God filled the Temple that King Solomon built.

Blessing #2 – God made covenants with them.

God gave the Nation of Israel His promises. The first promise was given to Abraham. God promised Abraham that He would make a great nation out of him (Genesis 12:1-3). In Genesis 15, we see another promise to Abraham. God told Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. God gave Abraham many other promises as well as promises to other patriarchs in the Old Testament.

Blessing #3 – God gave the Israelites the Law.

The Law was only given to Israel. As we’ve seen in prior lessons in Romans, the Law itself was not bad. In fact, it was given to Moses from God so it is holy and pure. But the Law was unable to do anything other than point out a man’s sin. It was incapable of offering human salvation. It was unable to change the penalty for man’s sin. For more information on the Law refer to my prior lessons on Romans 7:1-6 and  Romans 7:7-13.

Blessing #4 – God gave the Israelites the privilege of worshiping Him.

This is something that we need to grasp. When we go to church, we need to go with the understanding that it IS a privilege to worship God. We should not go with the attitude “what am I going to get out of this?”  Instead, we need to go with the attitude “it is a privilege to worship God today!” The Israelites had this privilege long before us.  They were given the priesthood. They were given  first the Tabernacle and then the Temple.  These people were given the Feasts.

Blessing #5 – Israel was given the promises.

All of the prophecy in the Old Testament are promises written for Israel. These are the prophetic promises. Some have come to pass and others are in the future. And they were all given to Israel.

Blessing #6 – The Israelites’ forefathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In God’s Word, we know that heritage and lineage are important. The people of Israel are of the lineage including the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Blessing #7 – The Messiah is from the Israelite lineage.

The Messiah was promised to come from the Nation of Israel. And we know that He did come from Joseph and Mary who were both of the line of King David.  This is a big promise. Christ is the Creator of all. He is our Lord and Savior. We see this lineage in the first chapter of Matthew.

What powerful verses. God’s Word never fails to amaze me. It has so many depths and levels. We can (and should) spend a lifetime studying the Word and we would see something new each and every time we open the Book.  There is no way that man could create such a living and breathing Word. Only God is capable of this masterpiece.

And Christ is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

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SOURCE: I used teaching notes from www.lesfeldick.org for some of the information in today’s Bible Lesson study.

Romans 8:35-39 – Can Anything Separate Us from Christ?

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Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ

Can anything separate us from Christ?

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35-39

Finishing up chapter 8, Paul shows us promises that are hard to grasp. Promises such as eternity. Nothing will ever separate us from Christ’s love. He loves us regardless of who we are, where we are or what we’re doing. Nothing that we do can ever make Him love us less. And nothing that we do can ever make Him love us more. Our love for Him does not affect His love for us.

God is love.

Paul didn’t say that life is going to be easy.  Jesus didn’t say that life is going to be easy. But they did give us reassurances and promises that we can set as our foundation. We are victorious in trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, destitution, danger and, yes, even death. The victory is ours because we belong to Jesus Christ and He loves us.

Verse 38 is one that we should put in our heart and keep there. Nothing (nothing means nothing) can ever separate us from God’s love. God is love and love is God. Therefore, nothing can ever separate us from God – not even death.  There is no power that is stronger than God.  Not the powers of hell or the power in the sky above or the power in the earth below – nothing is more powerful than God’s love.

Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is the key that we need to focus on?

Being in Christ Jesus.  We need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We need to believe in Him and believe Him. It is our faith alone that makes this possible. For a more in depth discussion on salvation. visit this link from our lesson on Romans 7:1-6.

Romans 8 is a foundational chapter in all of Scripture.  It is a book that comes to life each and every time we read it. God will reveal layer after layer each time we come to Him.

Be persuaded that absolutely nothing can separate you from Jesus. Help others come to the knowledge of this truth. Allow this truth to lead you into a deeper walk with Jesus.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva