The Love of Christ

Today is Christmas, So I want to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas! I hope you are all doing well, and pray that the peace of God be upon you this very night, the night which He gave the most precious gift of all into this world, His son, Jesus Christ!

Now I won't go through the whole story of Christ being born into this world and the three wise men, or the shepherds that did celebrate that night. I was going to go into talking about something that has been becoming more.. prominent in the Christian world today, which I classify as sin that has some how been classified as okay above all other sins, though to me sin is still sin. But I will not talk about that either, rather the love of Christ and a few verses that caught my eye in Romans.

"³¹ The people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed, ³² because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did instead of trusting in God to make them right. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble. ³³ As it is written in the Scripture:

“I will put in Jerusalem a stone that causes people to stumble,
    a rock that makes them fall.
Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed."" - Romans 9:31-33(NCV)

Few things about this verse that caught my eye and made me curious, number one was the ending from Isaiah 8:14;28:16 - which mentioned a rock that stumbles people, but yet if one trusts in the rock, they will never be disappointed. Reading it on it's own will make you wonder, how can you trust something that makes you stumble? Well the answer is in the verses before that. People tried to make themselves right with God by doing as much good and abiding by the Law, yet in complete utter failure, thus it stumbled them. Rather if they just trusted in God to make them right, which is a total shift from following the law(instructions) it would have been a success. This means, rather than trying to do right, you trust in God to make you right, you trust in Him knowing you are totally not capable, there is a scripture that says this:

"Be STILL and KNOW that I AM God. I will be praised in all the nations; I will be praised throughout the earth" - Psalms 46:10 (NCV)

I did a little read up on what it means to be still, it doesn't actually mean sit still and not move, it actually means, STOP TRYING, STOP Being strong, and be WEAK, and know that I am God, to acknowledge that you are not able, and He is God. That is something amazing, when you do that, and trust in Him he'll make you right. A Strength that is through God instead of through your own self. I'll be honest, I am totally weak, when I think I am strong, that's the moment I fall so bad I sometimes wonder why God bothers to still love me. Yet He'll come back time and again saying, as long as you get back up, repent, and truly walk away, back towards me, then you ain't lost it.

Which leads me to this verse:

"³¹ What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?] ³² He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]

³⁴ Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us? ³⁵ Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword? 

³⁶ Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. 

³⁷ Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors ^[a]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things ^[b]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:31-39 (AMP)

I know the verse above is quite a mouthful to take in, but bear with me, I'll try to cut it up into nice bite sizes so it's easier to digest :). Here is an honest confession, I am not perfect, I still struggle with sin, but I will not accept sin as part of my nature, neither will I try to make an excuse for it to be okay to do it because everyone else does it.

Here in this verse, it mentions, if we are still battling, if we still put God first and not rely on ourselves, if God is with us, then who can really be against us? He gave everything for us, so is he going to with hold any thing else that is within his love? There is no one in this world that can judge those whom God has chosen  no one can deem them guilty, basically there ain't nothing that can accuse you of being wrong. Not because of what we have done, but simply because Christ died!(trusting in him rather than by our own strength). 

From this we can see that when Christ died for ya, it's not an easy task, we as humans don't even feel like doing something when someone doesn't appreciate it, more so when Christ did it people were spitting on Him, yet in all that he loved us. Now, with that said, Now there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from His love, because if there was.. Christ would have just threw his cross on the ground and said, this ain't worth the effort. But He didn't, now with or without Christ we will always have trouble, but with Christ, it's clearly mentioned, we are more than conquerors, that in itself is a whole sermon which many preachers have gotten into. I am not a preacher, just a brother who hopes my family will be encouraged, and those who have yet to know Christ can rejoice at such news, because it's readily available for you, simply because Christ died for you and rose again, and with a confession of saying He is your Lord and Saviour, that you turn from your sins and rely on his strength, you will become part of our family :).

I didn't go any deeper into this, but that's about what I wanted to share, I hope you are all encouraged, even those who haven't come to know Christ, You are loved by Him, if you weren't God wouldn't of even bothered with Christ coming down, just flip the table and say, yeap these guys are done for let nature handle them. 

(yes I know many people will have much questions, but why not ask God or even get to know His character more, you know when isreal turned away from God in the past, much happened to them, and how he wished for them back so he could love them more, it's kinda similar nothing has changed much, and no I do not think society has changed, age to age, we are as morally crazed from this to the next)

Stay blessed, and love ya all!

-Chris