31. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Hello  Everyone:

I took an extra day off for the Memorial Holiday weekend just to get some much needed rest.   I will be posting again on tomorrow.

take Care.

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27. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

My website was down all down yesterday.  Sorry for the inconvenience but we are back up.

While we did not comment on it; our last text ended with Paul saying that we must share in the suffering of Christ in order that we may share in his glory.  Suffering is a part of life and we cannot avoid it.  In our text for today, Paul puts suffering in a global context.  It is not just limited to Christians, but it is a universal law.  All people will endure some type of suffering in this life because of the corruption of man’s nature  or fallen creation but as Christians we can be assured that the glory that will be revealed in us through our suffering is not worthy to be compared to the suffering itself.

Here is our text:

Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.  

Paul goes on to teach that all creation is waiting for us to come forth and through our coming forth, we will help others come into the knowledge of Christ thereby liberating them from their bondage to decay and bring them into the family of God.

Paul goes on to say that we ourselves inwardly groan for the redemption of our mortal bodies and that we wait in hope for that glorious day.

What I find sad about the state of the church today is you rarely hear saints talking about the life they will one day have with God in the afterlife nor does there appear to be anticipation or hope of that life as Paul describes above that we should have.

We have been so engrafted into this world system that later on in the 12^th chapter of Romans, you will find Paul saying “be not conformed to this world.”  The world had begun to rise up in the church at Rome and Paul pleaded with the Romans to not allow the world system to creep up in the church and to keep the standards of the faith.

Lord, help us!!!!!!!

Paul closes this text by letting us know that we have an inner power in us called the Holy Spirit that will pray for us since we really don’t know how to pray as we ought.  Our prayers can be self centered with ulterior motives but the Spirit will pray a perfect prayer to God covering all our needs and the text teaches us that the Spirit prays in groans that we cannot express.  The text teaches that the Spirit will help us through our weakness and will intercede on our behalf.   Wow… how powerful is that gift.   We have so much power on the inside of us that we rarely tap into.  What a waste.  All that power just dormant waiting to be summoned. 

Lord, help us!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend for those of us in the United States and to all my friends in other countries, have a great weekend also.  I will not be posting on Monday as I do not post on our American holidays.  I will be at a water park here in Atlanta all day just relaxing and reading books.  I need a tan.  Lol..  I am so excited for the rest.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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25. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

Thank you all for me so patient with me on last week.  I am up and running.  Welcome back from the weekend.  Those of you that follow me daily know I love my weekends.  This one was particularly great.  The word was amazing on this past Sunday and the worship was glorious.  I love gathering together in the house of God with the Saints.

Our last text discussed the reasons for the law being spiritual and in our scriptures for today Paul discusses the struggle of sin in our flesh. 

Here is our text:

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation–but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “”Abba,” Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Paul continues his explanation on how once we accept Christ, we have the power to live according to the Spirit.  He goes on to say that not only do we have the power but we have an obligation not to the sinful nature but to live according to the Spirit.

We will continue our journey on tomorrow.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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24. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  

In our text today Paul teaches us that we are no longer in bondage to sin though it still lives in our body yet allowing the Spirit to rule in our lives sets us free from the law of sin and death. 

Here is our text:

Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.Paul talked to us in chapter 7 about how there are two natures inside us and the sin nature wars against the Spirit nature.  Through Jesus Christ, we now have the power to defeat the sin nature.   Whatever you feed is what will grow in your life.  If we feed the sin nature, it will grow and get strong but if we feed the Spirit through prayer, worship, reading the word, giving of ourselves, surrounding ourselves with strong saints that will keep you encouraged,  then the Spirit nature will get stronger and stronger and stronger. 

We all know that at any point we can sin.  The ability to sin did not disappear with our acceptance of Jesus Christ but the power that sin had over us and our bondage to it did.

The less we feed our sin nature, the  weaker it becomes and the more we feed or walk in the Spirit, the stronger we become in God and the easier it will become to resist temptation.

While people are looking for all types of solutions to stay strong in the Spirit, it really boils down to prayer and reading God’s word.  Yes, you can put a strategic plan together to accomplish this but if it does not include meditation in God’s word, worship before God and prayer to HIM, it will not be effective.  Those are the basics of getting a strong foundation in God.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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23. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

Thank you all for me so patient with me on last week.  I am up and running.  Welcome back from the weekend.  Those of you that follow me daily know I love my weekends.  This one was particularly great.  The word was amazing on this past Sunday and the worship was glorious.  I love gathering together in the house of God with the Saints.

Our last text discussed the reasons for the law being spiritual and in our scriptures for today Paul discusses the struggle of sin in our flesh. 

Here is our text:

Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Some have argued that this text is Paul’s sharing his testimony as a sinner however; I struggle to confer with that position.  My reasoning being that as sinners, we are not always convicted of our actions because we have not made a commitment to live according to the standards of Christ.  While I am well aware that there are some sinners who are for their own purposes morally conscious and their hearts are convicted when they feel they have failed to reach those standards but  not because of a love for God but for a moral lifestyle that they have chosen for themselves.

In verse 21, Paul is clear that in his inner being he does delight in the law of God but he has also found that there is another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work in his members.

Paul is not admitting defeat for he clearly tells us that that Jesus can deliver us from this law of sin.  To be delivered from something means it has to exist as a problem in the first place.  Once we get saved, the desires to sin do not disappear. 

I think  we can all relate to “when I want to do good” evil is present and the thing that I don’t want to do, I find myself doing; and we have the desire to do good but not the will to carry it out.  We struggle in these areas yet we are saved.    

Our agony comes from realizing that our sinful flesh refuses to conform to God’s will.  Paul looks on almost as a third party as he sees sin send a signal to his body and he responds.

While these are major weaknesses of our flesh, Paul does not dwell on them to make us hopeless but to identify the root problem that keeps us from living the kind of life God requires of us and the one that we desire in our most innermost being.

We will continue our journey on tomorrow.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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17. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Hello Everyone:

The posting part of my website has been down since my last post to you on last week.   I couldn’t even get in to let you know I was having problems.  Thanks for all the messages expressing your concern for me but I am okay.  Nothing is wrong.    I am back up as you can see but I will be away from my computer all day so I want be able to post again until tommorrow.   Again, thank you for your faithfulness in checking in everyday.  I will return to our reading and studying of the book of Romans on Wednesday.

Take care everyone and again thanks for your concerns

Love you all dearly

Bernice

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11. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

Our text for today is as follows:

Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This is a very powerful text and very controversial in the life of the church so I will probably be dealing with it for the rest of the week. 

Today, I want to focus just on the first part of this text; “We know that the law is spiritual.”  What makes the law spiritual? 

I was reading this article that does an excellent job with explaining how the law is spiritual.   Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I will share it with you today.

The Law Is Spiritual:

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.

In Romans 7:7-13, Paul has shown that God’s Law is “holy, righteous, and good” (7:12). In verse 14, Paul makes a very significant statement: “The Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Paul seems to be saying this: “The Law is not the problem, I am.” We might paraphrase it this way: “The Law is spiritual. I am carnal.” Both statements catch us somewhat off guard. Both need explanation and clarification.

The Law Is Spiritual

The Law has already been shown to be “holy, righteous, and good.” Now Paul tells us something more, “The Law is spiritual.” Just how is the Law “spiritual”? How does being “spiritual” differ from being “holy, righteous, and good”? To understand and agree with Paul’s words, we must take several important matters into account:

(1) Paul is speaking specifically of the Law of Moses and not just “law” in general.

(2) As such, the Law of Moses was given by God. God was the Author of the Law.

(3) The Law of Moses is Scripture, “… inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16; see also Romans 15:4).

(4) The Law defines and reveals sin, showing men to be sinners, under divine condemnation and in need of a righteousness not their own.

(5) The Law reveals the character of God to men. It also anticipates and bears witness to the righteousness of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

(6) It defines sins and determines their penalties so that those who break the Law can be punished (see 1 Timothy 1:7-11).

(7) Far more than being a mere set of rules, the Law is suggestive, giving those who seek God much fuel for meditation, prayer, and praise.

(8) The Law cannot be understood apart from divine illumination (see Psalm 119, especially verses 8, 26-27, 32, 33-34); 1 Corinthians 2:6–3:3). No man can understand God’s revelation apart from the Spirit of God. The Law is spiritual; it therefore requires the Spirit to interpret it to unspiritual men.

(9) The Law is not concerned merely with externals but with man’s heart and spirit.

(10) The Law turns men from trusting in themselves and points them to God, in Whom alone they must trust and worship. 

(taken from http://bible.org/seriespage/war-within-romans-714-25

We will continue our journey on tomorrow.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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10. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  

In our text today Paul answers the question about whether or not the law is sin.  We have been studying for the past few weeks about the law versus grace and today Paul gives us a clearer understanding on the purpose of the law.

Here is our text:

Romans 7:7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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9. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

Welcome back from the weekend.   Wow… Mother’s Day was so hard for me.  Somehow that day makes me feel like I’m going to my mother’s funeral all over again.  I do hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day.   Church was so awesome yesterday, it even though I cried from the time of the opening prayer to the alter call, I was so glad to be in the house of the Lord.

In our study today, Paul gives us a very powerful analogy using marriage to show how we are free from the law.

Here is our text:

Romans 7:1 Do you not know, brothers–for I am speaking to men who know the law–that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. 4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Just as when a spouse dies you are free to remarry another, when Christ died, it released us from being “married” or being slaves to the law of sin and to Satan’s control.   We are now free to “marry” or walk in the grace that God offers us through his son Jesus and by the Holy Ghost.

We will continue our journey on tomorrow. 

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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6. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

CRAZY, CRAZY BUSY AT the SPA and I won’t have time to do my post today.   I am so grateful to God at how He is blessing my business especially with the economy.  

I wanted to take a moment though just to say Happy Mother’s Day to all my followers.  You have been so faithful to me and so gracious at understanding my schedule.

See you on Monday.  Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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