A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Psalm 119:95 The command to pursue peace with all peoples, is not a blind chase to love beyond all cost. Like, “What would Jesus do? We are not Jesus! Our protection from the enemy will always be assured in the testimonies of God's Word. Jesus did His Father's Will, as we must do as well.

Good Morning

I will be retiring from work in July and here are some of my thoughts. For those of you that have retired I am sure you must know the apprehension, the excitement and the platform that all of these thoughts use to entertain much of my time as the date draws near. One day soon the door to retirement will open and I will walk through it. My first though is – maybe Jesus will return before then and I will be spared the experience. This is the most solid thought because His return is eminent and Trustworthy. All the rest of my thoughts are superficial and cover only the obvious, like. Will the finances be there? what will I do with my time? How do I keep from getting complacent? What about health? Who listens to old retired people, anyway? There is a bit of anger at becoming old! Some aggressive push now and then, that when the joints ache or the back hurts to say; this ain't happening to me! Only to find out that; yes it is and now you've gone to far and things hurt worse. I find that the fight of being depressed about this season of time can rock the boat when I run into older people and they say things like; “If you don't know it already Jesse! The golden years are not golden!” or &ldquoon't grow old Jesse, stay young!” Then I am reminded – Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, His Name is the sweetest name I know. The person is the sweetest PERSON, I ever met! All that I am and all that I have is His to do with as He wills. This brings much joy and peace to me. So instead of becoming a grumpy old couch potato in retirement, I can and do look forward with great joy of living to the fullest measure of the cup. That the promise of eternity with Him, is far more precious then this momentary light affliction of aging. These years are golden, in the Light of the Father and the Lamb. Revelation 21:22-27 and 22:1-5.

Romans 2

Romans 2:1-5 Do I hear a sigh of relief now that we are moving away from chapter one. Do not be to quick, the apostle is just warming up. Now that he has laid the foundation that all the world is bathing in the darkness of SIN. Now there is a pending Righteous Judgment of God to consider. Surprise! This righteous judgment is going to fall on those of us who think that we are better then those whom we condemn from chapter one. We practice what we condemn others of doing, we judge wrongfully. Our excuse is that in the light of God's perfect Righteousness. “We have no excuse!” If the religious and the irreligious are to be saved, it will be by the Righteous Judgment of God and not the unrighteous judgment of man.

Romans 2:6 Having said this, we should look at what eternal life by God's standard is based on. Is it based on judging others by self seeking and disobedient works of self righteousness? Tis obvious the answer is NO! But, does not all of man made religions argue with God's standard of perfect righteousness? YES. So God has a solution: All of the SIN of chapter one and all of the self-righteous practice of man made religion is placed into the same lump - SIN! by the Perfect Righteousness of God! There is only one standard of Perfect Righteousness and the owner's name is God.

Romans 2:7 More on this verse tomorrow, but eternal life is based on patience and faith, the doing of biblical, “good deeds” (vs 6). For those who search diligently; Sanctification through Justification, resulting in Glorification, called here in this verse “immortality”. This is the theme of Romans..