A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Psalm 119:119 Ungodly people are like slag or refuse. Some are like the tumble weed of the dry lands of the West, wandering aimlessly throughout the country. If you love the Word of God, you may find yourself praying for some tumble weed you know. “That would be good”!

Good Morning

Adrian Rogers once said that the Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God cannot keep you. This statement is true since there is not a place on the planet that you can go where the Power of God is not available. A little brag for the moment; I have sailed the oceans on the surface and beneath, I have also flown across these same oceans. I am not alone in this, but only us submarine sailors can make that third claim. Perils in the air, on the surface of the ocean and beneath, we have seen the grace and power of God in action. We have like most military people experienced dangers that the normal civilian life cannot know. Our soldiers and sailors today can and should be the story tellers of tomorrow. They have great experiences to share and we should pray for their safety. Yes they have family and loved ones waiting but they also have a story of the wonderful Grace of God. All to many people today think and believe that God has gone on a long journey and left us to fend for ourselves. Mark 13:32-37

Romans 8

Just a side note: Someone is counting the number of times that I have said the word “death”. Over the last twenty eight days of writing I have used the word twenty one times. I checked the epistle of Romans and found that the word appears eighteen times throughout the seven chapters covered and three more times in chapter eight. After that the apostle does not mention death in Romans again. So I found it interesting that Paul does not continue using the word. I believe that the LORD is going to use this information in a very mighty way as we begin chapter nine. I began writing around October 2007 so that is about 500 days plus or minus a few and I have used that word 135 other times. The bible uses the word about 480 times if your counting.

Romans 8:1-10 When it comes to justification and sanctification many of us want to gut it out so to speak, you know like we have to do something above and beyond the laws of God to gain His favor. Well that is just not the case and here is the reason why. There are only two foundational laws. One: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ, and Two: The law of sin and death. Being brought up to obey the commandments causes us to lean in the direction of keeping the law that relates to the flesh. But Christ has given us a new life in Him where condemnation does not exist. Verses 1-4.

Having a mindset to live in accordance with the fleshly standards of the natural life places us in a fleshly mode of thinking and reacting in the flesh. Those who have the mindset to live and react via the Spirit of God actually accomplish the purpose of law of the Spiritual life of Christ. These two laws are so violently opposed to one each other that if a believer is seeking to please God in the flesh, they are actually at war with God and do not know it. Verse 5-8

Since the Spirit of God can and does dwell in the saint of God we then have the responsibility to live spiritually. If a person cannot dwell peacefully in the Spirit of God, then they have never been justified and sanctification will not occur. Then again if Christ is in you, you are DEAD to sin and the Spirit of LIFE is in you because of His Righteousness. Our righteous behavior did not count to please God before salvation and it will not count for anything afterward either.