Friday, September 05, 2008

The Roman Road

When I was growing up at home, my father (who was also the Pastor then) would often advise young Christians to begin their journey with the Lord in the book of Romans. I can remember him telling them to walk the Roman Road with Paul. Of course, this was many, many years ago and that had totally left my mind until one morning I was sitting having devotions while on vacation last month when I could clearly once again hear his words in my head and felt the Lord drawing me to take a walk with him down the Romans Road.

I have since completed my journey down the Romans Road and cannot even begin to tell you how much the Lord spoke to me through those passages of scripture. I read it in the Message version of the Bible, usually reading just a chapter a night and night after night, I found myself faced with foundational truths that are often over looked by some Christians.


Out of everything I learned, relearned and discovered, the Lord spoke to my heart the most through Romans chapter 5. Could it be because patience is what God is trying to develop in me? Or maybe it's because He just wanted to confirm to me the "Spacious Place" that He longs for me to live in. Read what He is saying:


1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

3-5 There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

WOW! When I was at my worst, I was put on friendly terms with God through the death of Jesus. So unworthy....that's how I feel. Did you catch the part in verse 2 where Paul is telling us of the wide-open spaces that the Lord longs for us to live in? I sure did. And the more I read, the more my spiritual eyes were opened to see that if we live in the wide-open spaces that He has called us too, then verse 5 truly becomes a reality for our lives in that we cannot round up enough containers to hold all that God is pouring into us by his Spirit.

That is the place I am now. God is doing so much in my life that I have a hard time forming the words to truly praise Him the way that my soul longs too. Revival has come to my spirit in a way it never has before....I have a true hunger for the Word that I never had before. I could spend days just reading and soaking it all in. There is an thirst for more of Him that I cannot quench no matter how much time I spend in prayer and study. Everyday, there is some new way that I am able to rejoice in Him because of His revelation to me or someone close to me! If I was able, I would steal away somewhere, just me and Jesus for as long as I could stand to be with Him. Just so that I could give Him my undivided attention. Right now, I am so thankful that I am able to spend the time with him that I do, which has really increased since my children are older. But I want MORE. My soul cries out for More -- more of Him and less of me, more time with Him, more knowledge of Him, so much more that I can hardly recognize myself for seeing Him. And I am determined that no matter what it takes I will continue until I get all that He has for me and I become the daughter He designed for me to be! I may be 80 years old and still on this journey, but I will not quit - the reward will be worth it all.

I love living "out in the open, into a spacious, free life". (Romans 8:6b)

So, if your stumped...if you don't know where to start...if you need direction...I encourage you take a walk down the Roman Road. There's no better place than the spacious place He's designed just for you.

Blessings!
Joy


I Will Search - Israel Houghton

Israel & New Breed I Will Search For You lyrics

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love you, love you, love you!!!!

MOM
































Love you, love you, love you!!

Mom

Anonymous said...

My Joy,
Do you know how many times I thank our God in Heaven for you?? How much I have been expanded by you and it's all because He knew?? He knew what I would need and when. Who and how. Thank you for walking down the Romans road with me, for putting it to me like that. I love knowing that God is just waiting on one thing, the one thing that means the most, the one thing He waits for to open His hand after swinging wide open His doors. ME!! I am the one thing He waits for most often and He is always there, right where He said He would be. Waiting for me. I love you so much, I love that we have this, I love that He joined our paths together and that He knew I would need you!! I love that you are the PERFECT spiritual big sis for me and that I didn't have to do anything but wait for Him!! I love you and I love watching Him grow you even as I know He's growing me!! Thanks for being you, the most perfect you He made you to be!! Thanks for sharing your Dad's way of putting it with me and it's kinda cool to know that the same pastor who taught John as a child and his grand-parents, in some way inspired me when I walked down the Romans road! The problem with being a Christian for a longer time is that somewhere and somehow at some point, we get too far out there away from the center of it all. Away from the basics and it is soooooo refreshing to go back to that point, when it all came to life for you the first time with new perspective, new eyes wide open, new experiences to put it to. It takes me back to when they told me He had the whole world in His hands and I opened my tiny little ones and thought "WOW, HE IS A REALLY BIG GOD!!" And I just knew it to be true and it was. No explaination needed, no how, no why, just HE WAS!!! THAT MUST BE THE "I AM" IN IT ALL!~