Sunday, December 9, 2012

Guest Post: Should We Continue in Sin?

Well, ya'll, it's your lucky day! Today we have our first guest post! 
My husband (the Brad in the 'Brad & Gillian), is taking a class on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and as a project he wrote this little article. So, without further ado:


Should We Continue in Sin?

   Paul begins the sixth chapter of Roman with a question: “Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1, KJV) Obviously Paul must have been having trouble with “sinning Christians” or he would not have felt compelled to write about the subject, but what is he really saying?
  Some felt that the abundance of grace was a license to go on sinning; after all there was plenty of grace to go around. But Paul immediately rejects this idea in the next verse with a resounding “God forbid.” He states, ‘how can someone who is dead to sin go on living in sin?' To continue in sin would actually contradict the very purpose of grace; Paul’s was telling us grace is so much greater than any sin that we might commit, not that it just keeps covering as we keep sinning. Those who are in Christ are dead to sin - just as He died once for all to cover our sin, we die to sin and it no longer reigns in our lives. To suggest that a Christian could go on sinning is inconsistent with Christ’s nature and thus inconsistent with the nature of those who are in Him. Christ came to forgive and remove sin from our lives so that we might live in victory. Paul is not suggesting, as some might, the literal impossibility of sin, but the moral inconsistency of it - is it not a contradiction to say that we died to sin and yet continue to live in sin?
   A Christian is not only dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus, just as He is now alive. We walk in a new life, free from the bonds of sin and death because the payment for our sin was paid on Calvary. So if Jesus died for our sin, and we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ, how can we let sin reign? It is a total contradiction! Paul goes on later to tell us “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12), and, “let us put aside the deeds of darkness” (Romans 13:12, NIV), and such statements as these. He is showing us that while we will be affected by temptations we do not have to let it reign or take over in our lives. Why would Paul put all of this down and spend so much time explaining it if it is not possible to live without sin? But, some would cite the Scripture that says if you say you are without sin you are a deceived (1 John 1:8, KJV); it’s true the Bible does say that all have sinned, but it is talking about the nature of sin we are born with and how that no man or woman that is born has (past tense) not committed sin. This is not saying that we should live in sin. Again, how could Paul say he is dead to sin if it was impossible? Since we know the Bible is truth and cannot lie, we must look at the whole picture: if Paul and others say we can live “dead to sin,” then the meaning in the verses just mentioned must be simply that all have sinned, but that all do not have to continue to sin. Of what use is the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus to us if it does not get rid of sin? That is why He came - to free us from sin - and if we are truly dead to sin and free in Christ then we should live and act like it. Let the grace of God remove the sin from your life and then through His grace you can continue to live “dead to sin”.
  
    It’s in the Bible - why would God have Paul write it down if it was an impossibility for us? Think about it!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Christmas Card 2012




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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Odds and Ends...


You may notice a few posts popping up that are dated earlier in the year. No, you're not imagining things.
I'm trying to catch up on all posts that I never got around to doing. I had hoped to be able to print my blog posts for the year in a book for family members for Christmas, but, alas, I failed to make the necessary posts! The new posts have the dates on which they SHOULD have been posted in order to keep things in chronological order.

Note: If you are my friend on facebook, you've already seen some of what I'll be posting here. Feel free to ignore whatever you've already read - I'm just reposting it here for the day when I finally get around to posting regularly and decide to print this thing! :)

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

So you think God doesn't care about your little problem?

So you think God doesn't care about your little problem?
On Tuesday night, the kids and I came out of Walmart in the pouring rain, got in our truck...and it wouldn't start. Wouldn't turn over, nothing.
Oh, did I mention that my husband is working in Baton Rouge (on the other side of the state) and won't be home 'til Thursday (or something like that)?
Some time passed....I called the hubby and stuff like that, and during that time I tried it several times....nothing. 

After I got off of the phone, I finally I told the kids that we needed to ask Jesus to fix our car (you have to understand that for me to call someone and ask them for help there has to be NO other option. Ok, for me to call someone period, it has to be almost an emergency...just a strange quirk in my personality). 


Juliana laughed and told me that Jesus doesn't fix cars; I told her that he does - that Jesus can fix anything!


She said, 'well, I've never seen Him do anything like that!' But a moment later, I heard her murmuring, 'Jesus...please fix our car...'



A couple of minutes later, I put the key in, turned it....and it started.




We drove home. I started it again just for fun. 


Wanna rethink the answer to that first question? :)











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But the story doesn't end there:

The next day....

After our little adventure with the truck not starting the night before, it was fairly obvious that I was going to have to get a new battery - and quickly. It did start every time I needed it throughout the day taking Juliana to school and what-have-you, though it was struggling greatly. When I parked it at Walmart to have them install the battery, just from the time I turned it off and went and handed the keys to the mechanic,
 to him starting it it almost didn't start...so not only did Jesus fix it for us that night, He kept it running until I could get it fixed!

Now for the rest of the story:
I went to Walmart to get a battery, wondering all the way how I was going to fit this expense in the budget with all of the other extra expenses we're going to have this month - and believe me, there's plenty - not just two birthdays and Christmas (didn't we time the birth of our children well? We have Thanksgiving, a birthday, two weeks later another birthday, and then Christmas!) but one vehicle just had to have a brake line repaired, it needs new brake pads NOW, I need new tires on the back of both vehicles, plus quite a few other fairly large expenses that we don't normally have.
 Please understand, I'm not telling this to make anyone feel sorry for us - we'll make it.
 I'm just telling you that God works on behalf of His people.

Back to my story...They installed the battery for me, and I went in to pay. After waiting for a bit for a CSM to come approve a battery exchange (to get the core fee waived since I gave them the old battery), the lady at the desk rang everything up and said,
 'Ok, looks like all you owe me is $10.87!'
The battery should have been $99.97 + tax

Apparently the old battery had been in just under three years (it was in when we bought it, so I  had no idea how old it was) and was still under warranty!

$11.00 instead of $111.00? I'll take it!!!!! :)

Isn't God good?