God Is For Us

Romans 8:28-39
What is your form of communication with your significant other? Back in the day, we would write letters and have a messenger carry that letter to the person that we wrote to. Then we had the post office, which was a little faster than the messenger. Then the phone was invented, and later on text messages. Now that we have the internet, we can communicate through email, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and video messaging like Skype or Facetime. If you have a significant other, what is your medium of communication?

God communicates to us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. How do you view the Bible? Is it just another book? A religious object? The truth is that the Bible is God's letter to human kind. Every book points to His only Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a religious object because Jesus was not about religion. I don't know how it is like to grow up under the influence of another "religion," but I learned throughout the years that true Christianity is about having a relationship with Christ and following Him. The meaning of religion, which means "to tie again," has changed. Something needed to be tied again because it was broken by sin. A perfect relationship with God was broken in the Garden of Eden because of sin. Our sin separates us from God. What God offers according to His Word, the Bible, is Jesus Christ. It says in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in HIm will not perish, but have everlasting life."

The Bible tells us that God is for us in Romans 8:31. If you were crazy enough to sacrifice YOUR son/daughter for a criminal, what else would you be willing to give up? God's love is crazy enough that He didn't spare His only Son for you and me. God truly is for us because He thought of us before we were even created and He gave us a destination. He has a plan for you but it starts with YOU making a CHOICE to love Him (Romans 8:28). When we make a choice to love someone, we start a relationship. It is the same with Christ.

God is calling us and it goes back to the cross. The cross is screaming salvation, hope, peace, restoration, and redemption. If Jesus was able to conquer death, sin, and hell, what else can stand against Him? When you allow Jesus to become your identity, when He becomes YOUR salvation and strength, YOUR peace and hope, YOUR restoration and redemption, who can stand against you? Even if the enemy will stand against you, Jesus will always be the VICTORIOUS ONE (Romans 8:34).

Christ's love will WORK FOR YOU because when you receive it, nothing can separate you from it. All you need to do is to have a sincere and humble heart to receive His love, mercy, and grace.

The Midget Tax Collector

Text: Luke 19:1-10

What would you do to meet a celebrity? Taylor Swift, a famous pop/country artist, goes out of her way to show appreciation for her fans. On June 2011, Taylor Swift did a 13-hour meet and greet with her fans just so everyone who wanted to meet her could. While she was driving by the mall, she saw a teen wearing one of her tour T-shirts. She made a quick u-turn and searched for the girl inside the mall. After a few minutes of searching, she found the 11-year old girl inside a video game store and introduced herself to her and says, "Oh, hi. I wanted to meet you." The girl was speechless for about 3 minutes. Her mom walks over bursting into tears and explains to Taylor Swift that she drove all the way from Austin, Texas just to see her in concert.

In the first 10 verses of Luke 19, we read about the story of Zaccheus. His name literally means "pure" but everyone hated Zaccheus because he was a publican/tax collector and he was rich. He heard that Jesus was coming to town and he was interested in seeing Him. In the previous chapters in Luke, Jesus performed miracles: He made the lepers clean; He heals the servant of a centurion; He feeds a multitude by the thousands. Whatever miracle Jesus did for other people, Zaccheus wanted it for himself. As a matter of fact, Zaccheus was so interested in Jesus that he had the sense of urgency to find the nearest tree just so he can have a physical sight of Jesus. However, the Son of Man wanted to give Him more than than. Zaccheus had enough faith to not be embarrassed about seeking Jesus. Think about it. A lot of things could have gone wrong that day but Zaccheus was focused on seeing Jesus. A midget tax collector climbing a sycamore tree could have fallen in front of hundreds of people, but that wasn't even on his mind. But before Zaccheus even heard of Jesus, God had a plan to change his life. Jesus would bless Zaccheus' house with His presence in front of a multitude in Jericho to show them that the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.
The same message applies to you. God has a plan for you even before you heard of Him and made a decision to receive Him joyfully in your life. In Romans 8:27-30, it says that He has a plan for those who love Him, and love starts with a relationship.