Romans 8:14-17, Thursday May 14th

[Fletch]

Romans 8:14-17 (NASB)

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.





The boundless realms of His Father's universe are Christ's by prescriptive right. As "heir of all things," He is the sole proprietor of the vast creation of God, and He has admitted us to claim the whole as ours, by virtue of that deed of joint-heir-ship which the Lord hath ratified with His chosen people. The golden streets of paradise, the pearly gates, the river of life, the transcendent bliss, and the unutterable glory, are, by our blessed Lord, made over to us for our everlasting possession. All that He has He shares with His people. The crown royal He has placed upon the head of His Church, appointing her a kingdom, and calling her sons a royal priesthood, a generation of priests and kings. He uncrowned Himself that we might have a coronation of glory; He would not sit upon His own throne until He had procured a place upon it for all who overcome by His blood. Crown the head and the whole body shares the honour. Behold here the reward of every Christian conqueror! Christ's throne, crown, sceptre, palace, treasure, robes, heritage, are yours. Far superior to the jealousy, selfishness, and greed, which admit of no participation of their advantages, Christ deems His happiness completed by His people sharing it. "The glory which thou gavest me have I given them." "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." The smiles of His Father are all the sweeter to Him, because His people share them. The honours of His kingdom are more pleasing, because His people appear with Him in glory. More valuable to Him are His conquests, since they have taught His people to overcome. He delights in His throne, because on it there is a place for them. He rejoices in His royal robes, since over them His skirts are spread. He delights the more in His joy, because He calls them to enter into it.

[demonhunterfan]

...if indeed we suffer with Him ...

One of the facets of this ever growing relationship Jesus drew me into with HIM is now one of the most cherished parts for me. At first I did not understand it, thought it was just me reacting to certain sad situations, but thru those situations being so intense and hard for me to bear, leading me to pray about them, I discovered Jesus was just as sad about them as I was. HE and I simply shared that together, just as any two friends might share a moment of pain, and now with more of an understanding of it, and simply being open to my 'Friend's' heart, as HE is open to mine, what a joy! to be able to share HIS sufferings as well as all the good things.

I believe the first time this 'sharing' occured was back during the early days of the Iraq war, when audio tapes surfaced of the terrorists cutting off the head of the first soldier (?) they had captured and their celebrating as his head came off. It was a horrible thing to hear--- his screams and their praising Allah. I remember being at work, in a small shop where a coworker liked to listen to talk radio. I remember hearing the host introducing the audio clip and I specifically remember realizing what I might be hearing and not wanting to--- I wanted to leave the room-- but HE had me listen.........and I realized later that as I listened to those horrible screams of pain and the evil cries of praise, that HE was 'listening' to my heart-- the new heart HE created within me. I remember asking "What am I to do with this?" and it seemed enuff to HIM simply for me to share the pain. HE also however, helped me to vow to HIM and myself that whatever I could do to prevent that kind of pain in the world-- I would do it.

There have been other moments of shared sadness, some of which have led to some action on my part, and HIS Will has been done. All part of our relationship, and I'm thankful for it all.

Later and God bless

[Fletch]

John, I have often wondered if some of the things that we experience in our lives are so we can get a glimpse of the horror and terror that Christ experienced on the cross.

I can't even begin to fathom the pain and suffering Jesus experienced that day. As cruel as it sounds, if we can't understand the cruelty man can inflict on one another we can never begin to understand the ordeal our Saviour went through.

We're told that Islam is a peaceful religion and does not condone violence and we should not allow the actions of the fringe elements taint how we view Muslims in general.

It's impossible for us to get those images and sounds out of our minds. We Anglo-Saxons have a different view of life and death the the religious zealots we are dealing with in the middle east. No matter how much Washington whats to white wash it we are in a religious war.

Both Christian and Muslim can trace the root of their faith back to Abraham. Fortunately, the author of our faith died and rose again and now resides at the right hand of God. Unfortunately, for the Muslim, Mohammad died and is still dead to this day.

The end times began with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we are still in those end times. The events of the past 60 or so years are proof of Gods plan for his Sons return. The world moving toward one common currency is underway. The Euro is the prime example. During this past election eve as we sat praying for a different outcome to the election. The televised media kept referring to Obama as the 'The World's President'. Made me ask if the "World's President" equated to the Anti-Christ? It's easy enough to draw he correlations between the 2.

Jesus told us that we would have troubles in this world but to not be disheartened because he overcame the world. But, when we see and hear of the insanity going on around us it's extremely difficult not to be concerned.