Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Eve said regarding being pregnant, "With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man." Similarly, we can say, "With the help of the Lord I am in the family of God."  That is, it is by the Spirit that we have identity into the chosen people of God. 

So this changes everything.  It re-frames how we should be thinking about God's people, and the markers of God's people.  We now don't look in one's PANTS, but we look at the HEART.  Circumcision is discarded for the work of the Spirit in the human heart.  Join me for a 7 minute listen and come back tomorrow wherever you enjoy your daily podcasts. bewithme.us Google podcasts Apple Podcasts etc. Please share.

What if I don't know the moral law that is in the Bible?  Don't worry, God WROTE IT ON YOUR HEART anyway, so you know it already.  Your conscience bears witness to it.  It is something that God gifts to everybody.

The Law just details it so as to convict you just a little bit faster.  But for those who have the law outside or inside, they are basically both in the same boat.

It is good news.  You already know right and wrong.  But there's some bad news too: nobody does it perfectly right.  Listen 7 minutes and let's find out what we are to do. bewithme.us

If all you knew about Christianity was that it was JUST, and the God who ran the show judged and punished righteously it probably would scare you to death.  Because of sin and rebellion, what awaits everybody*  would then be wrath, fury, tribulation and distress.

How about excuses? The dog ate my homework? I didn't know? Why didn't you tell me? Through creation, God has already said, "I'm telling you now.  I'm telling you enough about me already." Yikes. All are without excuse.

I don't exactly want a God who's JUST after all, at least not towards me.  I'd like a God of MERCY AND GRACE and forgiveness.  I want the God of that *. Today is the wrath filled teaser for the good news to come in Romans.  Listen 7 minutes and come back tomorrow for more! bewithme.us apple, google, pocket cast, Spotify podcasts.

God is rich in kindness, forbearance and patience. Big deal. Yawn. Worse yet, let me even abuse His goodness by my mis-thinking and by my mis-deeds.

We don't see classic wrath just yet.  We don't witness people being appropriately punished right after their particular crimes.  There is a GAP between SIN and WRATH.   I see this better visually:  SIN..................................................WRATH. We see the sin. We see the gap.  Not too much classical wrath just yet. We are living in the gap.

The gap, God's patience, is supposed to be a road to repentance. This kindness of God is to give us opportunity to get some spiritual-throw-up in our mouths.  The forbearance should be the path to admitting we are wrong.

Or, we can despise this grace.  We can not value it. We might mis-understand the : PURPOSE of the gap.  Listen 7 minutes bewithme.us so we do the right thing with all those .............................................

This is a very unpalatable section of scripture.  It talks a bit about wrath and perhaps the worst four words in the Bible: "God gave them up." 

Now it is not done without appropriate provocation.  That is, it is perfectly just and right and even holy.  People are without excuse.  The parts of creation, that you have captured on your phone alone, indict you enough to knowing God.  Knowing enough to be accountable to worship and appreciation.  But some chose otherwise.  They exchange the truth on their own iPhotos for lies; They refuse to love the truth.

So there are consequences.  God justly does what is holy.  He gives the rebellious people the freedom to walk away.  And then He does what they think they want, He gives them up. Listen 7 minutes with me of the bad news.  We see this every day in our real lives, so we might as well understand why.  Come back tomorrow and for the rest of Romans by subscribing at bewithme.us and Apple Podcasts.

To find God today, we don't need to go to a church, or read the Bible. All we need to do is to scroll thru the PHOTOS ON our PHONES.  He has already shown Himself to us.  And, we probably took a picture of it.

Romans says that the attributes of God are clearly seen in the things He's made. He's been showing you some of those wonders as you have walked through life.  The exercise today is to scroll through your photos and see how God has been showing HIMSELF to you thru things He CREATED; that you NOTICED enough to take a picture of.

Your photos bear TESTIMONY visually of today's truth from Romans. He DID show you.  You DID perceive.  So do the right thing with it.  Open your photos.  Scroll. You'll see His POWER. You'll see His Divine Nature. Don't suppress the truth.  Perceive it. Celebrate it. Turn the silence into praise. All from the photos app on your phone.  bewithme.us fb insta meta mastodon etc.

Wrath is the holy disposition of God's mind toward anger and justice as an appropriate response to sin. Wrath is the holy disposition of God's actions toward justice and punishment as an appropriate response to rebellion. He doesn't like sin and we should be loving Him for it.  

Wrath is a bit of a theme of Romans.  Wrath is the beginning of rescue. Wrath is the end of rebellion. Wrath is the beginning of the Gospel. Wrath is the end of sin.

Join me for 7 minutes today, and 7 minutes tomorrow, as we put ourselves before God's perfect wrath.  I know it sounds crazy. It probably sounds crazy to join me in saying, "I love God's wrath". Subscribe at bewithme.us. Review rate like share on FB, Meta, Google podcasts and all the others, Truth, Mastadon, Instagram and twitter.

Why might I be ASHAMED of the Gospel? (The Gospel is the holy, perfect righteousness of God's essential character being demonstrated by God's activity toward not-very-righteous mankind)

If I love the world too much, I might be ashamed of this otherwise good news.  The world opposes, mocks, shames, ridicules and reviles the gospel and those that hold it dear. They'll revile me too. I will be ashamed of the gospel, if:
value honor esteem of THIS world > value honor esteem of THAT world

If I love ME too much, I might be ashamed of the gospel.  That is, if I think I must be having a major contribution to my salvation because of my amazingness, this will cause me to be ashamed.  If I start thinking: the GOSPEL + ___________________(something I do; something I contribute) = salvation
The very simplicity of the Gospel might cause me to be ashamed.

If I just don't want to KNOW, I might be ashamed of the gospel.  

My challenge for all those ashamed: Eat this elephant of the book of Romans with me. Let's learn this together and see if it is worth not being ashamed about.  bewithme.us. Listen to the podcast everyday please.

God has been perfect for a long time.  Let's call this His righteousness. He could have decided to keep this characteristic of Himself a big secret from us, but He chose to reveal it. 

He decides to reveal  His righteousness by His actions. That is, the righteousness OF God (His essential character) is shown to us by the righteousness FROM God (His actions, plans, and gospel).  His activities that we see, reveal His character.

So how do we "see God?" It is by His activities here on earth. The righteousness of God is demonstrated by the righteousness from God. And what does God want us to know from the THEME of Romans 1:16-17? That He is righteous; that He shares this characteristic with us by His actions (the Gospel) so we can know Him; and that He is POWERFUL.  He's gonna have to knock a few things down in this process.

Join me in listening.  This is first a podcast. This is secondarily a blog.  This blog is the teaser for the 7 minute listen.  And by listening, I mean really listening, because we are trying to understand God Himself and the way He wants to be known. So come back tomorrow and subscribe at bewithme.us website or any podcast directory you favor.

Paul is EAGER to visit  and to pray for the Romans because he is EAGER FOR THEM. The people in the church at Rome are loved by God.  God also expanded Paul's HEART to include the "area" (ie: people) of the people in Rome.  May our hearts similarly grow.

This eagerness is manifested in prayer.  He has some things he is specifically THANKFUL for.  He has some desires that he puts before the throne.  He raises the bar a bit by saying he does so without CEASING.  He lowers the bar a bit by saying I am MENTIONING you.  

Let's consider who we are spiritually thankful for; what we are thankful for about them; what their needs are; whether we are mentioning them before the thrown ceaselessly. If this isn't happening much, then Lord, grow our EAGERNESS and our spiritual real estate to include more area.   Come back tomorrow more easily by visiting bewithme.us or Spotify and sign up.