Live With Him -Romans 6:7-11

"For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Saved By His Life -Romans 5:10-11

"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

Atonement -Psalms 65:3

"Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them."

Redeemed Us From the Curse of the Law -Galatians 3:13-14

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Nailed it to the Cross -Colossians 2:13-14

This is a continuation of a promise I did a few days ago...these verses are so powerful!

"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

The wording of these verses is really amazing...that God forgave us of everything, (when we were dead in our sins), wiping out all the requirements against us.


He took all of that, and nailed it to the cross.

The Father of Lights -James 1:17

This verse to me is a reminder to focus...any time that I lose track, and start to focus on the world, this verse points me back to reality. True happiness only comes from God. I really like the picturesque description used for God in this verse..."The Father of Lights." Jesus truly is "The Light of the world."

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

This really is an incomplete thought, however, so go read James, especially James 1! That will give a better perspective to this encouraging promise.

Brought Near -Ephesians 2:11-13

It's hard to do only one verse of Ephesians...Paul always writes really long sentences, and His thoughts usually extend beyond one sentence...so I'm going to preemptively say sorry, this isn't the entire context...

"Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

I find this really encouraging...to know that we were without Christ, considered sinners and completely separated from God.

But now, through Christ Jesus, we who were separated from God now have been brought near.

Jesus paid it all.

Pure in Heart? -Matthew 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God."

Ouch. If it ended with this, then I would definitely not be seeing God. I like how the verse says the pure "in heart", taking it deeper than just our outward actions, but the motive behind our actions...where does our heart truly lie?

I'm thankful that my purity isn't from me, but that it's only through Christ that I'm considered pure... His purity was given to me when He died on the cross...He payed the penalty for my sin and His righteousness was imputed to me!

We serve a great God!

The Future of Peace -Psalms 37:37

This is an amazing promise...

"Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace."

Well, that would be none of us, right? Are any of us blameless? Can we really call ourselves righteous?

We can, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His righteousness was imputed to us when we became Christians.


For the believer, there is a promise of peace.

A Virgin Shall Conceive ...Isaiah 7:14

...I had my first clementine of the season!

Now what does that have to do with today's promise? Absolutely nothing. I'm not going to even try to make up a corny analogy to explain how it fits in.

Sorry.


However, the promise foretold about Jesus that I'm sharing today is amazing.

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

Not only does this verse give the promise of the birth of Christ, but I find a profound promise in the name given to Jesus: Immanuel.

Immanuel literally means, "God with us." We as Christians can take encouragement from this verse in two ways:

1) That Jesus would come down to earth, and become man, to eventually die on the cross for our sins.  Wow. We serve an amazing God.
2) As Christians, we need to remember that although Jesus is not on earth the way He was before, God is still with us. No matter the trials or blessings we are going through, God is with us. And He is coming again! --though that's a promise for another day :)


God-with-us.

Being Dead -Galatians 2:20

There is comfort in being dead.

No, my goal is not to be morbid. But as Christians, we can gain comfort from knowing that we were dead in our sins, but through Christ we have become alive. Christ lives in us!

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

I also love the last part of this verse, where we see Jesus' sacrifice for us in more depth. He loved us and gave Himself up on the cross for us.


If that's not inspiring to fight the good fight of faith, I don't know what is.