Romans 6 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Just for You

Behold the sun!  Every square yard of it is constantly emitting 130,000 horse power, the equivalent of 450 eight-cylinder car engines.  Consider the earth! Our globe’s weight is estimated at six sextillion tons—that’s a six with 21 zeros!  Yet it’s precisely tilted at twenty-three degrees or our seasons would be lost in a melted polar flood.

If God is able to place the stars in their sockets and suspend the sky like a curtain—do you think it remotely possible God is able to guide your life? Could it be He is mighty enough to light your path? Jesus said, “Look at the birds in the air.  They don’t plant or harvest or store into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them.  Why do you worry about clothes?”  (Matthew 6:26).

Next time a sunrise steals your breath, say nothing and listen as heaven whispers, “Do you like it?  I did it just for you!”

from The Great House of God

Romans 6
New International Version (NIV)
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Samuel 23:14-18

14 David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

15 While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that[a] Saul had come out to take his life. 16 And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. 17 “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.” 18 The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.

Friendship

April 2, 2013 — by David H. Roper

A friend loves at all times. —Proverbs 17:17

Friendship is one of life’s greatest gifts. True friends seek a special kind of good for their friends: the highest good, which is that they might know God and love Him with all of their heart, soul, and mind. German pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The aim of friendship is exclusively determined by what God’s will is for the other person.”

Jonathan, David’s friend, is a sterling example of true friendship. David was in exile, hiding in the Desert of Ziph, when he learned that “Saul had come out to seek his life” (1 Sam. 23:15). Jonathan went to Horesh to find David. The significance of this scene lies in Jonathan’s intent: He helped David find strength in God or, as the text puts it, he “strengthened his hand [grip] in God” (v.16).

That is the essence of Christian friendship. Beyond common interests, beyond affection, beyond wit and laughter is the ultimate aim of sowing in others the words of eternal life, leaving them with reminders of God’s wisdom, refreshing their spirit with words of His love, and strengthening their grip on God.

Pray for your friends and ask God to give you a word “in season” to help them find renewed strength in our God and His Word.

Dear Lord, thank You for loving us. May Your love
compel us to show love to others. Give us
sensitivity to Your Spirit that we might know how
to encourage them in their walk with You.
A true friend is a gift from God and one who points us back to Him.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 2, 2013

The Glory That’s Unsurpassed

. . . the Lord Jesus . . . has sent me that you may receive your sight . . . —Acts 9:17

When Paul received his sight, he also received spiritual insight into the Person of Jesus Christ. His entire life and preaching from that point on were totally consumed with nothing but Jesus Christ— “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul never again allowed anything to attract and hold the attention of his mind and soul except the face of Jesus Christ.

We must learn to maintain a strong degree of character in our lives, even to the level that has been revealed in our vision of Jesus Christ.

The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others. The overruling passion of his life is Jesus Christ. Whenever you see this quality in a person, you get the feeling that he is truly a man after God’s own heart (see Acts 13:22).

Never allow anything to divert you from your insight into Jesus Christ. It is the true test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you. Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Devil's Censorship - #6842

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

One of my more anxious moments related to air travel, and it actually had nothing to do with an airplane. It had to do with my two sons, who at the time were pretty young. We were going through the security checkpoint on the way to our gate, and all of a sudden they started joking about the one word you don't mention at airport security.

Yeah, they started joking about bombs. Now, that word isn't allowed around airport people, so I quickly quieted, "Guys, no, don't talk about that!" And I looked around real quick to see if anybody had heard them, and thank goodness they hadn't. If you've been to an airport, you know there are signs all over the place saying, "Any joking about hijacking, or bombs, or explosives will be punished by sharpshooters immediately" - or something. You just don't talk about it, that's the point. Those words are not allowed because they represent things that can destroy everything.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Devil's Censorship."

Our word for today from the Word of God, Acts chapter 4, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 17. We're reading about a confrontation between the early apostles and the Sanhedrin, the religious ruling group of that day. Here's what they said to the apostles, "'Stop this thing from spreading any further among the people. We must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this Name.' Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus."

I was talking about airline personnel earlier, and you know that people at an airport don't want to hear the word "bomb" because a bomb has the power to destroy everything. The Devil has a word he doesn't want to hear--"Jesus", because of the power of that Name to destroy all his plans. So, for two thousand years, the Devil has tried to make the name of Jesus the issue; the dividing point. It was two thousand years ago when the Sanhedrin said, "You can talk about God, you can talk about religion, you can do anything, just don't mention that Name"... the Name. That's all through the book of Acts.

It's still the issue today, isn't it? People don't mind if you talk about religion, or even God, or the Bible, or morality, or family values, or your church, but don't mention the Name. All too often we fall right into the Devil's trap to censor the name of Jesus in our conversation. We don't want to be offensive; we don't want to turn anyone off. And there's this little voice that says, "Well, just talk about God. You know, most everybody would accept that." So we talk about God in our lives, but we avoid the name of Jesus. Christian musicians will write songs that talk vaguely about Him with a capitol H, but too often they avoid the Name, so their music can cross over to the secular world. Even Christian leaders try to avoid conflict by watering down the Name.

But Acts 4:12 says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. It is at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow." The power is in the Name. The Devil knows the power is in the Name.

Have you ever noticed when you're trying to talk about spiritual things to somebody where you choke? Yeah, you choke on the name of Jesus. That's the 2,000-year-old editor from hell saying, "Edit out Jesus. How dare you mention the Name." You love that name. You know what is happened to you in that name. And you talk about Jesus, because that's where the power is. He was not ashamed of you when He hung on the cross. Please don't be ashamed of Him.

Have you been timid about identifying yourself with Jesus? Well, the one who's made you timid is the same enemy that's been doing it for twenty centuries. So, don't be afraid to use the name of Jesus. The Devil is afraid you will.