Romans 8:22-39 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: The Plate Runs Over

Give us this day our daily bread.  What a statement of trust!  Some days the plate runs over.  God keeps bringing out more food and we keep loosening our belt.  A promotion.  A privilege.   A friendship.  A gift.  A lifetime of grace.  An eternity of joy.

The Psalmist said:  “You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.  You revive my drooping head; my cup fills with blessing.”  (Psalm 23:5, The Message).

And then there are those days when, well, we have to eat our broccoli. Our daily bread could be tears or sorrow or discipline. Our portion may include adversity as well as opportunity.  The next time your plate has more broccoli than apple pie, remember who prepared the meal.  Even Jesus was given a portion He found hard to swallow.  But with God’s help, He did.  And with God’s help, you can too.

from The Great House of God

Romans 8:22-39
New International Version (NIV)
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[b]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[c] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Joel 2:21-27

21     Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
    be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things!
22     Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
    for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit;
    the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Be glad, people of Zion,
    rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
    because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
    both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
    the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm[a]—
my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

Making Up For Lost Time

April 11, 2013 — by Joe Stowell

that the swarming locust has eaten. —Joel 2:25

None of us can say that we have no regrets. Often we are led down paths of bad choices—some paths longer than others—which can have a lingering effect on the mind, body, and soul.

A friend of mine spent a number of years living a life of alcohol and drug abuse. But God did an amazing work in his life, and he recently celebrated 25 years of being free from substance abuse. He now runs a successful business, has a devoted wife, and his children love Jesus. He has a passion to reach out to others who are in the ditch of life, and he serves as a wise and loving mentor in the rescue operations of their lives.

God never gives up on us! Even if we’ve made poor choices in the past that have left us with regret, we can choose how we will live now. We can choose to continue destructive living, simply wallow in regret, or we can run to Christ believing that He has ways to “restore . . . the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). When we repentantly seek His healing and freeing power, He is merciful.

While some consequences from the past may remain, we can be confident that God has a good and glorious future for those who trust in Him!

Lord, it is with humble and grateful hearts that we
come to You and lay all that we have been in the past
at Your feet. Take us as we are and make something
beautiful out of our lives that brings glory to You!
God never gives up on making something beautiful out of our lives.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 11, 2013

Complete and Effective Divinity

If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection . . . —Romans 6:5

Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.

The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Okay, here's the scene: My wife and I are sitting together on an airplane. I'm busy working, trying to be a good time manager; getting my work done on my way to Chicago. And my wife has headphones on listening to whatever program happened to be on the stereo system, and she's laughing out loud. You know how frustrating that is? I'm trying to get work done and she's ho, ho, ho, ho! Listen, that drives you crazy when you don't know what somebody's laughing at.

So, I finally gave in and got the headphones myself. She was listening to Bill Cosby talk about his 50th birthday - Bill Cosby on being 50. And you know, he has this great ability to capture the real everyday feelings of our experiences. Well, this was a hilarious description of getting up to get something from the other room, and it sounded all too familiar. You know, you get in the other room. As soon as you get there, you totally forget what you went there for. So, you return to your chair. As soon as you sit down, of course, you remember. And he took off from there. Well, we were laughing so loud, because I think... Well, because it was "us." I do that all the time.

I used to remember every phone number. Today it seems to slip between the cracks in my brain very shortly. Now, names; I have no problem remembering names. Just ask my engineer, Fred. Oh, no! It's Jason. I'm sorry, excuse me. Wait. I tell you, names, phone numbers, whatever it is. You say, "Well, that's a problem for old people isn't it?" Oh no, no, no. Memory loss? That's a serious problem for all ages.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Soul Amnesia."

Our word for today from the Word of God is from the 78th Psalm. David is writing, and he says in verse 40, "How often they (speaking of the Old Testament Jews) rebelled against God in the desert and grieved Him in the wasteland. Again and again they put God to the test." Do you suppose we could update that? Maybe it could be you and me? "Again and again they put God to the test. They vexed the Holy One of Israel."

Now, why? Why did they keep messing up? Here's why: amnesia. They did not remember (the Bible says) His power. And then this scripture goes on to show the many times He demonstrated His power, His faithfulness in the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, etc.

I was with a friend for lunch not too long ago and he was talking about some of the mountains in his life and faith when it comes to moving mountains. He said, "You know what disease I think a lot of Christians have, Ron? Spiritual amnesia." Well, that got me thinking. That was the problem back with God's ancient people, and it's been the problem for all these centuries. We forget what God has done! We keep wandering into rebellion and dumb decisions because we forget God's past deliverances. And that's a problem for all ages.

But look back, would you? Yesterday's mountains that you thought would never move -it was impossible. Today those mountains are monuments to God's power and faithfulness. You say, "Yeah, but this mountain..." We start to panic; we hotwire some solution. We turn from God. If you look back, your life is a series of cliffs you came to the edge of, but you never went over. Of rescues that came at the last minute, but always came. Of times when waiting really paid off. At times that looked like this was the end, but there was one more chapter wasn't there? That you didn't expect. The waters always ultimately parted! But today's obstacle is making you forget.

Settle back; flip through the scrapbook of God's adventures in your life. You'll see that He has always come through, and He will this time. So, don't go wandering off somewhere into some deadly mistake because of spiritual amnesia. Many a major mistake is made because of spiritual memory loss. Don't forget the miracles.