Author: missionspaul

God choosing whoever He wants to use for His glory and plan, whether that be a Pharaoh or a Preacher makes Him look unfair doesn’t it?

It’s like wanting to have the major starring role in the school play but always being chosen for the props person. Not many Oscars are won for being in charge of the props. But what about the villain? More to the point what about the villains in real life who appear to be used of God but who do damage to their position and to people? Why does God use manipulative, narcissistic, arrogant characters?

“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” (Romans 9 v 14-18)

Paul uses the story of Pharaoh (Exodus 9) to show that even Putin’s and Pharaohs are used in the story of God.

Pharaoh’s hardened heart in not releasing God’s people moved Moses into a miraculous season of a demonstration of God’s power from the signs to the parting of the Sea.

Does this apply to salvations so that we can say God determines who will be saved and who will not be? Some would say yes and many argue endlessly all their lives.

I don’t know. I’m not sure it makes a whole lot of difference to me.

But what I do focus on is God’s justice and fairness on the roles people play in history and the role I play is determined by His perfect just character. It is hard in the middle of the storm to see the finger of God working through the Pharaoh who harmed you. But later you will see Him, you will see the good that has come from the bad, you will see His glory and others will see His glory displayed in your suffering.

Ever not been chosen?

I am sure you have had that experience. For a job? A lover? To be on someone’s team for a simple game? Depending on your investment determines how you feel when you are left standing there.

It seems so unfair doesn’t it? Someone else was chosen but not you.

“Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(Romans 9 v 10-13)

If our filter of life is what is fair to us then we are going to focus on who is not picked, who seems like they are rejected or condemned.

But if our filter in life is on the roles we play in the ever-revealing plan of God then our focus is on His glory and pleasure. So if I am not picked for a job it doesn’t mean I decide never to work. If I am not picked to be a lover doesn’t mean I will never love. If I am not picked for someone’s team doesn’t mean I will never ever play games again.

So if you get picked realise it is for a role not because you are better than the rest (something Paul will say next). If you do not get picked then you don’t walk away or abandon faith, you accept the glory of God and His purpose which is higher than the other person that was picked, in fact, it was nothing to do with them, it was all about Him. You don’t do what Ishmael, Esau and Edom (Malachi 1) did by opposing God and the people He chose. But even if you do as they did it will still ultimately bring glory to God.

It does seem to be the in-word right now. Hybrid cars are increasingly being marketed but there are some weirdly funny hybrid animals out there too.

I’m not sure but sometimes I feel hybrid simply means muddy and unclear.

When it comes to our faith, our walk with God and the story of the Bible I can see that we are more akin to something playing out that is hybrid whereas God remains true to a singular focus, promise and pathway.

I am the hybrid in many ways but God steps into my mud and offers me His pure way.

Let’s read some verses …

“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” (Romans 9 v 6-9)

And this is why I was reluctant to journey through Romans!

Many have written their views on these next few chapters proving that the truth is to be found in Calvinism and God’s election of who will be saved v Arminianism and God seeing who will choose to be saved (my very crude interpretation!).

To be honest: I have always found the arguments too heavy, laborious and leaving me still none the wiser!

So leaving that behind Paul seems to be reminding us that life is not about us but about God. It is His glory, His promise, what He has done and is going to do, His decisions and selections of the roles people play in this life, it isn’t about us, we are not Him. We are hybrid He is pure.

Whatever religion I put on my identification papers doesn’t mean anything.

If I am a Jew and I claim my ancestor is Abraham, there is no benefit unless I can claim to walk in the spiritual blessing of Abraham. There is a spiritual Israel within the physical Israel which we are going to discover.

Neither can I manipulate or manufacture my way through to the benefits of God by using an Ishmael. It becomes a hybrid.

I have to stay within the promise of God. I have to submit to His plan. That’s the offer to me. God remains singularly focused, His promise is pure and clear; He has stooped low and through the cross has raised me to be His child of promise.

What we are about to read as we turn the next chapter (though we remember this is a letter with no chapters!) is one of the most moving but also comforting statements in the New Testament for those whose loved ones do not share the same faith journey. In these next few verses we can see the heart of a man who cares for his own people, maybe he thinks of his relatives, his friends, certainly his proud nation. It helps those who are in this frustrating place of longing for loved ones to experience what they have.

“I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” (Romans 9 v 1-5)

“This is how I feel” may well be your response!

This is what Christ did.

This is ‘my anguish’. It is a huge feeling being expressed.

They were adopted.

They had the glory of God in their temple.

They had several covenants of God, even the new covenant that we enjoy was first given to them.

They have the history, His-Story.

You may look at your family pictures hanging on your walls or on the side and write like this.

You weep too.

You know the pain.

You ‘wish’ with all your might you could go to hell for them.

Christ did and today you share in those sufferings for them as you do most days.

It is called intercession.

Two boxers, one $5 billion dollar prize, winner takes it all, one winner collects the money. The conqueror goes home and hands it over to his wife, she is more than a conqueror because she goes out to spend it!

Having spent time wondering about every facet of life’s difficulty the Apostle is persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.” (Romans 8 v 37-39)

Jesus Christ has defeated any defeat in your life. Today don’t feel defeated in your heart or speak defeat from your mouth when Christ has won!

Jesus quoted a verse from a battle Psalm to show how the Messiah was greater than King David; Peter quoted the same verse at Pentecost to show the deity of Jesus; the Apostle Paul carried this verse in his heart and used it in 1 Corinthians to explain the power and rule of Jesus; the writer of Hebrews uses is to show Jesus is superior to any angel. The verse?

“The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” (Psalm 110:1)

Jesus Christ is the battle king of and for your life!

We need to rest as more than conquerors today. Resting in the place of authority and position of strength. Every illness, every struggle and every difficult circumstance He will control and bring under your feet. Like a conqueror with his feet on the neck of his enemy so will Christ do for you. It will happen.
It won’t be your effort or your strategy but it will be you sitting in the authority and power of Christ, trusting Him to work and fight for you.”

It does not mean you won’t suffer. But every weapon that comes against you is not only defeated by Christ but is made to serve the eternal purposes of Christ for your life. Ultimately God’s love always wins.

You may be able to look back on people who used to love you but don’t today. It could simply be that they have died and as your life has moved on you no longer feel their loving words or embrace. It could be that that they are alive but they chose not to walk with you anymore. They turned their back on you. You remember their loving words but now they are saying them to another. Separation from love is a grief sometimes too difficult to bear. It can be all-consuming.

But there is one worse than all that.

Feeling forsaken by God is a definite attack by the enemy of your soul to take the situations that you are in and make you feel so isolated and lonely that despair sets in.

Truth sets you free from this attack.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Romans 8 v 35-36)

They certainly do make us feel we have been separated from Christ’s love.

Outward suffering and sicknesses of the body can make us feel physically drained. The inner distress that no one sees except the smile that hides the hurt buried within. When people misunderstand you or judge you as lesser than they are; which leads to them purposely abusing you in many different ways simply because you believe what they don’t. Financial collapse falls on you and you don’t know if you will have enough food for the table or to clothe the children. Waking up in the middle of war or facing your own certain execution as your other martyred friends. Across the world people are waking to face these 7 situations in some form or another.

The Apostle quotes Psalm 44 showing that there is nothing strange or unexpected about present day suffering for God’s people. Nor is it an indicator that He has stopped loving or walked away from us.

Not one condition can ever separate the love of Christ from His child.

Yes our love may be challenged during those times of stress.

But Christ’s love is constant, it never fails.

That’s the truth. Holding onto that truth will protect you in your bad day.

This is how we know we are going to make it:

“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.” (Romans 8 v 34)

He is not pleading and begging for your life hoping that you will be okay!

He died for you. He rose for you. He is seated on the throne of God for you. That in itself is intercession. But He goes further for He is speaking your name around the throne today. If God is doing this and your name is known in heaven, then it’s all going to be okay!

If you focus on the wrong you have done; what you don’t have then you will not be looking at what God has done for you and what God has given you.

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8 v 33)

It doesn’t matter where you look. 

Look up at the holy angels. Look down at the fallen angels. Look across the world to every person you have ever encountered. Look in the mirror and remember everything about your life, things open and hidden. 

Who can accuse you now that God has chosen and made you right in Jesus Christ?

It doesn’t mean that accusation isn’t there. 

The accuser is never that far away in some form or another.

His aim is to get you to believe what He is saying to you:

“I’m useless; I’m a failure; God dislikes me; God is disappointed in me; I’m lonely.”

For what you think you are is what you do. 

Sin happened because man didn’t know who he was in God and tried to become someone he was never intended to be.

You stand righteous in Jesus.

God will never accuse you. If He did it would mean His salvation was a failure. It wasn’t and He won’t.

We, like Paul, know what it is to have people and things come against us. We know times when we were “under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” (2 Corinthians 1:9) We have been “hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted and struck down” (2 Corinthians 4:8). How do we respond? How do we continue?

^“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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?” (Romans 8 v 31-32)

We have nothing to fear. Victory is on our side.

The hardest thing that God has ever done was the giving up of His Son for us all, to die on the cross for our sin. If you understand what it meant for God to bring salvation to this world then you will see that God has achieved the greatest thing. If God has removed the power of sin and death over your life then why today of all days (Good Friday) are you worrying over whatever is against you. God is with you. He has crossed over to your side and is on your side! God is with you and He is able and He will graciously give you all things to get through all things. He is on your side.

The masterpiece verses are here today. They have brought comfort to every Christian in every generation since they were written.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 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. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8 v 28-30)

Everything of our life, what happens to us, what we have done, the hurts and difficulties are not outside of the gaze of God. Neither is it outside of the control of Him. We may not realise this side of heaven exactly how this works for the good. But the promise is that God is filtering everything and using it for His purposes.

More than this, He is in control of our future also. Predestined, called, justified and glorified. It shows us that God controls our eternity. He knows. Therefore no one can say they have worked enough to get the qualification to get there. He has sorted it all.

So whether in the present or in the future God is in control of your life. Nothing happens outside of His control. He holds you.

That is the comfort we need today.