Category: Romans

Posted in Hebrews, Mark, Psalms, Romans

Speaking from what God has Spoken

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” Hebrews 13:5b-6

God wants you to know that He will never desert you or forsake you. People will come and go, even those who love us the most can’t be there all the time, but God is always with us. One of His covenant names is Jehovah Shammah, which means, “The Lord who is present.” Psalm 46:1 says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Do you believe this? If you do then take the second step of faith and speak it with confidence. It is important that we speak what we believe.  To overcome our fears, we need to believe in our hearts God is with us, and confidently say with our mouths that He is our helper.

Romans 10:10 gives the importance of believing first in our hearts, but then also speaking with our mouths. “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Jesus gives the same principle of faith in Mark 11:23: “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

Some have used this verse to teach “name it and claim it,” which has led to many abuses and caused many to throw out the baby (the importance of confession) with the bath water. But look closer at this verse and you will see that it’s not about confession first, but about believing in the heart first, and then speaking from the place of faith.

The only way you can ever believe with your heart is if God Himself has spoken to you first. Romans 10:17 says that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (rhema) of Christ.” A rhema (the Greek for “word” used in this verse) is a specific word from God for a specific situation. After God has spoken into our hearts (about a specific mountain we are facing), we complete our faith by speaking with our mouths what God has said about our circumstances. That’s when mountains move!

Posted in Hebrews, Jeremiah, Romans

Seeking God 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

God tells us that if we will seek for Him with all our heart we’ll find Him, but there is a problem with this. Sin has so corrupted us that we are unable to wholeheartedly seek God without God’s help. “No one is righteous, no, not one… no one understands, no one seeks God.” (Romans 3:10-11)

It’s sad, but even though we are able to be wholehearted about football or shopping or even our version of religion or church, it is not in us to wholeheartedly seek God without the Holy Spirit first inviting and freeing us to do so. When He reveals our sin, we are able to wholeheartedly ask for forgiveness; when He shows us our emptiness, we are able to wholeheartedly ask for His fullness; and when He shows us the depth of our need, we are able to wholeheartedly ask for His help; but when left to ourselves we are apathetic toward God. Even when the Holy Spirit is helping us discern our dependence, we are able to harden our hearts instead of seeking God. (Hebrews 3:15) We do have a role to play.

The scripture quoted above from Jeremiah is in the context of the Jewish captivity in Babylon.  Is it any wonder that right before the verse quoted above, God assures them of His purpose for them, “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) The judgment they were going through was not because God didn’t love them, or because He was mean and didn’t want them to have prosperous lives. It was because they weren’t listening without these extreme measures. Even then, they had a choice, and so do we today. If everything is stripped from us we can either be offended with God, or allow our desperate situation help us to be wholehearted in our seeking of Him.

Jesus died on a cross so that we could find forgiveness, help in time of need, a sure promise for the future, and a living relationship with God right now. So let’s respond quickly to the Spirit’s promptings and make this relationship our greatest priority while trusting God’s goodness for everything else.

Posted in Lamentations, Romans

The God of Hope

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope, the Lord’s mercies never cease, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23

The nation of Judah was in the midst of the worst trial of its history when Jeremiah penned these words. If he relied on outward circumstances he would have been tempted to despair, but instead he recalled to his mind the character of God. He preached to himself, “God is still love and He loves me; He is still merciful and wants to show me new mercies every single day; God is still faithful and has not abandoned me even when He’s not doing what I want Him to do as fast as I want Him to do it.” These truths, Jeremiah said, were his reason for hope.

What’s happening in your life today? In the nations there is fear of terrorism, recession, global warming, and a disillusionment with government and man’s ability to solve big problems. The secret to hope is getting our eyes off of people and circumstances, and putting them on the God who promises to be with us and to work “all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) All things are not good, but when given to God, they can be worked for good and actually serve as aids to our growth.

We have hope because nothing can hurt us without God’s permission, and we know that if we trust God, we will always outlast our problems. God wants us to overflow with hope so that others will trust Him as well. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

Posted in 2Corinthians, Mark, Matthew, Romans

Are You In Christ?

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” 2Corinthians 13:5

Are you in Christ and is Christ in you – for real? Christianity is not about being nice or about having a certain set of beliefs or rules. It is about the very life of God being inside of us igniting a lifestyle of faith, devotion, and love. How could someone fail the test the apostle Paul encourages us to take? I think there are two ways to fail:

  1.  You were never really converted to Christ in the first place. Jesus said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Faith takes us beyond our logic and reasoning, so to be saved you and I must embrace what Christ has done for us on the cross and trust our eternity to Him in childlike belief. When we respond to God’s drawing in that way, the Holy Spirit will bear witness in our spirit that we are the children of God. (Romans 8:16) It’s not that you will never have a doubt in your mind, but there will be a knowing deep inside that God has saved you by His grace. 
  2.  You were once saved but you have backslidden. All of us have ups and downs so I thank God that we don’t go in and out of grace because of our weakness and immaturity. However, the seed of salvation can be choked out by the fear of man, the inordinate desire for other things, the worries of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches. (See Mark 4:16-19) Can it be so choked out that the life of God that was once there is completely removed? I don’t know, but there are enough warnings about it that if you don’t need new life, you certainly need the life you had before resurrected. Repent and ask the Spirit to renew His work in you with childlike faith.

I think it is important to take this test from time to time in light of the fact that Jesus said that “many” would presume to be saved that won’t enter into heaven. (Matthew 7:21) But I also think that continually taking the test can lead to the paralysis of analysis. Check presumption, but don’t let the enemy get in and rob you of legitimate faith by accusing thoughts that undermine your confidence in God’s goodness toward us in Christ.

Posted in Luke, Mark, Romans

Wholehearted Love

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:39

Jesus told the experts of the law that this was the greatest commandment: to love God with everything in you. I don’t believe we can obey this command apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit. You can choose to worship God and you can choose to obey God and you can choose to say “no” to temptation; but you and I can’t choose to love God wholeheartedly; we need help. Here’s why: I can choose to worship, but I can’t make myself enjoy it, which is what is required if I’m going to be wholehearted. I can choose to obey, but I can’t force myself to be excited about it; and if I’m not impassioned, it’s not wholehearted. When a man is cheering for his favorite team to win, all of his emotions are invested because he wants them to win with all his heart. If it’s somebody else’s team and he’s asked to cheer for them, he might do it as a favor, but his heart isn’t really in it. You can’t make your heart be into something; that’s God’s part.

“The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) True love begins with God, not with us. When the Holy Spirit is filling us He is able to tap our deep passions and desires and turn them toward God. It takes God to love God. We can choose to obey God and do what is right but Jesus is worthy of more than that! He is worthy of us being passionate about our obedience and wholehearted in whatever we are doing because we’re doing it for Him and with Him. For this we need to ask and keep asking to be filled with the Spirit. (Luke 11:13) We are His temple and we only operate rightly when we’re filled with Him.

Sometimes the problem is that our hearts have been damaged, or hurt so badly that we can’t do anything wholeheartedly any more. Jesus is anointed with the Spirit to mend broken hearts so they can regain the ability to love. (Isaiah 61:1) Once again, we can’t heal ourselves, but we can recognize our need and earnestly ask for His healing power to restore us. Ask Him to heal you so you can love yourself and others again; that’s good. But a greater prayer is that He would heal your heart completely so that you can give Jesus the kind of love He is worthy of.

Posted in 2Corinthians, Romans

Becoming the Real You

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2Corinthians 5:17

Modern psychiatry helps people understand why they do what they do by looking into their past. The premise is that you and I are products of our past. If we can identify where we have been hurt, rejected, and abused in the past, we can better understand why we react the way we do today.

While this can be helpful, especially if identified hurts are forgiven, Jesus comes to a human being in the opposite way – from our future. When you give your life to Jesus Christ you are no longer a product of what has been (that is all washed away by His precious blood), but of what He is making you by His grace. He has predestined you to “become conformed to the image of His Son.” (Romans 8:29)

In Christ we are a new creature. The old is passing away. Don’t dwell on the old in you, or you will remain trapped by it. Dwell on what He is doing by His grace, and the power of the old will lose its grip. When you dwell on the old in other people you tend to trap them with labels. “That’s just how he is.” If you look beyond people’s faults and find Jesus and what He is doing, it inspires them to rise.

A missionary in India was discouraged because many of his converts to Christianity were still clinging to some of their old habits. He prayed about this on a walk and the Lord directed his attention to a tree that had lost almost all of its leaves, but there were several dead leaves still clinging to the branches.  The Lord whispered to him something like this:

“There are two ways of getting the rest of the leaves off. One way would be for you to climb up there and cut each one off individually. That would be a lot of work. The other would be for you to wait until spring, when the new life will come through the same shoots and push the old leaves out naturally. Don’t worry about their old habits. Get them focusing on their new life in Christ and they will eventually find themselves completely free.”

Focus on what you are becoming, and thank God you’re not trapped by who you once were. You’re becoming the real you!

Posted in 2Corinthians, Hebrews, James, Revelation, Romans

The Disabled List

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled but healed.” Hebrews 12:12-13

The author of Hebrews is writing about how to respond to hardships in life. All hardship, he says, is part of God’s discipline or training, to grow us up. (Hebrews 12:7) Yet the very hardship that was designed by God for our healing can end up hurting us if we respond in the wrong way. We need to strengthen ourselves and stay on the straight path in these trying times, or we are in danger of ending up on the disabled list.

What makes us weak in hardship are the lies of the enemy. A few verses earlier we are warned to not be discouraged by discipline, or to take it as a sign of God’s rejection. God loves us and His discipline is actually a sign of His acceptance. (Hebrews 12:4-5)

A great danger in 21st century America  is the belief that God’s chief end for us is to be happy right now, so anything difficult must be prayed away or rebuked as being from the devil. God wants us to be healthy, not just happy, and sometimes that means He allows things in our lives that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves. Even if the devil initiated the difficulties because he hates us, God will use them for our good if we’ll trust Him. (2Corinthians 12:7-9; Revelation 2:10)

Because of this, James tells us we should rejoice when we face various trials because God’s end is that we would become complete in Him, lacking nothing. All we have to do is allow patience (our patience with God) to finish its work. (James 1:2-4)

Are you in a time of difficulty? It is easy to be offended and wander away from God. Strengthen yourself right now by embracing the truth. God loves you and this present difficulty is only going to make you better if you just hang in there. Choose to trust in God’s love and rejoice in His wisdom even when you can’t figure out how something so hard can work for your good. (Romans 8:28)

Posted in John, Romans

The Condition of Mercy

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“I will have mercy on those I have mercy…” Romans 9:15

There is a tradition of theology that believes there is no condition human beings can meet to receive God’s mercy.  They believe that before time, God sovereignly chose those who He would have mercy on.  These are the elect and believe in Jesus only because God chose them to believe in Jesus.  Paul’s argument in Romans 9 is key to this theology: “It does not depend on man who runs or wills, but on God who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16)

Although I have many friends in this tradition, I disagree with their interpretation of the argument Paul is making in Romans 9.  I believe Paul is using dynamite to blow up the present Jewish thinking before laying down God’s provision for mercy.

The Jews are certain that God has to give mercy to those who are seeking to follow the law.  Paul makes it clear that God doesn’t have to give mercy to anyone.  He is the Potter and we are the clay, and the clay doesn’t have the right to question the Potter about what he’s making.  Even if God arbitrarily chooses to make some of us objects of His mercy, and others objects of His wrath, we would have no “right” to question Him.  God decides who He has mercy on, not us.

So who does He choose?  Paul comes to his point: “So the Gentiles who weren’t seeking to be right with God, found Him.  Why?  Because of faith.  While the Jews who were seeking to be right with God, didn’t find Him.  Why?  Because they sought Him by works instead of by faith.  They stumbled over the great rock in their path.  God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said,  ‘Behold, I place a stone in Zion that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.  But anyone who believes in Him will never be disgraced.’” (Romans 9:30-33)

God is not arbitrary!  He sent Jesus to die for the world, and anyone who believes in Him will receive the mercy of God and eternal life. (John 3:16)  Those who reject Him will stumble over the One who was sent for them.  The whole argument Paul makes doesn’t conclude until the end of chapter 11 where He gives God’s heart one more time: “For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so He could have mercy on everyone.” (Romans 11:32)

Jesus didn’t just die for the elect; He died for everyone!  If we meet His condition for mercy we can be assured that we are one of those He chooses.

Posted in 1Corinthians, Genesis, John, Mark, Proverbs, Romans

The Power of Words

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Have faith in God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Mark 11:22-23

 When God speaks everything changes!  There may be darkness and chaos, but when God speaks, light and order come in response to His word transforming the world. (See Genesis 1)  But what happens when we speak?  I don’t believe there is intrinsic power in our words, but I do believe that our words can be filled with power if we speak out loud what God has spoken to our hearts.

 Speaking expresses faith.  Romans 10:10 says we believe with our hearts and then speak with our mouths resulting in salvation.  What we believe about God and the world will affect what we speak and what we speak will then affect the world around us.  Proverbs 18:21 says, “life and death are in the power of the tongue.”

 So what is God speaking to this world?  May our hearts be filled with the truth of John 3:17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”  We are not called to be positive in a negative world; we are called to be redemptive in a fallen world.  We don’t ever have to live in a bubble that denies the brokenness and darkness all around us; we only have to believe that God has a redemptive plan for everything and everyone who is broken and dark. 

 Moses allowed himself to become frustrated and hit the rock when God told him to speak to it.  The rock, which represented Christ (1Corinthians 10:4), had already been struck (a picture of Jesus dying on the cross), so God wanted Moses to have enough faith to just speak.  If he had spoken to the rock it would have flowed with water for all the people, for God was the One telling him to speak.

 Today He’s telling us to speak His redemption over our own lives, the lives of our loved ones, and over this nation.  What are you speaking?