6 March 2022: Reconciled – peace with God

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Welcome

Let us continue to pray for the appalling situation in the Ukraine.

Testimony

“The sweetest … is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious … as I realise this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine … And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been … I am dead and buried with Christ … and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Hudson Taylor

Worship

Word

Please read Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 4:5

• Disobedience to Obedience;
• Previously estranged now called to belong;
• Lost now saved;
• Blind but now we see;
• Dead in sin, now alive in Christ;
• Fallen short of His glory, now justified;
• Slaves of sin, now redeemed;
• Separated from God, now reconciled;

and here in today’s verse,

• Enemies, children of wrath, now at peace with God.

We could go on as there is no end to this list, all of which makes up the gospel of God, the Good-News, the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ. It takes some believing; It seems too good to be true, God justifying the unjust!

We have been given an example of the faith of Abraham in Romans 4. Such faith can face all the facts and yet not be weakened,

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.

Rom. 4:18-21

We can either be strengthened in our faith or weakened. True faith can face the facts as Abraham did, no matter how negative they are. True faith is not fazed by the difficulties, the problems, the mess, but faces them and looks to the promises of God and is strengthened as a result.

“There are 3 stages in the work of God: Impossible; Difficult; Done.”

Hudson Taylor

Who gets the glory as a result? – Yes, God of course!

“God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”

Hudson Taylor

Apply this to the story of Abraham and God’s promise to him, “I have made you a father of many nations”. God said this to him when he and Sarah were at their weakest, and humanly speaking there was no chance of it happening. But God is not limited by what limits us and He requires of us to believe Him, to trust Him fully, completely, with all our heart.

The gospel is quite ridiculous humanly speaking but God has spoken it and revealed Himself through it and all who believe in His Son are justified and have peace with God. What about other matters, do they seem impossible? Look to God, spend time with Him and find out what He is saying about it, not what we, in the weakness of our humanity, are thinking about it, Amen!

Quote of the week

“All God’s giants have been weak people who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.”

Hudson Taylor

Verse of the week

And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Heb. 11:12

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, strengthen us in our faith that we might keep up with You and all You want to do. Help us not to be anxious about anything but in all things with prayer, petition, and thanksgiving make our requests to You, that we may continually know the peace that Jesus died to give us; Your peace that transcends all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Lord we pray for all those who are unwell, heal them Lord, in Jesus Christ, Amen.