Regardless of Cut

“Now then, the question: Is this blessing given only to those who have faith in Christ but also keep the Jewish laws, or is the blessing also given to those who do not keep the Jewish rules, but only trust in Christ? Well, what about Abraham? We say that he received these blessings through his faith. Was it by faith alone? Or because he also kept the Jewish rules? For the answer to that question, answer this one: When did God give this blessing to Abraham: It was BEFORE HE BECAME A JEW -- before he went through the Jewish initiation ceremony of circumcision." Romans 4:9-10

God’s biblical laws, precepts and guidelines all have positive consequence when followed, whether Old or New Testament. This includes dietary, health and safety, husbandry, environmental, attitudinal, etc. Take circumcision. Many today refuse this cut for their boy babies, thinking it will cause mental distress from the pain. Yet God created boy infants so on the eighth day after birth there is the least blood and pain in this area. He also knew in modern times there would be increased sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer. And circumcision has proven to minimise this risk to women. Yet, when it comes to salvation no cut is enough to save anyone. That’s Christ’s work!

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Denny, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

By and Through

“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we ESTABLISH the Law.” Romans 3:28-31

“’And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” Genesis 12:2-3

By faith. By is a word that means causes or produces. Through faith. Through means by way of, means of or the agency of something or in this case Someone. The Law of God is our rationale not our benchmark for activity!

His Word is just so complete, we just need to keep reading it!

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Denny, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Keep Reading !

“Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” Romans 3:27

“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:21-26

I always find reading James alongside Romans is thought provoking. As a baby Christian, of course, I read the Bible from the beginning. By the time I got to Romans (having read through the Gospels) I found Paul’s statements rather definitive – until I reached James and found my first personal “inconsistency”. What I didn’t understand was whether it was faith or works that satisfied God for salvation. The answer came in Ephesians, of course:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

His Word is just so complete, we just need to keep reading it!

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Denny, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Relativity Theory

“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

How many times in your life have you heard the relatively theory? No, not the time/space /E = MC2/Einstein theory, but the relativity theory of sin....that if your good outweighs your bad you’re on your way to Heaven... that it is a competition of sorts. If you compare yourself to others (you know like murderers and rapists) you ARE pretty good, all things considered and under the circumstances, etc. And what kind of God would send a pretty good or even a good person to Hell because that would be unfair! But God said....all.

Then He said:

“being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publically as a propitiation (full and appropriate payment) in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate HIS righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;” Romans 3:21-25

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Denny, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Purpose of No!

“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:19-20

Law, rules, regulations whatever you call this concept is about creating parameters of black and white. It gives you something to compare yourself to, a benchmark to measure yourself against – knowledge of right and wrong; what is safe and unsafe. You learn this from the time you are able to focus your eyes and thoughts. Normal infants quickly learn what brings them pleasure and satisfaction from their caregivers and act accordingly long before they can actually reason. By the time you are 17 you will have heard the word “no” an average of 72,000 times. When you read the Bible (first time and every time), you learn about God’s boundaries. These boundaries are the “no’s” of God’s creation. These “no’s” lead you to realise you need His gift of salvation and forgiveness. Isn’t that neat?

“Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Romans 2:1

“’For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca’ [idiot] shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.’” Matthew 5:20-22

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Denny’s heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Just One Look!

“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside , together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.’” Romans 3:9-12

“O Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; for the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.” Psalm 7:9

The most lovely and perfect-looking person we know of or have ever read about, someone we admire, care about or even love needs the Lord. When someone tells them there are many paths to God they are trying to “soften” reality. As Christians the hard reality is that it only takes one rotten egg in a large omelette to make it bad; it is not a weighing of how much good there is in the omelette as opposed to the small amount of bad – one is enough to spoil the whole.

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” James 2:10

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New: Billy and Michelle for RECOVERY. Ongoing Requests: Denny’s heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Truly Jew?

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Romans 2:28-29

“’You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life. – For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.’” John 5:39-40, 46

Jesus always looks at the heart; and it is our heart that betrays us. In Jesus’ time His people, the Jews had “expanded” the Law to contain 613 “rules” that covered everything from washing hands to burying the dead. They got lost in arguing over every detail and word of God’s law, and yet, they missed God’s point as well as His plan.

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, becaue I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" I Samuel 16:7

"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

The truth is still happening today with Jews and Gentiles around the world.

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Denny just had heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

The Good Aren't Saved

“For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscious bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when according to my Gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” Romans 2:11-16

Someone sent me a YouTube video link recently to illustrate this point. Do you know who is leader of the largest group of “believers” in the world? I hope you can take time to watch this and think of the hearts of all the “good” people who may be buying this message.

This video is not a political statement in any way, as I know the way this video concludes may disappoint some of you, so watch and listen for the issue of how being responsible for your own life is enough to self-save you; that there are “many ways” to reach God. Because the Bible says “good people are NOT saved by their works”.

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Denny just had heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

What Are You Doing !?

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4

“Don’t you realise how patient He is being with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see that He has been waiting all this time without punishing you; to give you time to turn from your sin? His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” Living Bible

“Or did you think that because He’s such a nice God, He’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but He‘s not soft. In kindness He takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change.” The Message

“Are you perhaps misinterpreting God’s generosity and patient mercy towards you as weakness on His part? Don’t you realise that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance??” Phillips Bible

“Or are you so blind as to trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-enduring patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant of the fact that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent – to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will?” Amplified Bible

The wealth of His kindness! How easy it is to forget about this sometimes.

Know His Word. Take care. Enjoy Easter for ALL it is worth! Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Denny just had heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

What A List !

“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32

I love lists in biblical passages, as you would well know if you have been receiving this as an email for long. Someday this will be another worthy series for you. Why you ask? Well just think about each of these illustrations of unrighteousness leading to death: everything from being disobedient to parents to murder! So we may not have committed murder, but God made sure none of us could boast our way out of the extremities of His desire for our hearts!

Know His Word. Take care. Enjoy Easter for ALL it is worth! Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Denny just had heart surgery. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

A Commentator

“For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. And I do not want you to unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented thus far) in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” Romans 1:11-16a

For nearly ten years now, I have (almost) daily peered into the amazing love letter the Lord has left behind for me and tried to open it bit-by-bit to each of you and as I approach Romans, this most humbling of books, I realise that I am but a simple commentator who is gifted and tasked to share personal insights as an offering first to my Father and then as a mini-reminder to some of His children. What a blessing to be used by Him in the way He has called me! Thank you for reading them and being faithful in praying.

Know His Word. Take care. Enjoy Easter for ALL it is worth! Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Denny - Open heart surgery on 14th. Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

What Just Happened !?

“and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you;’” Luke 24:46-49a

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” Matthew 28:18-20

My mom came to the Lord the week before Easter. She died on Easter Saturday several years ago now, but it was the best week of her life and then to be home to be in His arms for His special day! Easter means many things to each of us....for me it is the memory of five weeks of hopeful expectation that she would get all better and come home to me; yet she instead she got a new life altogether and came home to Him. What did this Easter mean to you?

Know His Word. Take care. Enjoy Easter for ALL it is worth! Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Friday - GOOD !!

“..for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged’ he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’” John 3:16-18

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God; not as a result of Works, that no one should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

“Behold, I [Jesus] stand at the door [of your heart] and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.’” Revelations 3:20

“...behold, NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now IS ‘the day of Salvation’” II Corinthians 6:2b

“And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him’ but some were doubtful.” Matthew 28:17

Where do you stand? Easter is about you and your loving Father and the Son He chose to lose so you could come to Him for Eternity! Take the ONE and pass it on!

Know His Word. Take care. Enjoy Easter for ALL it is worth! Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: Ongoing Requests: Bill - unspoken request; Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

New Series: Romans!

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures., concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:1-7

Normally, I do not do back-to-back series, but I have recently been listening to tapes and reading Romans and cannot resist this book that somehow seems to be a fulcrum for my faith. This introduction alone could preoccupy us for weeks, but it is enough to say that Paul, stood on and relied upon God’s Word and His grace to found a ministry that had unmatched dedication and world-wide effect. In Romans, Paul speaks to both Gentiles and Jews alike in a way that makes a compelling argument for them to believe and grow on in their faith with Christ. I love this book and hope God will use this series for His miraculous and tender purposes in all our lives.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 4:16-17

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New Prayer Request: Ulfur - unspoken request. Ongoing Prayer Requests: Australians recovering from natural disasters ; encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada and his ministry. New work projects for me. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!

Why? Because.

“–giving no cause for offense in anything in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distressed, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the Word of Truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness, for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonour, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punishment yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.” II Corinthians 6:1-10

Some of us will never experience the things listed in this remarkable passage in His Word, some of us experience some of them and some of us will feel pressures from the stress of knowing a loved one or friend is living through some of these. But why? God has many mysteries; He asks us to trust His wisdom and rest in His love.

“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind ?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him’” John 9:1:3

Know His Word. Take care. Your servant & friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New Prayer Request: Ulfur - unspoken request. Ongoing Prayer Requests: Australians not to forget those recovering from natural disasters (drought, fires & floods); encouragement for support workers still labouring. God’s hands on new USA political administration. Barb to find the new job God has for her; wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, Gary, Michael, David & Adrian. Randy’s family moving to Canada. New work projects for me. Praise: Marilu & new baby are home. Randy’s ministry. Lyle’s brother & girlfriend, as he continues to recover his life. Amazing ways God is using the WeakDay Devotions lately!