My Thoughts and Reflections

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:35,37 (NRSV) Over the course of my life, I have felt and experienced some of what Paul is mentioning in this verse: hardship, distress, persecution, and peril, but I have not yet, thanks be to God, experienced famine, nakedness, or the sword.  However, when I have experienced the others, I have had in those moments the natural thoughts of "Where is God in all of this?" and "If God is so powerful and so loving, why am I going through this?" It is during those times when Paul's words here in Romans bring about the greatest comfort.  There is NOTHING and NO ONE that can separate us from the love of Christ.  Wow!  Even when Stephanie's and my checkbook was down to $16 in our first year of marriage and we had no clue where or ho...

"So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord.  Remember the great reward it brings you!  Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will.  Then you will receive all that he has promised.”  – Hebrews 10:35-36 (NLT) On what or in whom are we placing our trust?  As Christians, our trust can be confidently placed in the Lord.  Why can we have this hope?  We can have this hope because not only is scripture littered with promises about God’s faithfulness and reliability, but there are countless witnesses over the course of world history who could give testimony to this truth.  However, it isn’t always easy to trust in God and to rely on his provision for our lives physically, mentally, and spiritually.  When our confidence in God waivers, we open ourselves to placing our trust in things or people who do not have the ability to follow through for us!  What reward is the writer talking abou...