July 24, 2011

Romans 8:39-I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (The Message bible)

Of what are you “absolutely convinced?” What are the unshakable truths of your life? For Paul the bedrock of existence was the love of God in Jesus Christ. In a passage from 2 Corinthians Paul lists all the things he endured as a witness for Christ: “I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather” (2 Corinthians 10:23-27). After all this, when Paul says “nothing can get between us and God’s love” he deserves a hearing. How good would life be if we shared this conviction in the deepest parts of our being? Something to ponder this week.

Don