Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Romans 8 (New Michaela Version)

Romans 8 has been a great comfort this week.  The last part always fills me with overwhelming wonder.  Here are verses 23-39 translated to Michaela's words.  You can read the full chapter in the NKJV here.  Be blessed! ♥
 
   Even we ourselves groan in the birth of this new thing, eagerly waiting for the adoption, for our redemption.  We were saved in this hope, but hope for what has already come isn't truly hope at all.  Why would you hope for something you already have?  But if we are hoping for something we can't yet see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. 
   Holy Spirit also helps us when we are weak.  When there are no words left and we don't know what to pray, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sounds and groanings that we can't understand.  But the God who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, because Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God.
   We know that everything works out for good for those who love God, and are called for His purpose.  Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be like His Son, so that we could be His family.  But wait, there's more!  The people whom He predestined, He also called.  Those He called, He also justified.  And those whom He justified, He also glorified.
   So what are we gonna say when life comes at us with pain, hate, and suffering?  I know what I'll say.  If God is for us, then who could ever stand against us?  God didn't even spare His own Son, but sacrificed Him for us, so how could He not freely give us everything we need?  Who can bring charges against those God has hand-picked?  It is He who brigs justice.  Who decides the eternal fate of everyone?  It is Christ who died - and rose again.  The same Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father and interceded for us.
   So.  What can separate us from the love of Christ?  Can trials and tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or a lack of clothes, or a bad hair day, or suffering, or war?  Even Psalm 44 says, "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."  But no.  Even in all of these things we are more than conquerors.  Not in our own strength, but through Him who loved us.
   I am thoroughly convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor demons, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation could ever, never, ever separate us from God's crazy love, which is through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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