Always Reforming

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  (Romans 6:14) Christian, you have been freed.  Through the Person and Work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have been set free from the guilt and corruption of sin.  The Fall has been reversed.   The guilt of sin no longer has dominion over you.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).  No one, not even the accuser, can bring an accusation against God's elect (Rom 8:33).  Satan has no right to your body or your soul.  Resist him; he will flee (James 4:7).  The power of sin no longer has dominion over you.  "For one who has died has been set free from sin," Paul says (Rom 6:7).  "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11).  We have been given the gift of true freedom--not freedom from restraint, but freedom from slavery to sin.  W...

We Christians pray things like, "Teach me to rely on You," and "Help me to grow spiritually."  We talk about how hardships force us to develop graces like patience and endurance.  We quote Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28 and feel good about our outlook on life.  Boy, it's easy to say all that stuff when life is going well, but it's so much more difficult to be enthusiastic about hardship when your actually experiencing it!  Life has been throwing some pretty stressful things the way of the Spencer household the last few weeks.  It's so easy to freak out and to forget just how blessed we really are (spiritually and monetarily), but, as I continue to pray these things, I am beginning to realize that God is answering my prayers. The question, then, that we must ask ourselves is, "Do I really want to grow spiritually?"  Carnal disciplines (carnal meaning earthly or worldly, as opposed to spiritual) illustrate this idea for us.  I always loved to e...