Recently, Trinity has been doing a book study through the book of Romans. It has been said that Romans was Paul's "Magnum Opus" for doctrinal delineation.

 

I want to ask you this challenging question, How often do you decide to dive deeper into your personal study of God's Word. Do you come across words like justification, propitiation, reconciliation, and impute (imputation) and not truly understand what they mean? What is stopping you from finding out what they mean? 

 

I would challenge you to step back and find out what they mean! God used understandable language to communicate His plan, character, and commands to humanity. Sometimes, that requires you to search, to understand words that are not a part of your personal vernacular. If you really want to know God's will for your life. If you want peace in these troubling times, go to His Word, and be determined to understand what He has plainly said!

  

We have been going through a general study of prayer in Scripture. Believers often battle to keep a consistent prayer life, and we also worry if we are praying like we are supposed to! The Bible is full of examples of individuals praying to God, and these are examples showing us how we can approach the LORD. Some examples show us how we should not approach God, but we continually see a faithful and gentle God who deals with us, corrects us, and instructs us through it all. 

 

The Lord Jesus said believers could approach God as our heavenly Father. We find out in the New Testament that we can come to Him boldly because we have been forgiven and reconciled to Him.  

 

Let's approach HIM! He wants to talk with us, even though He already knows what's on our minds.

 

Pray without ceasing! 

It is easy to see God's hand at work when considering the miraculous fulfillment of many prophecies surrounding the Messiah's birth. When considering the historical accounts of the Creation, the parting of the Red Sea, God's work in the nation of Israel, and many more things, we have no trouble saying, "our God is a big God!" But at times, we see His hand working in the "big" things, but we neglect to think about His work in the "small" things. Consider Mary; God chose this young girl to be the mother of Jesus Christ. God fulfilled His ancient promise to provide the Redeemer; yet, many mocked her character and testimony; some thought she had committed adultery. God sent her away from her condemning neighbors to stay with her cousin Elizabeth, who believed her story. From this point on, God used different means to confirm His plan to the world around her, and there was no denying that Jesus was the Christ. God not only fulfilled His ancient promise, but He also took care of the testimony of this young girl through the angels heralding, the shepherds' testifying, and confirmation by Simeon and Anna.

 

God is the God of the big things! But, do not forget that He also is the God that takes care of the individual things in our lives! 

  The Christmas season is filled with things to do. We busy ourselves with shopping, planning, and attending parties, and decorating our homes to get into the "festive spirit." While none of these things are bad, especially when focusing on our families and friends, believers must dwell on one thing, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

 

 We do not just celebrate the birth of the holy child, but we consider the prophetic utterance of this promised seed (Genesis 3:15). The Trinity decided before the foundations of the World to send God the Son to reconcile humanity to God.

 

 So, as we go about preparing for Christmas Day, let's keep our minds on the magnitude of God's great plan and how worthy He is of all our praise and adoration. He broke the 400 years of silence with a multitude of fulfilled prophecies.