Grafted to Life and Peace

~~~ Romans 8:1-11 ~~~ Psalm 24 ~~~ Luke 13:1-9 ~~~

 

 ...if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!

 

There is some confusion among the people

about what is really important...

Jesus is making it to them that THE most important focus

should be on their own repentance.

No one can repent for your sins for you.

Jesus made it possible for us to have salvation,

 but he did not say now go and do whatever you want.

Without Jesus how would it have been possible for us to attain salvation?

Our salvation is not a free pass; we must do our part.

It does not mean that we cannot have help from others,

but we must do our part.

 

God knows the depths of our heart...

He knows if we are sincere with our repentance

or if we are just going through the motions.

We cannot fool God.

 

It comes back again to our free will and the choices we make in life.

The grace is available to us...the Holy Spirit is here for us.

Why do we ignore this help so many times?

 

 ...live according to the spirit...

...the concern of the spirit is life and peace.

 

If we want to live in the Spirit we must reflect back

to the world the concerns of the spirit.

First we must be about life.

The gardener wants to give the fig tree one more

season to produce. He chooses life for the tree.

Is it not more important for us to choose life for ourselves and others?

 

 

The Spirit is about peace...if we want to live in the spirit

 we too must be about peace.

We must foster God's peace beginning with those closest to us.

Peace radiates out just as one small pebble,

when dropped on the pond, sends out ripples.

There is no act of peace too small.

 

...if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

Blessings come from allowing God to graft your soul to the Spirit.

Through this we too can live in the same Spirit...

the Spirit of life and peace.