Only Good News

Key Life ^ | March 11, 2015 | Steve Brown

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Do you feel guilty? What about ashamed and down? I’ve got some good news from Romans 8:31-39 for you. It’s all good news…and only good news.

God is in control.

The good news of God’s government. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

God is the sovereign Ruler of the universe and I work for him. That’s why you don’t hear me whining. That’s why I don’t beg for Jesus. That’s why I don’t manipulate or put guilt trips on people. I just do what he told me to do: teach the Bible and let God be God.

Sometimes we forget that, don’t we? (And I’m preaching as much to myself as to you.) We forget God—his power, his control, and his sovereignty. And then, life can become frustrating. God has all the power in the universe…and yet, so often, we turn away.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Sometimes it's hard to accept, but God promised to be with us through the hard times. Thanks to grace we can say like David did that: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.

[Tax-chick]

The principle is this: people who aren’t condemned don’t condemn … and you can tell how condemned a person feels by checking out how condemned you feel in that person’s presence.

This is an excellent observation.

[boatbums]

Until a believer finally reaches the point in his spiritual maturity to surrender everything to the Lord, he will not be able to live in freedom and experience the easy yoke and light burden that comes from following Christ. My long time tagline is something that I have learned to live and its truth is constantly being reaffirmed in my life. I know it is true:

God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

That's very true. Anything we think we can handle on our own will enslave us, it's so hard to admit that God is in control and not us. God must laugh at me sometimes when my actions tell Him: “Lord you don't understand I need this stuff, the way is hard and difficult I need to be prepared and in control.” He always tells me: “No child you need me.”

[boatbums]

I think like everything else in our lives we have to learn this by experience. Others can tell us, warn us, preach to us, nag us, but we so often act like the teenagers we once were and imagine it doesn't apply to us - we're different, it'll be different with us. There have been so many times in my life where the Lord has put me in a place where ALL I could do was trust Him. That's how He teaches us to trust Him. Just like the Israelites in the desert - no food, no water, no direction - He puts us in the place where we can do nothing BUT trust Him or die. But when we finally learn that lesson - and I don't claim that I have reached the point where I am 100% perfect - there is a joy and freedom that settles around us and we begin to live as HE wants us to live.

Thanks for these Steve Brown series. He is a great Bible teacher and his love for the Lord comes out in everything he says. You just know he has lived what he preaches.