you ever get that feeling?

Have you ever had the feeling that when the preacher speaks to a whole congregation he really had prepared that sermon just for you? Have you had the feeling that someone is trying to tell you something when you hear the same information 3 or more times in a week from 3 different people? Have you ever had the feeling that God was chasing after you? Not in the scary, oh no, He'll catch me, way, rather like the guy who saw you drop your wallet and is chasing after you because He doesn't want to let you walk on in life and not be fully equipped to take it on.

This is the feeling that I have had lately. That God has had his eye on me and has sent out His sentries to sabotoge my path so that I trip over little clues telling me that I should be looking around me to see where the Guide is leading. These past few weeks this clue has been Romans 8. I've been tripping over that verse ever since I came upon it one night before bed, and after that in communications with friends, then randomly remembering a verse I didn't know was from that chapter, and in church the other day on top of it all. Finally, I decided to crack it open again to see what the fuss was about. I didn't have to read far, but after a while the promises got so big and began filling my heart to the point where I had to see how the story ended:

Romans 8:3...And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

Notice he didn't say sinful men? I think this is the greatest misconception of God's judgement. I've heard friends ask why would a loving God send people to hell? If a man chooses to serve the sin within him that God condemned, he condemns himself. He goes on -

4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Verse 8 caught be by the girdle. What? Cannot please God? Isn't the whole point of living here to glorify Him and please Him? So in order to do that we can't be controlled by sin. I have often heard the famous questions about what constitutes a sin and who decides what is sinful and what is wrong. Even if you have never cracked open the Word of God you can't avoid knowing what is wrong -- some people call it a conscience, I call it the nudge of the Holy Spirit saying, "BAD IDEA!" When we ignore that nudge, when we ignore our conscience we can be certain that we are controlled by our sinful nature. So who falls into that category? ME! Everyone... So if it can't please God and we are all this way, what the heck to we do!?

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

Oooohhh.... If the what lives in where? So, how does the Spirit of God end up living in me? What do I have to do to convince Him to take up residence there?

ASK.

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Um, so if God starts doing stuff for me because He loves me, He must also be pleased with me then. But what's this about a purpose, and the foreknowing, and the predestinations, and being the firstborn, etc. I'm confused. So, first I gotta love God and if I love Him, apparently I have been "called" - a "call" is defined as a special disposition to pursue a particular course - according to His purpose. Oh. This purpose must be the 'particular course.'

But we still haven't sorted through the foreknowing and firstborn and predestined stuff... Who did God foreknow (who did He know before they even existed)? Well, for argument's sake, He's God, He created us in His own image, He is infinite which means time does not hinder Him, which probably means he knows our past as well as our future. Sooo, then according to this He must then "foreknow" everyone! I think I can live with that.

Then he predestined (pre-arranged) that we conform to the likeness of Jesus. Wait, wait. What was Jesus like anyway? If God decided before we were even born that we should be like Him, I should know what He was like right? Well, we know He loved everyone, even the folks who were deemed "untouchable" by everyone else. We know He had the power to control the storms, we know he had the ability to see through a person to their spirit and without blinking an eye He knew the needs of a broken heart. We also know he gave up His life so that there would be no more of this unavoidable condemnation because of sin. Skipping back to earlier verses in this chapter, this has already been established:

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering...

Ooohhh.... so to be in His likeness, I have to love God and people enough to give up my life for them, no matter who they be. I don't know if I can do that, I mean I have so many other things to worry about in life. I don't think it's that important to live for God or give my life for the poor and the heartbroken... what? But why should I get to decide what's important and what isn't? I'm certainly not God and usually I end up deciding things the wrong way anyway!

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

All things? All things... so why do I resist?

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So why do I resist?