Bible League: Living His Word Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?Although our faith grasps hold of the great and mighty promises in the Bible that believers will, for example, enjoy peace, protection, health, and provision, we still go through trouble in life. Satan sends trouble to us. He sends tribulations (problems of various kinds), distress (perplexity of mind due to our problems), persecution (opposition from non-Christians), famine and nakedness (want due to problems and persecution), peril (dangers and hazards), and sword (a metaphor for violence). When we go through trouble a question, a further trouble, a perplexity of mind, arises along with the original trouble. If the Bible makes all these promises to us and we are not experiencing what was promised, then something must be wrong. The love of Christ, that is, the love that Christ has for us, must have been lost. We must have been separated from it. After all, logic demands it. Satan must have separated us from the love of Christ by sending us trouble. The Bible, however, does not draw this conclusion. The Bible says that none of our trouble "shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). Despite the disjunction between the promises of the Bible and our experience, the love of Christ stands firm. Logic does not apply. Instead, the words of the poem apply: "When faith and reason clash, let reason go to smash." Our faith rests in the knowledge that Jesus loves us in the midst of our trouble and our faith thereby transcends reason and logic. Faith transcends reason and logic by believing that a higher logic is at work, a deeper reason is at play. The mind of God, with thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), has its own plans and purposes. It has determined that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). If there is a disjunction between the promises and our experience, then there must be a higher reason for it that is in harmony with the love of Christ. Jesus loves us. Despite our trouble, His love stands firm. There isn't anything or anyone that can snatch us from the hand of our loving shepherd (John 10:25-28). Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 49, 50 Jeremiah 49 -- Prophecies against Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and Hazor NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 50 -- Prophecy against Babylon NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Hebrews 5 Hebrews 5 -- The Perfect High Priest NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.Insight We should consider ourselves dead and unresponsive to sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed. Just like diseased limbs of a tree, these practices must be cut off before they destroy us. Challenge We must make a conscious, daily decision to remove anything that supports or feeds these desires and to rely on the Holy Spirit's power. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Colossians 2:6 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.The life of faith is represented as receiving--an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us--a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ--to take him as God's free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine. Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him! Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.I Pet 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6:14,16,17 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, • in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. • And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Isaiah 25:8,9 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. • And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. 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