Wow! A lot has happened since we last talked. I don’t know where to begin so I will simply begin here; my squad and I have moved to Jaco, Costa Rica! A disclaimer before you (my valued reader) start your journey reading this blog, I will not be talking a lot about myself, the beautiful beach town I’m in, or anything related to those two subjects. Well… why am I reading? I’m glad you asked! I would love to talk about the grace of God, the love of Christ, and the life of David!

              Let’s begin. Starting out in Romans 12, Paul writes, “Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters,” Pause. Why does he say therefore? Good question, go read the last paragraph of Romans 11! Resume. “in view of God’s mercy,” in view of God’s mercy, so everything he instructs is because of the mercy of God. “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God…” This is HUGE! Yeah, yeah, be a sacrifice – NO! be a LIVING sacrifice! Choose into offering yourself to Him every day, choose into becoming less as He becomes more every day! And this is because of the mercies of God.

              Anyway, Paul goes on to give a promise of being transformed if our minds are renewed (by the grace of God) and a promise that we will be able to test and approve what God’s perfect will is. Such good stuff, but this isn’t the focus of today’s blog.

              Verse 3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…” So Paul is suggesting that he is living out these instructions of thinking of yourself with sober judgment, but the key word being “by the grace given me” This is super important because Paul isn’t telling us how great he is because of his own accomplishments, he is giving glory to God because of His grace! Essentially it is only because of God that I can think of myself not as highly, and in fact, think of myself with unadulterated judgment.           

              This has all been on my mind a lot. I can fully relate to everything Paul says because of how far God has brought me already and I can recognize change in myself and others because of His grace.

              Next, let us talk about the love of Christ. I don’t even know where to start here either. Wow! Ok, Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...” Another cool thing is that “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set has set you free from the law of sin and death.” And, “But if Christ is in you, then even your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” These are so good because they really demonstrate the love of Christ. Because of the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” It makes the significance of the last few verses even more! We do not deserve to be set free from the law of sin and death, and we do not deserve to be justified by faith, yet the Father loves us so much that He sent his son to become a sin offering for all of us.

But keep in mind that “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” This is also super cool because Jesus portrayed a living sacrifice well because he loved us so much. He chose into becoming a sin offering even though he was totally free of sin. If this doesn’t show his love, read Colossians 3, 1 John 4:16, Isaiah 54:10, Galatians 2:20, Psalm 136:26, and a lot more that would take the rest of the blog.

              Lastly, I mentioned talking about David’s life. I am going to write and post a part two sometime soon! I need time to study more about his life and time to organize my thoughts. Thank you so much for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed it!

-          Colin