June 6th “Oh How He Loves Me and You”

Today I got the results from my PET scan and I will share the results with you in just a moment. Today I feel good and I am grateful for all the prayers and thoughts coming our way.

Romans 5:7-8

⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.^[1]

This is the best part of this passage in Romans 5:1-8. I always struggled with verse 7 until I committed this to memory.  The truth is none of us are righteous.  The Bible tells us that none are righteous, no not one!  The second part is even more condemning in that we are not even good.  But God loves us so much that even while we are sinners, He gave his one and only Son for our sins.  That is a great demonstration of love.  It is a love I do not deserve, it is a love that God heaps upon His children.  Oh how He loves you and me.

Now for the update, it is not the news we wanted to hear. The cancer is in at least two of my lymph nodes making it a stage 4 cancer.    It doesn’t change the treatment plan and I still believe that the treatment will have a high rate of success.  However, God’s demonstration of His love and His awesome power will take care of me. I am sure of this!

Billy Graham urged every preacher, every evangelist and every believer to constantly preach the cross.  The world tries to take us down a path of pluralism.  The world constantly removes the power of the cross with the words of agnosticism and atheism.  “Christ died for us,” we must never stop proclaiming the love of God on the cross of Calvary.  Without the cross there is no hope, there is no glory and there is no future.  With the cross there is the hope of glory and an eternal future.

My summary of Romans 5:1-8 is this:  God demonstrated his love for me on the Cross.   His perfect Son died because I am imperfect and a sinner.   However, my faith in Christ has made me righteous and justified before God because he has given me the free gift of His saving grace.  I can deal with all kinds of suffering and turn it into joy and hope because of the wonderful promises of God.

Perhaps this is a passage of scripture you should memorize too. It gives me great comfort on a daily basis.

I love you all.

^[1]The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 5:7–8). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.