No one is Righteous

So last night at Bible Study we read through Romans 3 and as we all know Romans 3 is a very well known chapter in the Bible. I'm sure most Christians if not all have all had the chance to read through Romans 3. It's got the 3:23 passage, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and it's one of the many chapters that really focuses on sin, how no one on earth is righteous, and how when we have faith that God sent his Son as a sacrifice for us; and confess that we have sinned against him then he will forgive us. When we are told that we are not righteous and that we have sinned, it convicts us and it makes us realize what a sacrifice, Jesus went through on the cross for us and it makes us want to believe and have a relationship with him.
It's so interesting how no matter how many times you read scripture, there's always something to learn. There's always something that God teaches us through scripture. It's one of the many blessings of digging into God's word. We're continuously learning something. If we understood everything about the Bible, then we wouldn't need to read it anymore. When you understand everything about a subject in school and you know how it works, then there's no need for that subject anymore. It's the same with the Bible and it's God's purpose that we don't understand everything about the Bible because he wants us to continue reading it so we can know more and more about him and become closer to him in our relationship with him. It's why we have the Bible. So that we can know about God. We're not going to know about God just by going through life, being good and not really doing anything. It takes work to understand God and to have a relationship with him. Just like it takes work for us to have relationships with siblings, parents, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, it takes work to have a relationship with God. And in order to have that relationship, we have to spend time with him; read/study his word, talking to him through prayer and sharing your thoughts with him, worshiping him through music etc.
Anyways, Romans 3:10-18, one of the passages we talked about last night, talks a whole bunch about no one being righteous and how there is no perfect soul except for Jesus and as much as I've heard it before it still convicts me that we are all sinners and have strayed away from God, and yet he still loves us. Here's the passage that was read.

"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do now know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

You would think that it would stop there. But it doesn't. See even though no one is righteous, by sending Jesus as a sacrifice, God has given us hope, that if we turn from our sinful ways and trust in him, that we can be free from our bondage of sin and we can live eternally with him in heaven. In Romans 4:7-8 it goes on to say, "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." 

Anyways, I hope y'all have a great Easter this weekend and remember that Easter is about what Christ did on the cross for us, and not about Easter bunnies and candy! Love y'all!

God Bless,

Anna Klein

God's not dead

It's easy to believe that God exists, when things go our way. When we have everything we ever wanted, a family, a career, friends, ect, it's easy to say we believe God exists. But what happens when God takes all of that away? Then what is our reaction? Job in the Bible was given everything from God. He was a righteous man who followed God with his whole heart and God blessed him with a family, riches, land etc. Then one by one, those things started to go away. Yet, Job never lost heart. Even when his family and friends thought he was crazy to continue following God, he kept his faith going. What would our reaction be if everything was taken from us? Would we give up, or would we have faith, like Job did?
If God didn't exist, then life would be meaningless. There would be no purpose to living on earth. We would all just be living life, confused about why we're here. But, because God exists, we can live knowing there is a purpose for our life. Even though sometimes we can't feel him, or we can't see God, he's there. When a loved one is dying of cancer, or we don't get a job we wanted etc, we don't see how a good God can exist with all the bad things that happen. We expect that because God is good that he's going to bless the good, and curse the wicked. Which in a way that's true, but to be honest, we are all wicked. We have all made mistakes. None of us are good enough to be blessed, or to live with him in heaven. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." It doesn't say, just some have sinned, it says all have sinned. That is why Jesus had to come and die for our sins. Someone had to pay the punishment for our sins. It's just like when you disobey your parents. When you disobey your parents, someone has to be punished. But instead of us dying, Jesus took our place so that we could live eternally with him in heaven all because he loves us. And because we have all sinned, bad things happen to us. There are no "good" people here on earth and so because there are no good people here on earth, we have to accept the fact that bad things will happen to us.
God is very much alive and he exists all through out this world whether we believe it or not. He loves us and whatever happens is all part of his plan. He is in control of everything and we have to trust and have faith that he has a plan.

God Bless,
Anna Klein