“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” – Romans 16:20

Now that’s a great promise! God is the God of peace. One day soon (as He understands soon), God will *CRUSH* Satan under your feet! The Father of Lies, the sower of discord and conflict, will be crushed by God Almighty. Under your feet. It is inevitable.

How soon is soon? That’s difficult to say. We all have our idea of soon. It probably means sometime between “the end of the day” and “next week”. That isn’t how soon works for God. For God, a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years. He is eternal and we can’t grasp what that’s like. God views and experiences time radically different from the way we do. What is soon to Him feels far too long to us. But it isn’t. Not from the perspective of eternity.

Here’s the deal…. don’t worry about the timing. Trust the promise. Peace is coming. Real, lasting peace that’s rooted in the utter defeat and humiliation of the devil and his lies, divisions, and corruption. When the Bible promises Jesus is the Prince of Peace, that’s what it means. He’ll usher in unending perfect peace all over creation when He returns to complete His Kingdom. Satan will have nowhere to run or hide. He’ll be crushed beneath your feet.

In the meantime, how should you live? By grace! Let God’s grace dwell richly among you. Contemplate the grace of Jesus Christ. Meditate on the grace that saves you, sustains you, and transforms you. Tell your friends about that grace. Worship Jesus with fellow believers. Delight in the grace you’ve received. Show grace to everyone around you. The grace of Jesus Christ will let you taste that perfect peace before it arrives. Then, one day, without warning, Jesus will return and peace will reign forever! #FollowJesus

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 6:11

Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Then this command is for you! You are alive to God in Christ Jesus. You have been forgiven your sins and raised to new, eternal life in union with Jesus Christ. God’s Holy Spirit lives within you. God is your Father, your friend, your King. Live for Him and with Him.

Then, consider yourself dead to sin. You must think of yourself as being completely, utterly dead when it comes to sin’s temptations. Dead things can’t flirt with sin. So, stop flirting with sin. Dead things can’t respond to sin, so stop responding to sin. Dead things aren’t under sin’s power, so stop shifting blame or making excuses for sin’s influence in your life.

Whatever it is that tempts you – anger, addiction, attention, lust, greed, fear – tell yourself that you are DEAD to its influence. Stop living for… anything other than living and delighting in God. He should be what animates and excites you, not the pursuit of sinful behaviors or things. Consider yourself dead to all that. Act like you’re dead to them. Pretend you’re a corpse the next time they come knocking. After all, those things only lead to death anyway. Embrace the new life you have in Jesus Christ. #FollowJesus

“Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” – Romans 3:25

A propitiation is a sacrifice necessary to satisfy the righteous anger of God. This is what Jesus entered our world to be. As you rush around this Christmas season, contemplate the truth that that baby born in Bethlehem came to be a propitiation by His blood. His innocent, sinless blood. The blood of Jesus Who is fully God and fully human is the blood required to satisfy God’s righteous anger for your sins and the sins of the world.

God was patient and long suffering in the face of mankind’s stubborn rebellion and sin. Why? Because He had a plan. Before time began, God knew that you would sin and that everyone else would too. So, He had a plan. When the time was right and the world was ready, God sent His eternal Son into the world as a human baby who grew up to be an incredible man before becoming a necessary propitiation.

God is righteous. He will not ignore sin forever. He is also merciful, gracious, patient, and kind. For this reason, He gave us a gift. A child. His child. He gave Jesus to teach, to lead, to love, to die, and to rise from death. This gift can only be received by faith in Jesus, the gift, the propitiation, the Savior, the Lord. #FollowJesus

“On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;” – 2 Corinthians 11:26

Paul’s spiritual biography is certainly quite dramatic. Everywhere he went he risked opposition and persecution. His calling was dangerous and his impact was enormous. Most Christians in this part of the world aren’t called to make such sacrifices for Jesus. But we could be! We might be! Are you prepared?

Jesus gave everything on the cross for your salvation. In turn, He calls His followers to take up their cross daily. What does that look like? What risks and sacrifices are you embracing to obey Jesus in all things? What risks and sacrifices should you be embracing to obey Jesus in all things? What will it cost for you to have a greater impact for Jesus? Time? Talent? Treasure? Health? Wealth? Comfort? Pain? Loneliness? Rejection? Suffering?

Jesus seldom calls His followers into greater comfort, wealth, convenience, comfort, or popularity. Salvation is free but there is generally going to be a cost to truly following Him. What does that cost look like for you and are you paying it gladly? #FollowJesus

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Every person enters this world in conflict with God. We are naturally selfish creatures, battling for control of our lives while demanding that our needs and wants be satisfied. We are rebels by nature against God’s authority. We chafe at the idea that He should have authority over every single aspect of our lives. Our rebellion against God keeps us in a state of warfare against Him that we can’t end. No matter how hard we try to “be good” we just can’t help ourselves. No matter how hard we work, our secret thoughts, words, or actions nonetheless reflect our rebellion.

However, God took action to end the war. He did what it took to create peace and offer reconciliation to everyone who is in rebellion against Him. He sent His Son Jesus into the world to live a perfect life of obedience to Him and to sacrifice Himself to create peace. Jesus went to the cross, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins. Through faith in Jesus, the power of His death and resurrection makes every believer a new creation. Our debt of sin has been paid. Our rebellion has been punished on the cross. We don’t need to be at war with God any longer.

If Jesus is your Lord, then through faith in Him, God has reconciled you to Himself. You are at peace with God. You are embraced by Him as His beloved child. You are welcomed into His presence to pray, worship, and fellowship with the Creator of the Universe. AND…

God has entrusted you with the ministry of reconciliation! He has entrusted you with the message of reconciliation through faith in Jesus Christ. You’re now responsible for sharing this message and offering reconciliation to others. All around you are people who are still battling God. Some know it because they hate God or are angry for the pain in their life. Others don’t realize it because they think they’re good enough or their religious rituals are sufficient to make peace on their own terms. All of them need the reconciling message of grace through faith in Jesus!

Will you be God’s ambassador to those at war with Him? Will you be a channel of peace and reconciliation to everyone in your life who needs to know Jesus? If you won’t, who do you think will??? #FollowJesus