Sept 20

Romans 5:12-17

12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.
14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.
15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.
17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

They called it the "Black Death." It started in China around the year 1334 and quickly spread to India, Persia, Russia, and then to Europe. People started getting sick. They would become sick, sometimes quite suddenly, with a high fever. Then their throats would swell, and they would break out in a rash and a hacking cough; black spots would appear on their faces and, within a few days, they would die. In just a few years, 60 million people died of the plague. In fact, the plague was so widespread in Europe that almost one of every four Europeans died. In the late nineteenth century, the plague reappeared in Hong Kong and then in other places, particularly India, where 10 million people died over the next twenty years. An epidemic of influenza-the "flu"-started among soldiers who fought in northern France late in World War I, around 1918. Thousands of soldiers experienced the fever, chills, and nausea associated with the virus. The epidemic spread around the world as some of those soldiers left France. Hundreds of millions of people became sick. An estimated 20 million died-a greater number than those who were killed by bullets and bombs in the war. A plague of a different kind, far more deadly than the bubonic plague (as "the Black Death" has become known) or influenza, has spread throughout the world today. It threatens close to 5 billion people-the inhabitants of every nation and household in the world. It's called sin. Ever since the first man and woman sinned by disobeying God (check out Genesis 3), we've all been born with a sinful nature. That means we're all infected with a condition that makes it natural for us to do what's wrong. We may sometimes make poor choices because we're confused about what's right or wrong. We may sometimes give in to pressure from friends. Or we may do wrong things because we've developed bad habits. But the ultimate reason we make wrong choices is because we are sinners. That doesn't mean we have to make wrong choices. There is a cure for this plague: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He not only paid the penalty for our sins, he also conquered sin and death so that we can stop making wrong choices. By praying to him and trusting him, we can start making right choices.

REFLECT: Do you think a person can stop making wrong choices without God's help? Why or why not?

PRAY: Have you accepted Jesus' sacrifice as payment for your sins, asked God to forgive you, and trusted Christ to save you from sin and its punishment? If not, why not do so right now? If you've already done this, thank him for his "generous gift of forgiveness" (Romans 5:15).

SOOOO MUCH HW!

so what i got from this is that we are all sick with sin. We have all sinned and we are all sinners. We are infected just like the short stories says. BUT there is a cure for this infection and that is Jesus and beleiving he is the savior and praying to him. in my opinion that is really amazing because the cure is right infront of you and it is your choice weather to accept it or not. In other cases in this world, there are many other viruses and the cure for them are verrry expensive.

16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins
stood out to me because it shows that God is such a graceful God and cares so greatly about us. Adam sinned first and thus resulted in all of us sinning. But God according to his own free will decided to give all of us a asecond chance and gave us Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.. I think this is jsut truly amazing

gnite and GL with your school

Too much going on today.....

I've always wondered if Adam and eve knew how much their sin has made for mankind and the future. Because of that one move, a bit of sin lingers in all of our hearts. There is a consequence in every wrong thing we do if it didn't have a negative impact on anyting, why else would it be considered sin? But either a big sin or a "small" sin, it is still bad. Most of the times, people do get away by doing the wrong thing. Really, you can never get sways from sin. You will gt punished sooner or later. So let god know that you know what you've done wrong and god will continue to forgive you. Cool things is, we get free unlimited forgiveness from God! ;D

Promise to post tomorrow, hitting the sack early.

13 "Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break."
While I was reading that specific verse, one question came into my mind.
Since there was no rule about committing sins at that time, does that mean someone who was very bad and unholy went to heaven after they died even if they were sinners their whole life?
If anyone could possibly give me an answer, I would appreciate it

Not sinning is impossible for us. It's just something that we'll unfortunately be stuck with for the rest of our lives. We can't completely cure it, but we can "take medication" or in this case we can turn to the Lord for forgiveness, and guidance. It's as if we are the patient with a disease, and God is the doctor slowly helping us to heal.

Sleep tight!

okay i thought that this devotion was interesting. it is true that we are all diagnosed with a terrible illness...sin. adam and eve made the wrong choice which ultimately led to a terrible consequence for all humans to experience in the future. as terrible as the consequence sounds, it really isnt all that bad. our death will make us free from the sickness we have been diagnosed with for our entire lives. because after our deaths, we are living in heaven where God cleans and heals us back as we should have been for our entire lives.
thats it!~ baii

This was a very clear devotion. Excellent story to represent the purpose of our saviour dying on the cross for us.
As Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it wasn't just them that turned away from God.
All of mankind were plagued with this so-called sin, and it separates us from God since.
I've been thinking lately about morals.
How our morals are set upon the bible, while others have their own way of living.
We KNOW right from wrong, and without that foundation and wisdom, there is no possible way for someone to make right choices in their life, without God.
Without Jesus, we're nothing but hopeless souls.

17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Firstly I'd like to apologize for slacking a bit. I dozed off when I meant to do devos LOL.
This passage talks a lot about the fall of man and basically, the rise of man again BECAUSE of God
Now Adam was the one who screwed us all over, but I honestly believe as humans, we were bound to mess up because of Satan. To me, the fact that God gave us GRACE. He gave us LOVE when we didn't deserve is such a huge sign.
Even though "man" screwed up, God gave man another chance. His never ending love is really demonstrated from this passage.

In the verses, it kept mentioning that Adam sinned andd many others were involved. But then after, it says a good deed that God does.
After Adam sinned, although there were no commandments that were made, God specifically told them not to do something, and they did. That is breaking a commandment, although it is not a written commandment. When adam sinned, it effected many... causing everything else to sin. But God took all our sins in giving up is son, Jesus Christ.

I think people are able to change their decisions without the help of God, but it is always a blessing to have God to talk to when times are really hard and unable to think. God should be always someone to look for in struggling times.

Just as one man's mistake caused us all death, another man's sacrifice saved us from it.
Though we shouldn't necessarily hate the guy who got us killed in the first place, I think we should always be grateful of Jesus. He gave us his life so that our mistakes wont mean death. It's important that we always recognize the things that God has given so that we can be free from the sins. We make it all for nothing if we continue to sin without even a second thought, so live a Christlike life