June 25 - More Prayers Needed for David Chotka

A note from Pastor Chotka’s intercessors in Canada …

David was slowly recovering at home.  However this morning the symptoms worsened and he has been taken back into emergency.  He is experiencing new symptoms of numbness and eye drooping.  We seek your intercession for him and his family.

Speaking of David Chotka – as we continue through his 50 Days of Prayer – he invites us today to read Romans 5:1-5. The Apostle Paul writes …

1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith,

This is the foundational doctrine of Christianity. That Jesus died for our sins, and believers don’t have to worry about salvation because we are justified by grace.

Paul explains this “no worries” saying,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Peace with God is the first fruit of justification and faith. I can trust God. Indeed, I can approach him like a child crawls confidently into the loving arms of his father.

2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand;

Grace is the second fruit, listed here, of God’s act of justification and our trust through faith.

and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

Hope is the third fruit. And while boasting is too often seen as proud, I want to invite you to see it as confident – no worries, no fear.

3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings …

Use the word confidence here again. Are you confident even in the midst of suffering? Paul is. Why? He is justified. His salvation is secure. That means that the very worst that anyone can ever do to him is send him to heaven a little early! (And it’s always a good day to go to heaven!)

And then Paul launches into a famous discourse, saying, reflecting his “know[ledge] that …

suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Jesus suffered for us. Why? Because his eyes were on a bigger prize – dying to save us from our sins.

His death has already accomplished that fact for us. We are justified. The salvation of believers is absolutely secure. Through Christ, we have 1) peace, 2) grace, and 3) hope.

And that hope, says Paul, is multiplied when we go out boldly, proclaiming the good news. That was always the context of the books of the New Testament. The first Christians were always foreigners, always out-numbered. Proclaiming the Gospel had costs. One of those costs could inevitably be suffering … but “suffering produces endurance … and endurance produces character … and character produces hope … and hope [will never ever] disappoint us.”

God is speaking to you through this lesson. Are you confident enough in your faith that you’re able to be bold for the kingdom!

• If not, it’s time to study again the doctrines of love, grace, and justification – because as it says in Romans 8:39, “[no]thing … in all creation … will be able to separate [those who believe] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

• If your faith is bold, it’s time to reach out more boldly! Why? So you discover even more hope. These verse reveal that boldness is a faith multiplier!

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who is justified

so I don’t need any

self-justification

anymore