OUR DAILY BREAD : LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

[cimi]

March 15
Monday


LAST LINE
OF DEFENSE

READ:
Romans 8:31-39
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Yet in all these things
we are more than
conquerors through
Him who loved us.
__Romans 8:37
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Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of a battle that turned the tide of America's civil War. One of the focal points of the conflict was a rocky knoll called Little Round Top where Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the men of the 20th Maine Infantry stood their ground. Had the Confederate troops gotten past Chamberlains men, some historians believe the Union army would have been surrounded--possibly leading to the loss of the war. The "20th Maine" was the last line of defense.

Followers of Christ are also engaged in a vital war. As we battle "the wiles of the devil" (Ep. 6:11), we are called to wear the armor of God and to stand firm in the conflict (vv.10-18).

And like the Gettysburg soldiers, we have a "last line of defense." For us, though, this defense is greater than any human force. In Romans 8:31-39, Paul says that our ultimate confidence is in the undying love of Christ. So complete is our protection that nothing can "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v.39).

When the enemy seems overwhelming and all seems lost, remember, we have an unbeatable last line of defense: "We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (v.37).
__Bill Crowder
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`````````````````````We are more than conquerors```````````````
`````````````````````Through Him who loved us so;```````````````
`````````````````````The Christ who dwells within us``````````````
``````````````Is the greatest power we know. __Carmichael````````
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God's plan always leads to victory.

**************Today's Bible Reading __ Romans 8:31-39***********

31 What then shall we say
to these things? If God is
for us, who can be against
us? 32 He who did not spare
His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely
give us all things? 33 Who
shall bring a charge against
God's elect? It is God who
justifies. 34 Who is he who
condemns? It is christ who
died, and furthermore is
also risen, who is even at
the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for
us. 35 Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? 36 As it is written:
"For Your sake we are
killed all day long; we are
accounted as sheep for the
slaughter."

37 yet in all these things
we are more than
conquerors through Him
who loved us. 38 For I am
persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers,
nor things present nor
things to come, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor any
other created thing, shall be
able to separate us from the
love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Of this passage the great Protestant Reformer John Calvin wrote:
"See how it is that we do not justify men before God by works,
but say, that all who are of God are regenerated and made new
creatures, so that they pass from the kingdom of sin into the
kingdom of righteousness. In this way they make their calling sure,
and, like trees, are judged by their fruits" (Calvin's Institutes of the
Christian Religion, Book 111, Vol. 11, page 97). __DENNIS FISHER