Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Wednesday, 16 July 2014 - Read Romans 8:12-25

Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Wednesday, 16 July 2014 - Read Romans 8:12-25
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.(The Message)
I have a friend who struggles to find regular work and income, and at the same time knows that someday he will inherit a significant sum of money from his parents. Each day is a struggle, but he trusts that someday these struggles will be behind him.
Paul characterizes our walk with God in a similar way. We live in debt to God, and sin threatens to put us further in debt. Hazards and hardships abound, yet in Christ God extends the promise of redemption to us. In that promise we are no longer debtors but heirs ... someday. So we wait with eager longing and expectation for the full outbreak of God's kingdom in our lives. We wait with longing, along with the rest of creation.
Bob Dylan's song "I Shall Be Released" resonates with this passage from Romans. Any day now there will be redemption: 
I see my light come shining 
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released.
Lord God of the living, we eagerly await your redemption. Until then, give us patience in our suffering, knowing that in you we have hope both for today and tomorrow. Amen.
Jason W. Talsness
Pastor, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, Lawrenceville, Ga. 
Master of Divinity , 1997
Romans 8:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;
20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;
23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.(New Revised Standard Version)
-------
"I Shall Be Released" by Bob Dylan
They say ev’rything can be replaced
Yet ev’ry distance is not near
So I remember ev’ry face
Of ev’ry man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
They say ev’ry man needs protection
They say ev’ry man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Some place so high above this wall
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
Standing next to me in this lonely crowd
Is a man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shout so loud
Crying out that he was framed
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
-------