O Blessed Sinner

IBS Application for Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” It’s a bit of a jump for me to go from originally studying Scripture in the New Testament to all the way back in Genesis, but truth be told, I found this verse referenced by Paul in Romans. It spoke to me so much that I had to do an IBS on it. Firstly, this is a bit of text written about Abraham’s life. Specifically, this is speaking about how the Lord spoke to Abraham concerning the promise that God would bless Abraham with numerous descendants, with as many as the stars in the night sky. To put it just as simply as God puts it in Genesis, Abraham believed this promise, and God counted his faith concerning this promise as righteousness to Abraham. The expected application and lesson one would typically get out of this verse, and one that I still need to hear, is that this shows us that it is by faith, and not by works, that we are brought into the assurance of salv

IBS Application for Romans 3:3-4 “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.’" I will be honest, these past couple of weeks have not been easy for me. I’ve struggled to hold on to God’s promises and trust that He speaks to me. I do not always do everything the way I know that I ought to, nor with the right heart, and I question whether or not God is with me in what I’m doing or not because of how often I mess up. I question whether He *wants* to stand with me, seeing as how I seem to be a servant that keeps folding when the day-to-day battles stay hard and who continuously struggles to keep his feelings in check. However, this short passage captures a truth in my walk with the Lord that He is eager to make sure I know everyday: That He is ever faithful in His words and deeds, ev

IBS Application for Psalms 144:3 “O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” “What am I, Lord, that You would even bother to concern Yourself with a messy, evil person like me? Why give me a thought, let alone obsess over me? Why?” I have asked myself those questions a lot lately. I have repeatedly sinned in the same ways lately, and all have been related to a lack of willingness to move past myself in order to just have joy in the Lord. While He has ever been so willing to just be there for me, I slapped His hand away every time. I still have trouble trusting Him, clearly. But the miracle that is His love still stands in the face of all my selfishness. Why does He still come after me so fiercely? Why pay heed to this wretch of a man who simply grieves Him when He tries to show me love and grace? And most perplexingly of all, why would He love me with such a love as to obsess over me? His love is indeed wondrous. I do not underst

IBS Application for Jeremiah 31:2-3 “Thus says the Lord: ‘The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.’” I know that this is perhaps a little different from my typical choice of passage, but it is nonetheless the passage that has spoken the most to me recently. I will do my best to communicate why. I am a bit fuzzy on the details of which specific instance of people being in the wilderness God is referring to in the first verse here, but for the purposes of what I got out of it, it makes little difference. The point is that God is saying to Israel that being in the wilderness was grace to them. I believe that a similar point can be made in regards to our lives; the spiritual deserts in our lives are not always bad for us. God can do amazing things through dry seasons and times that we spend in

IBS Application for 1 Timothy 2:1 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people...” This verse came to me a couple of days ago, and it came twice. Once in listening to a Focht study, and again in reading “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala. And seeing as how a good portion of the first part of that book is about prayer, I think that God wants me to start praying more. This verse is the start of an exhortation given to Timothy to give to the other members of the  church in Ephesus. It starts with an exhortation to pray more, and to offer more types of prayer up to God. Paul says that we should offer up supplications, which are prayers made to God requesting something of Him, prayers as direct conversation with Him, intercessory prayers, and prayers of thanksgiving to Him. I find that of these types of prayer, I pray many  prayers of supplication and intercession, but I do not focus so much on thank