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Gleanings From The Word

Category: Romans

  • God Wastes Nothing

    God Wastes Nothing

    God wastes nothing. This looks like just a grey stump with a few turkey tail mushrooms on it. It is totally uninspiring and highly likely to be overlooked.

    Yet there is a lot going on.

    There are fungi spreading through the wood, slowly breaking it down and releasing nutrients back into the soil. Moss covers the surface, holding moisture and creating conditions that support a surprising variety of living things.

    Within the decaying wood, countless insects and other small creatures find food and shelter. Beetle larvae tunnel through softened wood, springtails and woodlice feed on decaying material, and spiders, centipedes, and predatory beetles hunt among the cracks and crevices. Much of this activity remains hidden from view, yet it forms a complex food web.

    Birds feast on the insects. Salamanders, frogs, mice and snakes may find refuge here. The decay feeds the earthworms under the soil.

    The stump serves as a miniature nursery for future growth. By retaining moisture and nutrients, it provides an ideal place for mosses, fungi, and eventually seedlings to become established. What appears to be the end of a tree’s story is part of a continuing cycle in which death supports new life and sustains an entire community of organisms.

    In God’s economy, there is no waste. Everything serves to bring Him glory.

    Even our suffering, tears and disappointment have a purpose. I think it was Tozer who said, “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”

    When we become aware that God is using everything to make us more Christlike, it can make us less anxious. Our struggles, in Christ, are not God’s condemnation (Romans 8:1). God is always for us (Romans 8:32). He designs all our circumstances for our everlasting good (Romans 8:28). Everything in my life can direct us to Christ. Indeed, it should.

    In those times of anxiety and stress, we can remember Paul’s words.

    I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance; in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundanceand suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Romans 12:13

    There is nothing we can’t endure, knowing that God wastes nothing. Jesus holds us fast and will use all our struggles for good.

    Praise His holy name

    Kevin 

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    SUMMARY

    A seemingly lifeless grey stump teems with hidden activity — fungi, insects, birds, and seedlings — forming a complex, self-sustaining cycle that mirrors how God wastes nothing in our lives. Just as decay in nature serves new life, our struggles, anxieties, and disappointments are purposefully designed by God to conform us to Christ and work for our everlasting good.

    TAKEWAY

    God’s economy wastes nothing — what appears dead or purposeless in nature (and in our lives) is actively being used to sustain, nourish, and generate new life and growth. 

    Our suffering is not God’s condemnation but His design; He is always for us (Romans 8:1, 32) and orchestrates every circumstance for our everlasting good (Romans 8:28). 

    Contentment and freedom from anxiety are possible in any circumstance when we recognize, as Paul did, that Christ is our strength through both abundance and need (Philippians 4:12–13).

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  • The great transfer – From Darkness into light

    The great transfer – From Darkness into light

    A man standing in ne shadows moving from darkness to light

    Some friends shared some images of their recent Alaskan cruise on social media. That got me thinking of the Alaska Purchase – where the USA purchased Alaska from Russia. The price in 1867 was $7.2 million, a real bargain. That led me to think of other great transfer stories.

    Most North Americans are familiar with the Louisiana Purchase, in which France transferred land to the US for $15 Million. In a series of purchases, the US bought ½ of what was then Mexico.

    The buying and selling of countries and territories has been going on for centuries. It’s not just an American thing. Countries have been the subject of transfers since near the beginning of time.

    It’s certainly not an everyday occurrence, but it is far from being without precedent. There is a great transfer that is mind-boggling in scope. It’s an event that happened at a specific point in time but is still happening today.

    And although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Colossians 1:21-23

    By the grace of God, through what Christ accomplished, sinners are transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light. We go from being rebellious sinners to children of God. We are no longer slaves to sin but covered under the imputed righteousness of Jesus.

    I sometimes think we really don’t understand how powerful a transaction that was. God, the offended party, stepped in to free those who committed the offense. By His own blood, He redeems people who were His enemies. He pays our price.

    We’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve it. We can’t save up enough good deed points to pay our own way. We are lost forever, separated by nature and choice from the one who loves us.

    For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

    Inconceivable? Unbelievable? Mind blowing? Yes! Yet equally as true. It is the ultimate Great Transfer.

    That’s the reality of the gospel, the good news, the euangelion that the Scriptures proclaim and believers testify to. In one agonizing event, people from every tribe, tongue and age were transferred from darkness to light, a process that continues today.

    Praise God that you have been transferred to His family and tell others that hope is open to them as well.

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    SUMMARY

    The greatest “purchase” in history isn’t a territorial transaction but the redemption of sinners by Christ — who, at infinite personal cost, transferred His enemies from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Unlike the Louisiana or Alaska Purchases, this transaction was paid not with gold but with the blood of God Himself, and its effects continue to unfold in every generation.

    KEY POINTS

    The Price Was Staggering — While the Alaska Purchase cost $7.2 million and the Louisiana Purchase $15 million, the redemption of sinners cost the Son of God His life — paid on behalf of people who were His enemies and had done nothing to earn it. 

    The Transfer Is Total — Through Christ’s death, believers move from alienation and guilt to being presented before God as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach — a transformation no human effort or accumulated merit could ever achieve. 

    The Transaction Is Still Open — This redemption, accomplished at a specific moment in history, continues to be applied today across every tribe, tongue, and generation, making the proclamation of the gospel an urgent and ongoing mission.

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