Some life-changing words for you from Romans to take with you into your weekend. Is there a line in this passage that is particularly meaningful to you today?

Mine: THAT FATEFUL DILEMMA IS RESOLVED . . . NO LONGER HAVE TO LIVE UNDER A BLACK CLOUD . . . FREEING YOU . . . CALLED BY NAME

Read the passage through a few times. Choose your favorite line or few phrases. Repeat them as you breathe. Amazing what truth and oxygen can do for the soul. Have a great weekend. I believe in you.

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

Romans 8:1-2, 29-30 (The Message)