Today Our Daily Bread Romans 16

For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:19-20
What is obedience again? The Divine expression of love. 1 Cor 13:4-8 defines LOVE:
4Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, 5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 6 - doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 7 Puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. 8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. [BUT LOVE is ETERNAL in its nature]
So we are obedient in what, in what way has the report of our obedience reached to all? That we follow as examples the greatest commandments? That we Love God and we demonstrate His Love to people? Yes. I noticed that the scripture says satan will be crushed under our feet? I looked up "crushed" it mean , brought to no appearance, unrecognizable in form. Any cell ladies reading this? The earth was without form, Melinda! We give our enemy no place!(form, life)and notice the tool that does this crushing is our feet. It is in how we walk, where we walk, etc. Remember the scripture, how lovely on the mountain are the feet of him, who brings good news? How is satan made unrecognizable in my life, his power brought to nothing? Through obedience, the greatest expressional response to Divine love, by walking out my faith- daily and by sharing my life force, giving up my life for the good news. This brings his tactics to nothing in my life, he is given no breath, power or form, when I operate this way and everyday he is crushed or brought to no effect in my life.
Romans 16:1-27
Paul Greets His Friends
1Our sister Phoebe, a deacon in the church in Cenchrea, will be coming to see you soon. 2Receive her in the Lord, as one who is worthy of high honor. Help her in every way you can, for she has helped many in their needs, including me.
3Greet Priscilla and Aquila. They have been co-workers in my ministry for Christ Jesus. 4In fact, they risked their lives for me. I am not the only one who is thankful to them; so are all the Gentile churches. 5Please give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epenetus. He was the very first person to become a Christian in the province of Asia. 6Give my greetings to Mary, who has worked so hard for your benefit. 7Then there are Andronicus and Junia, F94 my relatives, F95 who were in prison with me. They are respected among the apostles and became Christians before I did. Please give them my greetings. 8Say hello to Ampliatus, whom I love as one of the Lord's own children, 9and Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and beloved Stachys.
10Give my greetings to Apelles, a good man whom Christ approves. And give my best regards to the members of the household of Aristobulus. 11Greet Herodion, my relative. F96 Greet the Christians in the household of Narcissus. 12Say hello to Tryphena and Tryphosa, the Lord's workers, and to dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord. 13Greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own; and also his dear mother, who has been a mother to me.
14And please give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters F97 who are with them. 15Give my greetings to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas and all the other believers who are with them. 16Greet each other in Christian love. F98 All the churches of Christ send you their greetings.
Paul's Final Instructions
17And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people's faith by teaching things that are contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. 18Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people. 19But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to see clearly what is right and to stay innocent of any wrong. 20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives, send you their good wishes.
22I, Tertius, the one who is writing this letter for Paul, send my greetings, too, as a Christian brother.
23Gaius says hello to you. I am his guest, and the church meets here in his home. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you his greetings, and so does Quartus, a Christian brother. F99
25God is able to make you strong, just as the Good News says. It is the message about Jesus Christ and his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time. 26But now as the prophets F100 foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they might believe and obey Christ. 27To God, who alone is wise, be the glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
FOOTNOTES:F94: Or Junias; some manuscripts read Julia. F95: Or compatriots; also in 16:21. F96: Or compatriot. F97: Greek brothers; also in 16:17. F98: Greek with a sacred kiss. F99: Some manuscripts add verse 24, May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. F100: Greek the prophetic writings.
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
vs. 18, keep you eyes seeing clearly what is right and be innocent of what is evil….this would be helpful in the fulfillment of your obedience to God and to the nullifying of satan’s power in your life. How does none accomplish this? Obedience, Obedience is so powerful in God. See how powerful disobedience and it ill effects and curses are? How the effects of sin have actually even altered the earth? How much more obedience changes the course of things. How much more is obedience blessed, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. If we find ourselves rebelling in our nature even to the word of God and it’s Divine instructions, we are dabbling in what is evil. The way to see clearly what is good, is to rehearse what is good and what is God? God is good! Rehearse Him and all that He is as much as is needed to become innocent of evil. The passage here even hints at what is evil- division is evil. So if you sense division in any way, go away from it, steer clear of it. In it’s influential place in your mind, replace it with unity and thoughts and actions towards unity with God’s word #1 and with His people #2. (i.e., Love God, Love people) We can love a person who is acting divisive, but we cannot join what is influencing him or satan will not only have power over us, but will be operating through us. Dear God, we’ve got to get a revelation that leads us to slam doors or not even approach them to answer them at all. Our bodies, souls and spirits belong to God’s use and operation. We are not for the use of evil! My body is the temple of God and two cannot dwell here at all. That’s what division is, 2 in the place of 1, remember 1 can easily be plural, but 2 cannot dwell with 1. God is 1, are we? We have to be 1 with Him. There is no life, no victory, no good without being 1 with God. I’m going on here, so I will close today with this. There are a lot of things in life, opportunities I can participate in and because I’m strong in my faith and won’t turn my back on God I can do them, but will they keep me seeing clearly what is good and keep my mind thinking and being innocent of evil? IF not than I should not have them around me, for what I’m around will influence me, God made me a copy-cat. Even if I try to not copy I do, I’m made like that. It makes it easy to do and be like God, if I see Him clearly. In order to copy only Him, I’ve got to (talking about me and How it has to be done for me), remove from my daily meditation whatever makes me think otherwise. I keep my vision clear. What does that for me is different than what that would be for you, except for the Word of God, the Word of God is the main tool in accomplishing this "goal", How we apply it, meditate on it or feed ourselves with it will be different, but when we use it in our lives to bring life and nurture life, we are 1.
I Love U, Lena