eugene h peterson

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. —Matthew 1:18 NLT Key Thought While we try to understand how the Spirit of...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. —Romans 15:13 NIV Key Thought We live in the overflow of God's grace. David said it well in Psalm 23, "my cup overflows." Because of the Spirit's...

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. —Romans 14:17-18 NLT Key Thought Who can argue with...

I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit ... —Romans 9:1 NIV Key Thought We often use hyperbole to make an emphatic point about something that is important to us. Hyperbole is an overstatement meant to get other people's attention. The...

And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. —Romans 8:27 NLT Key Thought After the incredible promise of the previous verse and the Spirit's intercession for us (Romans 8:26 ESV), Paul adds promise...

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. —Romans 8:26 ESV Key Thought Nearly all of us have been at this desperate place. Our souls are brittle and dry. All our...

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. —Romans 8:22-23 ESV...

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. —Romans 8:16 NIV Key Thought We can believe that we are God's children. We can think it. We can desire it with all of our hearts. We can pray for it. But, the real validation happens when the Holy Spirit joins with the...

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. —Romans 8:14 NIV Key Thought Parents lead their children till they are ready for life on their own. As we cry out to God as our "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15), God leads us. We are his young children, and we never outgrow our...

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." —Romans 8:15 NLT Key Thought Abba! The first syllables some babies utter. The name for father in the language Jesus...

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. —Romans 8:12-13 NLT Key Thought We...

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. —Romans 8:11 ESV Key Thought The Holy Spirit brings life to our mortal bodies by bringing Jesus alive in...

And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. —Romans 8:10 NLT Key Thought Everything that lives is actually in the process of dying — everything, that is, except for those animated and...

The mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. —Romans 8:6 NIV Key Thought What do you want from your limited days on earth? Among other things, you probably want to enjoy life and have every moment of it bring joy and peace. There is...

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. —Romans 8:5 NLT Key Thought We don't like to be controlled. However, we will be controlled either by our sinful nature or by the...

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins...

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. —Romans 8:1-2 NLT Key Thought This phrase is such a great description of our identity — "those who...

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. —Romans 7:6 NIV Key Thought We could not, and cannot, keep the law of God completely. Trying to be righteous when one failure...

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. —Romans 2:28-29 ESV Key Thought Prejudice is ungodly. It...

The Good News is about [God's] Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David's family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. —Romans 1:3-4 NLT Key Thought Jesus is the Son — David's Son...