Good morning everyone. I'm sleepy on this rainy rainy morning... I just want to curl up with my blanket and pillow and sleeep some more... But that's not happening because I have things to get done today... like all of my school work before 2 pm!
And I didn't go to bed early like I was planning last night... I stayed up writing another blog post... I'm pretty sure that I'm officially addicted to blogging... either that or it's just a habit now that I really like! haha.
Man. I should've done all this before my family got up... now I'm going to be distracted... maybe I'll do some school reading until they leave... muwahahaha. Oh. Sorry. Did my "evil laugh" scare you? It shouldn't have. It's really not that scary!
*****
Hah. It's now almost 11 PM. I'm sweet. (I actually just didn't have the time this morning! But I have time now... kind of. My alarm is set for 6:20 tomorrow morning... so I need to get to bed so I can get some SLEEP... but I'm not going to slack on this at all. I'm going to give it as much time as if I had allllll day to do it.)
I've decided that I want a NIV/NASB parallel Bible. I started looking for bibles online... annnnd they're difficult to find. I can't find any "nice" ones... Meh. If you find a nice one, let me know :D
Romans 1:1-17
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
Paul was set apart for the gospel. That was his purpose in life. To bring the gospel to people!
2the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,
Kind of what I posted about yesterday, here. Just the fact that Jesus was descended from David.
4and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this is Paul's kind of introduction to the people of Rome. And there are a couple things that stand out in. I've bolded them and commented a little bit already, but here's some more.
Grace-a fantastic thing that I still have trouble getting my mind around.
You also-are called to belong to Jesus Christ. You're being called to be adopted. I can only imagine the longing that children who have no family have to be loved and adopted by someone. We have that longing and it's fulfilled through Jesus.
Loved by God-We are just that. We are loved by God. This is actually on my "Who I Am in Christ" sheet. "I am greatly loved by God." Romans 1:7 is the first verse after it. Shweet.
Okayyy onward!
Paul's Longing to Visit Rome
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.Woah. These people were famous. They were known around the world. Granted, the world was much smaller at that point in time, but it was still pretty big for people all over the world to hear about their faith. Faith... I think that's something we have too little of in America. We're handed everything on a silver platter and we don't have (as many) chances to really hand things over to God and let him do his thing. *tangent related to this at the bottom of the page.
9God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
Paul hadn't been to Rome for a very long time (it seems. I'm not doing a ton of studying on this... you can kind of tell =P) But he was praying that he could finally go see these brothers and sisters in Rome.
11I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
Mutually encouraged-Encouragement should work 2 ways. I'm working on this. There are so many people that encourage me... I'm trying to think of ways to be encouraging to them. (I love people a lot. Just a "fyi")
13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
I think that Paul was prevented from going to Rome because the people weren't ready to be "harvested" yet. If that makes sense, and I think it does.
14I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.
I think he's implying that there are both Greeks and non-Greeks and both wise and foolish people in Rome. He's excited to talk to these people. I wish I had that kind of zeal for evangelism/just talking to people about God. And I kind of do, but I feel ill-qualified... like there are people who know so much more than me and can explain things better than I can. I need to remember that I'm just as qualified as anyone to talk to people about God. He's done some pretty cool things in my life, right? I mean. I'm doing NIPTO. I feel like I'm more aware of God in everyday situations. It's sweet.
16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Ashamed... it's easy to be ashamed of the gospel. People will put you down like none other when you support it. There's a guy named Tom Short who does a lot of open-air college campus preaching. He's fantastic. He also gets mocked. Literally. I went to see him when he came to Kent State. People hurl insults at him. "This guy is so stupid. I bet he's like a dropout or something and has nothing better to do." So many ridiculous things. But he's not ashamed. He becomes even more driven to share this "good news" (that's what gospel means) with people!
Everyone-The gospel is the salvation of everyone who believes. I really want to go get a real dictionary for this, but dictionary.reference.com will have to do. Salvation- noun the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc. The gospel is our protection from harm. It protects everyone who believes it.
17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Faith pops up again here... in a couple of significant places. Righteousness is by faith from first to last. We are to live by faith. Not just think by faith, LIVE by faith. This is also related to what comes next. (My *'d tangent)
*Tangent at the end of page related to what I had *
So I'm reading a book for school called Living on the Devil's Doorstep by Floyd McClung. It is an amazing book about the faith of these people. (The Cross and the Switchblade, not by Floyd McClung, is also an amazing book. I think we own both of these if you'd like to borrow one of them :)
Anyways. Floyd McClung was/is(not sure!) a missionary in Amsterdam. First he lived in Kabul Afghanistan. God provided for him and his family. Monetarily, spiritually, physically... CRAZY stuff. God was there for them and they knew it... but they had to be completely faithful. Sometimes things wouldn't happen because someone on the team wasn't completely trusting in God. Crazy, huh? Maybe I'll post a story or something. Right now, it's 11:30 and I am going to go to sleep!
I'll try to post the rest of my Romans 1 by tomorrow afternoon. Another kinda crazy day tomorrow. (Have to leave the house earlyish again! Meh. But I get to do school while I'm out... JOY! haha)
Until tomorrow morning my blog readers,
No comments:
Post a Comment