HOW A CHURCH GOT STARTED

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.  Romans 1:7

            Have you ever been on a life changing trip?  Perhaps it was a mission trip and what you saw and experienced changed you to the core.  You returned back home with pictures and stories and couldn’t wait to share your experiences with others.  Your undying passion was evidence of the cataclysmic events that occurred while you spent time away.  Continue reading “How A Church Got Started” →

FAITH AND ITS OUTCOME

..Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.  Romans 1:5

Obedience is a word that makes the natural heart twist.  Just hearing it makes any man or woman long for another subject matter more pleasant.  I think that most of us believe that the faith that led to our salvation was one thing and the faith of obedience is yet another.  One got us in the kingdom but the other is some rigorous, complicated lifestyle which no one wants to really think about. Continue reading “Faith And Its Outcome” →

A SAVIOR OR A KING?

..And Œwas declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 1:3-4

Jesus had always been God and He had always been powerful.  But when He came as a babe, flesh veiled that power.  It wasn’t until the resurrection that the earth was reminded again of the power of the One who had lived for three decades and then died a criminal’s death on a cross. Through the empty tomb, the ‘Son of God in power’ was again on full display. Continue reading “A Savior Or A King?” →

SET APART FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God.  Romans 1:1

Before Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, he was a Pharisee.  He knew what it was to be ‘set apart’ for that is the very meaning of the word Pharisee. (A separated one)  He was set apart to the Pharisaic traditions.  Pharisees crossed the street rather than get near to someone they considered vile and a great sinner.  The list of things they abstained from was long.  Continue reading “Set Apart For Something Different” →

SERVANTS AND MASTERS

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.  Romans 1:1a

There was once a master of a great kingdom.  He was wealthy beyond measure and needed to hire servants to take care of his estate.  He sent a foreman to the streets to hire whomever was needed to keep his house in order.  He would never get to know them personally however. Most of them would long for their freedom. They would know that their master’s only interest in them would be in their ability to take care of what he owned.  They would strain under the workload and despise their lowly status. Continue reading “Servants And Masters” →

SETTING THE STAGE

Studying Romans is a daunting adventure.  As I begin with verse one tomorrow, I’m aware of my nervousness.  There are three reasons for that. Continue reading “Setting The Stage” →

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.  Romans 1:1

Paul grew up in Tarsus to a well-to-do family.  He was privileged to be tutored under the Rabbi Gamaliel, the President-Patriarch of the Sanhedrin.  Gamaliel was the Pharisee doctor of Jewish law.  No young student of the Torah could have wished for a better teacher.  This brilliant and well-respected Rabbi shaped Paul’s life and gave him a coveted education. Continue reading “Education And Experience” →

THE AUTHOR

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.  Romans 1:1

Most historians say that Paul was born around the time Jesus was a toddler.  When Jesus was two, Paul was being rocked to sleep in his mother’s arms.  His birth into the very era of the time of Christ was not to be significant to him for several more decades.  Though he couldn’t know it, he was created to live in a time of history which framed his calling perfectly. Continue reading “The Author” →

FRIEND OR FOE

Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.  I Thess. 5:26

Greeting one another with a kiss on the cheek was commonplace in Mediterranean culture.  It was not specific to Christians.  It dates as far back in biblical texts as I Samuel.  It would be compared to our modern day handshake or hug.  Paul’s words meant this, “When you kiss, or since you kiss, make it a sanctified thing, a holy thing. Don’t be hypocritical.  Don’t give what appears to be a holy kiss, like Judas, but have something adversarial in your heart.” Continue reading “Friend Or Foe” →

PARALYZING INERTIA

“Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”  I Thess. 5:24

I used to live frozen in inertia.  I reviewed my failures and all the self-proclaimed reasons I believed I was inadequate and decided to stand still in order to avoid the humiliation of failing.  I lived in perpetual self-condemnation.  My energy was depleted.  I remember entertaining thoughts that something was physically wrong with me, when all the time, self-hatred and the sinful thought patterns that accompanied it sapped the life out of me. Continue reading “Paralyzing Inertia” →