Checking back in
I know, I know. I have been very absent from the blogosphere. So absent, in fact, that I doubt anybody will read this apart from my parents. Hi mom and dad! I hope to update more frequently starting today. I have now finished my coaching commitments and am gearing up for a long stay in Guatemala, 6 months or longer. I love coaching and it has been so fun being a part of the lives of some awesome kids! However, it does set my life in a routine of sorts and that routine did not include writing. But I hope to update about my trip preparation and then plan on updating regularly while in Guatemala. So check back in!
Prison Dreaming
One closet hobby I have is making music. I created this song about two years ago. It reminds me of being so stuck in a weary routine that you forget who you are and what you were made for. But in the middle of these times in our lives, we can still catch glimpses of our soul and our dreams if we listen. Enjoy.
Prison Dreaming
Prison Dreaming
Romans: Led Astray
For this reason God
gave them up to vile passions. For even
their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural
use of the women, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing
what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which
was due. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do
those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness,
sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters,
haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient
to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things
are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who
practice them (Romans 1: 26-32).
Paul continues talking about man’s sinfulness. The Israelites had full knowledge of God’s
law, which God revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai . They disobeyed anyway and were deserving of
death. The Gentiles, while not having
specific knowledge of God’s law, still had a knowledge of God through creation
but chose not to worship Him as God.
They were all led astray by their lusts, knowing in their hearts that it
was sinful, but choosing to satisfy the flesh rather than worship God. For
this reason God gave them up to vile passions.
I will not go over all the sins listed in this section as
they speak for themselves. I will skip
ahead to the end of Chapter 1.
Who, knowing the
righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of
death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Looking objectively at the world around us, there is nothing
more natural than death. Something is
born and then it dies. Why do human
beings then have such a hard time with the concept? I am 28 years old and in the physical prime
of my life. Honestly, I don’t think
about my death too much because I feel like I will live forever. How does that make sense with so much
evidence to the contrary? Eternal life
is wired into my soul because that is what God designed me for. However, I am deserving of death. I fall far short of God’s law. I have lied, so I am a liar. I have looked at a woman lustfully, so I am
an adulterer at heart. I have
coveted. I have acted out of selfish
ambition and approved of those who have done the same. In short, I have fallen short of God’s
law. God is just and I deserve a
penalty. However, the beauty of this
story is that He came down and paid it.
But I can not receive it until I know my own guilt and that I need to be
saved. Would a loving judge pardon a
known murderer who believes he did not do anything wrong? However, if the murderer confesses his crime,
breaks down in the court room and acknowledges and believes in his heart that
he does not deserve to live, and then the judge pardons him by having his only sinless
son whom he loves pay the penalty for the murderer, would not that man be
forever thankful? Would not that man do
anything for the judge or his son? That
is a tamed down version to what God has done for us. That is why it is Good News.
Anyways, we are getting way ahead of ourselves.
Romans: Pagans Worshiping Idols
For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew
God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in
their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1: 18-21)
Before Paul discusses faith and God’s righteousness, first
he must discuss the evidence of man’s sinfulness. He begins by probably referring to the Gentiles. They had never had any
direct revelations of God like the Jews had, but they still had the evidence of
creation. Paul is making a big claim:
all creation has knowledge of its Creator.
Although the Gentiles never had the law of Moses, God’s moral code was
still manifest in them. They still had access to God and the choice
to glorify Him as God. Like all men born
into sin, however, instead of glorifying Him, they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed animals and creeping
things. Therefore, God also gave them up
to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among
themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1: 22-25)
Instead of worshipping God, they worshiped idols. The heart of the matter is, well, the
heart. God is after our hearts. As numerous verses throughout the entirety of
the Bible say, He wants ALL our hearts.
But our hearts tend to be adulterous.
We begin to stray from the Creator and begin to lust after the created
things. We worship a significant
other. We worship money. We worship ourselves. We profess
to be wise but become fools. We change
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man…we exchange the truth of God for the lie,
and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.
Now I just twisted Paul’s words from the past tense to the
present tense. But let me ask you, don’t
believers still do the same things sometimes?
Who here can honestly say they have worshiped God with all their heart, soul, and strength
since being saved? I can’t. Paul is probably referring to the history of
the immoral pagans but it is just as applicable to all humanity today as well. At a heart level, I still struggle with
worshiping and serving the Creator rather than the created.
Romans: The Just Live by Faith
For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone
who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith”
(Romans 1: 16-17)
Paul is now done with his introduction and ready to dive in. He boldly states his thesis: The good news of
Christ leads to salvation for everybody who believes and in it the
righteousness of God is revealed. He
sums it up by quoting the prophet Habakkuk:
The just shall live by
faith.
Habakkuk writes shortly before the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem . Habakkuk asks the Lord why He, being pure,
allows a wicked nation (Babylon ) to devour a
nation more righteous (Judah ),
even though Babylon
worships its own military might rather than the Lord. Here
is how the Lord answers:
Write the vision and
make it plain on tablets, that He may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it
will surely come, It will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright
in him; but the just shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2: 2-4)
The Lord follows this statement by spending the next 15
verses condemning proud Babylon . I encourage you to read through those verses,
a lot it rings true to our culture today as well.
In the context of Habakkuk the proud is referring to the Babylonians but can be extrapolated
to refer to all who trust in themselves.
The just on the other hand
live their lives in complete faith and dependence on God. Sometimes I get into the trap of thinking that
being just has to do only with good
behavior or doing good things. That is
not what the Lord tells Habakkuk and that is certainly not what Jesus teaches. The problem with this scenario is that I, and
not God, receive the glory for the good things I do, fueling my pride. Whatever good I do should come from my faith
in God and not pride in myself.
Romans: Praying Without Ceasing
First, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the
whole world. For God is my witness, whom
I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make
mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at
last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to
you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established - that is, that I may
be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now),
that I might have some fruits among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and barbarians,
both to wise and to unwise. So, as much
as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome
Seeing as Rome was the most
important city in the Roman Empire , I imagine
the news of what happened in that city tended to permeate throughout the known
world. Paul has heard about the faith of
the Roman saints and he appropriately starts off the letter by thanking God for
them.
Paul without ceasing
made mention of the Roman saints in his prayers. The verses in the Bible (mostly from Paul’s
writings) that say pray without ceasing
or pray always I find very
challenging. What does that exactly mean
anyway? Should we be talking to God
every moment of every day? Is it
possible for Paul to pray for the Roman saints while simultaneously preaching,
or while talking to people, or while making tents?
We are finishing up Ephesians in my Home Group bible
study. After discussing the armor of God
to be used for spiritual warfare, we ended with Ephesians 6:18 which reads:
Praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all
perseverance and supplication for all the saints…
As we discussed it, we tended to try to soften that
verse. I mean surely he doesn’t really
mean praying always. Right?
Umm, right? One of our guys made
an argument along the lines of: “Well, then how would we do anything
else!” In the following week or two, I
thought of this verse from time to time.
I had days when I prayed a lot (but not always) and felt more in the Spirit. Then, I had days where I felt selfish, empty,
and then realized that I had gone through the entire day without really talking
to God. Praying and having a
relationship with God is what keeps me on track. I know this might be a reach but I have begun
to think that praying always might
just mean…umm…praying always. I
think the reason many of us balk at this is because of our definition of
prayer. We think of prayer as sitting in
silence, closing our eyes, and then saying (or thinking) holy sounding things. How will we get anything done? I think the key words in the Ephesians 6:18
is in the Spirit. You can be doing other things in the flesh
while praying in the Spirit. Somehow not
all prayer involves human words but comes from the invisible, eternal realm. To more mature Christians than myself, am I
on the right track? What do you think praying without ceasing means?
In his prayers, Paul makes requests of God to visit Rome . He wants to give spiritual gifts and
encouragement to the church and likewise be encouraged. He has wanted to visit for a long time but it
hasn’t worked out yet. Paul sees himself
as a debtor to both Greeks and the
barbarians (who were perceived to be uncivilized because they were not trained
in Greek language and culture). The Lord
called Paul a chosen vessel (Acts
9:15) to minister to Gentiles. Paul
feels indebted to them to do so, regardless of their societal position. He is ready to preach the gospel in Rome .
The introduction of his letter is over. Now let the teaching begin.
Romans: Hello, I serve Jesus
Paul, a bondservant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which he
promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the
flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the
faith among all nations to His name, among whom you also are the called of
Jesus Christ; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans
1:1-7)
This is not exactly the “hey, how’s it going?” opening line
that I would have used. Paul has a way
of saying so much with so little words.
Each word he uses there is power behind it. There is no wasted space. You can’t really skim through his letters
without missing boat loads of truths.
What I tend to do with scripture like this is read it fast and then
translate in my mind, “okay, he is saying hello.” It is the lazy way of reading scripture. Doing so, you can fall in to the trap of
wasting time reading without really understand and letting it change your life.
Paul, a bondservant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle… (1:1)
I would have just said “This is Jordan .” I imagine the Church in Rome already knew who Paul was without him
describing himself. We know his good
friends Aquila and Priscilla were influential
in the church. Why does he describe
himself in this way? I have two
theories. One is to remind himself of
who he is. Two is to remind others of
his authority. Three is to be a living
example for the church. Four is that it
was common for people at that time to write letters in this fashion. I realize that is four theories but two came
to me as I was writing. Regardless of
his reasons, this statement reveals a lot about how Paul thought of
himself. He was a “bondservant” of
Christ. He served Jesus. That was the core of who he was. I feel challenged, do I consider my identity:
“Jordan, a servant of Jesus?”
Paul then continues by stating great truths about the gospel
(or good news) of Jesus. These are a
loaded few verses. It was promised by
the Prophets before he was born (there are so many references to this in the OT
it is ridiculous; here are just a few: Isaiah 9:6-7, 53:1-12, Jeremiah
31:31-34, Ezekiel 36:25-27). He was born
of flesh but was ultimately declared to be the Son of God through His
resurrection. It is through Jesus that
believers, including Paul, have received grace.
It was nothing we deserved by works, but it is from Him alone.
For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2: 9-10)
This grace produces obedience to Jesus among all
nations. We have been saved and now we
are his witnesses throughout the whole world, including the believers of Rome in 56 A.D.
To all who are in Rome
This is the only letter Paul writes in which he addresses
the letter to “all.” He is not writing
just to the church in Rome or the saints in Rome , or to a particular individual in Rome ,
but to everybody in Rome ! All who are in Rome (and everybody in the world) are beloved
of God and called to be saints. We are
all sinners called to salvation. He
knows the initial audience will be believers but his purposes for this letter
are far greater. That is my theory
anyway.
Paul makes it clear who he is and exactly who he is writing
to in relation to the Kingdom
of God
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
And he is just getting warmed up.
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