Romans 21-31: Blogger Small Group

 

This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 3. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (seeBlogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are a few weeks into the group, which started in James.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

I ended last week with the comment that 9-20 was basically a good reminder that, since God expects sinless behavior, having sinned righteousness cannot be obtained by doing good. Doing good cannot make up for doing bad. Rather justice demands a penalty to be paid.  Thus Jesus.

From those verses, we move to Righteousness Through Faith.

vs 21-24  thus Jesus, moves us to this section.  We all fall short.  Even if we live a good life, mind our manners, help others… it doesn’t matter without Jesus.  That is what v20 was pointing out, and expanded upon here in v21-24. I read somewhere this statement that I love, we are in a “transitions from speaking of the righteousness which is by the law (a righteousness which is earned by one’s performance) to a righteousness which is from God (a righteousness which is not based on one’s performance, but freely given to those who put their trust in Jesus).”

Now the hard part… this is so hard for me right now.  The reason I mention this is my wife is not a Christian.  I am throwing this out there.  I am sharing something that I have not shared out here before.  She believes in God.  She believes in the power of prayer.  She believes in heaven.  She believes in doing good.  She is one of the most amazing women you will ever met.  She is a wonderful person, helps others, loves others, is truly someone you would want to know.  So I struggle with this section as I realize that she will fall short in God’s eyes.  Because of that, and knowing her, I must be the silent warrior in her life, trying to live by example and offer up a comment or two – never pushing but explaining, living and loving.  I am the active warrior in my daughters’ lives.  There love “it”.  They get “it”.  They want more of “it”.  

This divided part of my life, makes the rest really hard.  This part of the scripture is hard… we all fall short thus Jesus – I get that for me.  We all fall short thus Jesus – I get that for my girls, most of my family and friends.  We all fall short thus Jesus – but what about her – now what?  When will the divided road end?

vs 25,26 This again is speaking directly at the Jews.  Here we are talking about the fact that sin, prior to Jesus died, was forgiven by the mercy of God.  But, the penalty for sin had not been paid.  NOW all of that has been taken care of by Jesus and the cross.

vs 31 What a way to end a chapter… “31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”  Faith upholds the law, whether that is mosaic law, or the Gentiles who try to earn their way to heaven because they don’t know the mosaic law.

No matter what, every Jew will admit that they have not lived up to the full extent of the law, and every Gentile will admit that they have done something he knows is wrong.  They failed to live up to the law.  The atonement that came was through Jesus’ death.  God has a way to forgive us without appearing unjust.  All of our falls short, if we believe in him through Jesus Christ, will be taken care of. 

If we will just believe, we will be taken care of.  Let me rephrase that - If we truly believe, we will be taken care of.  Images that will not go away – Jesus and the cross.  

His gift to us… can a person cry out of joy and cry for others at the same time?

Thank you for listening… 

Romans 3: 9-20 – Blogger Small Group

 

This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 3. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (seeBlogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are a few weeks into the group, which started in James.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

This is laying the ground work for me.  The “don’t put yourself above another” kind of ground work.  Everyone sins, plain and simple.  Everyone stumbles, plain and simple.  It is what we did prior to that sin and following that sin which will make the difference.  If we believe our good deeds will get us somewhere – well we are in trouble.  If we believe in Jesus and what he did for us, and I am not talking about an every Sunday morning type of believe, I am talking about an every second type of believe – then that gap is filled.  God is there.  

No One is Righteous

vs 9-18 We are all not worthy.  Paul is laying that out for us.  This includes the Jews and the Gentiles.  Everyone sins.  Specificially he is talking about behavior.  I just get the feeling that Paul is saying – just because you are a Jew don’t think you’ve got it made – that they shouldn’t be less fearful of God.  And then he throws in the kicker… if measured from God’s standard of goodness Jesus says that no one is good– except God alone.

v19 I have read that this implies that all are under the law, since all are held guilty. But there are those that are not aware of the law of Moses, so does this say that the “law” is the law of the conscience. That they must do good and live according to their own conscience?  If so, can anyone even live up to their own standards, let alone God’s.  If the law is referring to conscience as well and they don’t understand or know what Jesus did for us, will they be judged differently?  I think about a friend of mine who believes “in God” just not Jesus.  She lives a pretty good life, does things for others, etc.  So what does that mean for her?  

v20 At first glance I was thinking this moved us back to the book of James, just because you know the law does not mean you obey the law.  Knowing and doing are two different things.  But here it states, “through the law we become conscious of sin.”  If we are aware of the sin, and ignore it then that is even worse.  Man you really have to hate a conscious…:D

This is basically a good reminder that, since God expects sinless behavior, having sinned righteousness cannot be obtained by doing good- especially since one can live a life of always doing good. With that in mind, doing good cannot make up for doing bad. Rather justice demands a penalty to be paid.  Thus Jesus.

Thus Jesus… thus Jesus… thus Jesus… 

Romans 3: 1-8

 

This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 3:1-8. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are a few weeks into the group, which started in James and now is in Romans.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

Now to begin - I am just going to start out by saying that this has been an extremely hard week for me – not the study rather life in general.  I am posting this, but probably will not have an opportunity to look much further. It would be impossible to go through the details here, but life has been interesting and challenging for the past couple of weeks.

Romans 3

God’s Faithfulness

The thought is most likely going like this – “Well Paul, if what you are saying is true, is there any advantage in being a Jew? Is there any value in being circumcised, in being one of God’s covenant people?”

To put it simply – objections answered…

As it says right there in verse 2… the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God. I mean imagine that… THE words of God.  Not just a mere man standing there telling you a tale, or a man writing a book from his own experience, or a humbled man sitting at a desk typing out these words.  Those were HIS words.  Then to top it off, He made himself known to them, it was to the Jews that that He entrusted the prophetic anticipation of Jesus Christ – and to top it all off the Old Testament was theirs, I mean who else do you think of when I say Old Testament.  And the Old Testament spoke of Christ and his gospel.

As I read somewhere recently, “the Jews, above all people, had been prepared by God to receive his Son. They, above all people, had been prepared to embrace the death of Christ as God’s way of salvation. Indeed, if they had only noticed it, their scriptures held the same message of salvation by grace through faith as the gospel.”

Also, am I looking to closely at the word Paul picks here – “entrusted”?  To me the use of this word is more than saying you were “given” the word… Entrusted… something of the utmost value entrusted to them – a privilege involving a lot of responsibly.  God wanted them to learn these words, to actually live them. His initial words laid the foundation for Jesus’ arrival. 

Then Paul moves from speaking of the advantage of being a Jew, to the barrage of questions from Jews who are looking for a way to escape the condemnation under which Paul has included them – with the rest of mankind no less.  I mean come on these were the chosen people.  These were the ones that were living in the law daily.  They are bound to have questions…. Right….

So, in short order he says and answers the following –

• Does their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? No – they were still Jews.  They were still the people He entrusted with His words. He remains true and faithful.
• Can we say that God is unrighteous in judging us, when our unrighteousness actually highlights his righteousness? Here is a thought – keep being unrighteous so that it will actually HIGHLIGHT His righteousness.  Uh – No – not going to happen that way.
• Why am I condemned as a sinner, when my falsehood increases God’s glory by enhancing his truthfulness? Why not sin so that good will result? Kind of an interesting approach… in fact it sounds alot like what you might here today… The more I sin the more I enhance God’s truthfulness…now wouldn’t that be something… Wow…  Well Paul nips that in the bud when he says that such a thought deserves condemnation.

We all know that our actions belong to us, and events to God.  We know that we must not commit any sins, with the hope, or even assurance, that God may glorify himself. If we do, our condemnation is just.

Take care,

Romans 2

 

This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 2. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (seeBlogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are a few weeks into the group, which started in James.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

 

God’s Righteous Judgment

1 – 3 we are all sinners – and all sin is equal in God’s eyes.  So if all sin is equal – how can I possibly judge someone else?  It is best left to God.  The perfect example of this a lot of time is in the church itself – how many times have I heard someone talking about another – then now many times did I NOT stop this discussion?  Sin on both parts – I think so…just looking at this on a micro scale how can I judge them, and on a macro scale I think of 100s of reasons that I shouldn’t judge them – starting with this verse.

4 – How easy is it to take God’s grace for granted.  I seem to slide through life – believe what I believe – and there are times in my life where I forget to ask for forgiveness thinking it has already been given.  Basically for me this is telling me to live a righteous life – if we don’t well we know what the consequences are.

5 – For me this is pride… pride… pride.  I hate to admit I am wrong.  Let me say that again, I hate to admit I am wrong.  Repenting is saying I am wrong… what will others think about me… will they view me as weak?  Pride…pride… pride.

6 – 8 okay so here it is… spelled out for us.  If I choose the right path – eternal life.  If I choose the wrong path – well lets’ just say it is not going to be fun.  I cannot even imagine what God wrath and anger will look like.  If that is not incentive enough, what is?

9 – 11 Two things working here.  First a pattern of hope for the Gentiles – they are included, not just the Jews in God’s plan.  There are no favorites.  Second – do good. 

I think about my daughter, Monica who came to me while we were going into a store.  “Dad, do you see that old lady?”

“Yeah.”

“I think see needs some help.”

“Why don’t you go help her?”

“I can’t, I need you…”

Wow… this is one of those little life moments.  Easy to miss.  My daughter cared enough, was observant enough, but didn’t feel empowered enough.  Dad… I need you.  How many times have I said the same thing…? I can’t do this…I am not good enough.  I don’t know enough… I am not worthy… I need You.

12 Not sure here… does this mean that if I don’t know better I will be judged accordingly? Help me out here…

13 Hear and obey.  Keyword – obey.  It is one thing to hear the something, it is another to hear and obey it.  For me this is kinda like churches – we go to church hear the message and then have a choice – do we go home and live our life the same as before, or do we allow what we heard to sink in and change our soul?  If we allow it to sink in and it changes our soul then obedience will happen automatically.  If we only hear the message, nothing is automatic – everything is hard.

14-16 This is another section that is giving hope to the non-Jew – the Gentile Christian.  They didn’t know the law.  But, even though they did not know the law, they were basically living the life of a Christian inside and out.  

The Jews and the Law

17 – 21 For me this tells me that teachers need to be careful.   The need to continue to grow and learn.  They need to continue to grow closer to God.  They need teachers themselves – if not they will not grow.  I think that is why it is so important for new pastors to find mentors.  They need someone to help them.  For me this is like reading a passage in the bible, deciding what it means and moving on.  If I shared this view with others, they may point out something I missed.  Allowing me to look at that passage differently.  Allowing me to grow and learn.  But as we learned in James – we need to choose our mentors wisely.

21-24 This brings me back to the Book of James again and his talk about being two-faced.  If you claim one thing, yet do another you are not only a hypocrite, but you are sinning and blaspheming God’s name.  Be ready for that wrath and anger thing again…

25-29 Challenging the current status of Jews and some of their thought processes.  Rebel time if you will.  If your heart is in the right place, you are better off than if you are doing the deed without your heart.  Oh I get it… If I go to church just to go to church, but my heart is not there, I am not better off than the guy who stays home, but truly lives a Christian life.  Walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

 

James 5 – the Judge is standing at the door…

 

*This post is part of the Blogger Small Group reading the book of James. To read other participant posts, head over to Run’n Like a Vagabond. If you want to read my previous posts for the group, click here. 

Warning to Rich Oppressors

For me chapter 5 sums the book of James all up.  Throughout, I have thought that this book is all about our motives behind what we are doing in our daily life.  This chapter echoes that, and adds a twist… the Judge is standing at the door.    How difficult it is for “rich” people to submit to God.  We look at our spending, and think about how I did this, or what investment I made to get that… yet everything we have comes from God.  How we use it should glorify Him.  Verses 4-9 really speak to this for me.  James is basically saying… you can do this… just look at Acts 2 v. 44-47 – it talks about this very thing – this uncommon thing of the actual rich selling things to help the poor – it really can happen.  The poor guy on the street corner need us…

Patience in Suffering

V 7ish… With all that in mind, next is the treasure to come.  We need to be patient.  People who are short sighted will look at the farmer planting seeds and will think early on…what has he gotten today after putting in those seeds – nothing….he is working so hard and so long what has he gotten today – nothing yet…. But our focus needs to be on the future not today.  The ultimate outcome – the treasure if you will – is God.  We need to be patient with everything we do.  That God works on His own timetable – not ours. 

v. 11 – Job lived through a lot of hard times, suffering, yet God validated him in the end. Ultimately will need to get involved in the agenda that brings us closer to God – understanding that our agenda is not important, rather God’s agenda is.  If we put Him first, fantastic things are going to happen.

v. 12 – This brings my thoughts back to my earlier comments about being interested or committed.  If I am committed in my faith and love for God and say – yes – then nothing will stand in my way.  The same will go for no. 

The Prayer of Faith

v. 13 – interesting part for me.  First off I will say that we all need to pray.  We all need to pray for others.  We all need to pray in an unselfish way.  This makes me think through a question that was thrown at me not long ago about coming up with a one sentence prayer.  The thought being we all struggle sometimes coming up with the perfect prayer, with the perfect words, in the perfect order so that it “sounds” right to you and me.  Well, my one line prayer is “Help me, teach me, guide me.”

From there though, I have a question about this section… Is this physical sickness or is it our spiritual sickness.  If it was physical sickness – and God answered all of our unselfish prayers to heal someone, I guess that none of us would die… So I will take it from the stand point that the bible is talking about the spiritual sickness and I believe that is where this is going.  Jesus will ultimately heal us all – when He returns – in the interim we are all working on our spiritual sickness. 

v. 17Elijah, as I understand it, is one of the great heroes of faith?  Basically a righteous man can accomplish amazing things as long as we continue to bring everything to God.  Now this isn’t just the one and done approach.  It is the life long, asking for help, begging for help type of prayer… it is about laughing during good times with our God…we cannot just pray to pray, rather we should pray with a dependence.

Some final thoughts that came out of my men’s group this morning:

·        We have to allow the scripture to challenge us, every one of us.

·        We must come humbled and ready to learn – like a child.

·        Do I learn and appreciate lessons better by suffering though them or succeeding?

·        Who do we rely on?

·        We must be humble enough to reach out to friends/peers/everyone for encouragement and rebuke.

·        What rules our lives?

·        I’m blessed… am I missing something by not suffering?

In conclusion – For me the book of James has brought out that I really need to look at my motives more closely when I act, and I need to ask myself who I rely on….

Cool study, thanks for the ride.

 

James 4

Tuesday small group blog regarding the book of james. Please join us if you are interested. Kyle’s web page is the page to start at.

James 4 (New International Version)

Submit Yourselves to God

James 4:1 – Are we fighting for selfish reason? Are we fighting for earthly reasons vs. heavenly reasons? I want what you want (earthly)…I want your car (earthly)… I want (earthly)…I want (earthly)…I want (earthly)…And what causes our fights and disagreements? Pride? Jealousy? Both? For me it is all of these. I struggle with pride from time to time. I think about what others have and I get jealous sometimes. Does this cause me to argue – sometimes. Is this a daily battle within me – yes.

James 4: 2-3 – Ask and ye shall receive…. Well maybe not if you don’t ask for the right reasons. If our only goal is purely selfish, then why would God answer those prayers? Please give me a perfect job – not going to happen. Please give me the perfect job so that I can carry out Your word. Stands a better chance.

I remember as a kid praying for so many things – most of them were truly coming from a child’s perspective – that selfish point of view all of us share as a child because we really didn’t know better. But to this day, I remember one prayer that I prayed that wasn’t selfish in any way – not sure why I am bringing this up right now and in this forum, but I prayed something similar to the following: “God please take all of the blessing I received today and give them to someone else who needs them more.” Going back to me being a kid, thinking selfishly, I must have had a happy childhood to give away my blessing. In any event, I hope that those prayers where answered.

James 4:4 – If money (or anything else for that matter) drives my motives in life, then I have placed an idol in my life. That idol then will cause me to be an enemy of God.

How many times have I said that life gets in the way with life. I tend to run from one thing to another and miss out on so many opportunities to thank God – or to place Him first in my life. Thinking through my day, I sleep as long as I can before getting up, I go to work, I go to lunch when there is time, I work some more, I come home, I eat dinner with my family, I (a) watch TV, (b) ride my bike, (c) take my daughters somewhere, (d) I surf the net, (e) I sit and relax, (f) I take care of the bills, (g) I visit with neighbors, or (h) I crash and burn, and then I go to bed and start it all over again the next day. That isn’t even addressing the weekends. Notice anything missing? I do. God. Sure, I pray all day long in my own way, I go to my Tuesday morning men’s group, I go to church most Sundays (except when life gets in the way…ughhh), I prepare for this blog study. I need to look at my life a little bit closer – am I choosing the world over God? It sure seems like it. Ugh #2…

James 4:5 – To be honest, I struggle with this verse a little bit. I usually use the NIV for my studies, but tried several others to get a different view of this particular verse (thank you biblegateway.com).

KJ version said “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”

Then the New International version says – “The spirit that God caused to live in us wants us to belong only to God. Don’t you think Scripture has a reason for saying that?”

The Contemporary English version, “God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us”

New Life Version – “The Holy Spirit Whom God has given to live in us has a strong desire for us to be faithful to Him”?

New International Reader’s Version – “The spirit that God caused to live in us wants us to belong International Reader’s Versiononly to God.”

So, after reading each of these, I have to think that God wants us to follow the Holy Spirit that He put in us, and not to water that down and live it on our terms. He doesn’t want us to live a reader’s digest type of Christianity. He doesn’t want us to following Him only when it suits me. We aren’t to live with other things ruling our lives. He wants our time first and foremost – not secondary to everything else in our lives. It is kinda like what a friend said to me the other day, “Give me your checkbook and day planner and I will tell you what rules your life.” Okay, time for me to hide my day planner and checkbook – I have a long way to go.

James 4:6 – What more can be said…”God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” He wants us to be humble and not prideful. He wants us that way so that we appreciate Him, and we appreciate others. The more that we are humbled, the more I think that God pulls us closer. I don’t have to value myself against someone else. I don’t have to be proud of “my accomplishments.”

With that being said, I had a friend who passed away not long ago who I called “Quiet John.” John did so many things to glorify God in his daily life, yet he never called attention to himself. John was living a life that was humble – he set an example without calling attention to himself – he was living the life God wants us to. (PS: Good bye Quite John.)

James 4:7 – Put my faith in God in all that I do. If I do this, I won’t have to worry about the devil. The devil will know who controls my life – it is not me, it is not him, it is God. With this bold statement, comes the realization that I have work to do on this part also. How many times have I said that “I” accomplished this, and “I” am going to do this or that without thinking about God and His role in my life. Nice wake up call.

James 4:8 – The more I seek God, the more he shows himself to me. Plain and simple. I cannot tell you the number of times that He has done this in my life over the past year or so. I am more open in my faith, more willing to talk to others about who I am, etc. Each of the steps I have taken over the years has been a step toward purifying my heart. Do I have times when you could say that I have a “double-mind” – probably. I continue to struggle with jealousy and pride. I joke when I shouldn’t joke. Do I recognize it more now – yes. Do I still need work on it – YES!

James 4:9-10 – To me this two verses means to grieve, mourn and wail for those who are hurting. If they are hurting, then God is hurting. If I am sitting here, laughing and having a good time not thinking about anyone but myself, then I need to stop. I need to humble myself before God. Do I still need to laugh and smile – yes that is a strength that I bring to the church and to those around me. Do I need to use that strength in a way that glorifies God – yes. Have I been grieving, mourning and wailing – sometimes. Ugh #3…

James 4:11 – Ah… the tongue control battle again…. This is the 4×4 against my head statement. Can you hear me now? How about now? Verizon, 4×4, scripture….hmmm….

James 4:12 – Do not judge others – period. It is not my place. Not my role. We are here to help, to reach out, to listen and offering a loving hand. We are here to show our heavenly wisdom not our earthly wisdom that was discussed in Chapter 3.

Boasting About Tomorrow

James 4:13-15 – Okay struggle time again. This makes me think about my life. As we grow up there are so many plans that we have in life. As a baby we think about getting that cookie. As we grow older we plan on going to our first dance with the girl of our dreams. Older still – we plan on meeting the perfect match and getting married. Older still – we plan on having children, or the perfect vacation, or the perfect job, or going on the perfect mission trip. Older still – we plan on retirement, we set money aside, we plan on our kids growing up to be a little bit better than us, we plan on going places and doing things – someday.

We plan. Period. Or should I say, I plan. Time is precious though. Taking this from a different perspective – don’t procrastinate. Life is short and we do not know when it will end. I have seen to many friends pass away from cancer or heard about loved ones dieing in car accidents. Some of them knew not to procrastinate – they lived life. Others planned for the future – someday I will do that – someday I will help – tomorrow I will bring a dollar for the guy on the street corner – tomorrow I will ….

Don’t delay – today may be it. (I hope that doesn’t sound to doom and gloom…)

James 4:16 – With all that said, I never really thought about planning as boasting. Planning and boasting are one in the same? Wow… more deep thoughts I am sure are to come…this is hard for someone who likes to plan…

James 4:17 - Recurring theme for me in my past post – help someone period. No exceptions. No excuses. Be committed not interested. Committed means nothing will get in your way. Interested means that anything will get in your way.

I think that it all really comes down to motivation behind your actions, and the Book of James has been such a wonderful eye opener for me. I am glad that Kyle started this blog study.