Thoughts on Romans - Day 3

                                 ROMANS 1:16-31

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

         Paul is my hero! There are no close seconds. Yes, my dad was an awesome Christian, Billy Graham is/was a legend. I've admired Christian sports figures like Tebow, Warner, Wilson, Bobby Richardson, etc. but they usually let me down. But Paul!!... So far in Romans I have seen that he made himself a servant of God. God would tell him to jump and he would say" how high?" In fact he was desiring to go to Rome for years but God wouldn't let him. Finally God lets him. In fact He sends him there free of charge... in shackles, ship wrecked, disdained, snake bit and under house arrest, etc and what does Paul do - he tells about the grace and goodness of God to his captive audiences. Next I saw that Paul was focused. He didn't get distracted by the things of this Earth that we get distracted by. I'm not talking about bad things, I'm talking about things that God has given us to enjoy. What would I rather do on a weekday night - hang out with my wife and sit by the fire and watch our favorite TV show or go out and advance the Kingdom of God with fellow believers. For Paul it wasn't even a reasonable question. Wow!

         Today I see that Paul was unashamed. Well, at least I have this one licked. Ha! Don't we want to fit in? Nobody wants to be the one being laughed at by the crowd. Why wasn't Paul ashamed - because he was convinced that there was and is a God over the universe. I mean , to me that's obvious and Paul is convinced that deep down everyone knows this when they look at the beauty and order of creation, the wonder of life and childbirth, etc. But then when you start thinking about it that means He created the universe, you and me, and that means that He must have had a purpose for doing it and that leads to the slippery slope ending in we are all under His authority - and like we saw in day 1, none of us likes that. Therefore, anyone that wants to be a free agent (which is impossible because we are all slaves to something) will mock you, ostracize you, belittle you, laugh at you if you present that God is righteous and you aren't and will be eternally separated from Him unless you by faith receive His righteousness in you through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

         This couldn't have been easy for Paul. Everywhere he went people hated him. Even believers tried to get him to chill. In Galatians we see Peter and Barnabas, out of fear of the circumcision group backing down. We see travelling partners like John Mark and Demas deserting him because they couldn't take it. And then he presents it to the most powerful enlightened person of his time, King Agrippa and the king thinks he is insane. I don't want enlightened people to think I'm insane - do you?

     Lord, help me today not to worry about what so called enlightened people think about me because they despite knowing the truth have stuck their heads in the sand and make fun of everyone who hasn't. Help me to be bold and stand uncompromisingly for the truth of the gospel. Convince my heart of it's truth today through your Holy Spirit inside me and through the encouragement of fellow believers of like mind.