January 19th, 2009 Bible Blog

Today's Reading:

Psalms 107-108
Romans 15:21-33

My Response:

In our reading of God's word today we begin in Psalms, as we have for the last month or so, but these two Psalms are focused on God's mercy and justice. I see a common theme in Psalms and most of the Bible which is always encouraging to me and it is this:

Psalms 107:6
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.

This theme is that people who call on the name of the Lord in the Bible are delivered. This does not mean that we won't skip hard times, I don't think that it means this at all. For one we don't know how long people called out to the name of the Lord, maybe it took their persistent prayers before God for them to be delivered. Who knows, but this much we do know, God delivers those who turn to Him and humble themselves before the Lord. He saves us, in fact He has already saved those of us who have laid down our lives in submission to His salvation. And then I remember why it is that we should thank God. We have no more reason than this:

Psalms 107:15
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,

Let us give thanks to God because He loves us in a way that will never fail us. We see this evident in the Cross and what God did for all people because of His deep and unfailing love for us. The greatest deed that God ever did for you and I was to send His Son to walk this earth and face the temptations that we faced and overcome them. The greatest deed that God did was allow His Son to be persecuted as a criminal and die a miserable death. The greatest deed that God did was save our souls while we were still helpless and unworthy. For this we have every reason in the world to thank and praise our God. We should need nothing else! We don't need to have the best cars, we don't need to have the best jobs, we don't need to have anything really but our salvation and relationship with God.

In our NT reading we see Paul wrapping up his letter to the Romans. In fact tomorrow we finish Romans all together. In this we see the true desire of Paul coming out, he wanted to make it to Spain.

Romans 15:24
24I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

In Spain there were great things happening and many of the forward thinkers were emerging from this place. It was Paul's desire to go and touch those people with the message of Christ. Paul was a pioneer whose heart was to take the Gospel to all known parts of the world, and in this case Spain was one of those farthest reaching areas that he believed he needed to touch. As far as we know it Paul never made it to Spain, but it is imporant to note that Paul was striving every day to advance the Kingdom of God as far as he could and at all costs. His hope was that the Christian church in Rome would "assist" him in this endeavor and really that is one of the reasons for this letter. Rom was a place where Paul would be able to be supported for taking the Gospel to Rome.

Then we see that last portion of this writing which gives us a great glimpse into the heart of Paul:

Romans 15:30-31
30I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,

Here we see that Paul was aware of the danger that would likely befall him, yet he marched on towards Jerusalem. Paul had gathered monies for those who were poor in the church of Jerusalem which was likely most of the church. In Jerusalem the major form of income was taking care of the Temple. Since the Temple was overseen by the Sadducees, and the Sadducees were considered enemies of the Christians, it is likely that those who became Christians lost all means by which to support themselves. Paul wanted to bless his brothers there despite the risk in doing so. Paul understood the danger but was dead set that he must make it there to support those that had supported him. This is the heart of Paul which was one that did not back down when he faced trials. Similar to that of Christ knowing what He must face and yet not turning away from it. How many of us can say that we have done the same?

My Prayer:

Lord thank You for this reading today. It was great and I thank You that You have taught me some new things. I worship Your Holy Name and I lay my life down at Your feet. God give me the heart of grace that You have and open my eyes to see those that I need to minister to.

Lord I love You and I worship You. You are my King and I lay my life down at Your feet. I am unworthy of Your love and yet You have shown it to me. You have given me great reason to thank and worship You.

Lord I pray for Gabe that You would touch his body. He has been complaining about his back again and I know that You have spoken truths into my life regarding my sons. I believe the things that You have told me and so I pray that You would take this pain from Gabe and release him from it. Bless my sweet sons sleep tonight and help him to awake feeling refreshed and ready for a new day. Bless all of our sleep tonight Lord.