Romans 8-10
December 17, 2014


Today marks a real landmark for me.  I finally have caught back up with my devotional blog writing after falling almost a week behind.   Here's the lesson that I learned:  I can make up a day or even two if I really apply myself.  But if I neglect my reading or writing more than one day, the difficulty to catch back up intensifies.  What I mean is, the difficulty doesn't add....it multiplies.    And I also found that my frustration with myself magnifies as well.   For whatever reason, I feel better about  that fact that I am reading and jotting down quick thoughts every day....even though I doubt that anything I am writing has any significant value.   There are times when I think to myself "why bother" but since I feel like I should, maybe the Lord is teaching me something through this.   In any case allow me to share my latest learning experience with you:    stay current on your reading.

This passage gives some valuable insight on several key parts of our faith.

8:26-27.  When you pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you pray.   He knows what you should be asking for.   And then simply talk to God.   Don't forget to thank Him, Remember to express concern for others as well as yourself...but don't use language that you normally don't use, and don't pray something "canned" every time.   Once in while it's okay to recite a prayer that others have prayed, and make it your own...after all, that's what the Lord's Prayer is... but you also should just simply talk to God.   The Holy Spirit knows what you need, and will help you to get the right message through to heaven, and He also helps heaven's response back to you.

Beginning in verse 28 of chapter 8 we see some talk of predestination.   In the Methodist tradition we believe that God "predestined" everyone to go to heaven.  He "calls" all of us.   Not everyone responds.   Having read everything that Paul has written, I'm not sure if he believed that, or if He believed that God called some and not others.   It doesn't really matter, because a close examination of the Scripture reveals that God wants EVERYONE to go to heaven, and he isn't willing that ANY should perish.  (John 3).   That doesn't mean we all go, because we have to choose and accept it first.

8:37-39    Nothing can stop God from loving us.   That's a verse worth remembering.   You won't ever do something that causes God to quit loving you.  You may do something that causes you to lose His favor, but never His love.

Chapter 9, down through verse 26 or so, is what I am talking about when I say that I'm not sure that Paul believed everyone was created for heaven.   Otherwise, how could he say as he does in verse 22 that some people he is simply "putting up with" because they were created to be destroyed from the very beginning?    Again, Paul is speaking hypothetically here, and even if it were true, there isn't any way that we could ever know who God had chosen and who was rejected.   Of course the devil would whisper in your ear everyday that "you are one that God rejects".   But God would never tell you that, and the devil is a liar, so even if you heard that you couldn't ever believe it.    I don't think God created a single person EVER that He doesn't want to see with Him in Heaven.   We are his handiwork, and when He created us, He said "it is very good".   Very good doesn't automatically go to hell, even when we ask to be forgiven.  If we confess, we go to heaven.  That's what God promised, and He never goes back on a promise.

And so, just to make you wonder what he really believes, he says in 10:4  "there may be righteousness for everyone who believes"     Paul seems to say "anyone" and "everyone" several times in chapter 10.

Don't miss the whole plan of salvation, laid out clearly in 10:9  "if you confess and believe you will be saved"  (my abbreviated version).   This is an example of your brain, your heart and your mouth all working together to bring about the salvation of your eternal soul.

Our call to be missionaries is found in chapter 10 also:  those who bring good news are desirable.   That means people who testify.   You don't have to go to a foreign country to be a missionary.  Just testify.

PR