Day 5 - Romans 1:28 - 1:32

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.


Tori's Comments:

For some reason, I'm caught on the phrase "they refuse to understand" (vs. 31). 

Maybe it has to do with my tendency to always assert that I am right, when usually it is the other way around (my sister can testify to this!). 

I am unsure about verse 32. How do they know what God's justice requires? Is this targeted to the Jews? And if so, wouldn't they think they're saved through their sacrifices? Just curious.


Terrie's Comments: 

These are the verses that stuck out to me today:
 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 

Once again it sticks out that they thought it was foolish to acknowledge God.... He didn't abandon them until they chose to turn their back on His ways.

They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

I think deep down we all know that their are consequences for wrong actions.  But I guess when you choose to define your own truth then anything goes.  This doesn't mean that it is really true however.  We are saved through faith... faith, as we learned in Hebrews last month, is an action that shows that we truly believe that God is real and His word is true.  




Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 4 - Romans 1:24 - 1:27

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.


Terrie's Comments:

This part of Paul's letter makes me sad simply because I feel like so many who used to know the truth are trading the truth about God for a lie.  It has become a culture in North America that we are worshiping ourselves and striving to be self sufficient.  We are not created to live like that.  We are created to live loving God and loving each other.  We have traded Love for Lust and we for me.  

We are to worship the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! God was not the one who abandoned man first.  God only abandoned man to their own desires after they had set their mind to trade the truth of God for a lie.  

God is a God of mercy and grace.  That is exactly why he sent His only Son to earth to suffer and die to cover our sins and reconcile us back to Himself.

Tori's Comments:

"They worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself" (vs. 25)

I think this definitely applies today. It's hard not to see someone idolizing the human body at least once a day via magazines, beauty ads, etc. Celebrities, TV shows, and 'success' are worshiped all throughout the media. In my own life, I know I have idolized things like the number of people who like me or the number of friends I had, because that made me feel accepted. I still struggle with this, but continue to remind myself that God has already accepted me-He has adopted me into His family.

Any other forms of idolatry you see in the media or in your own life? Please share in the comments!


Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 3 - Romans 1:16 - 1:23

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

Tori's Comments:
This is a very happy section. It makes me smile.

It flats out states that the only reason God sees us as righteous is because of our faith that Jesus makes it so. That takes away so much of the weight that the Jews were carrying because of the Old Law. Even now, I feel like Christians let rules and regulations reign in their mind instead of Jesus. I know I have in the past, and still do. I am  not ashamed to say Christ has made me clean. 

Sorry for camping out on the first two verses, but my mind was stuck on those. What a motto for the Christian life! I am not ashamed of my Savior!


Terrie's Comments:

We are made right in God's sight by faith... end of story.  Deliberately choosing to believe that He is the creator of all, that He is who He says He is, and that His word is completely true and trustworthy.  Living by faith means walking a walk in life that lines up with His word because we know it is true.

What does it mean to be without excuse?  To have the heavens and the earth and all the wonders of creation and refuse to acknowledge the one who created it all.  It's like looking at a painting and coming up with a theory that says that the painting just appeared and then hung itself on the wall because you don't like to admit that there is a talented person out there that painted the painting, or you just don't like the artist but you love the painting so you are looking for a way to eliminate the artist completely from the painting.

If we choose to worship anything other than God, the creator Himself, then we are fools and as a result our minds become dark and confused.  We are to worship God and give Him thanks for all He has done for us so we will be wise. We are to seek God to find out who He really is... not make up who we want Him to be.  We should always be striving to bring our experience up to the truth of God's word instead of trying to bring God's word down to the level of our experience.  That is how twisted doctrine happens.  


Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 2 - Romans 1:8 - 1:15

8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. 9 God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.

10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

13 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles.14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike.15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.

Terrie's Comments:

It is refreshing to be encouraged by others who are strong in their faith and are living it out everyday... It is also good to be an encouragement to others.  We are meant to bear spiritual fruit.  We are to be spreading the gospel deliberately and to be excited and with a great sense of obligation to others.  If we don't share what we know, those in our world may never find out.  Think about that for a bit.  

Paul saw himself as an evangelist.  It is clear that he saw the local body of believers as those who would support and help to disciple those who he preached the Good News to.  

I hope that this blog, in some small way, is a place where we can meet together and spur one another on to whatever God has called each of us to do.  May it always be a delight and a joy to meet online and in person with those who encourage us in our faith.

I know Tori and I thank God for all of you who choose to be a part of this journey with us!


Tori's Comments:

I'm really curious as to which spiritual gift he means.

I can't even fathom how their faith was so strong that news of it was spreading. I mean, they must be doing some amazing things! 

Right now I've been trying to pray for other people rather than solely myself. I find that when you pray for someone enough, it becomes hard not to love them after all of the thought you've put into that person's well-being. I could be generalizing, but it is a method of working through my meager frustrations that works pretty well for me. 

Vs. 12 is probably the verse that sticks out the most for me. It shows a beautiful picture of the church, united because we all point to the cross. It makes me wonder whether I make it a goal to encourage my friends' faith enough. (The answer is no, I do not. It does not take much reflection for that to be clear :) ) It is definitely something for me to work on!

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 1 - Romans 1:1 - 1:7

This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. 2 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3 The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, 4 and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

6 And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Tori's Comments:
For HIS name's sake.  I have to remind myself that, yes, Jesus loves me, and yes, that completely blows my tiny human mind, but also that I can't just stay stagnant in this love.  Love is a verb.  So Jesus absolutly, completely, wholly loves me, no question about it.

The real question is: What am I going to do about that love?

That's my job as an ambassador.  Go love people and to call people into a relationship with Christ.  To set an example.

I also want to make a note on how he calls Christians saints in verse 7.  She grew up Catholic with all the patron saints and etc.  We have recently been going through a book of the Bible together, and out of the blue she said, "This may sound silly, but I want to be a saint."

And my heart exploded because I knew just what to say!  I read her the Bible verse and God officially blew HER mind too.

Even still, I find amazing that Jesus cleanses us so well that God can look at us and see saints.

All because of Jesus!!!
I'm so excited to continue in Romans!!

Terrie's Comments:

Romans is a letter written by Paul,  he considered himself enslaved to Christ and chosen by God.  He knew his mission was to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ specifically to the Gentiles (non-Jews).  

It was impressed upon me long ago that Jesus completed what he set out to do the moment he died on the cross... the veil that separated us and God was torn and we had unlimited access to God our Father.  So then why did he have to rise from the grave if everything was already paid for?  In verse 4 of today's passage we are given a clue... He was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am so glad we got that cleared up in my thinking... at least in part :-) 

God has given us the PRIVILEGE and AUTHORITY to tell people EVERYWHERE the good news so that they will BELIEVE and OBEY and as a result they will be bringing GLORY to the name of JESUS CHRIST our LORD.

We are loved by God and are called to be HIS OWN HOLY PEOPLE!  I am more than willing to accept the grace and peace that comes from God.  Amen :-) 

This is an awesome beginning to a letter!

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!