Enduring Together

Not in achievement, but in endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alliance with the infinite.

Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814-1880, American author, clergyman)

Romans 15:4-6 (HCSB)
For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you agreement with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice.

These verses must be understood in the light of verses1-3 of yesterday’s devotion on Chapter 15. This gives us a clue of what we will need to be able to endure and hold on to our hope. What is that important ingredient that we will need? It is each other. We need each other and we need God’s Word to be able to successfully traverse this world.

Notice what it is that Paul asks God to grant Christians to enable them to speak with one mind and voice. It is for Christians to be in agreement with one another. This is so important in the church. The saying is of old, “United we stand, divided we fall.” But Paul also tells what to unite around, and that is Christ and the Scriptures.

It is fighting over all the other stuff that divides churches. People have so many preconceived ideas of what is important. Paul is telling us that we are to be in agreement with each other, holding one another up and glorifying God in all that we do. God insists that we be involved in one another’s lives, so as to encourage one another as we each carry our cross for Christ…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Always Building

Never insult an alligator until you've crossed the river.

Cordell Hull (1871-1955, American statesman)

Romans 15:1-3 (HCSB)
Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, in order to build him up. For even the •Messiah did not please Himself. On the contrary, as it is written, the insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.

To me this journey that I am taking through Romans has really enlightened to me the importance of others in our journey here. Just when you think that Paul is through sending home the point, he comes back to it again. What is it that he comes back to regularly? Our, and hear the word he uses here, our “obligation to bear.”

Now that isn’t strong enough, so he goes a little farther, he says that obligation is one of “bearing,” which is saying we must help steady those with weaknesses. Moreover even those with no strength at all, we must help for their own good or pleasure, so that they might be able to stand the onslaught of satan. This is what Christ does for us isn’t it?

We are to feel for those whom are insulted and put down and we are to find their weaknesses focus on them and build them up into strong and faithful believers in Christ, now that’s what being a Christian is really all about isn’t it. Not that you are a spiritual guru, but that you are a servant, who feels the insults of others so strongly that you are stricken to help them, just as Jesus was for us…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Targeted Faith

He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did not attend was Catholic.

Kingsley Amis (1922-1995, British novelist)

Romans 14:20-23
Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to cause stumbling by what he eats. It is a noble thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother stumble. Do you have faith? Keep it to yourself before God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin. (HCSB)

Faith has a different meaning to many in today’s world. Many times we hear someone speak of their belief in a “higher power.” That isn’t a new thing. In Paul’s day he also saw the tomb, or plaque erected in belief to the unknown god. Paul immediately began to tell them about this God that they didn’t know.

Many people in today’s world have their faith defined more by what they do not believe than what they do believe in. They are so afraid of believing in the wrong thing that they abandon their search for the right thing, therefore their faith is mostly “undefined,” they really don’t know what they believe, or what they are living for.

Paul is saying here that that kind of belief is sinful, moreover, in the Greek this kind of faith is said to have missed the mark. Belief, or faith, the subject of Paul’s words here, is defined as living life with a target or a goal in mind. Paul is saying that living without God’s goals as your ultimate goals in life will cause you to lose life. Another way of saying it is, if you aim for nothing, you are sure to get it…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William