Studying the Bible: Specifically Looking into Romans

            This week we are learning about the book of Romans. The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans. He enters the bible with the book of Acts as a Jewish man who persecuted Christians heavily, but one day God spoke to him directly and he was converted and become one of the most famous missionaries. It was your classic Gory to Glory testimony.

            The book of Romans is all about our relationship with God. The reason why we need it, what God’s part is in it and what our part is in it.

“I do not understand the things I do, I do not do what I want to do and I do the things I hate.”

Romans 7:15

            Let me tell you a story. A little boy decides one day he wants to do something nice for his dad for father’s day. He thinks and thinks and thinks about what he should do. Finally, he overhears his dad complaining about how much his new paint job on his car is going to cost. Inspiration hits! He decides he will paint his dad’s car himself to save him money! So he goes into the garage and grabs two buckets of paint and a paintbrush and gets to work. When his parents notice his absence his dad walks outside to see his son painting his car with house paint. Did the son know what he was doing? No. Did he succeed in making his father happy? Most likely not. Did he do something bad? You bet.

            That’s what this verse means. We want to do good. We want to do God’s will. However, we do not have the power to do it on our own. John 8:34 tells us that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin”. That’s why we need a relationship with God. Without it sin wins. Like it says in Romans 6:23 “When people sin, they earn what sin pays- death. But God give us a free gift- life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 9:35). He loves us and wants a relationship with us. He took the first step. Now it’s our turn.

“I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship.”

Romans 12:1

            All we have to do to become children of God is let the Spirit lead us (Romans 8:14). Being in constant communion with God will tell us what he wants us to do. We will always have a listening ear, and a comforter in Him. I’ll admit it; being in constant communion with God is not an easy thing to do. I struggle with it myself. That’s why fellowship with other Christians is so important. That’s why I started this blog. Fellowship. Accountability. I want to hear from you just as much as I want you to read my words.

 “I want us to help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.”

Romans 1:12 

            So this week I’d like to hear from you. Where are you in this story? Are you still doing what you hate because sin is living inside of you? Have you started a relationship with God, but still would rather be the one leading instead of the Holy Spirit? Or are you in constant communion with our Lord, following in His footsteps? I pray that one day all of you will reach the last one.

History of the Church: What Do Methodists Believe?

Hey everyone! So as some of you may or may not know, I am not only Methodist but after I graduate I plan on going to seminary to become a Methodist pastor. So I thought I’d do today’s post on asking; what exactly does that mean? What do Methodists believe?

According the United Methodists Church’s official website two things are needed for Christian life, faith and theology. I have to admit; I absolutely love how they word their definition of faith. “Faith-as-belief is active; it involves trusting, believe, following, hoping.” Theology, they say, is something that every individual should reflect on, not just the clergy.

This year, instead of a New Years Resolution, I picked one word for the whole year and every day I reflect on a Bible verse about that single word and I write about it in a journal. My word was faith. I did it because I wanted to live intentionally toward something good. I defined faith as confidence of trust in God, belief based on truth not proof and loyalty.

Through this exercise, so far I have learned about a fellowship, being small, patience, peace, righteousness, grace, action, death, and glory. My favorite echoes a little what the United Methodist Church’s Website meant when they said “Faith-as-belief is active”. Faith is a verb.

“So you see that Abrahams faith and the things he did worked together. He faith was made perfect by what he did.”

James 2:22

Perfect faith. Isn’t that what I’m striving for? His faith was made perfect by what he did. Faith is a verb. You do faith. Your noun faith grows when you do verb faith. Want confidence in God? Do something that forces you to trust him. Want belief without proof? Learn. Understand. Get to know the one you want to believe in. Want a loyalty in you that you never had before? Don’t leave his presence. You’ll be so busy worshipping the Lord who made you that you won’t have time to look for distractions. You want faith? Then do faith.

Now notice something; and I didn’t do this on purpose, I honestly didn’t even notice it until I looked over it again. How many of those verb faiths included reflecting on the theology? Reflecting on scripture? You want something dangerous and hard that will force you to trust God? Something life threatening and daring? Turn of the TV, put down your work, make the laundry wait until after. Read your Bible. I know it’s scary! The entire world may fall apart around you if you don’t get everything done! That’s why it builds confidence, that’s why it builds trust. The best way to believe in something is the understand it. And the best way to be loyal to someone is to know him. God wants to know you, personally and intimately. He loves you so much, words cannot describe.

That’s what Methodists believe. They believe in faith and theology. There is more, and throughout our time I will be getting to more, but that is what is at the main core.

Your Turn! What's one way that you can make your faith a verb, and use it to build your theology? Post it in the comments and then go do it!