Romans 10:5-15; Complicated

It always amazes me how simple the gospel is and yet how complicated we can make it. The text says that the gospel is simply believe in the resurrection and make Jesus the lord of your life. The rest of life tends to be living out those basic principles.

History reveals to us the amazing number of heresies, creeds and debates over major and minor issues. We work so hard on the details of the implementation that we forget to hold tightly to the basic principles and embrace others who hold them as well.

North of here I drive through a town that has Walmart and several major business on the left side of the primary highway. On the right side there are three churches in a row. Only green grass separates them. There are no other businesses or houses on that side of the street. What a statement about complication and division.

Yet on a personal note, my life is always full of the same, i.e., balancing the complication of working out the implications and embracing the simplicity of making Jesus lord. My prayer is that when I die people won't look at my life as complicated and divisive but rather as focused upon a few simple truths.

Romans 10:1-3; Zeal only

1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

I look around me at the hundreds of university students I deal with and want to tweak that verse by simply substituting "millennial generation" for "Israelites". 1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Millennial Generation is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

Yet in all honesty, the same could be said of any generation; fortunately, the Millennials have a much better starting point than my own generation.

How often do we get excited for serving God in ways that really are more manifestations of our culture than his spirit? How easy to cloak humanitarian aid with spirituality and deceive ourselves about what drives us in our hearts. How many blind spots are there in our Christianity because we are zealous but not zealous and knowledgeable of God's wishes?

Romans 9:19-33; Stumbling

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . ." "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"

Those are conflicting points of view. Perhaps when everyone in the room is from the same social order then "all men are created equal"; yet the world at large does not work that way. Even the slaves of Jefferson and Washington would have probably questioned the statement had they been allowed the same voice that their owners were rebelling to obtain.

Thus we come into life on "unequal footing". The text then teaches that we cannot work our way into a better place. No pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. We can obtain a right standing with our Creator only by his grace and our faith in the Incarnation.

How un-American is this passage. What a stumbling block it is to our way of thinking. Also how amazing that tomorrow is July 4. Maybe the stumbling block was laid in Zion but we can still trip over it in Texas.

Romans 9:1-18; Shaped by Mercy

Two thoughts seem to wrestle in my mind for preeminence when I read this section.

First, the question comes to me of "do I care this deeply for the people around me?" Paul was willing to be cursed so that others might know Christ. Do I feel the same? Do I have this depth of mercy and concern for others, especially others that I do not know personally? I stand convicted before the text.

Second, I'm back to the issue of working again. My right to stand justified before God and claim sonship is not based upon my effort or desire; my "being fit enough" to stand before God is totally a gift from him. What right do I have to pride? What right do I have to think that I have achieved anything?

So between those two thoughts, I start this day humbled. I am very blessed to be who I am and that should shape me into a man of mercy.