3/10/2010
Posted in FreshBread
at 10:56 am
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS!
A quick reminder that this Saturday Night you turn your clocks ahead one hour…..Don’t forget!
In Romans 1 Paul continues talking to his audience in Roman by say:
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
Paul is thanking these people for the difference that their faith made. So he says as he is preaching the Gospel of God’s Son (the Gospel of the Kingdom of God). Paul is lifting these folks up in prayer and desiring to see them.
Whose faith has strengthened you? Who has been a person or people who have encouraged you to walk in the Kingdom Life? There is no doubt that they are being challenged, the Kingdom Life is always a challenge and at times painful as we seek to bring the GREAT NEWS of the redemption of God. I encourage you, as Paul did, to pray regularly for the one(s) who have meant much to you in your faith journey. You might even take a moment and send them a note of thanks of encouragement.
Have a great day! I invite you to join us tonight as we dive into Mark chapter 14, 7:00pm at the church office. We would love to have you….13790 Lynmar Blvd, Tampa, FL. Hope to see you there.
Scott
Permalink
Comments off
3/9/2010
Posted in FreshBread
at 9:39 am
Good Morning Friends,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. Romans 1:4b-5
This is a powerful verse in the first chapter of Romans…..it sets the stage for what Paul is going to be talking about. Jesus was Jewish and many first century Jews thought the Gospel Message was for the Jewish people. As we mentioned Sunday, both Jesus and Paul made it clear that this GOOD NEWS was not just for Jews, in fact this was NOT a religious thing at all, this was a Kingdom thing. The Kingdom of God has come and EVERYONE is invited!
As we laid out this weekend, the Kingdom is inclusive. The boxes that we spoke of create an “in group” and “out group.” The Gospel of the Kingdom of God creates no such groupings!
The word of Paul in these verses does remind us that we are called to respond to this gift of God with obedience through faith. We will talk more about these words later in our study on our BIG WORD BOARD on Sunday. Remember that Paul’s message is NO DIFFERENT than Jesus’ when he says:
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. John 15:10
WOW, this is a powerful statement in helping us understand what it means to remain in Jesus! Obedience requires action….it is NOT holding on to the right box, it is FOLLOWING JESUS….Living in the Kingdom that he has restored….and the GOOD NEWS is that the Kingdom has come and you are free from the “master” of sin…so you can live in it! TELL EVERYONE THE GREAT NEWS!
Have a great day. Please lift up Dr. Stiliha as he is in Russia today teaching seminary students. Also lift up the folks on the prayer list! I am praying for you and know that God is using you!
Scott
Permalink
Comments off
3/8/2010
Posted in FreshBread
at 9:50 am
Good Morning Friends!
Yesterday was a powerful day at Freshstart as we began our series on the first 8 chapters of the book of Romans! As I mentioned, we will not be able to cover the entire book on Sunday morning, and it is important to listen to the messages that you might miss as they will have a lot of interconnection. Also, we will unpackage a little more of each chapter here in FRESHSBREAD each day. I hope you will join us!
Chapter 1 begins like this: 1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God
As we spoke of yesterday, Paul was dictating this letter to Tertius; it was around the year 58 AD and he was in the middle of what was his third missionary journey and actually soon to be headed to Rome to where most believe he died a martyr’s death.
Paul calls himself a Servant of Jesus Christ. As we saw on our “Big Word Board” yesterday, the word for servant means slave. This is a very important imagery as Paul will unpackage in his book more of what we said yesterday. THE GOSPEL IS….YOU ARE NO LONGER UNDER SIN’S CONTROL. Sin was our master, we were slaves to it, so right off the bat Paul says I am a slave/servant of Jesus Christ!
Paul also says he is called to be an apostle. We spoke about how preaching means to proclaim. An apostle is a proclaimer. In the days of the Caesars, a proclaimer or herald would go out into the streets and proclaim the message of the Caesar. The herald had NO authority to get anyone to listen, they were simply given the task to proclaim the message of the King! Paul is saying I am called to proclaim the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God; in fact, he says I have been set apart for this purpose.
I’ve got great news! You have been set apart for God’s purpose also, to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Remember what we mentioned yesterday, God wants to display HIS FRUIT on you. You do not have fruit, only He does, that is why we MUST remain in Him and he will use you to display his fruit. The Gospel my fried is first seen in your life. The herald was first seen as a messenger of the King before anyone would listen to him.
God wants to use you today! Remain in him, you are NO longer under Sin’s control! Have a great day and we will talk in the AM!
Permalink
Comments off