Quote:
Originally Posted by rgcraig
Ump? Wonder if this might be the church God inspires for us to have?
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Is that it? Is that why I so desperately long for it? And why I am so horribly dissatisfied with the status quo?
I was sharing this with my husband this morning, and we had a good discussion. I talked about the issues that I have been having lately, the struggles to find the real God. About how I had been taught things that were just plain distorted and how now I am finding it difficult to trust anyone or anything. And how it can all be summed up in one phrase "I believe Jesus is God...the rest is negotiable."
I talked about how I was thinking of looking for a different church, but how the whole thing seemed kind of pointless as much of my problem is with church in general, not just a certain flavor of church.
The conversation ended with us deciding to just take the dream and rather than sitting around waiting for it, to try it ourselves. So we have wonderful "church" this morning. In our pajama's, while eating breakfast.
We each chose a worship song (Him: Michael W. Smith's "Let it Rain" Me: Darlene Czech "Shout to the Lord" )
We decided arbitrarily to start in Romans. Our only goal was to read as best as we could with no preconceived notions and without filtering it through everything we had already been taught. Which is hard to do! It was kind of like picking up a Bible for the first time.
I was a little nervous through
Romans 1 & 2, it was very much about the law, and being judged based on following it and being punished for sin. And my old perfectionist "earn your own salvation" tendencies threatened to pop back out. But I said to Matt "He seems to be going somewhere with this, lets keep going (originially we were only going to do a chapter or two).
But the end of Chapter 3 made the point nicely.
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses[i] and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.