Thought of the Day !!

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

                                    Romans 1:5 (NLT)

This morning I began reading through the book of Romans again for my devotional time reading.  Only five verses in I read this and three things hit me that I'd like to share with you today.

What we learn from the bible in parts and as a whole is a gift.  But what is given to us is meant for three things.  First, it is meant to help us believe.  God wants a relationship with His children.  If we are to be able to be in this relationship with Him we must first believe He exists and that He cares for us.  The bible teaches us of a loving God who acts like the perfect parent.  He protects us and takes care of every one of our needs without going overboard and spoiling us with our every little desire.  He does this so that we will care more for Him that just what He can do for us.  He is also the highest authority that will rightly judge everyone for good and bad.  These things, as well as many others, are taught to us so that we might believe in Him and His Son and the Holy Spirit that resides with us today.

The second important thing we learn from this verse, and through the bible as a whole, is to obey.  Looking at the New Testament, especially the Gospels, we find several teachings of Jesus that we are supposed to be following.  If we are not reading these things over and over, how can we know what to be obedient to?  I wonder how many people disobey Jesus daily without realizing it because they don't know what he taught us?  Much of the time people only pay attention to those commands by Jesus that are easy and likable and fit one's life.  But God's Holy Word is not a list of things that we pick and choose what we want to obey.  It's the ways of eternity. We are taught to do these things now because that's what the rest of eternity will be like.  

The third and final thing this morning is that in our belief and obedience, we bring Him glory.  In this world when one does something great it might be said that he/she brought honor to their family.  This was especially so during Jesus' day.  So when we believe and become more and more obedient we bring honor to the name of Christian, our family name if you will.  And when we do this we make God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit proud.  

In the love of Christ,

greg