Tag: Evangelism

Digging in Deeper: Romans 10:9

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“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

No, you’re not seeing double. It’s been a few weeks now, but we did indeed talk about Romans 10:9 recently, and we are going to do it again today. But as I thought about a verse that speaks right to the heart of something that happened this past week, there’s really not another that gets as close as this verse does. A public figure this week expressed his hope of salvation. That doesn’t happen very often generally. It especially doesn’t happen very often with a public figure of this nature. And because the media tends to react (some might say, “overreact”) to just about everything this particular public figure says, the whole country was talking about salvation for a couple of days this week. President Trump started it. Let’s add our thoughts on the matter today.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 10:18-21

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“But I ask, ‘Did they not hear?’ Yes, they did: ‘Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ But I ask, ‘Did Israel not understand?’ First, Moses said, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.’ And Isaiah says boldly, ‘I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.’ But to Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

For the last two chapters now, Paul has been talking about Israel and their rejection of the Gospel. He has struggled with it emotionally even as he understands it experientially. But even though he understood the fact of it, he nonetheless marvels at it with his audience. Here, at the end of chapter 10, Paul begins asking some more hard questions about Israel’s rejection, God’s plans in light of it, and what this all means for non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Let’s start digging into this with him.

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Morning Musing: Romans 10:14-17

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“How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.’ But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things that irks critics of Christianity more than many other things we do is our constantly trying to share our faith. Why are Christians so pushy with their beliefs? Why can’t they just leave other people to believe what they want rather than going around telling them they’re wrong all the time? What arrogance to think they know better than everybody else what’s right. What’s the big deal? What Paul says here has a lot to do with it. Let’s take a look at what he has to say.

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Morning Musing: Romans 10:11-13

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“For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame,’ since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,  because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Who can be saved? Yesterday we joined Paul in a conversation about how salvation happens. But who is it for? It’s not at all uncommon for someone under conviction from the Holy Spirit to declare something like, “There’s no way God could accept me.” It’s also not nearly as uncommon as it should be for folks from a tribe with a strong Christian tradition to look at folks from another tribe—especially an enemy tribe—and declare something like, “Salvation is surely not for them.” Paul disagrees. Let’s talk about just who salvation in Christ is for.

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Beautiful Feet

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This was a standalone week between series. So, I took the opportunity to share with the congregation something I’ve been studying in my own devotional time. I’ve been working my way through Romans, and I’ve made it as far as chapter 10. Paul writes about salvation there in terms that are crucial for followers of Jesus today to understand. Let’s explore what he has to say.

Beautiful Feet

Have you ever washed a bottle with a small opening? I’ll admit: I hate doing that. You can use a bottle brush, and those are moderately effective, but I find the best approach is to squirt some soap down into them, fill them a bit, and then shake the mixture up really, really well. As long as the bottle isn’t just completely filthy on the inside, that usually does the trick. The only problem with this method is that you have to rinse it really thoroughly or else the next person who uses it gets a mouthful of soap. You can accomplish this in one of two ways. You can carefully run water down the side of the bottle, shake it up with the clean water, dump it out, and do it again. And again. And again. Until after about 100 repeats the bottle is ready to go. The second approach is a whole lot more wasteful, but also more effective. And faster. You just hold the bottle under the tap, turn it on full, and let the clean water run into the bottle until the water coming out of the bottle is clean. 

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