Romans 2 Day 2!!!

First of all, i want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! to everyone reading this!!! it really means a Lot 2me that people participate in this Bible Study! and now let's get down to the nitty gritty ;)
I wanna tell you guys a little somethin' about this book. Paul was a Roman citizen ad this entire book is the letter he writes to the church in his Rome. This is hometown. He lived here for a long time and was very educated, He studied the old testament and followed it religiously. literally. then he became a true Christian. God found him in the most insane way and he never turned away. He served the Lord and wrote this letter to his family back home. This letter is to all the people that he used to be just like!! This is the letter that he writes to his family that he knows are in the wrong.
Paul starts off talking about those who pass judgment. he says that you who pass judgment are no better than those who you judge to begin with. He says that God is the one that judges with truth. That means that only his judgments matters and you who judge will be judged even more severely than u judged to begin with. yea...
That's heavy stuff man!! i really believe this week that our youth group needs to hear that! and i pray that nobody reads this and says that it doesn't apply to them, because it does.. a lot. All of us judge so we all need to hear that... it's not okay. God is gonna come down on all of us for this!! we are what we call others. remember that "takes one to know one" thing that we used to play?? well it really applies here... whaddaya think?? am i just talking or does somebody hear me on this??

also, verse 4 tells us a lil' somethin' about God's kindness. Paul tells us "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" Yes sir'ee!!! lol. okay this is what i get from this verse: People sometimes think that God is a God of love and forget hs judgement side, but the truth is that they are very closely intertwined. God's us leads us to repentance. b/cuz he loves us we repent.... not b/cuz he loves us we tell ouselves that we are flawless... do u guys agree with me?? what do u make of that verse?
the second thing that really made me think is around verse 12. The age old battle between faith and works. verse 13 tells us that we have to obey the law not just hear it. He, of course, is talking to the Roman jews who considered themselves already holy and.. worthy of God's love because of their ethnicity and circumcision; however, this verse calls to DO something. We cannot just sit around and read the Bible and go to church and be Christians automatically. We gotta walk the talk. Do what we know is right? But what if we don't know what's right? well, verse 15 tells us that even the gentiles who knew no law could abide by it since they have consciences, the truth is in their hearts.
I have never understood circumcision! like i was so confused. i thought.... so when guys are born their parents cut off.... what??? lol ANYWAYS!!! the last half of the chapter talks about circumcision and the truth is that it has nothing to do with any of that stuff. Circumcision is the old school annointing. By... doing whatever you do, you are "made holy" or made to be a servant of the Lord. Well Paul was VERY straight up w/ all the guys that thought they were great cuz their junk was cut off. he told them that it only has value if u abide by the law (v. 25). as soon as u break the law it would be as if u were never circumcised to begin with! This again brings up that gnawing question: faith or works? You guys tell me. What do you think? Paul talks endlessly about faith w/o works and all... but we know we can never DO enough good to be worthy of God, soo???
i think i'll end with a bible verse. in fact it's the last one of the chapter. dont 4get to leave ur thoughts.
Romans 2:29 --No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Bible Study.. Day one, Romans Chapter One!

Have you ever doubted your faith? Like seriously. There are times I wonder if I am the only one, and from time to time it even scares me. I think, what am I doing questioning what I have known my entire life to be the unquestionable? I was just reading through Romans chapter one and I feel like it speaks a lot in a way to doubts. The first way God kinda reminded me that this stuff is for real is in verse 8 where Paul says "your faith in God is being made known throughout the world." This just shows how legit this stuff is. The God we serve is a not a God that unknown. You know what I mean? We aren't worshipping an idol that is just known by certain group of people.

It's crazy because the same God that I pray to during my devotional time in my bedroom is the same God that someone in China could be standing up and risking their lives to worship! I mean, He is good at making Himself known, and it just dawned on me that the reason for this is because *He is sooo real.* The fact that the disciples would risk their lives to spread the news about a Jesus that died and never rose just doesn't make sense to me.

Scientists can say what they like, but Romans 1:19 tells us that all people know instinctively about God. They just know, and God doesn't leave us to build our faith off of shaky and questionable statements, but He gives us some hard- core evidence in His word. Even history and science itself can go some ways to helping "prove" God. But the point is, He doesn't need to be proven. Verse 4 says that Christ was shown to be God. He rose from the dead. I think its just interesting how God in a way "helps" us believe. He even gives us his scripture to back up our instinctive knowledge of Christ (verse 19-- God is manifest in us and has put this knowledge in our hearts).

A God that is real must want people to know about Him. I mean, I am just human and I don't like to be ignored, so how much more will an infinite, glorious, wonderful God allow Himself to be ignored? And by His very own creation nevertheless?? It just doesn't make sense. So this chapter just goes to show that God is very passionate about His own glory...because he is soo real. That's why we become passionate about His glory as well: because we have His Spirit. The spirit excites us about telling others about God.

God is real because He is so active. God is real because we see people so on fire for Him. God is real because there are people not only risking their lives to tell others about Him, but dying daily

and picking up their crosses to live for love. And God is real because He is love.

I think that a silent god (the gods of other religions and other things that people idolize), is no God at all. But our God is no silent God. He is constantly speaking. Not only that, but He "shows his anger from heaven against all people who prevent the truth from being known (verse 18)." ha! I'm pretty sure Jesus said that *he* was the way, the truth and the life. So God doesn't just sit back and let people prevent the truth (Jesus) from being known. He punishes. This is because He is love, and he doesn't want us, whom He loves so much, to miss out on His love.

Beyond my doubts that I occasionally have, I've always just sorta known that I know, that I know, that I know that Jesus is God. I just know. And Romans 1:20 tells me why. It says "From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see His invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God." That's just so beautifully laid out for us. In my opinion, it's the foundation of all faith.

God put it in us. He Himself. His Spirit does all this. I think sometimes we fool ourselves by thinking that its something we do-- believing. It's really not. It is God's spirit moving in us and convicting us of His truth, and His grace that allows us to believe. Only if we push it away is our doing.

So that leads us to the question of why some people don't believe. I mean, if God is so real, why don't people trust in this God ?? Obviously, He is making Himself known. Well, just as surely as we have questions, the word of God has answers! woo-whoo! haha. It says

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.²⁴ So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.

So that pretty much answers that question.

And in verse 28 it says "When they refused to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done."

The reason for this might be because love can't be forced. So God didn't want to force anything on them, and so He let them choose. Him or their sinful deeds and they chose their deeds. So he left them to it. What are yall thinkin? Do you agree? Or...?? Can you think of any other reasons why? Come on! Let's get a reall conversation started out of this. I know that if we were all together we'd have PLENTY of things to say about plenty of this, so let's get the most out of this.

Also, I think that another reason God cares so much about His glory is because he loves us sooo much. He wants us to know about Himself-- the only one who can fill our empty hearts. The one who fills and fulfills and gives us joy. And of course, everyone wants the people they love to find joy.

We all doubt it sometimes, but true faith flowers through and from doubt. I know something that science just doesn't. And while science is constantly changing with new discoveries and such, I have a God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Apologetics(the study of defending Christianity) truly does sit at the feet of the Gospel. The Gospel is strong enough on its own.

** ROMANS 1:16 FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL ABOUT CHRIST. IT IS THE POWER OF GOD AT WORK..**

So that's it for now ladies and germs. God is real. Yes, science can go someways in proving God, but there is a point where we must just go off the word and have belief in what is unseen... and that's faith for ya! :)

... Even then... how unseen is God, really?

Hopefully God strengthened your faith as we started off Romans and, if not, write down the questions you have under comments. Questions, prayer requests, ANYTHING!!! JUST INTERACT!! Let's make this as lively as possible.

--Emnet

beginnings of the study... details and such

Ok guys. The blog is set up. Now all you guys gotta do is make accounts (( don't worry, it doesn't take long at all)) and then I'll add you guys as a part of who can blog so we can turn it into a group blog. Everybody have your blogs set up by monday night because we don't have school on monday.

Here's how the bible study will be set up

- One month will be topic month (where we all choose one topic to explore and then whoevers turn it is to share/preach will share a book/chapter/verse that they feel lead to by a certain day of the week for one particular week. Then we can all comment/question/interact as necessary.)

This will switch off from week to week (topic and study leader)

- Every couple of months (aka however long a particular book in the bible is) we will just go through a book and each person will get a chance to share and teach about a chapter of the book.

-Finally, we will have months where we all just take turns randomly sharing whatever books/prayers/thoughts/chapters/verses/lessons/advice God puts on our hearts for the rest of us to hear.

Guys, please pray about this and make it a commitment.

To start out, we'll just go through the first four chapters of Romans. I will start the first one out so we can all get used to this thing. Okay, leave questions and comments and we'll start this thing off hopefully monday or tuesday night :) As soon as everyone is set up

--Emnet