We continue to chug through Paul's letter to the first Christian church in Rome. The book of 'Romans' in our Bibles.
Paul (a Jew/Israelite himself) continues to describe the sad state of so many of his Israelite
friends who refuse to come to Jesus. And yet, he hasn't judged them or
given up on them.
STOP, PRAY AND READ Romans 10
Paul longs to see his non-Christian friends trust and follow Jesus and
know God personally, especially his fellow Israelites, but it seems like
these guys are the least likely because of their attitude and approach
to God at that time. They're relying so much on their own goodness that they miss
the goodness of God. Like so many today, they trust in their own ways
and their own efforts thinking there's nothing better. They're wrong.
There is Jesus!
Jesus is closer than these people might think. If they stopped trying
so hard to climb up and find God, they might realise that God has come
down and his Spirit today is inviting them to be right with God by
believing Jesus and to be rescued from sin by asking him for
forgiveness.
If you're not trusting and following Jesus yet - If you don't yet have peace and friendship with God - Can you hear God the Holy Spirit's invitation even now?
Romans 10:9
...if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
What's your response? Reading the rest of this blog can wait till you're done talking to him!
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Paul is on the mission that every Christian should be on. He lives to
tell people about Jesus and to send others to tell people about Jesus so
everyone can hear, understand, believe and benefit from this good news
from God.
Paul knows that some people will not believe. The Israelites had a
massive historical advantage when it came to knowing God and they were
the first to hear about Jesus but many were stubborn and hard-hearted
and rejected him. Since that time and still today, the good news has
been going out to everyone else. It's for everybody! If people tell us
they don't want to know about Jesus, we can't force them to change
their mind. We love them and we don't give up friendship with them but
we also keep looking for people who want to hear, understand and believe
the good news about Jesus so they too can be rescued from sin and made
right with God.
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