My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Proverbs 3:21-22.

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV.

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV.

At the end of today’s devotional by Oswald Chambers, he wrote this: “Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” That was incredibly helpful because I am not a theologian and we are entering into the letters of the Apostle Paul written to churches so new because they included Jews, Gentiles, free people, slaves, people of many nations…and sinners all. As I prayed for help in understanding, because Paul goes deep, I thought of when Jesus, the Son, Creator God, lived among us. The Sermon on the Mount and everything He taught was like rerouting an ocean. And Paul is in the nitty gritty of human lives chipping away at the debris we have clothed ourselves in without understanding. And our first letter, written in Corinth to the church at Rome, is Romans. Romans 1: Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. v. 1-7. That’s one sentence! Stay with Paul because His words are beautiful. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. v. 8-10. Remember Paul is writing letters of correspondence of import to inspire, correct, and encourage the churches; and these in turn were shared throughout the churches in existence then. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and I have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” v. 11-17. God has opened understanding to all people and now we need to understand what leads us away from understanding – the dominion of darkness – and thus, our need for God. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. v. 18-25. Remember idolatry is literally all around them in this time with pagan temples everywhere, and Caesar was worshiped as a god. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. v. 26-32. Lest we judge others in condemnation because of sexual impurity, can we see we are all guilty of the impurity further listed here? Again, rerouting an ocean. We have all sinned. And we all need God and His grace and His healing and above all His love to guide us. May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to your servant. Psalm 119:76. Now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You. Psalm 39:7 NASB.

Instead of reading Paul and pointing fingers at others sins, remember that Creator God IS. His instruction is what is needed for all of us. Again from Oswald Chambers: “God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Whether from Creator God, from Paul, from Chambers…these concepts are needed and valuable because they chip away at the debris of all that has built up in us that is not of Creator God’s immense love for our good in Him. As for me, I trust God and His ability to help us see and turn to Him for healing so beautiful and so needed in our broken world of today, just as it was then and will be until Jesus returns in glory and power and love. A Sea-Change!