Embarking on Romans

So I have decided to take a journey into the heart of the greatest letter ever written. Posed with questions and much rhetoric, Romans has taken many a travelers down misguided/miscalculated paths that have altered the christian faith from that time forth. Not that my lowly contribution will add or take away from the reformers pro’s and con’s. I only wish to study the book and know it’s arguments. I am a new perspective guy. I find Witherington, Wright, Sanders, amongst others very stimulating to read. Any how, I am going to try to make an effort to blog more… though I am sure no one has found this blog sight yet.

Behold God is Great and we do not know Him…

Jesus said in John 17 that eternal life is to know the Father and the One the Father sends.  Something inside of me is convinced that we do not know Him like we think we do.  There is a secret deception called pride that settles many church goers into a complacency (otherwise known as religon) about who God is and what He acts like in certain situations. The more knowledge we put in our brain, the more we think we know and the more we think we know, the more comfortable we feel.  This is why we are in trouble….

When Jesus came to earth the first time, many of the religous leaders in that day did not recognize Him because they assumed He would come differently.  They thought He would slay the earth and set up His Kingdom on the earth at that time.  However, He did not.  They were blinded by deception because they thought they would know the true Messiah when He came.    Many of us nowadays highlight only the parts in our bibles that make us happy or fill us with warm fuzzies. (btw I am not knocking warm fuzzies) 

We under line stuff about His mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love.  Thank God for all of these attributes that I have listed, without these we would all be dead right now.  But that is not my point.  How do we reconcile the tender Jesus who pets sheep and kisses children with the Servant of God stirring Himself up like a mighty Man of war, dripping with blood? (Isaiah 63)  Or How do we bring together the tender Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world with the Psalm 110 Lamb who executes judgement among the nations, filling up the streets with corpses?  Lets make it more personal… What about when He comes to earth and strikes down the moral soccer mom that never accepts Him as her savior?  What happens in our hearts then?  Or what happens when the ice cream man, the barber, or the mechanic who always waived to you on the street is executed because he didnt believe in “fairy tales”?  Remember God’s endtime judgements are not for the church.  It’s estimated that there will be ten billion people on earth in 2020.  If you take only two of God’s judgements (4th seal and the 6th trumpet) it would kill a total of five billion people.  That is equivalent to 9/11 (3,000 dead) happening every fifteen minutes for 3 1/2 years.  And Jesus wants everyone to know that it is not Satan doing it…  Its the wrath of the Lamb. (Rev 6:16)

“Ok Gary what’s the point?” The point is this, His leadership is so different from the way that we would lead.  But as long as we only meditate, dwell on, and read the parts of the bible that make us feel warm and fuzzy and agree with, we will make a God in our own image whose leadership is like our own.  And we will become offended at His leadership.  Do you know that every time you hear someone complain, grumble, or gossip (or you hear if from yourself) its a manifestation of the hatred of God’s leadership.  It is equivalent to saying “if I were God, things would be different.”  “NO! That’s not true!” one may say.  Is it not God that spoke everything in motion?  Does He not raise up Kings and tears them down?  Was it not God who raised up Nebuchadnezzar to plunder Israel?(Jeremiah 1:15)

Have you ever prayed super hard for someone to be healed and then they end up not getting healed or even dying?  We walk away and say ”why on earth didnt God heal him?”  As if we are more compassionate than God, as if He didn’t want to heal them.  Pride is the hatred of God’s leadership and the implementation of our own.  After the initial offense of Jesus’ rise to fame and John the Baptist’s fall to the shadows, John’s disciples were clearly offended with Jesus and His leadership. (John 3:26) So much so that they even identified themselves with the pharisees to try to trump Jesus’s leadership style. (Matthew 9:14)  I have heard it said “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

As I was reading Hosea the other day I whinced at the imagery that God uses when refering to His judgement… “I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, And there I will devour them like a lion.” (13:8)  That is terrifying.  But that is our Bridegroom who we sing to Sunday morning.  Who we write poetry to and pray to before bed.  The book of Daniel talks about men and women who “know (not just the highligted parts) their God who will be strong, and carry out exploits.  And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering… To refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end.” (Daniel 11:32-33,34)  Devout men and women of God falling by the sword and dying?  And God calls that a victorious church. 

 Many will be offended because many do not understand the leadership of God.  We complain about our job, our lack of money, annoying people with bad breath and whenever the pastor preaches something we don’t want to hear.  We complain unaware that God has actually brought these things in our life to refine us if only we would humble ourselves before Him in the process.

Ignorance has never been glorious and it never will be.  Before the bowl judgements are poured out in Revelation, the saints who were victorious over the Antichrist will be singing (many of them martyred keep in mind) “Just and True are all Your ways!” (Rev 15:3)  Which translates into “Your leadership is perfect!”  Hosea, after all the judgements, ends with wisdom…  “For the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” (vs. 9)  The word transgressor there litterally means, those who break away from just authority. 

We must pray that God would give us wisdom and revelation on how to live today in a time of peace if we are to have hope for that day.  If we fail to prepare we prepare to fail.  If we build our house on the sand today, it will affect us when the winds and rains come.  If we choose ignorance (not studying God in ALL the bible) wisdom will mock us in the day of calamity. (Proverbs 1:26)  Jesus said “Blessed is He who is not offended with me” (Matthew 11:6)  But if we…. if I continue on the path assuming to know His ways and not search Him out, the seeds of deception have already been sown and I will undoubtedly be offended, bitter, and angry at His leadership.  So what do we do?  For starters you can join Elihu and me by saying “Behold God is great, and we do not know Him.” (Job 36:26)  Then pray Ephesians 1:17-19 over yourself everyday.  And add that to studying the word, fasting and meditation. 

 

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