Romans 10 Today w/ Lena's Journalin' also

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God Bless You Today, Lena B

Romans 10
1Dear brothers and sisters, F53 the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jewish people might be saved. 2I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won't go along with God's way. 4For Christ has accomplished the whole purpose F54 of the law. All who believe in him are made right with God.
Salvation Is for Everyone
5For Moses wrote that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. F55 6But the way of getting right with God through faith says, "You don't need to go to heaven" (to find Christ and bring him down to help you). 7And it says, "You don't need to go to the place of the dead" (to bring Christ back to life again). 8Salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is the message we preach—is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, "The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart." F56
9For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed. F57 " 12Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord, who generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. 13For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." F58
14But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" F59
16But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, "Lord, who has believed our message?" F60 17Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news—the Good News about Christ.
18But what about the Jews? Have they actually heard the message? Yes, they have:
"The message of God's creation has gone out to everyone,
and its words to all the world." F61
19But did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God had said,
"I will rouse your jealousy by blessing other nations.
I will make you angry by blessing the foolish Gentiles." F62
20And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God:
"I was found by people
who were not looking for me.
I showed myself to those
who were not asking for me." F63
21But regarding Israel, God said,
"All day long I opened my arms to them,
but they kept disobeying me and arguing with me." F64

FOOTNOTES:
F53: Greek Brothers.
F54: Or the end.
F55: Lev 18:5.
F56: Deut 30:12-14.
F57: Or will not be put to shame. Isa 28:16.
F58: Joel 2:32.
F59: Isa 52:7.
F60: Isa 53:1.
F61: Ps 19:4.
F62: Deut 32:21.
F63: Isa 65:1.
F64: Isa 65:2.

~ Lena Journals to Romans 10 ~
Oh how I love Thy law, it is my meditation all day long…Ps 119:97
This was a song of David.
I imagine him in the fields watching the sheep, who were being bread blameless for sacrificing, so that people could be freed from the penalty of their sins. I imagine him being raised to care so much for the people of his neighborhood that he’d protect the sacrificial lambs from being harmed or marred and he’d make sure that they’d be a proper offering to be given to the Lord that the persons offering them would be able to be cleansed from the requirements of intentional or unintentional wrongdoings.
I imagine David being like me, thinking out there alone, day in and day out, same job, same sheep, same fields, yet seeing the wonders of God’s world, taking it all in, thinking about God’s creation and singing…
He could have been bored, angry at what he HAD to do for people’s sins, put out and bothered by people’s transgressions which gave him this “job”. He could have felt angry with God for making the laws that caused people to have these lines drawn around them that now labeled them as those with sins needing to be wiped clean. If God’s law wasn’t so hard and so strict, they’d feel better about things…
Yet he sings out under the sun,
Oh how I love Thy law….
He sings under the stars,
Oh how I love Thy law….
He sings when he’s lonely,
Oh how I love Thy law….
Has this ever been a thought of ours?
I was telling my kids how laws are a blessing, like lines on asphalt, signal lights, policemen…and how many people gave their lives so we’d have these lines and rules made for our communities to live more safely.
Loving laws…
Why would anyone think this way?
If we did not have the law, which was impossible to fulfill; If we could be made right with God on our own, we’d not find our life in Christ Jesus, nor would we search for a Lord. If it was easy to be made righteous, if it was possible for man to just be good or do as he pleased, and there was no law to say what was right or not right, we’d be eternally lost.
Oh how I love Thy Law, even in this day.
And OH HOW I LOVE Grace!
How I love that grace leads us want to obey laws, even when they don’t save us!
Ever heard this?- “The lines are our friends”.
That sure is true where driving on the road is concerned, where days, weeks, months and years on a calendar are concerned. PTL for lines clearly drawn!
So the law has led us to Christ Jesus as Lord?
Was that the end of obedience’s?
Let’s see what Romans 10:9-10 says we must do to be “saved”.
Confess with our mouths the LORD Jesus
Believe in our hearts God raised Him from the dead
In this we’ll be saved
In only understanding words as we do in American English we’d need to look at Greek word meanings to understand what this is saying.
To us, “to confess” merely means to say with our mouths.
This is NOT what this is saying at all.
This is NOT a positive “confession”.
This is a life profession.
That means, I now live for this Lordship deal.
In Old world Britain (where we got our English translations) “Lord” is “Master”. “Lord” means He owns the whole deal. He’s the King and I’m a subject, a servant, a worker.
The Lord is the owner and we are not, we may live on His land and work it to eat and feed and households and our families, but if he says - move, we do, if he says - work this part, we do. If he says - we pay more, owe more, or whatever, if we are His, we do what he says. We understand position. We may be the heirs, we may be the children, but he is the Lord.
“Confess” means I say whatever the Lord says. Not because I’m reciting his words to repeat them rotely, but because his words and my words are one word. I represent Him.
Confess also means to stick with, stay with, and adhere to.
My words and my life both speak the same, I mean what I say by following actions. I spend my words as though they have value.
I “say” He/Jesus is Lord of my life, with the example of my life.
I believe God raised Jesus from the dead.
I identify with the death and resurrection of Christ.
He gave His life as me. I should’ve died as a sinner who owed a great amount to a landowner/lord of the universe, who requires payment for transgression of His laws. I realize what a penalty I owed God and I am eternally thankful. I believe in this so strongly, that I now give the rest of the days of my life while I’m still alive on earth, to the furtherance of His kingdom to come and will to be done. I lay all other priorities aside and allow Him to rule me. I’m as a dead man. I believe so much in the resurrection power of God, that I can do this without struggle or contest or reasoning it out first. He gave His life and so I now give mine up freely.
In this type of lifestyle I am saved.
If I live this way and continue living this way.
I’ve become a witness. Witness means martyred one. I die to my own will and plans. I live to His.
I speak by my life, using words, if necessary. I “preach” through living examples daily to my family, my neighbors, my church and the world of who Christ is, was, and forever will be.
Without preaching how will they know who He is?
Jesus Christ Is Lord, He is, and He is to all who desire to put Him in that place personally.