Happy New Years! Today is also my Dad's 50th birthday, so Happy Birthday Dad! We spent most of the day at home, and had a guest come over in the morning. He's going to be staying at our house for the next two days. Tonight they went to a new years dinner, while I stayed home then went to Jims house.

At Jim's place, Anna, ditha, jim, jim's brother glenn, and I played pictionary for a while, and then just sat around talking until we split up and went home.

Jim's family got a new TV, and during our hangout he played a DVD of a fireplace, with sounds included. It looked pretty real.

Devotion time notes:

It's a new year, and this year I hope to gain a deeper understanding of new testament books. Studying Acts in church last year showed me how little I actually know, even though I've been exposed to the Bible since I was young. The first book I'm going to study is Romans.

Romans 1

Paul starts out this letter by identifying the authority by which he speaks these things. Though he was previously an enemy of Christians, he is now a servant of Christ who has been set apart for the furtherance of the gospel. This is the title by which he refers to himself, despite the fact that he was a highly learned man who had studied under Gamaliel, one of the respected Jewish authorities of the day. He boasts not in himself, but rather in God.

He then identifies the gospel he preaches as the same gospel prophesied by Old Testament prophets, showing that this plan of salvation from God originated from and for the Jews. Also, this demonstrates that the gospel is not a new idea developed by men but instead what God has planned for his creation and revealed long ago. Just as the prophecies predicted, this Christ was humanly a descendant of David and fully the Son of God, as proved by his resurrection.

Claudius, the Roman emperor who had expelled all the Jews from Jerusalem (including Priscilla and Aquila), died in the year 54. Emperor Nero then allowed all the Jews back into Rome, but a certain amount of anti-semitism probably existed through these events. Wikipedia says that one of the reasons Paul wrote Romans was to address this issue and remind the Gentile Romans that the gospel was "first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles." This introduction seems to hint at this fact.

Finally, he states that grace was given to them by God to deliver the gospel message to the Gentiles, including the Church in Rome to which Paul writes this letter.

Paul tells the Roman Church that their great faith has been spoken of around the world, and carefully notes that this is the work of God, rather than the work of the apostles. We are to do our part in delivering God's word but the results are fully up to him; therefore, we should not be discouraged by a lack of results, but also should not boast in great accomplishments of God.

In verse 9, Paul states that he serves God with his "whole heart", something that I cannot currently claim, for my heart is one that feels divided among many different things. What would an undivided heart look like for a modern day college student? I don't think it means giving up everything you're involved in, dropping out of school, and devoting your life completely to preaching the gospel. I think it means centering the fundamental purpose of your life completely on God, to the extend at which losing or failing at anything else you do will not detract from your purpose in life.

For example, we are meant to do well academically and in our careers (if we are called to such a life), but getting a poor grade in school or losing a good job shouldn't detract from our sense of accomplishing the purpose of our lives. Where our treasure is, our heart will be also, and if losing anything of the world gives us a sense of lost treasure, then our heart is not wholly for God.

Paul longs to visit Rome so that he can use his spiritual gifts to mutually benefit and encourage the church there. He also desires to "have a harvest" among the Roman church, as has had among other Gentiles. As Christians, we are called to sow and harvest, but it is God's job to grow. For this reason, we should not take pride in large "plantings" or large "harvests", but instead give all the praise to God, for our part is actually quite insignificant. It is not the manner in which we sow seeds, but the obedience and faith with which we do it, that is important to God.

If a servant goes into the fields and sows seeds as his master commands him, but focuses instead on how many seeds he fills the field with rather than obeying his master's specific instructions, he might fail to produce the crops that would have resulted through careful obedience to his master rather following his own wisdom. Paul follows the direction of the spirit in spreading the gospel and harvesting what God has produced.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.
Romans 1:16

The second section of this chapter begins with the concept that God's invisible qualities of infinite power and existence can be observed in this universe he has created, so no one can give the excuse of not knowing there is a God.

While reading this chapter, I noticed how much the journal entries of Jim Elliot resemble Paul's writing style. They both write very clearly and powerfully while stopping frequently to give glory to God.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Romans 1:25

Homosexuality is also clearly described here as a sin and as shameful behavior.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Romans 1:26-27

Venturing a little into a tricky political issue, I think the fact that this verse so clearly tell us of the sinfulness of homosexuality show indicate that we are not to be supportive of any law that legally accepts this behavior and expands the natural and God-ordained institution of marriage to include it. Whether or not people sin (without breaking the law) is not something the government should become involved with, and this is generally true with our government, but when this sin threatens to become legally accepted as marriage, then Christians should have a responsibility to defend marriage as what God intended for it to be.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32

I pray that I may seek and retain the knowledge of God in this upcoming year, so that I may not be driven by a depraved mind.