This past Sunday our students started a 3 month journey through the book of Romans. Romans is a phenomenal book of Scripture and is full of teaching vital to the maturation of our students in their spiritual walk with the Lord. While 12 weeks probably sounds like a long time to study something, we could spend a couple of YEARS studying Romans and still have plenty left over to discuss!
This week students read Chapter 1:1-17. The study focused on the wealth of information we can take just from the introduction and opening paragraphs of Paul's letter to the Romans. The lesson was entitled "Good News to Tell" and was broken up into 3 smaller sections for your students.
"Why We Tell" was a study of the first 7 verses where we find Paul's purpose for writing to the Romans...we see his determination to overcome all obstacles so he could take advantage of every opportunity to tell God's good news! We find here a person in Paul who is truly joyous and thankful for Jesus and the opportunity he has to share in the knowledge of Christ and to share it with those reading this letter...so already in the first 7 verses we see an example that convicts most of us....do we truly let the joy that comes from knowing Jesus permeate to all areas of our lives?....something to think about....
"Whom We Tell" covered verses 8-15 and we again find a wealth of knowledge to learn from here. First we find that the church in Rome had been active concerning their faith, so much so that Paul tells us he had heard news about their faith while serving elsewhere! Wouldn't it be something if people knew about FBC Goodlettsville across the state due to the active faith being exercised in our community and church and not because of our building, our certain programs, but just genuine Godly faith!
We also find another great example from Paul in the fact that he was actively praying for opportunities to travel to Rome so that he could partner with them in spreading the Gospel to those in Rome....when was the last time that we prayed for God to grant us opportunities to tell others about the gospel? That's a tough question for me to answer personally, and I suspect it might be for you as well! We should be motivated by Paul's passionate example of prayer!
"What We Tell" concluded the lesson by digging into verses 16 and 17. Paul makes it very plain and simple what message that He is so pumped to share and that is the message of "God's power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek." I love and am challenged by the beginning of verse 16 where Paul states that he is "not ashamed" of the gospel. Now, I'm not saying that we are ashamed of the Gospel, but we are all sometimes a little uneasy or even embarrassed by it sometimes, because we simply don't share it like we are "unashamed". I wonder why I don't share the gospel as easily as I do about a tv show, a ball game, or other things that I seem to be able to talk so freely about. Again, another challenging thought that we find in just the first 17 verses of the book of Romans!!
It's going to be a great 3 months of Bible study upstairs with your students as we go through Romans and we want you as parents to be aware of what we're talking about so that you can be encouraged, challenged, convicted and prepared as parents to lead your families! Next week we'll finish up Chapter 1 and spend some time in Chapters 2 and 3 if you want to partner with us in reading!
Have a great Tuesday!
Heffe
No comments:
Post a Comment