Judgement
In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul urges Christian believers to not pass judgement on one another. "If the master of the house is accepting of the servant, who are you, as a guest, to come in and not do likewise?" (v4 paraphrase). After all, if God accepts our Christian brother or sister, with all their whims, quirks and difficulties, who are we not to?
Governing Authorities
How should a Christian think about and respond to governing authorities? In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul shows us that God himself institutes earthly authority (v1) and that Christians should obey the authorities to remain in good conscience before God and others (v5).
Genuine Love
Have you checked your BMI lately?... In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul lists a kind of "Biblical Maturity Index" (BMI): a list of attitudes, behaviours and practices motivated by genuine love and enabled by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life.
Living Sacrifices
What does it mean to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? It is to bring our whole selves, body, mind and spirit, to Him in response to His mercy and as an act of spiritual worship.
Grafted Into the Promises of God
Like a wild branch grafted into a cultivated root, in Romans 11 the Apostle Paul declares Gentile (non-Jewish) believers have become co-inheritors of the promises of God. Our salvation is by grace alone so that no believer, Jew or Gentile, may look down upon another.
Happy Feet
Each of us can become "beautiful feet" (v15), bringing the good news of the Gospel to those around us with a simple phone call, a listening ear, an offer of prayer or an act of service.
Children of Promise
In Romans 9, Paul announces a paradigm shift for his Jewish contemporaries and for the growing number of Gentile believers in Rome: that our adoption into God's family "depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (9:16).
Inseparable From Christ
God is working to conform us to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29), so that the loveliness of Jesus and the beauty of his character will be reflected in our lives.
Sabbath | Part 4: Worship
How we spend our Sabbath reveals what we truly worship. In Christ, we have both the freedom and the responsibility to discern what God wants us to do with his gift of Sabbath. Every weekly gift of rest from God, one day in seven, is a foretaste of the feast to come and the rest he will give us forever.
Sabbath | Part 3: Delight
Jesus offers us joy to the full, sheer delight, but often we settle for mere pleasure. Delight entrances, refreshes and satisfies us...but pleasure leaves us wanting more pleasure.
Sabbath | Part 2: Rest
Jesus invites all who labour and are heavy laden to come to him and find true soul rest. Because in him, you have enough, and in him, you are enough.
Sabbath | Part 1: Stop
The rest we long for, what we ache for, is not another sleep in, it's not even another holiday in Fiji, it's not a minimalist phone...true soul rest is found in Jesus alone.