Same sex marriage?

Please will someone encourage David Cameron and Maria Miller to read Psalms11and 12?

Ps 11 verses 2 and 3 say ‘…for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?’

v 4 – ‘The Lord is in His Holy temple’.

Ps 12 verses 3 and 4 say ‘May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say – “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?”‘ and verse 8 – ‘..on every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.’

When we take a stand that is so opposed to the will of God then verse 5 becomes more than a little frightening – ‘”I will now arise” says the Lord!’

He hears the voice of those who cry out to Him to act – ‘The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times. You, O Lord will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever’.

In a climate of insincerity, God’s promises are refreshing – never give up our hope in Him! Let’s pray for our government as the same sex marriage bill is introduced to parliament on Tuesday!

Youth facts….

FACT: 48% of children born today will experience the breakdown of their parents’ relationship.

FACT: 30% of teenagers binge drink weekly.

FACT: 59% of chldren leaving school are fearful of being unemployable. Why? 938,000 of 16 – 24 year olds in England are not in education, employment or training.

FACT: 23,528 under 18’s use specialist substance misuse services. Why?

“Hello, my name is DRUGS – I destroy homes, tear families apart, take your children, and that’s just the start.
I’m more costly than diamonds, more costly than gold, the sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.
And if you need me, remember I’m easily found, I live all around you, in schools and in town. I live with the rich, I live with the poor, I live down the street, and maybe next door.
My power is awesome; try me you’ll see, but if you do, you may NEVER break free. Just try me once and I might let you go, but try me twice, and I’ll own your soul.
When I possess you, you’ll steal and you’ll lie. You do what you have to just to get high. The crimes you’ll commit, for my narcotic charms will be worth the pleasure you’ll feel in your arms.

You’ll lie to your mother; you’ll steal from your dad. When you see their tears, you should feel sad. But you’ll forget your morals and how you were raised, I’ll be your conscience, I’ll teach you my ways.

I take kids from parents, and parents from kids, I turn people from god, and separate friends. I’ll take everything from you, your looks and your pride, I’ll be with you always, right by your side. You’ll give up everything… your family, your home… your friends, your money, then you’ll be alone. I’ll take and take, till you have nothing more to give.

When I’m finished with you you’ll be lucky to live. If you try me be warned this is no game. If given the chance, I’ll drive you insane. I’ll ravish your body; I’ll control your mind. I’ll own you completely; your soul will be mine.

The nightmares I’ll give you while lying in bed, the voices you’ll hear from inside your head, the sweats, the shakes, the visions you’ll see; I want you to know, these are all gifts from me, But then it’s too late, and you’ll know in your heart, that you are mine, and we shall not part. You’ll regret that you tried me, they always do, but you came to me, not I to you.

You knew this would happen. Many times you were told, but you challenged my power, and chose to be bold. You could have said no, and just walked away, If you could live that day over, now what would you say? I’ll be your master; you will be my slave, I’ll even go with you, when you go to your grave.

Now that you have met me , what will you do? Will you try me or not? Its all up to you. I can bring you more misery than words can tell. Come take my hand, I’ll take you to hell!” FACT!

“Behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord and he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” Malach 4: 5,6

Without a doubt, there is a battle for this next generation. Our enemy is pulling out all the stops to destroy them. But God is calling His Church to join our hearts with His and to stand strong in faith, believing His prophetic promises. He is turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. He is raising up an end-time army of harvesters to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. FACT.

Welsh National Childrens and Youth Work Conference – March 9th, 10am – 4pm, Hope Church, Newtown – for anyone who wants to make a difference to the young people of Wales! Details – http://www.ccsw.org.uk/2013/01/wales-national-childrens-and-youth-work-conference-2013/ Join us there.

Prophetic word for Wales

A significant prophetic word was released by Dr. Willie Soans from India at the Powys Prayer Conference in early September last year. He had kept the word for a year prior to God allowing him to release it here in Wales. The reference comes from Acts 3:1-8. “Peter and John went to pray at the 9th hour – the hour of prayer. The hour of prayer has come to this nation. God has now opened a window over this nation which is called the hour of prayer. You have come into a place prophetically when God is going to hear your prayer. It is a prophetic window that has opened and it is the hour, it is the time, it is the season. If you walk in obedience God will hear your cry and do mighty things. This is the hour of prayer, I will hear you and make the lame walk. The 9th hour is the hour of miracles. The 9th hour opens our eyes to the things God wants us to see. There are many people at the gate. You must bring them from lameness to life”.

Many people and Christian ministries in Wales have taken this word seriously and realised that the Church is being called to pray as never before. Please read carefully the invitation below and make plans to join us on Saturday March 16th near Aberystwyth to pray for our nation.

Mount Pleasant bowlers!

The Mount Pleasant men’s bowling team were in action again this Monday. Hollywood Bowl in Cardiff Bay once again hosted the Cardiff and Vale Inter-church 10-pin bowling challenge – organised and very well run by the guys from CVM (Christian Vision for Men).
Last year we came third in the competition – this year, well we didn’t come last!
Under the watchful eye of coach and chief drinks-getter – Jeff Dyas, Dave (The Germonator) Germon kicked of the proceedings and kept up a consistently (less than) average score throughout. Powerful bowling from the young muscles of Joe Cleary and Daniel Lane was impressive to watch. We all agreed that if those balls had actually hit the pins – it would have been a very different story!
Man of the match award must go to Isaac Joseph who continually cheered his team mates with his exuberant post-roll celebrations – even if he only hit one pin down (which was more often than not the case!)
We can only put our lack of form down to the absence of star bowler Bob Nash. Bob, the team needs you!

Dates: Feb 4th (coming Monday) Rob Parsons will be speaking on the theme – ‘The Journey of a Man’ at Highfields. He’s an inspirational speaker who manages to impart truth and wisdom with great humour. It will not be a boring evening! Join us if you can, we’ll be leaving MP at 6.50pm.

For the diary: CVM Tour 2013 comes to Cardiff May 17th. Encouraging, equipping and getting to grips with God’s plan for our lives – featuring Carl Beech (General Director CVM). Venue to be confirmed – check out the website – http://cvm.org.uk/crackingthecode

Visitors welcome!

Romans 1: 8-17
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,[a] that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[b] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

I love visiting Christians in their home and we love it when folk come to see us – it seems that whenever we get together for a cuppa these words of Paul to his friends in Rome resonate so powerfully! He thanked God for them, recognising that they were ‘saints’, the beloved of God. He was always praying for them, always thinking about them and longing to visit them – he qualifies this attitude by describing how, when such a visit takes place, one believer with another, a dynamic interaction occurs. It may be unseen, it may not be spoken but it is real nonetheless – a mutual encouragement, a building up, an impartation from one to the other.

Perhaps when Paul wrote this he was thinking of Jesus’ own promise – ‘where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst’. When we take time to share fellowship with one another, the King of the Kingdom promises to be with us.
So, next time you’re visiting with a brother or sister in their home – don’t just see it as an ordinary, run of the mill meeting between two people but realise, as Paul did, that as we ‘gossip the Gospel’ the explosive, life-giving power of the Kingdom of God is present. Be expectant!

I can’t wait for you to come around for a cup of tea now!!

Saved to serve.

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” Romans 1: 1-6.

The gospel of God, the good news that Paul is introducing here, was certainly revolutionary to the folk that heard it at the time, but it wasn’t a complete novelty made up by the Apostles – it didn’t begin when Jesus started preaching! This good news was the fulfilment of the promises that God through His prophets had made throughout the Old Testament. In fact, we have to remember that Paul qualifies all his arguments in the book of Romans by reference to the Old Testament, especially Isaiah. At the time of writing, the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, were the only Scriptures that Paul and all his readers had – the New Testament letters and gospels hadn’t been circulated yet. Jesus clearly stated too that OT promises were pointing to Him –

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” – John 5:39,40.

To the young church that Paul was writing to, as it is to us today, it was vitally important that the gospel fulfilled the Old Testament – someone has put it like this – ‘The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.’ The Old Testament is often called the ‘cradle of the gospel.’

Jesus was a teacher but, more than that, He is central – as a person – to the gospel. It has been said that Jesus came not to preach a gospel, but in order that there might be a gospel to preach! Here Paul summarises the good news – firstly this unique person is a human saviour with an earthly family tree, descended from King David, and the promised Messiah. Secondly He is a divine saviour, through his earthly ministry He was revealed in humility and suffering as the Son of God and then following his resurrection and by the poured out Holy Spirit He is declared with power and exaltation to be both Lord and Christ.  It seems that these two descriptions ‘according to the flesh’ and ‘according to the spirit’, as in some translations, do not refer to his two natures but rather to the two stages of his ministry, pre- and post-resurrection.

This same Holy Spirit, by who’s power He was raised from the dead, has been poured out on his church to work out in our lives all that Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.  Paul saw himself as a person who was ‘saved to serve’  – from the moment he met Jesus Christ he lived to call others to faith in Him.

In summary, John Stott tells us that in these first few opening verses of his letter, Paul gives us six fundamental truths about the gospel – Its origin is God the Father and its substance Jesus Christ the Son. Its attestation (evidence of validity) is Old Testament Scripture and its scope all the nations. Our immediate purpose in proclaiming it is to bring people to the obedience of faith, but our ultimate goal is the greater glory of the name of Jesus Christ.

Let’s finish today’s reading by allowing the words of verse 6 to penetrate deeply into our hearts:

“And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ”

 

No merit of my own.

What do you think of this quote from John Piper?

“I was born into a believing family through no merit of my own at all. I was given a mind to think and a heart to feel through no merit of my own at all. I was brought into the hearing of the gospel through no merit of my own at all. My rebellion was subdued, my hardness removed, my blindness overcome, and my deadness awakened through no merit of my own at all. Thus I became a believer in Christ through no merit of my own at all. And so I am an heir of God with Christ through no merit of my own at all. Now when I put forward effort to please the Lord who bought me, this is to me no merit at all, because… it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Cor. 15:10)… God is working in me that which is pleasing in His sight. (Heb. 13:21)… He fulfills every resolve for good by His power. (2 Thes. 1:11) And therefore there is no ground for boasting in myself, but only in God’s mighty grace. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Cor. 1:31)”

As I read this, I couldn’t help but think of the Apostle Paul – I think John Piper captures perfectly how Paul felt after his Damascus road experience and this is clearly demonstrated in the rest of the first verse of the Roman epistle that we began looking at yesterday.

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” Rom 1:1

(By the way, in case you were worrying, I’m not planning to go through the whole of Romans one word or even one verse at a time! – It’s just that these initial introductory verses are important as they reflect the theme of the whole letter.)

First, Paul sees himself as he now is in Christ – a servant or slave (Gk. doulos) before he goes on to describe what he does. As in all of his writings, this order is of paramount importance – who we are in Christ is of inestimable value in God’s eyes – far greater than anything we may go on to do.

Of interest here is that commentators over centuries have made much of Paul’s use of the word doulos and have been quick to establish in our minds that this word means slave (in classical Greek) rather than servant – someone of utter insignificance, without rights of his own etc. Tom Holland points out that the word doulos is used in the Greek Old Testament (LXX) to translate the Hebrew word ebed – a title which was applied to a wide range of people from kings and prophets to ordinary Israelites including slaves depending on context. Broadly, doulos in the Greek Old Testament described a relationship within the covenant that God had made with Israel. In New Testament usage the context usually shows doulos to describe a relationship within the new covenant which God has established through Christ.

Does it really matter Jeff?? Yes, because this covenantal use does not speak of someone who sees himself as having no intrinsic worth and without any rights but of someone who is showered with honour and privilege as a result of being a servant of the living God.
This is how Paul saw himself in Christ before he even thinks about going on to describe his calling as an apostle.

My dear friend, how do you see yourself? As someone who has barely scraped into the Kingdom with very little expectancy of achieving very much? Or as someone whom God has chosen, through no merit of your own at all, to shower with honour and privilege? He sees you as His honoured servant and representative – can you believe it?

There’s more! Paul was given a specific task – to be an apostle to the Gentiles, i.e., sent to take the Gospel of salvation to them.
Apologies for this but, again, he deliberately, it seems, uses an interesting word here. ‘Set apart’ or ‘separated to’ is aphorismenos which has the same root as the word Pharisee. Nygren says that Paul, as a Pharisee, had set himself apart for the law, but now God had set him apart… for the Gospel! In the very first verse of the epistle we encounter the basic juxtaposition of law and gospel, which could be described as the theme of Romans.

In his letter to the Galatians Paul wrote that God had set him apart (same word) from birth, and then called him to preach Christ to the Gentiles. It seems he likened his call to that of the prophet Jeremiah to whom God said – “Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Paul’s commissioning by God for the work he intended him to do took place at the Damascus road encounter – at his conversion.
What ‘work’ has God had in mind for you, right from the time you were born, or even before you were born? What has He been working unseen in you for all the years of your life, even when you seemed to be far from Him and lost in sin? And now that you have been brought close and are in Christ He has commissioned you to go do it!
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” – Ephesians 2:10

Transformed!

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus…” – Romans 1:1

Wow! Paul’s opening salutation is packed with theology – in fact, this opening verse sets the tone for the whole of the coming letter – the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul, once called Saul, had hated Jesus Christ, doing everything he could to silence all who claimed to be his followers. He was a fanatical Pharisee whose attempts to guard the purity of Judaism took him beyond the borders of Israel to bring the followers of Jesus before Jewish courts. He would tolerate no suggestion that Israel’s Messiah had been crucified – after all, the law said that anyone hung on a tree was cursed by God! Impossible!

“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” – Acts 9:1,2.

Paul was totally convinced that Jesus was an impostor – right up until the moment he met Him on the road to Damascus – see Acts 9:3 – 19. This was a life-transforming encounter for him – he was never the same again!

Not only was he utterly blown away by the realisation that God freely forgave him for all that he had done to persecute the followers of Jesus, but he never quite got over the grace of God in calling him, of all people, to become a preacher of the faith he had once despised. For him, this was now his life, his everything – to serve the One who loved him.

“…but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… but one thing I do; forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus” Phil 3: 12-14

The transformation of this intelligent, educated, gifted, zealous man was radical – “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…” Phil 3: 7-9

What on earth did Paul see and hear on that dusty roadside that so impacted him and caused him to henceforth say – “…for me to live is Christ, to die is gain”?

Dear friends, this is the reality of the Christian conversion. When we make that profession of faith and give our lives to Christ, as we say we do – our lives are no longer our own but His – Paul again:-  “...it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”. We can never be the same again!

It was Paul’s greatest joy to give the rest of his life to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, wherever God sent him and whatever the cost – and there was enormous cost, eventually it cost his life. And today, across the centuries and through this little greeting, he calls each of us to have the same attitude of absolute abandonment to the will of God for our lives.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus…

At the beginning of another year and at the beginning of this study, let’s take time to honestly examine ourselves. Is my life really any different to the lives of those around me who are not believers? Or is my life pretty much the same as it was before I became a believer, but with a Christian veneer? Do I spend more time watching TV each day than I spend reading God’s word and praying? Are the words that are usually heard from my mouth complaints and grumbles or praises and thanks to God?

Paul looked at the churches of his time and said, with tears, “….many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven…”

The bottom line – are we servants of Jesus Christ or are we still serving ourselves? It makes all the difference in the world!

If we find that we’re failing the TV test – let’s pray together today that God will give us such a revelation of Jesus Christ this year that, like Paul, our lives might be utterly transformed.

Paul, why did you write to the Romans?

So, are you ready to begin our journey through Paul’s letter to the believers at Rome?

Before we look at the text in detail, we need to ask, ‘why did he write it?’ It’s well known that he wanted to visit Rome, the then capital city of the world, and it’s likely he wanted to introduce himself and his gospel before doing so – especially as he wanted to use Rome as a half-way post to his eventual planned destination of Spain. He never got to Spain of course but he did eventually end up in Rome – as a prisoner in chains.

It’s been suggested by many that although Romans is indeed a ‘compendium of Christian doctrine’ and a ‘sustained and coherent statement of the gospel’, it nevertheless was primarily written, as are most of the documents and letters of the new testament, to address specific circumstances and situations that existed amongst the intended recipients. Paul had a huge concern for the church as a whole and wrote many of his letters to correct faulty theology and doctrine that was potentially introducing divisions in the church and driving believers off course.

The church in Rome was typical of many congregations as the gospel spread outwards from Jerusalem – it was a mixed community consisting mostly of converted Gentiles and with a smaller number of Jewish believers. The Jews regarded Christianity as simply part of Judaism and required their followers to observe the Jewish law, including circumcision – whereas the Gentile Christians were supporters of a ‘law-free’ gospel.

The Gentile converts reacted against being seen as second-class Christians and accused the Jewish believers of being weak in faith because they still scrupulously observed ceremonial regulations like food laws. Interestingly the Gentile converts often had problems with food offered for sale in the market which had been previously offered to idols because they had been delivered out of this evil system of idolatry and were afraid of being enticed back in again.

So, as we make our way through this letter, recognise that Paul is writing directly to these two groups of people, seeking to act as a peace-maker.  He was ideally placed to do this – as a patriotic Jew himself – and secondly as he had been commissioned as the apostle to the Gentiles. He was determined to make a full and fresh statement of the apostolic gospel, which would not compromise any of its revealed truths, but which would resolve the conflict between Jew and Gentile over the covenant and the law and so promote the precious unity of the church.

We shall see that as he endeavours to reconcile the two groups he first introduces the theme that all guilty sinners are justified by God’s grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone – not dependant on status or works. As his argument develops he introduces the next theme that the people of God are no longer defined by descent, circumcision or culture but according to faith in Jesus Christ so that now all believers are the true children of Abraham.

Thereby, Gentile Christians have a right to be included in the Old Testament covenants of promise – they are full and genuine heirs to the promises of God to Israel! This is the main theme to the whole letter!

We will begin looking in earnest at the first few verses of this wonderful, life-changing letter in the next post. First here is a quick overview of the main structure and contents of the whole letter to whet all our appetites for the feast to come!

A brief overview of the letter

1:1 – 17 Paul introduces himself, his calling as an apostle and right from the outset announces the Gospel of God. David Coffey calls verses 16 – 17 the gospel in a nutshell – ‘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”’.

1:18 – 3:20 The revelation of God’s righteousness in the gospel is necessary because of the revelation here of His wrath against unrighteousness. He concludes this section by indicting the whole of humanity, Jews and Gentiles, as no-one lives up to the knowledge of God which he or she has. All humans are sinful, guilty and without excuse before God.  3:23  ‘..for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..’

3:21 – 8:39 But now…. into the universal darkness of human sin and guilt the light of the gospel has shone! Paul explains all that God has done for us through the gospel of Christ. 6:23 ‘for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’.

Chapter 8 concludes with a list of no less than 15 assurances of God’s steadfast love, from which nothing can ever separate us (Stott). v38 ‘…for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’.

9 – 11 Paul addresses head on the underlying theological issues causing the problems between the Jews and Gentiles and in Ch 11 looks ahead to the fullness of both Jews and Gentiles being gathered in. Oh the wisdom of God! 11:25,26 ‘Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved…’

12:1 – 15:13 In view of all that he has spoken of in the previous chapters, Paul expounds God’s will as to how we should now live. 12:2 ‘do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..’.

15:14 – 16:27 Paul’s final conclusions and greetings. v25-27 ‘now to Him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him – to the only wise God be glory for ever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Resolution for 2012!

My resolution for 2012 is to study The Letter of Paul to the Romans – and I want to invite you to join me in it!!!

Over the centuries, transformations, reformations, renewals and revivals in the church have often been credited to individuals and then congregations coming face to face with the truths that are found in Paul’s letter to the Roman church (the book of Romans in the New Testament).

John Stott describes it as the “fullest, plainest, grandest statement of the Gospel in the New Testament”.  Martin Luther who was greatly influenced by texts from Romans described the book as “really the chief part of the New Testament and truly the purest gospel”.

John Calvin echoed these sentiments with “if we have gained a true understanding of this epistle, we have an open door to all the most profound treasures of scripture”.

It is well known that the great revivalist and founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, at a time when he was greatly disillusioned with life and faith, ‘very unwillingly’ attended a meeting where someone was reading the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. In Wesley’s words – “About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away MY sins, even MINE, and saved ME from the law of sin and death”.

For centuries the book of Romans has influenced countless thousands, small and great, as it expounds the truth of what the Gospel (the Good News) of God really is. Revival has touched the hearts of individuals, churches, communities and nations that have understood, some perhaps for the first time, the dynamic truth contained within this, sometimes difficult to understand, letter.

Someone said – “Studying it is like giving a spiritual blood transfusion to the local church”.

So! I plan to work my way, sloooowly, through the Book of Romans week by week throughout 2012. Any insights and nuggets of truth I find I’ll post in the briefest form on this blog. Click the link opposite to subscribe to this blog if you would like to be informed by email when new posts are made and PLEASE PLEASE add your comments to anything I write so that together we might come to a greater understanding which might (WILL) be life-changing!