Accountability

1 Corinthians 5 talks about purging evil from the church (v13). Paul is addressing a situation with sexual immorality, but also mentions other sins in v11. This relates to Mark's lesson on Sunday - letting sin into our lives and tolerating it in other members causes problems to spread in the church.

Bottom line: We need to hold each other accountable for our actions. Not in a nit-picky way, but in love. We need to know each other well enough to feel comfortable asking tough questions when you think someone may be on the wrong path.

If we commit to this, hopefully we can avoid getting to the point of needing to purge evil from among us.

Meditate...

to think about something deeply; to reflect in a calm, deliberate manner; to focus; to consider.

Psalm 1:2 reads "but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night".

This is a purposeful act, with intention that requires time. The more we know of God's word the more resources we have to pull from when we are focusing on Him & applying his word to our daily decisions.

Romans: tough, but good

Romans is a difficult book, but I have enjoyed starting our daily Bible reading with it this year. There is definitely a lot to learn in these chapters. I like the way the book ends with lists of greetings to and from other Christians. It's clear that the early Christians cared about each other and that just reinforces the points made throughout the book. We're all sinners and we all stumble. But we're here to help and encourage each other so we can all continue serving God and get to heaven, despite these shortcomings.

How to Live Right

Romans 12 is one of my favorite chapters, I have almost the entire thing highlighted in my Bible.

It starts off with a couple of those "stick to your mirror" verses that we need to remember every day as we live in a world that will try to make us conform if we're not focused on God and growing spiritually. Then we see that we all have different strengths and we need to find ways to serve God with what we have while respecting and encouraging others. The chapter ends with very practical instructions in v9-21. Some that really stand out to me:

Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. - Don't just not participate in sin, but hate it and what it does in our lives. Fill your life with good things to resist temptation.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. - We're a family and we need to know each other, so we can be supportive in good times and bad.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Don't get caught up in the world, but let the love of God show through your good actions in tough situations.

Romans 6

Thanks to Candace & Kendra for setting this up for another year!

In Romans 6 Paul deals with an issue that some people raised. People were saying that sin is okay because God loves to give his grace and mercy and the more that people sin the more God gets to display his mercy and show how forgiving he really is. Paul says that this is wrong. The Lord has always wanted obedience over sacrifice. We know that the Lord does make provisions to forgive his people of sin, but his people should not be sinning willfully or habitually. Yes, from time to time we may slip up and sin, but that isn't supposed to be the normal for us. Paul says clearly that we should not continue to sin that grace may abound.

Another topic addressed in this chapter is that of being slaves to sin or to righteouness. Sometimes christians may think that being a child of God restricts or limits us because we can't participate in many of the activiteis the world can. However, the bible argues that not being a child of God actually makes one a slave to sin. Doing God's will and trusting in him actually makes us free. John 8:32 says "and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”