Episode 65: Romans 1

Today's Meditation is based on Romans 1 from the Passion Translation

I am a loving and loyal servant of the Anointed One, Jesus. He called me and set me apart with a mission to proclaim God’s wonderful gospel. I am called as a holy one. Joyous grace and total well-being, flowing from the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, rest upon me.

My commission is to preach the good news. Yet it is not entirely new, but the fulfillment of the hope promised through his prophets in the sacred Scriptures. For the gospel is all about God’s Son. As a man he descended from David’s royal lineage, but as the mighty Son of God he was raised from the dead and miraculously set apart with a display of triumphant power supplied by the Spirit of Holiness. And now Jesus is my Lord and my Messiah. Through him grace cascaded into me, empowering me so that I can win people from every nation into the obedience that comes from faith, to bring honor to his name. I am a chosen one, called to belong to Jesus.

I give thanks to God that the testimony of the faith is spreading throughout the world. I pray for my fellow believers continually and at all times. For I serve and worship God with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.

I am empowered to stand strong in my faith. Side by side with my brothers and sisters in Christ, something wonderful is released, as we are co-encouraged and co-comforted by each other’s faith.

Love obligates me to preach to everyone, to those who are among the elite and those who are among the outcasts, to those who are wise and educated as well as to those who are foolish and unlearned. 

I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in me through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved.  This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness — a perfect righteousness given to me because I believe. And it moves me from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. I am right with God through life-giving faith!

I know the truth of God instinctively, for God has embedded this knowledge inside every human heart. I cannot excuse opposition to truth on the basis of ignorance, because from the creation of the world, the invisible qualities of God’s nature have been made visible, such as his eternal power and transcendence. He has made his wonderful attributes easily perceived, for seeing the visible makes me understand the invisible.

Throughout human history the fingerprints of God have been upon us. And I honor him as God and I am thankful for his kindness. Only a fool would trade the unfading splendor of the immortal God to worship the fading image of other humans, idols made to look like people, animals, birds, or creeping reptiles.

I refuse to trade the truth of God for a lie by worshiping and serving the things God made. Rather, I worship and serve the God who made all things. Glory and praises to him forever and ever.

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing.

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