Study the book of Romans

I’ve been doin this a little bit more lately. It seems that whatever topic I happen to be studying, I always have to bring it back to Romans. I read through the majority of the book yesterday, digesting every word. It was pretty amazing.
I feel like I have a pretty firm grasp on the first 11 chapters. But, I’m still not gonna cross this one off until I really do an in depth, exegetical and hermanutical study(that’s right…big words. RMC make me smart person)

I started doing this today. I kinda started studying it my own way. I’m studying all the stuff I don’t really understand. I started by reading the parts in a few different translations and comparing it all back to Greek with some help from blueletterbible.org(great resource!)
I think more Christians need to read Romans more often. I think so often we get caught up with what a Christian does and all we talk about is what we should be doing. Romans is great through because it talks about what it means to be a Christian.
I was talking to my mom the other day and had this revelation: A Christian is as delighted in by God when they are asleep as when they are out winning souls

I’m kinda sorta doin this. Romans talks a lot about who weare because of Jesus Christ and I’m speaking to my class this Friday about who we are. So I’m reading through Romans. It started just as a way for me to get my bearings but I’ve been pulling so much truth out of it that our generation needs to hear.
I’m really excited but really nervous for this Friday. Apparently the whole theme of the night is “redefining church”. I didn’t come up with the topic. The graphics team just made the promo and showed it to me. They asked if it went along at all with what I was planning on talking about. I hadn’t decided what I was gonna talk about at that point so I just said “sure” and now I’m kinda running with it. I am gonna sorta redefine “church”. I’m gonna let them know, in a brief and direct way, that that church isn’t a place or a service. I’ll remind them that church is the people. So that’s where my message begins. Redefining the people. Us. Our generation. I’m gonna speak the truth of who our generation is. I’m even going to announce to them The Vision.
I was reluctant to talk about any of this, because I wasn’t even sure it was true. I looked at my generation and thought it couldn’t be true. Our generation is wild, unkempt. Then the truth of Proverbs 29:18 came to mind “Where there is no vision, the people perish”
So it’s time that they catch a glimpse of the vision.
....whew…pray for me

For this trimester, for our scripture study we had to pick one of Paul’s epistles and study it in it’s entirety. I chose 1 Corinthians and it’s been going great. The instruction he gives is pretty basic but challenging nonetheless. Actually a lot of what he talks about in 1 Corinthians 12-14 has come up in the past weeks. So all in all, it’s been a good study.
But Romans keeps coming up. Not so much the book of Romans. More so everything Paul talks about and clarifies and lays down the law about in Romans. Romans is the book that has the highest concentration of instruction on the topics that keep coming up. So I really want to do an in-depth study of Romans. Basically I want to do 2 scripture studies.
Again this is a goal of discipline. This is me, wanting to take my own time and put it to actual use. I want to discipline myself to take the skills that I learn in Masters and apply them on my own time, when no one is telling me to do it or taking a grade on it.
Kind of the good thing about doing this, is not having time restraints. Not to say that I can take my sweet precious time and be lazy about studying this. Rather the opposite, I can actually move at my own pace and study the separate aspects more quickly. With our scheduled scripture study, we have specific assignments due each week. I’ll usually do the assignment for that week then slack off the rest of the week because there is nothing being asked of me. But doing this on my own, I set my own expectations and I ask whatever I want of myself. I set my own weekly assignments. It’s kind of freeing actually.

I will probably start this, this week. Today, I have to start on my assigned scripture study for this week.

BTW: Romans isn’t the only book that talks about the things I want to study. So along with Romans, I want to read and re-read Hebrews, James and I John. Probably more than that I’m sure.