ME4THEM

“2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel.” Romans 9:2-4

Paul, in the middle of his letter to the church and believers in Rome, pulls back the layers of his heart and soul to reveal the level of care and concern he feels in his calling to spread the Gospel of Jesus.

This passage struck me.

Paul’s pain regarding the Jews and their response to Jesus as Messiah is tangible in the words that he writes. He feels it as such a deep level that he is willing to make the argument, me for them God.

Paul so genuinely wants the Jews to get it, to see Jesus as the Messiah, who he truly is, that he wishes to be cursed if that would cause them to receive the good news of Jesus Christ.

I was struck by this passage because there is wrestling within me as to why I cannot write this same sentence that Paul did.

Why do I not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart when it comes to the people I know who do not know Jesus? Where is my great passion and deep soul level concern for those in my world who have not heard the good news?

What would it look like in my life if I did live with deep sorrow and unceasing anguish about the lost within my city? My neighborhood? My family?

I was reminded so clearly when reading through this passage and wrestling with these questions that it was Paul’s great love for Jesus and the powerful transformation of grace at work in Paul that birthed within him the deep and great desire for others to know Christ the way that he did.

The more we spend time with Jesus, in His Word, and worshipping him, the more a great love grows within us for him, which drives us to engage the world around us in conversation that all would know him.

Do it in us, Lord, give us a deep love for you and a great burden for others to know you.

Be where your feet are

“6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6 NIV

“6 Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.” Romans 8:6 MSG

 

It is no strange statement to say that life is fast-paced these days. I recently read an article that detailed major changes in the world we find ourselves in mid-2020. You can read the article, which is made up of infographics HERE.

One remarkable thing to notice is that Disney Plus accomplished in 2 months what took Netflix 7 years to do! That right there is a mind blistering thought. The speed at which our world is moving today is faster than it ever has been before. Many things contribute to that but one is the world of technology that we find ourselves inundated with.

There is now a world that exists and is accessible 24-7, which is full of activity happening somewhere else.

Now more than ever you can be sitting next to someone and yet be engaged in a conversation with someone else thousands of miles away. I recently was at our weekend services serving in Lubbock, Texas, and simultaneously preaching to a church in Bogota, Colombia! The world we live in allows us to be in two places at once!

This morning as I read Paul’s thoughts in Romans 8 I was hung up on verse 6, more specifically the latter part of the verse, “…the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Or as Eugene Peterson in The Message says, “…attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”

I am determined, now more than ever, to lean into a life lead by the Holy Spirit, to pay more attention to what God is saying and doing in me and around me at the moment. To be where my feet are. To take the world that is spinning faster and faster and leave it locked away in the pandora’s box that is my phone, my email, my laptop.