Coordination

Our Daily Bread
I am not talking about physical coordination like an athlete has.  I speak of coordination of time and resources.  It may be in the form of a project or a calendar or whatever you need.  Coordinating things is a gift.  I know these things.  I am a planner!  ha!

The body of the church should be the most well oiled machine of believers that the world has ever seen!  We are here to love and serve.  Love and serve folks in the church.  Love and serve folks outside the church so they will want to come in!  Yes!  Let us pray for each of us to fit into thus well oiled machine!

Lord, we thank you for leading us to our church homes.  Please help us do our tasks with love and joy!

Teaching Tuesday
We read the chapter in our text about Romans this week.  Considering the length and complexity of the book of Romans, I thought he did a good job overall.  There was at least one exception!

Romans has so many wonderful verses and incredible explanations of Christian concepts.  Have you ever heard of the "Romans Road"?  That is a selection of verses that can be used to lead someone to Christ.  For example, Romans 3:23, 6:23, and 8:28.

The book was written by Paul to the folks at Rome that he had never met.  Someone else started the church there.  There was a lot of explaining to do in Paul's mind so he wrote his longest letter to them.  Read it sometime in one sitting.  It is very "thick" book to read!

My main problems with the text books are about the topics of homosexuality and predestination.  I thought the author could have been more definitive with these topics.  As I told a minister friend of mine, I suddenly felt unsafe in the Episcopal church after reading this chapter.  IMHO, the author did not emphasize enough how society changes and we grow in God's love.  Mankind didn't realize sexual orientation was something natural.  Paul spoke against all homosexual behavior.  That set of verses completely discounts what could be 10% of our population.  People use those verses as an excuse to hate the same way they used some of his verses to validate the practice of slavery in the U.S.  Society changed and we learned that no one should be treated as a slave.  We have also learned that sexuality is an orientation not a choice.

And the whole predestination thing is a mystery.  My personal belief is that some folks may be more likely to accept Christ than others, much like some folks can play football or chess or tennis better than others.  That is a predisposition.  Not a predestination.

Great book.  Looking forward to more books by Paul!

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Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God - William Carey