We are getting just a taste of the love of God here at the end of Romans. While we all are worried about what people are tasting or not, we see that God’s love flows to each of us. Let go with God’s flow.

There they were, placing another Christian friend in the catacombs under the roads of Rome. They were facing persecution from all sides, and things looked bleak. They then looked at the new painting on the wall. It was Jesus the savant of all, encouraging them, too, to be servants of all.

The power of the world is chiseled in stone, but the power of God is molded in flesh and blood. Let us pray we don’t seek our hope in cold, chiseled stone, but may the Spirit guide and mold us to be servants of God’s creation.

Special Guest Victor Belton.
How Great and Wonderful is our God who takes our burden away so we can love those around us.

The story is backwards. Usually the stump is wild and the grafted branches are the good, fruit-bearing kind. But here, the wild branches (usually less fruitful) are the ones which have been grafted in. Paul is telling us, the wild ones, to be humble because we have been grafted into the original tree of promise.

Salvador Dali’s Christ of St. John of the Cross was almost completely destroyed when a man claimed it desecrated Christ and His image. What would enrage someone to destroy a work of art like that? Was it someone hostile to the faith? Nope, it was a matter of perspective.

Why are God’s original people, who are in the line of their father Israel, being left behind? This is an extremely hard question, and I think we find the answer, not in the search for power, but in being a humble servant.

The world just feels overwhelming. From the virus, politics, and loss of security it can feel like it is just too much. That right there is what the author Paul wants us to see, that no matter what, God's love is just as overwhelming, but in a good way.

Have you ever felt stuck? Stuck inside because of a virus? Stuck at a job? Stuck in a relationship? Many times we groan because we are yearning for freedom from the stone we are stuck in. What can we look to for true freedom?

Paul makes a curious point prior to chapter 8 here. He says we are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to Christ. But where is the freedom in that? It sounds like we have exchanged one slavery for another, but that was just a stopgap point. For Paul keeps moving forward and says we are not a slave to have been made into a child of God.

Life can be full of struggle. In the midst of such struggle we are trying to figure out how we should act that would be the best. But many times we end up doing and participating in the very things we hate. Who will deliver us from this struggle?

The famous artist is troubled. Stuck in an asylum for over a year, all he can do is paint what he can see. One day his brother sends him a picture from Rembrandt, of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Van Gogh sees life once again. 

When we are looking at participating in a greater story, we usually desire to neglect and hide our weaknesses. However, we see that we are baptized into Christ’s death and participate in his resurrection. Wait, what? Baptized into death? How is this the greater story?