(Further reflections on “Summary of Romans 1-11”—Sunday 6 June 2021)
Trust you and your family are doing well. I want you to know that I am praying for you, especially those who have opened up and shared your life’s troubles/issues/struggles with me. I also prayed that everyone in our church will not get infected by the virus. And I’m thankful to the Lord our God that He has been gracious, loving, and merciful to our church. May He continue to protect, provide, and guide us through this unprecedented (and yet ’nothing new under the sun’) time.
My further reflections for this week are the following prayers which highlighted again the gist of Romans 1-11. May the obedience of faith draw us closer to Jesus who is the only way to God the Father. May our faith be active and alive in Christ Jesus who is the righteousness of God that we all have received. May our faith in God show no partiality in the way we view/treat others as God Himself did not show partiality. May we always remember that ‘no one is righteous (except Jesus) whether one is lawful or lawless. May we always be reminded that we don’t need to feel insecure and try to justify ourselves, especially in circumstances that we were misunderstood or slandered (Jesus was misunderstood by His family and slandered by the very people He came to save). May we always be reminded that we are Abraham’s descendants by faith in Jesus. May God’s general and specific promise to you come true in your life, not because of your good works (of the law) or any social good deed or by having a wonderful ministry (although all those things are good and excellent), but through the righteousness of faith through/in Christ. May we all remember the Lord God who had already given us peace in/through our faith in His Son, Jesus. So if you don’t have it, it is time to check the level of your faith, be sober, repent, and begin to draw closer to Him immediately. Do not delay, please! May the life that we are living be the life in Christ as we put our sins to the cross and not the life that we want to satisfy the demands of our flesh or the expectations of the world or being envious with those who are successful or famous or influential or popular (nothing wrong with that) but magnifying the lust of the eyes, living life with the lust of the flesh, and having the pride of life. May we all remind ourselves and our love ones that in order to be alive in God, we must be dead to sin (and there is no way around it). Lord, you are gracious. You know that we are released from the Law and should no longer be slaves to sins, but we are still struggling with sins (of all kinds) in different aspects of life. Your grace saves us, makes us stand, and propels us to live in you. Lord, you are loving, for you have given us the Holy Spirit so that we continue to live and walk with you in victory and in shame or guilt. May the Spirit remind us that we are co-heirs with Christ and we are going to receive future glory with Christ (as long as our faith remains steadfast until the end). Lord, your love is everlasting and your choice is sovereign and you owe no one any explanation. Lord, we may have many ‘Whys’ in our life but your saving grace is sufficient for us and likely the most revelatory answer we ever received. Lord, your love keeps us moving away from sins and running toward you; putting our life on ‘refiner’s fire; and sustaining us till the end. Lord, you are merciful to us all. We are thankful that we are not chosen by our race, but by your grace. Lord, thank you for accepting us simply because of our faith in your Son, Jesus. Lord, there were times we tried to understand your mercy (using our logical thinking or mathematical equations or corporate/business theories) and can’t seem to figure out how it works. Maybe we might have looked in the wrong places. Maybe we didn’t examine the Cross and understand your heart, your compassion! Your mercy seems to have no logics and we are thankful for that. We are sorry for the time we disobeyed you and your mercy was still there for our repentance. It is there to grant us a second-chance of drawing closer to you. Lord, it is comforting to know that we were (born sinners) consigned to disobedience, so that you can show mercy to us through your Son, Jesus Christ. And this we are called to be grateful in every way and in every day of our life on this earth. Praise the Lord our God, for His mercy is new everyday! In His grace, love, and mercy!
—
Pastor Lap
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