Catching up

I have several posts coming at you tonight. I've had them brewing but have been too lazy to get out my computer and type them up. Until now.

I finished Romans. I was surprised by Romans in the best way. I think Romans and I think sin and grace and remember who you were and what Christ has done for you. That is most certainly there, but I also saw this week what you are supposed to do with that knowledge and how you are to live in community with your fellow sinner/saints. This is the haiku I came up with:

We who died to sin
Have life in Christ to be shared
With one another

I also started Judges, a book that before our study of the minor prophets, I had little deep knowledge about. But, because God is so rich in His grace towards me, I've already been looking at how all this judgey stuff fits in with the larger arc of the entire Biblical story, so my heart is ready to dive into the book twenty times over.

Here's a quick note from today's reading

Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. Judges 10:13-16
This exchange is quite incredible. God was ready to give the people over to their sin and then they cried to Him. They understood that they deserved wrath and instead asked for mercy. And because they received that mercy in their time of need, they turned from their idols to worship and serve the Lord. This is repentance. This is faith.