11.23.2009 - Romans 7:1-6

1Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

I'm definitely kind of confused about these verses but i understand it a little bit. Marriage is a promise we make similar to the type of relationship we should have with God. there is love and it's not suppose to end until one of the person dies, and some people really does live even after they die.

In relationship with God, Jesus has died and defeated the purpose of death, so in a point we gotta serve God once we made that commitment we need to love God. Jesus dieing and raising from death means so much to us. the law that once relates to us as a cheating person who would be called adulter, Jesus sets us free from the law that would make us such adulter. he makes us complete and we are such a incomplete not worth anything cheaters, but God makes us complete. we are controlled by sinful nature, but because of the love of God we are worth worshiping him once again.

Love God... because without himi we are nothing....

11.22.2009 - Romans 6:15-23

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Slavery is a dark dark word, but also at the same time first few verses are really true and how we are slavery of sin right now. we are just called to sin currently and we just want to because it feels good to sin, but we need to start being slave for God. as bad as it sounds being a slave for God makes a lot of sense. when your master is nice and does good things for you when you succeed it's complete different story of being a slave for someone. We need to be a slave for Christ and really live our life among it.

Loving Christ is such a wonderful thing he saves us from sin, and because it's to benefit us because to sin we will die and God saves us from eternal death. we need to love and be a good servant to God.

11.21.2009 - Romans 6:1-14

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Jesus died and rose again so that he can't die again. he has defeated death and he gave us new life. because we believe in Jesus, through Jesus we have defeated death and that makes us a new born. that makes us people with goals in life to glorify God and to love God. We have to not sin and try to live our life for glorify God. he is in our life to make our life better. and even when things go wrong, we have to stop blame God and live like we really do believe in God. we need to use our body or little talents we have to glorify God.

So if we have a special talent we just gotta use it... for God

11.20.2009 - Romans 5:12-20

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

These passages do touch on very important subject. Sin came into the world through one person and that was adam. as he bit into the apple and knowledge and evil came into the world, God knew that he would have to sacrifice one man (his son) for all the sins. Jesus came and died for our sins and he was crucified as we were forgiven. as the song say, he was forsaken while we were forgiven.

So many people were made a sinner through one person so through Christ (one man) we are going to be saved. Jesus gives us a firm promise of being here always. he is one thing that will never fail you. so i believe and i love God

11.19.2009 - Romans 5:1-11

1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Peace and Joy

I think one of the biggest thing that separate christians from non christians is that we enjoy serving God. There are times when christians question what they are doing when they are serving God and that's when we should get a reality check. These verses talk about building character, becoming a stronger christians, it's very important as we grow in Christ that we do these thing not to glorify us but glorify God. We need to enjoy suffering and love God for letting us grow and letting us really face what's real. He makes us go through these things because that makes us stronger, that makes us a stronger person.

let's enjoy suffering and let suffering build perseverance and character. Let's do the work of God in the right way and do it right. God died for us because he loves us and we are just useless ungoddly thing and Jesus died for us... to me that say a lot...

11.17.2009 - Romans 4:1-20

1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Perserverance...

when i was reading these verses i remembered Family Guy's Peter's version of Passion of Christ, because in it Peter doesn't understand why Jesus was taking all the beating that he did with the whip. and in his version peter gets up and say "no!" to the roman solider who was whipping him.

What happen if Jesus was like "no i don't want to save the the human race" and just stop from the suffering...? no one would be saved.

So for we are saved in faith alone, we need to rejoice in our suffering. and suffering builds perseverance and perseverance is one of the most important quality of being in the Christian faith. there are so many times when we just want to give up and we just want to stop but we need to keep on going at it. and really go through with what God's telling us. serving the lord is a hard job but we gotta do it and we gotta love it.

we are saved through God's son's life... that means a lot to me...

11.16.2009 - Psalm 19

May the words of my mouth
And the meditations of my heart
Be pleasing to you, pleasing to You
May the words of my mouth
And the meditations of my heart
Be pleasing to You my God

You’re my Rock and my Redeemer
You’re the reason that I sing
I desire to be a blessing
In Your eyes
Every hour, every moment
Lord I want to be Your servant
I desire to be a blessing
In Your eyes, in Your eyes

may the words of my mouth is a common name for this song... i'm gonna take a break of romans and do a song today. May the words of my mouth is a great song that i connect with a lot. I need to learn to speak and talk like God is around. we need to please God. We need to realize that that God is more then just a thing we worship. we do so many things for God and we need to just serve God and be there for God.

11.14.2009 - Romans 4:1-20

These verses talk about Abraham. Abraham was a big character in old testaments, because he was one of founder of jewish nation. he was very important and even himself say that he is saved by faith not by his works. Abraham has done so much and he is such a big character in old testament and same with David, which is quoted in the verses that we are saved by faith and these people do works because of their faith and how they love God.

This reminded me of when i started to serve. I know there must be some part of me that said i want to serve God for the works and just the works, but more and more i thought that way it wasn't fair or something wasn't right. I wanted to quit so many times because i thought what's going on in my life is so much more important and that serving God can be second, but there was one day when Paul talked to me and he told me that we serve God because God choose us and something in that nature and it hit me, I wanted to serve God. God loves us and he gives us all we can do.

I don't serve God because I want to show God what i can do, but i serve God because i love God, and it makes more sense to me. I never say why am i doing this anymore... it's more understood... it makes more sense to me now. now i know why i serve God and even sometimes i still say it's unfair, but at the end... i'm wrong... God asks me to do things because he knows that i have a passion to serve God. I love God and i want to give my life for Him.

11.13.2009 - Romans 3:21-31

These verses are something that Christians love. About Jesus and how he gave up his life for us. that's something more than just bible verses. we did nothing and we are not saved because of what we do but God saves us for only through our faith, because God loves us. Something important is that we are saved by faith and not by what we do at all... it's such a concept that it's hard for us to understand... sometimes makes you wonder why we do the work, but we always realize what an amazing God we have and through faith and through love of God we should do things for God willingly...

and God does not look at us as jew or gentile. I think something very important is that jews vs. gentiles are one of the biggest discrimination in old testament but it says in it that God loves all of us not just gentiles and no just gentiles. there is one God and he loves us all. races doesn't matter and he doesn't love you more because you own something more then other. God loves us just because we are his creation. so let's love God

11.12.2009 - Romans 3:9-20

9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better

[a]? Not at all! We have already made the charge

that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.

10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, n

ot even one; 11there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away,

they have together become worthless; there is

no one who does good, not even one."[b] 13"Their

throats are open graves; their tongues practice d

eceit."[c] "The poison of vipers is on their lips."[d]

14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."

[e] 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and

misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace

they do not know."[f] 18"There is no fear of God

before their eyes."[g]19Now we know that whatever

the law says, it says to those who are under the law,

so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole

world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one

will be declared righteous in his sight by observing

the law; rather, through the law we become

conscious of sin.

we are all sinners, that's all this is trying to say. some of these passages before talked about gentiles and jews as separate kind of people, but the whole story is that everyone is sinful and we all need God. this is a passage that talks about how we are not saved because of what we've done. we are all sinful people and in this passage it quotes psalm many times talking about how not righteous we are. we all are.

In real life sometimes Christians like to act like we are better then others and that we did all this to make our lives better, but we haven't done anything... we are saved because of God. we are sinful creatures worshiping our awesome God. We need to always think of others and talk to them about God and reach out to others.

11.11.2009 - Roman 3:1-8

1What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:
"So that you may be proved right when you speak
and prevail when you judge."
5But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.


These passages talk continues on the passages before... does being Jew have any advantages... i think these reminds me of very many talk about how unfaithful Jews were, but God never let go of them. even when they fell away from God they were still saved by God. I know there are many verses talking about them how they are foolish, but there was never a moment where God gave up with them.
last few verses (5-8) talks about if us by sinning is making God more righteous, that makes no sense. this is slander... it makes no sense to do things that God tells us not to do and make it think that they are doing right because of that. These verses were really confusing but i understand that sometimes human nature is to bargain and say that if our sinning is making God more righteous then we shouldn't be punished is like saying... cheating and getting caught makes people who know everything more righteous so cheating is good. It makes no sense...
so let's just do our job and be a good christian and just do the right thing... n not bargain with God...

11.10.2009 - Roman 2:17-29

These verses talk about Jews. There are people who believe they are christians because they were born into a christian family. There is nothing physical that can be done to you that will make you christian. Christians are people who know their place. who know that God is the only one and that we don't do things our way. verses 21-24 talks about if you know God's law tell other about it and stuff while we don't know because as we condemn others we still break the rules. doesn't it make it worse as we're breaking the rules while we are the one that supposingly fix something.

These verses talk about simply this. follow God's law because just because your a jew doesn't save you. a real jew is someone who follow God's law. Gentile who follow the law can condemn a jew who doesn't follow the God's law.

11.9.2009 - Roman 2:1-16

These are very critical verses. we always learn the verses before these and judge others, but here it says to not to judge others for you will be sinning... I think we are all guilty of this and Christians are very famous for looking down on other and saying things like that. tonight in my jewelry class someone was talking about a best friend she had that started believing in God and her friend told her that because they are not in the same place in Christ so they can't hang around each other anymore...

That's not the way your suppose to treat your friend... even if they are not as spiritual as you... you are one of only input that... that person can have...

let's not judge others because as much as you feel better then other we're all really just same people sinning.

i think the most scary part of this reading was the last verse where it talks about how no one might know your secret life but God does...

11.8.2009 - Romans 1:18-32

these verses were about people sinning. some of the points were

everyone knows about God. everyone knows the rules and how amazing he is. when people talk about God they always talk about how God creating the world is not true, so they know the truth they just don't live by it. These verses talk about just sinners and how we suffer.

v. 26-27 ish talks about Homosexual ism and how it's not righteous and it's true that God made us this way to for male to love female and female to love male, but yet people go out and do things other wise. something that scared me the most was the last verse talked about how sinners are going around and sharing what they believe in...

This makes me sick... I think Gays and Lesbians are so much better at sharing their beliefs then us christians. Christians tend to hold their beliefs to themselves when we should be sharing our good news.

so let's go share the good news... the gospel... even though we fail... so much... but God helps us to share so let's keep on living our christian life

11.7.2009 - Roman 1: 8-17

This is the introduction to Paul talking to Romans and it's so blessing as he introduce himself to the romans and talks about how much he wants to be there and preach the word of God there. First few verses just talks about Thanking God.

I think this is one of the most underrated thing that Christians do and that is to thank God for every little thing that happen to us. We don't deserve anything and God gives us so much... We need to thank God for everything and specially for being able to serve God and being able to worship him.

another thing was that he has been praying for all the romans. I think one of the thing that current generation of Christian lack is praying for each other. We are all fighting the same battle and we need to really be on the same side. we gotta be here for each other and Paul just gives us such an excellent example of what we should be doing to each other!

lastly... we need to stop being ashamed of God. Sometimes we forget about how awesome and wonderful God is.. and be ashamed of him. that meaning having time to share God we choose not to because of how we are gonna be judged by other people.

As they end these verses "The righteous will live by faith"

11.6.2009 - alabaster jar

I love this song and it really touches me all the time when i sing this. God is worthy of all the praise we give him and im sure we don't give him enough.. there are many things we value in this world more then God sometimes. i think those are what you call alabaster jar. This came from Bible when a women broke a bottle of alabaster jar with precious oil in it. although in the world these things cost so much, the women made her point of showing her love towards God by breaking what's valuable in this world. I think there are things I value highly in this world. and it would be hard to give it up for God

but really we should beable to give up really easily, because God gave up his life so that we should live our life for him

11.5.2009 - Romans 1:1-7

this is starting of romans. I decided to start reading romans. This is a book written by Paul, and i really love the first few verses. Paul talks about a lot of things about being called to serve and how God calls us his. This is very just awesome just Paul talking about serving God. I think one of the biggest gift from God is to beable to serve him.

v.6 says "and you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ"

which just shows you how much important God is to us. We belong to him and we need to do our all to serve him.

I'm very excited to read romans....

11.4.2009 - Ephesians 1:9-10

“And he made known to us the mystery of his will

according to his good pleasure, which he purposed

in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will

have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things

in heaven and on earth together under one head,

even Christ.”- Ephesians 1:9-10

God's will is so hard to read. sometimes people wonder what they want to do in their life and some people has told me that they wish God can just come to them and say "DO THIS!" and that just makes you want to do something. I think God gives us freewill in that point of view of what we will do, but his will is so mysterious because we don't know what it is. I think sometimes God really just show us the way, but sometimes his wills is hard to read... I think I'm gonna just try pray and talk to God!

11.3.2009 - 2 Corinthians 3:6

“He has made us competent as ministers
of a new covenant—not of the letter but
of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but
the Spirit gives life.”- 2 Corinthians 3:6

the holy spirit is mentioned in the bible many times, and it's amazing how spirit goes around to all our souls.

God is amazing that he made us a tool.. he made us something that he can use to bless this nation. that's just amazing hearing it. he made us competent as minister of a new covenant. and i think he made us as leaders to lead churches the right way. i think it's important to always look after each other and God will lead us...

11.2.2009 - Romans 13:1

“[Submission to the Authorities] Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”- Romans 13:1

we need to follow the law as much as law of the God. sometimes we ignore and try to rebel against the government, but unless God tells you to do so, we should be living according to the law and be a good citizen. Christians are suppose to be a good citizen of earth... its hard being christian because we need to live according to law of earth and law of the heavens. I think law of the heavens sometimes clashes law of the earth, that's when we need to follow God's law.

we must submit and live for christ...