Letter to the Romans
Day 547, Monday, Feb. 9
Romans 1:1-7
In Acts we saw that Rome was one of the last places, if not the last place, Paul visited in his lifetime. It may seem confusing, then, that his letter to the Romans is the first of his letters in the Bible.
Paul’s letters are placed in the Bible in roughly descending order of length, not in the order they were written. Romans was written later in Paul’s ministry as he longed to go visit the church in that city. It differs from his other letters to churches in that the others are written to churches he had founded and knew intimately. He had not founded the church at Rome, though, and knew only a few individuals in it.
Because of that, much of Romans is written as a self-introduction. This is beneficial to us, as we are also just now getting to know Paul from his own perspective.
In these introductory verses of Romans we see some things that we’ll see many more times:

1. Paul believes Jesus called him to be an apostle. As we already mentioned in Acts, he doesn’t consider his meeting with the risen Jesus to have been a vision, but an actual encounter.
2. Paul believes he was particularly called as an apostle to the gentiles. The church at Rome is a very diverse group of people, with many gentiles.
3. Paul believes that people learn about Christ both through scripture and through experience of God’s holy spirit.
4. Paul tends to use long complex sentences that are packed with meaning. While much of what we read in the Old Testament would use many words or even chapters to make a single point, Paul will cram multiple thoughts into a single sentence or paragraph.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Monday meditation

Psalms 77:1-12
I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted.
I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked:
“Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”
Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Prayer focus
Show us our calling as clearly as you did for Paul.