New ground
Day 577, Wednesday, Mar. 11
Romans 15:14-22
What we’ve read the last couple of days applies to Christian community in all places, but today’s passage is particularly to the Roman church.
Since Rome was at the heart of the empire, its residents may have questioned why Paul has taken so long to visit there. Some may have felt slighted.
He gives two explanations for his delay.
First, he suggests they do not need his leadership like other communities do. “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.”
His second explanation is that his particular calling has been to spread the gospel in places that had not yet heard it; the gospel had reached Rome without him. “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”
-Rev. Mark Fleming
Wednesday meditation
Psalms 92:1-15
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.
For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts! Senseless people do not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
But you, Lord, are forever exalted.
For surely your enemies, Lord, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
Prayer focus
Show us our own calling, Lord, and direct us to follow.