Day Two – Jan 16, 2009 (Last day of NEXUS 09)

Scripture

Romans 2 - reading from the NIV

Lord, please open my eyes today as I read your Word. Prepare my heart to receive whatever message you want to give me and help me to receive it gracefully. Help me also to willingly apply your words in all that I do.

Observations

• (v5) – A stubborn and unrepentant heart stores up wrath against itself for the day of God’s wrath. So if I go on stubbornly doing something contrary to His will, I am only making it worse for myself, as His wrath is building up for the judgement.
• (v7) – Persist in doing good for God’s glory! Not for yourself or for anyone else, not for a good name or a social acceptance, nor for popularity…if you do good, you must give the glory to God!
• (v12) – Those who sin without knowing the law (Torah, Ten Commandments, etc) will perish without the law. So will those who sin knowing the law, however the second group will be judged under the law because they did not heed it’s warning to flee to God. They knew the truth, yet resisted the call to repentance
• (v13) – The righteous are those who obey the law, not those who merely hear it.
• (v17-24) – Paraphrased, these essentially say to practise what you preach, walk your talk, be an audio-visual Christian

Application

1. Be repentant when God shows me sin in my life! Don’t stubbornly persist in it.

2. Walk my talk, don’t teach/preach/say one thing and live another.

3. When I do good, make sure to reflect the glory back to God.

4. Obey the Word, don’t just merely read/hear it.

Prayer

Dear Lord, please watch over Gibbo, Weg, and Jmz, keep them close to you and bless their lives. Put your armour upon them so that they can stand and resist the temptations the devil sends against them. Open their eyes and minds to what you are trying to teach them, that they might know your plan for their lives. Lord, help me never to take the glory for any good that happens through me. Remind me to gently reflect the praise back to you, without diving into false humility. Help me to keep on doing good, and help me to walk my talk. Father it is so easy to lead a double life, to live on the edge with you in front of my Christian friends, yet fall back into self-dependence and self-indulgence when I am alone. Help me to be consistent, to let my Yes be Yes and my No be No. Thank you Lord for what you taught me today. Now please help me to apply it today and in every circumstance. Amen