1 Corinthians 1

"but we preach Christ cruficied: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

I was just talking to someone about faith, and how often we have some strong doubts about what we believe. I remember hearing the beliefs of Christianity in a philosophy class along with beliefs of other world religions, and it did seem rather crazy to me. But as I believe Peter said, "If not you Lord, then who else?" (or something along those lines).

Romans 15

Paul talks about how the Gentiles are called by God and how they respond more than the Jews. It's kinda weird, but I feel like western Christians are now the Jewish people, and places like China and Africa are the new Gentiles. We've become jaded and stuck in our religion, while over their they have faith. We thank God a lot for such a blessed life, but sometimes I think our blessings are just spoiling us.

Romans 14

"Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."

I was thinking the other day that when we say not to judge each other maybe it meant that we shouldn't be condemning each other to hell. But actually we should be pointing out flaws more harshly than we do. That sounds kind of bad, but I thought maybe we've been using the "only God can judge me" card too much. This chapter nullifies that kind of thinking though, clearly Paul wants us to get along far more importantly than being right.

Romans 13

"Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

My Dad used to talk about how instead of seeing how much wrong we can get away with, a true Christian should be seeing how much good we can be doing. This is kinda how I live my life, try to do good except when you don't feel like it, and as long as you don't sin TOO much you should be okay. Maybe instead of trying not to sin, I should be focusing only on how to please God. It's kind of like driving a car then, if you're trying to avoid an accident, you don't look where you don't want to go, but rather where you want to steer towards.

Romans 12

Paul talks about love for quite awhile. He has a lot of good things to say on forgiving each other and living in harmony. It is so easy to get caught up with who's right and who's wrong. I think this is one of the dangers when the church starts to close in on itself. We forget that as Christians we need to stick together and work together. Believers who only see other believers though, start infighting and quarreling.

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things To him be the glory forever! Amen."

I found this appropriate for our talk on prayer. Often times the things we think we want/need are totally different than what God wants, even if we don't see why.

Unanswered Prayers

We talked about Friday's bible study on unanswered prayers. This has been a major tripup for me for a long time. What's the point of praying if we don't even know if we're in God's will. If it is God's will, then he'll answer it on his own without us asking for it. If it is not in God's will He won't give it to us, so again there is no point in asking. Only thing I can see is that God will change his mind if we ask him enough. But then, maybe he had our best interests in mind and we are not getting what is best for us.