The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 01 January 2021

 The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 01 January 2021

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection <info@mc.cor.org>

Friday, 1 January 2021 

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 1 January 2021

“We live for the Lord”

Daily Scripture:

Romans 10:5-13

5 Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law: The person who does these things will live by them [Leviticus 18:5]. 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith talks like this: Don’t say in your heart, “Who will go up into heaven?” [Deuteronomy 9:4, 30:12] (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or “Who will go down into the region below?” [Deuteronomy 30:13] (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart [Deuteronomy 30:14] (that is, the message of faith that we preach). 9 Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 Trusting with the heart leads to righteousness, and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation. 11 The scripture says, All who have faith in him won’t be put to shame [Isaiah 28:16]. 12 There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all, who gives richly to all who call on him. 13 All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved [Joel 2:32].

Romans 14:2-9

2 One person believes in eating everything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not look down on the ones who don’t, and the ones who don’t eat must not judge the ones who do, because God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own Lord (and they will stand, because the Lord has the power to make them stand). 5 One person considers some days to be more sacred than others, while another person considers all days to be the same. Each person must have their own convictions. 6 Someone who thinks that a day is sacred, thinks that way for the Lord. Those who eat, eat for the Lord, because they thank God. And those who don’t eat, don’t eat for the Lord, and they thank the Lord too. 7 We don’t live for ourselves and we don’t die for ourselves. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God. 9 This is why Christ died and lived: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Reflection Questions:

In Romans 10, Paul used his rabbinic knowledge of Scripture to quote the Old Testament 6 times in just 8 verses. He knew some Roman Christians were obsessing on the lesser details of their faith (as he, a former Pharisee, once had). They were trying to lord it over other Christians and weakening the church’s loving life in community. Paul reminded them that in the end we all answer to Lord Jesus, who alone knows a person’s heart. Judging another person’s faith life not only wastes time and energy, but spiritually harms us even more than those we might be judging.

Some Romans criticized others who disagreed with them on relatively minor issues. Paul told them we ultimately answer only to Jesus our Lord. Scholar William Barclay wrote, “‘I beseech you by the bowels of Christ,’ said Cromwell to the rigid Scots of his day, ‘think it possible that you may be mistaken’…. We must leave the judgment of others to God, and seek only to sympathize and to understand.”* When do you need to remember that Jesus, not you, is Lord over someone you disagree with or dislike?

Today’s media make it so easy to see what others are doing that we easily start judging others in almost any area of life. Have you ever been aware of someone judging you unfairly? In what ways has it strengthened your connection with God when you’ve been able to stop judging others? How have you found it freeing and energizing to focus on your own relationship with God, and give others the freedom to do the same?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, free me from the urge to judge people who are your servants, not mine. Replace it with a desire to let your saving love unite all of us who trust in you as our Lord. Amen.

* William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975, p. 183.

Want more reflection on today's GPS?

Read the GPS Insight by Ginger Rothhaas

Ginger Rothhaas

Ginger is the creator of CompassionFix.com and is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. She is currently teaching “Truth to Trust: Instructions from the Psalms” for Resurrection’s Women’s Ministry. She serves as a Care Minister at Resurrection Downtown and co-hosted the What Matters? podcast. She loves writing, teaching, conversations over coffee, and time with her husband and two children.

My seminary professor, Rev. Dr. Israel Kamudzandu, said the book of Romans is like “a 911 call for Christians. When you need help, go to Romans.”

In the seven years since I first heard his advice, I have returned to this book many times when I felt lost. As I page through my Bible today, I am noticing that Romans is my most underlined and margin-noted of all of Paul’s letters.

It is thought that this letter was one of the last before his death. If we keep that in mind as we read it, then we can see that Paul is sharing sage wisdom gained from his life experiences with God. Today, I read this book like Paul is a mentor advising and guiding me.

In this letter to the Romans Paul addresses inner conflicts that most of us have with faith, self-worth, integrity, and compassion. I feel like between the lines he is saying, you will never master this stuff but life is easier if you recognize that you are loved, grace-filled, and hope is eternal. Paul addresses the hard realities of life, while also reminding us “that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” (15:14)

Life and faith are hard topics in our human curriculum. As we grow, we realize how much we don’t know. Embracing uncertainty and mystery with curiosity, openness, and awe is our greatest assignment. Life and faith can be, as Glennon Doyle puts it, “brutiful – brutal and beautiful at the same time.” We have experienced a brutiful year. As we go into 2021 together as people of faith, Paul might remind us of these words, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” (8:18)

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Prayer Tip: Jesus is Lord

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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.

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