This passage contains what is almost unanimously agreed to be the thesis of the book of Romans. It has a couple ambiguities, perhaps because multiple readings each contain aspects which will be brought out in more detail later. First, I’m not sure about the three for‘s in this passage. The Read more…
Here is my mind map of Romans 1:16-17 (ESV): Here are some questions to get your juices flowing: 1. What are the three causally linked sections of these verses? 2. What is the basis of Paul’s relationship to the Gospel? 3. The power of God in the gospel is for Read more…
Our local church lead pastor spoke on the Gospel Compulsion this morning, which have otherwise been entitled A Pastor’s Heart. This passage seems to talk mostly about Paul’s desire for them. But while you could take that as a particularly relational message (which I think it is), it also contains Read more…
Last week in Re|engage, we talked about Love, and how God defines it in the Bible. One thing we looked at was 1 John 4:7-21; my map of the passage follows: This is another passage I’ve seen many times before, but I was struck by the beauty of how it Read more…
This is my mind map of Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV): This is a pair of verses we were encouraged to meditate on for this week’s Re|engage class. I’ve seen these verses many times before, and even had a class based on them once, called “Search”. But even there I didn’t get Read more…
Here is my mind map of Romans 1:8-15 (ESV): You can get the scrolls for this lesson here. And here are some more questions to get you thinking: 1. What does Paul say first? Why? 2. To what does he call on God as witness? 3. What does he pray Read more…
Introductions are somewhat like genealogies to many of us; we have a tendency to just blow them off, and skip to “the good stuff”. But this introduction has plenty of Good stuff in it. It introduces Paul, the Gospel, Jesus, and the Christian, all of which are very relevant to Read more…
Here is my mind map of the first seven verses of Romans (ESV): Despite the fact that this is an introduction to the book, there are lots of cool things in this passage. You can check out some material to help through these verses here. Here are some questions to Read more…
Some time in the last couple months, I got wind that our local church would be studying through Romans in 2018. Some may have groaned, but I have now looked forward to it from that time, and can’t wait to get started. Some have said that God repeats lessons you Read more…