Psalms 81—83, Romans 11:19—36 • Key Verses: Romans 11:33—36 The first verse of Romans 12 says, “Therefore.” What Paul says next flows out of the first 11 chapters. You cannot rightly understand and practice Romans 12:1 if you do not consider Romans 1-11. The first chapters teach us about God;...

Psalms 79-80, Romans 11:1-18 • Key Verses: Romans 11:7-8 Ever hear of “selective hearing loss”? I don’t know if the condition is medically valid, but at times I have seen it. Here is what it looks like: A person hears some things but riot others. What he hears is not...

Psalms 77-78, Romans 10 • Key Verse: Romans 10:13 If anyone could have achieved salvation by his own efforts, it was Martin Luther. In 1505, when he, was 21, he abandoned his career in law and entered the monastery, but not to study theology. His motive was to save his...

Psalms 74—76Romans 9:16—33 • Key Verses: Romans 9:30—32 We sometimes describe a person who has accomplished much on his own as one who has pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Though today it might be hard to visualize what a bootstrap is, we nevertheless understand what this phrase means. It...

Psalms 72-73, Romans 9:1-15 • Key Verses: Psalm 73:2-3 When the parking lot of our church was slippery due to snow, ice or a combination thereof, often at the end of the service I would remind people of Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 10:12: “Let him that thinketh he standeth...

Psalms 70-71, Romans 8:22-39 • Key Verse: Romans 8:31 The newspaper reminds us of the uncertainty of life. Things happen that are unexpected, tides turn, fortunes shift, lives end. One of the basic needs of humans is a sense of security, yet the events of the day remind us of...

Psalms 68-69, Romans 8:1-21 • Key Verse: Romans 8:5 Sometimes our minds are like dry ground, rutted by erosion, with grooves that channel the water that runs over it. Mentally, we always seem to follow the same grooves. We get into a particular way of thinking, perhaps seeing only what...

Psalms 66-67, Romans 7 • Key Verse: Psalm 66:10 We prefer being at ease in Zion. It’s nice to sit on padded pews in air-conditioned auditoriums. Our version of “life is hard” comes in the form of a street being closed for widening. We complain over being inconvenienced when the...

Psalms 63-65, Romans 6 • Key Verses: Romans 6:22-23 A remarkable fact about Romans 6:23 is often missed—this verse was written to believers. We often use it to tell others about God’s gift of salvation, but Paul wrote it to the church. Too often the meaning of the text is...

Psalms 60-62, Romans 5 • Key Verses: Romans 5:1—2 Ray Stedman tells of a friend who lived in the Midwest. He lived in the country, and one stormy morning, in the dead of winter, he looked out his window and saw the mailman drive up and leave something in his...