READ ROMANS CHAPTER 4: LEAD BY EXAMPLE
Words to Ponder:
- Trust: Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something; Hope. Assurance. To have trust in; Rely or depend on. A person on whom or thing on which one relies. In God We Trust.
- Blessed: Spiritually prosperous, joyful, happy, to be admired. Refreshed by God’s grace, Inwardly peaceful, spiritually secure, worthy of respect, joyful, nourished by God’s goodness. Content, sheltered by God’s promises. Morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness.
- Seal: To decide irrevocably: To seal someone’s fate. To give one’s approval to; authorize; endorse: a symbol, used especially to certify or authenticate. Latin: Signum—a small picture, design our figure.
- Covenant: Latin in origin (con venire), meaning a coming together. Alliance, pledge. A compact, a testament.
- Progenitor: Creator, founder, architect, inventor. An entity from which a person or persons is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent. A person who originates a movement. Ancestor, forefather, parent.
Discussion and Reflection:
- Paul provides examples of faithfulness – in what ways are the faithfulness of Abraham, Jesus and God alike, and in what ways are they different?
- Can we learn about faithfulness in our time from others who have been faithful to God in their own generations? Whom would you chose as a contemporary example of faithfulness in an apparently hopeless situation?
- Soren Kierkegaard (19th Century Danish Theologian) spoke of believing by faith “because it is absurd,” and makes no sense. In what ways does he story of Abraham support that idea? Are faith and reason inevitably opposed? What about faith and experience?
Memory Verse:
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Psalm 32:1-2
