2022_08_05 Insight Post- Becky Coram
This week’s reading- Romans 9-10
Hey Paul, I get it.
Your longing… and how hard you tried, over & over in words & in actions, to reach your Jewish friends & a Jewish audience with the stunningly good news of the salvation available to them through Jesus.
I know at times, you felt overwhelming joy as you saw some fling themselves into the arms of Jesus. While at other times, your heart broke as others fiercely clung to their system of works & “the Law” as the way of “getting right with God.” Romans 10:3 NLT
Your heart for your people stirs my heart for mine. I have people in my life…some I just see in a store or in the neighborhood, some others I actually know, and some I deeply love. I circle around, longing for a way to reach them.
Paul, I agree with you that God’s plan for our salvation is blessedly simple. It DOES require our all—but it’s not complicated. I like how you laid it out in Romans 10: 9-10 & 13. Openly DECLARE Jesus is Lord; BELIEVE in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
But this next part…WOW. In verse 14 you say, “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them?” The intensity in your words is palpable. “How?!” There is no Plan B. Only Plan A. And it’s us. If we don’t tell them, who will?
Jesus tells us in Matt 5:13-16 that we need to live out our faith in Him, as salt and light in this world. (Paul, my brother, if you didn’t hear Rusty’s Message on this passage this past Sun (7-31-22), you need to. It was fantastic!) He challenged us to live as salt & light in a “winsome” way, which is far from a cookie cutter, read-this-tract Christianity. For me, it’s an adventure for me & Jesus, with plenty of room for creativity in how I live and in what I say. How can I be both intriguing and intrigued with those around me? Are there ways to be fun and use humor that might surprise people? Where can I show genuine compassion? Live real, honest, and without pretense? Where can I risk vulnerability? How can I delight in someone? Be kind? Stir up courage in them? Express gratefulness? Serve them? Notice something in them that typically gets overlooked? Live out humility & forgiveness in a world sadly lacking both?
Paul, one day I will thank you in person. But for now, thank you for your incredible example to all of us–of living your life passionately for Jesus and making Him known. You ask us, “How can they hear unless someone tells them?”
Count me in, my friend.
Becky Coram
Pastor’s Wife