Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.   For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.  Romans 10:1-4

Every Wednesday, our ministry teaches bible study at a local housing authority at the request of the residents. We have been going through the book of Romans. Talk about getting torn up by the word of God. Study Romans. It is one of the more powerful books of the bible next to the Gospels. I believe behind Colossians and Ephesians, Romans breaks down living for Christ as no other. My favorite chapter was this weeks study lesson and the word for the lesson was “stop trying” The Holy Spirit wants us to live fully in Him. In order for us to do that we must literally stop trying to live for SELF and allow the Spirit of God to live, breathe and have His being in us. Yes, we are trying to make Christianity fit in the box of our lives. God is bigger than you. He made a plan of salvation without your help and He doesn’t need you to make it happen. OUCH! God has his program and I am not in C-O-N-T-R-O-L. Sometimes we need to be reminded that the Jews had all of the History of God. They are the possessors of the Law and even they fell short. What makes us any better? Salvation is from God Alone. Righteousness is by faith alone. Those who are not redeemed think they are good by doing good and even being good. We can’t be good. There is no good thing that dwells in us. Our goodness(righteousness) is like filthy rags (See Isaiah 64:6-7). So the Eternal God of Heaven and Earth came up with the plan to save you, free you from sin and death. He adopted you into the family. I have a great definition of salvation. Salvation is defined as the subjective changes in peoples lives when by faith they received the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Wow. That is it! We are the receivers of the benefits of God’s salvation plan. These benefits include; new life, saved from the dominion of sin and death, saved from the guilt and penalty of sin and death, and saved from the physical results of sin and death. Wow doesn’t mean we don’t have consequences. We do. To be eternally separated from God, we will not have to face if we believe in Jesus Christ. Powerful. No wonder we praise God. What he has done is totally awesome.