2.4 Romans – Who’s day?

This is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it., Ps 118:24

As I worked on today’s lesson, especially the question about what substitutes for God are you serving, I had just had a conversation with my wife about calendars.  Both of us realized we had, for a very long time, taken the same approach.  We would both plan out our day.  For example, I would decide what I was going to do, who I was going to meet with, what my tasks and todo’s were going to be for my day.  I had my calendar for my day and my checklist of my tasks for me to do in my day to achieve my goals for my life.  Then I would ask God to bless it.

Do you see the problem, the foolishness?

Just as God is the Creator of everything else, He is also the Creator of this day for me.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask Him to show me the plans He has for the day He has for me instead of the other way around?

Since doing it, the first message I am hearing is “margin”.  Instead of running from thing to thing being proud of all that I check off, I’m hearing a call to be open to the hallway conversations, to spend extra time on the phone asking one more question not “to the person”, but “about the person” I’m talking with.

In case I needed a clearer message on this, God used an audio-book I’m listening to while driving back and forth to work and appointments.  On the day that I had this conversation with my wife, I went to my car and the audio-book started immediately discussing the Princeton Seminary Experiment from the 1970s.  If you are not familiar with the study, here is a link with background so you can see just how clear this timing and message were from God for my life.

My Answers:

9.
a.
He is Creator

b.
Self satisfaction and indulgence. The underlying belief that I am in charge of my life, when I know I am not. That my day is mine, my calendar is mine. That I accomplish things by myself without God.

10.
We are made in the image of God and to indulge in these two areas of sin is to physically push God out of our existence. To lay claim to our body and to our ability to name our own gods instead of the God. Sexual immorality is to lie to ourselves, to God and to others around us. It is an indulgence of lies. Yet, even this is not outside of God’s ability to forgive.

11.
“God gave them over to”
God is aware, God is in control, God is kind and generous to honor/allow someone’s choices and free will even when it is against everything that is right and true and is a lie in itself