I am not ashamed of the Gospel

¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,^[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”^[f]

I am not ashamed of the Gospel… 

I am really being challenged at the moment. I have so many friendship circles that I have moved into that do not have God and do not want to know him. I have some friends who have God in their life but I fear that they may Judge me for some of my friendships too.

The one thing that is really challenging is that I have a select few people in my life who I would trust with my life. There are a few people who ‘get me’. There are few people that know that God is important in my life still and that the changes in my life do not want to make me give him up. It’s not coincidence that during a low time, God even opened up a new opening for me.

My problem in life at the moment is that I have a lot of friends around me who don’t understand God because they’ve been rejected by so many Christians. Being an Irish Dancer I’ve always came into the LGBT community and met a lot of Gay people and one thing that a lot of people in this community have is rejection from Christians who mix up rebuking with judgement. I

do agree this needs to stop and people need to be loved but it makes it hard to openly talk about the Gospel when people have so much anger or rejection.

This scripture at the moment has given me the baby steps that I need in order to embrace him again..

I’m not ready to be full vocal and shout it out from the roof tops but then again, isn’t each of our journeys different. I’m now at a point in my life where I’m starting to drop it into conversations again but where it’s needed.

I don’t want to be one of those people who force the word down someones throats. That’s intimidating and not a fruit of the spirit. I’m just going to be approachable and right now I’m going to pray for God to open the doors for the conversations so that I can share my pride.

As I’m writing this I’m feeling God talk to me about the fruits of the holy spirit which means that he doesn’t want to talk to me about this right now. I’m going to pause this and come back to it.

I pray that God continues to challenge me and give me possibilities to share his word. I also pray that God directs me to the fruits of the holy spirit. I remembered that I have fruit of kindness and I shouldn’t lose that.

God’s Good News

So recently I have been chatting to a good friend about faith. I’ve found more so recently that I’ve been telling him how much God loves him. It’s interesting because in my own time of need I don’t remember this myself. That being said, this friend said that he thought about writing down how he felt.

I then remembered that I used to blog and it brought be back to my Christian blog. I kinda got thinking that I remember how happy I was at this point and I had a lot of success in my life around the point of starting the blog.

Last week at school I was watching a charity movie and a quote from Roman’s appeared on the board. It was interesting because the quote was : –

Romans 12: 2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Why is that interesting? Well because at this point in my life, I’m doing things and chasing things of this world. I’m focused very much on pleasing friends again and attending their social events instead of looking after myself. This was a challenge from God for sure. As a result of this scripture I have decided to do a bible study on Romans. I’m hoping that I can focus on a verse a week. I want to take it all in.

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ² the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³ regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life^[a] was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power^[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from^[c]faith for his name’s sake. ⁶ And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. ⁷ To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 1

I decided to start at Romans 1 and the one thing that stood out is the privilege he has given us. We have the privilege to talk about things. Some translations say we have ‘grace’ and other’s say ‘privilege’.

I’m at a place where I feel like I can’t talk about God with some people because they have burdens that cause them to be angry at him. What I need to remember is that I’m lucky! I can talk about the great things that he does in my life.

It’s easy to talk about the negative things that happen in life but the one thing that remains is his steadfast love.

What is the main thing that I am getting from this scripture, To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

My Challenge

At this point in my life I’m surround a lot from people who do not yet know God or do not want to be. They have hurt in their life. Where their is pain I need to remember that I am called to be compassionate and I’m called to be a light.

Notice that the scripture says to all in Rome. It doesn’t say ‘just those people who believe’. As I read more of this I’m sure I will get more context but at the moment, this is challenging to remember to be open about my faith.

It’s not good to only share with people who are Christian but I need to remember that God calls everyone. He loves everyone, no matter how much they call us names.  I’m going to set myself a challenge myself to be more obvious about my faith and to share more.

I want to leave you with a prayer, whatever you’re struggling with and whatever anxiety you have in your life right now. I want to just lift it up to God and ask him to give you a hug from me. I hope that you have peace in your life and I pray that God puts people in your path that you can talk to about any walk of your life. God Bless