Reflection!

The journey through the book of Romans has been insightful. The lessons taught by both Rev Casey and Sis Davina has helped me understand the difficult and challenging task the Apostle Paul had in protecting the truths of the gospel. The Apostle Paul took the trouble to explain who God is, the concept of righteousness, grace and sin with examples from the everyday living.  

Through the lessons, I am reminded about who God is and how we as Christians should live our lives exhibiting the nature of God to and for the world.

One interesting idea I learnd in class was the word ‘Adoption' from Rom 8:23. Paul used the word 'adoption' instead of just simply 'born again' for a reason. Based on the Roman's concept of 'Adoption', if a son is born into the house, when he is of age, he can choose to renounce his son-ship is he wants. All he needs to do is to go to the court and renounce before the judge three times. As for adoption in that culture, if the father decided to adopt a son, it will be irreversible. From the explanation, I realised that When God has decided to choose us, He won't change his mind. It will be for life. Awesome!

Besides teachings by the lecturers, there were many small group discussion sessions and I enjoyed them. I felt I learned more through my interaction with fellow classmates and I am able to find applications to what I have learned through the discussions. And not forgetting the moments we had in prayer for each other, for Japan, taking communion.

I enjoyed particularly the group work. My group were assigned to do a presentation on Rom 14:1-12.  Everyone has a role to play. Full participation is needed to get the work done. In the preparation for the presentation, members of the group make time to attend meetings and through this we contribute our time to the group. There were clear communications to what each member needs to do. In the course of preparing for the presentation, there were times where different views were raised. All these views contributed to making the group presentation a success

Here are some interesting ideas I have gleaned from the study of the text:

1.      Mutual acceptance.

o   We must learn to accept each other, in regardless of skin colour, age, language or personalities because we are all in the same body (v1-4).

o   We must learn to accept each other because what we do, we do for the Lord (v5-9)

o   Rather than being judgemental, we must learn to accept each other. God will judge and we must all give an account to Him in the future.

2.      Don’t come to church to be an iron. We don’t come to ‘straighten things out’. We are here to employ our talents and gifts to build up each other.

3.      Recognise that believers progress in their faith at different pace and we ought to be willing to accept each other’s progress speed.

4.      All our lives belong to God and God is our Master.

Like the saying goes, in things non-essentials, have liberty; in things essentials, have unity; but in all things, have charity.

I once heard this saying that the book of Romans is the gospel for the Christians. In God we are all made righteous, period. Sometimes, in the midst of pursuing righteousness, we can lose the essence of it. Therefore, we need to be careful in living out this righteousness of God through our daily lives, with the power given to us and the guidance of the Holy Spirit made available for us.