{"id":23339,"date":"2022-09-28T22:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-12_1-8-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-09-13T20:21:19","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T03:21:19","slug":"romans-12_9-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-12_9-21\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Painted A Self-Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p><strong>Romans 12:9-21\u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans+12%3A9-21&amp;version=NIV\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23341 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/22-0929.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/22-0929.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/22-0929-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Romans 12:9-21.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Romans 12:9-21 (NIV)<\/strong><br \/>\n<em><sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.<br \/>\n<sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.<br \/>\n<sup>11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.<br \/>\n<sup>12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.<br \/>\n<sup>13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Share with God&#8217;s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.<br \/>\n<sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.<br \/>\n<sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.<br \/>\n<sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.<br \/>\n<sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.<br \/>\n<sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.<br \/>\n<sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God&#8217;s wrath, for it is written: &#8220;It is mine to avenge; I will repay,&#8221; says the Lord.<br \/>\n<sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On the contrary: &#8220;If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 9-21:\u00a0 Paul\u2019s advice to the Christians in Rome is just as applicable to us today.\u00a0 You can even turn these verses into a prayer, asking God to help you to love sincerely, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, etc.\u00a0 Each of these verses could be a sermon on its own, but here\u2019s one lesson I learn generally from these verses:\u00a0\u00a0<strong>God will never ask you to do anything that He Himself isn&#8217;t willing to do, or something that He Himself has not already done.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, when you read\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21, don&#8217;t see it simply as a list of ways we ought to live. Even more, remember it&#8217;s a portrait of Jesus and how He lived his life on earth.<\/p>\n<p>Despite us being rebellious and prideful sinners, Jesus showed us a sincere love (v9), an undying devotion (v10), and honoured us above himself when he took on human flesh and died on the cross for our sins (v10).<\/p>\n<p>In his most difficult moments like at Gethsemane, Jesus never gave up on the mission his Father gave him, but kept his spiritual fervor serving God (v11).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus was joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer (v12).\u00a0 He shared Himself with those in need, providing meals for the hungry, healing for the sick, and salvation for sinners (v13).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus blessed those who persecuted and cursed him (v14). He showed compassion and empathy like no other (v15).\u00a0 Though perfect He humbled himself and associated with people of low position like us (v16).\u00a0 He never retaliated when sinned against.\u00a0 Instead he trusted his Father to avenge him and protect him (v17, 19).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus did his part to live at peace with everyone. The fact that Jesus had his share of enemies, critics and traitors shows that not even Jesus could please everyone.\u00a0 No wonder Paul says &#8220;<em>If it is possible, as far as it depends on you<\/em>, live at peace with everyone&#8221; (v18).<\/p>\n<p>From Jesus&#8217; life and from\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21 we learn that we can&#8217;t always control the way people treat us, but we can always control the way we treat others. So, as verse 21 says, like Jesus let&#8217;s not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, all of the things God calls us to do in\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21 are things Jesus His Son did already.\u00a0 Since we believe all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), we can consider\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21 a self-portrait of God. \u00a0 In inspiring Paul&#8217;s writing of\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21, God simply asks us to follow in Jesus&#8217; steps with the help of His Holy Spirit working in us.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jesus, I worship You.\u00a0 Because You lived out Romans 12:9-21 perfectly, You lived the most beautiful and amazing life.\u00a0 I pray that I would live out these verses well too, by Your power working in me.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Romans 12:9-21.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nRomans 12:9-21 (NIV)<br \/>\n9\u00a0\u00a0Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.<br \/>\n10\u00a0\u00a0Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.<br \/>\n11\u00a0\u00a0Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.<br \/>\n12\u00a0\u00a0Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.<br \/>\n13\u00a0\u00a0Share with God&#8217;s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.<br \/>\n14\u00a0\u00a0Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.<\/p>\n<p>On verses 9-21:\u00a0 Paul\u2019s advice to the Christians in Rome is just as applicable to us today.\u00a0 You can even turn these verses into a prayer, asking God to help you to love sincerely, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, etc.\u00a0 Each of these verses could be a sermon on its own, but here\u2019s one lesson I learn generally from these verses:\u00a0\u00a0God will never ask you to do anything that He Himself isn&#8217;t willing to do, or something that He Himself has not already done.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, when you read\u00a0Romans\u00a012:9-21, don&#8217;t see it simply as a list of ways we ought to live. Even more, remember it&#8217;s a portrait of Jesus and how He lived his life on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23342,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23339\/revisions\/23342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}