By Susan Broome
Romans 8:14-16: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
There is a Baptist archbishop in the Republic of Georgia who lives in a rocky land. Baptists are a minority group within an economically deprived country that is ninety percent Orthodox and surrounded by Muslim countries. The standard of living has plummeted since the Republic asserted its freedom from the Soviet Union, and winters are especially harsh.
The Orthodox have insulted Baptists, burned their Bibles, and ransacked their churches, yet Malkhaz has offered forgiveness and Holy Communion to those who would come. In the midst of political unrest, he has spent time in prison—yet he revels in this shared culture and celebrates the place that Georgian Baptists hold in representing Christ to the rest of the world.
How can it be that he leads his people to care for Chechen refugees, people who in centuries past kidnapped Georgians and sold them into slavery? How is it that he serves with Baptists who call women into ministry where such is unheard of? How is it that he acknowledges the Jewish heritage of his Christian faith by displaying a menorah near the altar of his church?
Where does their strength reside? Can it be anything other than within God’s spirit—a spirit that assures them they are children of God? And what of those hardships that words cannot touch? Even our brother, the Baptist Archbishop of the people of Georgia, would admit to being weak and sighing deeply in what seems a failed effort to pray. Baptists in the Republic of Georgia hold fast to the promise that nothing will be able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord.
Welcome!This Lenten season, the First Baptist Church of Christ will take the time to listen to the entire New Testament (days and passages are listed on the right column). Through our partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, every member of the church will be offered a free MP3 recording of the New Testament. By listening to this recording for less than half an hour each day, one can hear the entire New Testament in forty days.
At this blog, you’ll be able to read some of our members’ thoughts about what they are hearing. Our contributors reflect the great diversity of our congregation. They are male and female, older and younger, some with a seminary background and some without. As you read their questions, reflections, and observations, I invite you to join the conversation by posting a comment.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
March 16: Romans 5–10
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