Romans Chapter 1

Jennie:

- vs 1-7: Wow, Paul really packs it in during his formal greeting to the Roman church. Here's a few truths I pulled out:
       - The Gospel of God was promised before hand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures
       - God's Son was born as a descendant of David, humanly speaking
       - Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead
       - There is a Spirit of holiness? (Who is Jesus Christ?)
       - Through Jesus Christ our Lord we receive grace
       - Through Jesus Christ our Lord we receive apostleship (not sure the definition of that exactly)
       - We have received this grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all     people, for the sake of Jesus Christ
        - The Roman church (and us) are among the called of Jesus Christ
        - We are called as saints (hey, it's a category not a description)   :)

- vs. 8: First Paul thanks God. This is a good model for us, in our prayers, in our letters, in our attitudes
- vs. 9: I like that Paul says he serves God in his spirit. It's a good check-point for me; am I serving God truly in my spirit (or just with my lips and my actions alone)
- vs. 10-15: You can tell just how much Paul really really wants to go be with the Roman church. Paul sounds a bit arrogant here (as I feel like he often does), he'll some impart some spiritual gift and wisdom and to them. But he does say he wants them to be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I wonder what the definition was at the time for "barbarian"?
- vs. 18: verse about the wrath of God
- vs. 20: We are without excuse because God has revealed his power and nature through what he has made (but some don't honor him as God)
- vs 23-32: Do you think this is a commentary on when the Jewish people waited for Abraham to come back down the mountain and got impatient and so started creating their own gods, etc? PS: Do you think there is anyway that "natural function" could mean that it is sinful for heterosexual individuals to abandon their natural function but because homosexual individuals "natural function"is toward one another this verse isn't applicable to them? In fact, it would actually be wrong for homosexuals to exchange their "natural function" for the ways of heterosexuals because it's not natural to them... (almost didn't have the courage to write that, I'll start a war)