Study Notes

But we have gifts that differ and which are meant to be used according to the grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, use it to the extent of your trust; if it is serving, use it to serve; if you are a teacher, use your gift in teaching; if you are a counselor, use your gift to comfort and exhort; if you are someone who gives, do it simply and generously; if you are in a position of leadership, lead with diligence and zeal; if you are one who does acts of mercy, do them cheerfully. Romans 12:6–8 , Complete Jewish Bible I love this passage. I want to post it on the wall where I will see it every day. I want to engrave these words into my mind so that they inform every minute of my life. I want to make these words my personal mantra and mission statement. There is so much that we can learn from Paul’s admonition here that I don’t grow tired of reading it over again. These words set the stage for the remainder of the letter to the Romans. There are two major lessons...

Romans 12:3–5 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another. Several years ago, Sears tried to revitalize itself as a retailer by being more relevant to a younger demographic. The effort — and its results — were both questionable. If you didn’t see it, Sears developed a retail website aimed at, um, zombies. Yes, zombies. While neither Sears nor the original website are still around, you can find the videos that they published on YouTube (if you really want to.) The thing you will always notice about the way zombies are portrayed in media is that they’re pretty uncoordinated, trying to get all that literal dead weight moving about. That’s like me playing...