The Gospel of Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation

This week should be pretty awesome. We get to look into Paul's epistle to the Romans.

We are going to go over a few scriptures and look at some of the things in them. 

1.   Lets Review Romans 1:3–4; Luke 1:31–32; 3:23–31. Jesus Christ is both the Son of David and the Son of God because of the way the lineage works. Mary came from the line of Davis as did Joseph, but he was also the Son of God because of how he was born. The Lord should be able to reign both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of David, which is Jerusalem. 

Being the son of David, He was mortal; being the Son of God, He was immortal. Reading John 10:17–18 we learn why it is important the Lord is both mortal and immortal. It was important because it was supposed to be his choice to lay down his life and to die for us and perform the Atonement. 

2.   Now let us Review Romans 1:15–20 and answer the following questions:

o       How did Paul feel about the gospel?

• Paul felt that he should not be ashamed of the gospel. Once converted, he did everything he could to spread the gospel of Christ.

o       In what ways can you show you are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

• I want you to think about this personally. Some things that I thought of are that we can continue to live as an example of Jesus Christ. 

3.    Review Romans 1:21–32. Then respond to the following items:

o       Make a list of the people’s sins by using the verses and the footnotes.

• Vain in their imaginations
• Worshiped images
• Lust
• Homosexuality
• Fornication
• Envy
• Murder
• Deceit
• Covenant breakers

o       Place a checkmark next to the sins on your list that are still a problem today. (This you can do on your own)

o       What reasons were given for why people commit these sins?

• They did not retain God in their knowledge, meaning they did not think about God.

o       What does it mean in verse 25 when Paul said that people “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator”?

• It means that they did not follow the Spirit but followed the Natural Man.

Our Thoughts.....

I've been told many times in my life that "our thoughts are what lead us to action." One of my favorite analogies about our thoughts is that our minds are like a stage. Preach My Gospel says, "Your mind is like a stage in a theater; in the theater of your mind, however, only one actor can be on stage at a time. If the stage is left bare, thoughts of darkness and sin often enter the stage to tempt. But these thoughts have no power if the stage of your mind is occupied by wholesome thoughts, such as a memorized hymn or verse of scripture that you can call upon in a moment of temptation. By controlling the stage of your mind, you can successfully resist persistent urges to yield to temptation and indulge in sin. You can become pure and virtuous." There is so much that comes with our thoughts. As we continue to apply the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives it becomes easier for us to control our thougths. I especially like the ideas to have a memorized hymn or scripture that we can call upon in order to fight off those thoughts. In times of need we can always turn to our Heavenly Father to help fight off those thoughts. President Boyd K. Packer said, "I have come to know that thoughts, like water, will stay on course if we make a place for them to go. Otherwise, our thoughts follow the course of least resistance, always seeking the lower levels. Probably the greatest challenge and the most difficult thing you will face in mortal life is to learn to control your thoughts."  It is amazing to see how much the Lord will bless us if we ask him to help us in those times of need. The quote from President Packer is so true. Our thoughts will go to the place of easiest resistance. If we don't allow a place for our thoughts to go they will wander to places that we don't want them to go. That is why we have to channel our thoughts and do those things to help us in those times when the "water" goes over the banks, or in other words when our thoughts get out of control. The Lord will always help us if we turn to him. One of President Packers ideas for helping to ward of those bad thoughts is our choice in music. One of my past blogs talks a little bit more about music and it's influences in our lives, but it is so true that as we fill our minds with bad entertainment those bad thoughts will continue to come back if we don't properly take care of them.