Thursday, June 19, 2008 |  
Another exciting of study..went to the library with aaron and i'm pretty amazed at how much work i actually managed to get done. Always thought that i couldn't study in libraries, but now i know that i can. Had to study heaps because i don't have much time left till my exam, and with all the prayer sessions we're having at night, i'll have to study doubly hard just to make sure i finish all my studies before i go to the prayer sessions. Had another great time of worship/prayer tonight at anne and stig's place, its my way of rewarding myself for studying hard the whole day. So hopefully tomorrow i'll get even more work done, so that i can go attend the prayer session tomorrow night! Don't really have much time left since there's yaf on friday night too, and since i'm drumming i'll have to practice the songs that's gonna be sung on top of my studies for my exam on Sat afternoon.. Aargh! seems like so little time, but i'll put God first, do my best, and let God do the rest! Waiting to testify when the results come up about how God so miraculous helped me through my exams!

Ok for devotion today, i read Romans 16:17-20.

17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Just want to point out a few things that spoke to me, or learnt. v17 we are urged, its like very strongly recommended, to look out or notice people who cause division and offenses which are contrary to the teachings that we have been learned. And after noticing them, we have been told to keep away from them, or in my other version it says to avoid them. Which means that we don't hang around them but instead stay away and keep away from them. v18, because they deceive naive people, or the in other version it says 'the hearts of simple'. So we got to be wise and discerning, not naive and simple, in case we get deceived by the devil. We also have to build ourselves up in the word of God, and learn it by heart, so if anyone says anything thats contrary to the word, we can pick it out immediately and won't get deceived.

Last part of v19, we are told to be wise about what's good and innocent about what is evil. In the NKJV version, it says to be wise in whats good, and simple concerning evil. My interpretation of that would be that we should be wise and discerning about what is 'good', like whats 'good' to man is not normally good to God, and whats 'good' to God most of the time is not what man call 'good'. We are then told to be 'simple' concerning evil. My thoughts on that would be that what we call evil should be really plain and simple to understand. Like anything that displeases God is evil, e.g sin is evil, anything that pleases the flesh over the spirit is evil, anything of the devil is evil. Like a very clear simple line is drawn that separates good and evil, so we'll have no doubt in recognizing what is evil and what isn't.

Then in v20, an awesome verse. "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Yay God! One thing i'm not too sure is when it's said that satan will soon be crushed under our feet. It's the 'will soon' part thats bothering me, i always thought that satan was already crushed under our feet when Jesus died on the cross, went down to hell and overcame death. Wasn't that our victory when we came under Christ? And wasn't the book of Romans written after the death of Jesus? So shouldn't we have already crushed satan under our feet? hmmm unless im missing something out which im not too sure about..




Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city...
Posted by L

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