everybody knows

Good morning friends,
As a reminder, we start our book group reading The Shack tonight at the Boulevard at 8. I don't expect anyone to have read anything yet, so come on over so we can get introduced and get underway. I think you'll find God will do something exciting in your life through studying this book with others. I hope you'll be there.

Today Paul continues his theme that Jews and gentiles are in the same boat. Even though gentiles don't have the law, God's calling is written on their heart. When they do the right thing, they follow God's commands even without knowing the law, and when they do wrong they know it even if they haven't read scripture. The Bible helps us understand who God is and what God calls us to do, but often it confirms what we already sense and strips away our excuses. The more time we spend with scripture, the more it shapes us into the people God wants us to be. God's calling is for all of us, so let us turn to him.

Romans 2:9-16

9There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11For God shows no partiality. 12All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.