One of the biggest stumbling blocks that keeps people from listening to Christ and giving him a fair hearing is the hypocrisy of religious people. Yep, that would be us. The Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to speak to us about it in the book of Romans. He doesn’t speak to crush us, but to show us every reason we have to rejoice in the kindness, tolerance, and patience of God.

Think of a gigantic spring you're trying to compress. While you're pushing down with all your might, it's resisting you and wanting to spring back up into its original position. In Romans 1, Paul says that's what we do with the truth of God. By nature, we take that truth of God and press it down to get it out of our minds. Yet even with all of the strength we use to suppress that truth of God we just can't get rid of it. It's everywhere. It's pushing back up. Thank God, it's pushing back up. That’s why we gather -- to encourage each other and receive encouragement that the truth of God might have its way with us. If there’s any way we can serve you, please let us know.

John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople in the 4^th century AD had the book of Romans read to him four times a week so that he would remain familiar with it throughout his life. English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said Romans is "The most profound book in existence." Martin Luther wrote, "The epistle to the Romans is the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest gospel, which is well worth and deserving that a Christian should not only learn it by heart, word for word, but also that he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men's souls. It can never be too much or too well read or studied, and the more it is handled the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes." St. Augustine of Hippo, a 4^th century church father in North Africa, wrote, "I wish to have seen Christ in the flesh and Paul in the pulpit."

Get fired up for our next worship series on Paul's epistle to the Romans. One way to get the most out of our study of Romans is to set aside ten minutes each day to read however far you get. Then the next day, pick up where you left off and read for another ten minutes. Or read chapter one every day for two weeks, then chapter two for two weeks, etc. Whatever your plan, you'll be among those who have found Romans to be a great source of transformation and blessing.

Isn't joy something that happens to you? Can you really control it? A recent Westside Christian School staff Bible study discussed the differences among joy, happiness, and gladness. Maybe the distinctions are arbitrary, but one that was proposed was that joy is more constant and less dependent on precisely what is happening in a given moment. Be inspired by the wise men of Matthew 2:1-12: their deliberate action and their joy.