A blessed summer to you, Bethesda! Whether or not you have travel plans for this summer, we all have some treasured vacation memories. Sometimes we get away to rest. Sometimes we get away to carve out special time with loved ones. Sometimes we pack so much activity into a trip we need a vacation after our vacation. Some of us have favorite destinations to which we repeatedly return. Others prefer to explore new places each time.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans is a well-traveled road and destination for the church. At several key junctures in history, God has inspired renewal or reformation through the church’s re-engagement
with this powerful book of scripture. The lectionary readings for Sundays this summer suggest a trip through Romans, so that’s what we are going to do. We’ll call it a Summer Road Trip on Romans Road.
Some of you in the past may have seen an evangelism tract or tool that lays out “the Romans Road” as a way to introduce the Gospel. Well, we will take our own trip through the landmarks and sights along Romans road. One of our aims will be to take this incredibly dense and debatable book and break it down into simpler driving directions!
We will let the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, guide us to Christ and his gifts. Spoiler alert, we will come to find out that Christ has been our traveling companion all along. “But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
“The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” ~Romans 10:6-8
Pack your bags and hop in the church van with us this summer. And if your own travels take you elsewhere, please keep in mind: there’s Wifi on Romans Road and the Living Word will be live-streamed weekly!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tom
All seven handouts from our recent series are consolidated into a single pdf and can be found here: