One Verse Bible Study

Last Wednesday night the SFNAZ children and pre-teens used different translations of scripture in order for the children to determine how the translations differ, but more importantly which translation they can relate and apply to their lives today.

Below I have shared a verse that has been weighing heavy on my heart this week. As the weeks, months and year have gone by, we have been given new information on how we need to approach life.  This is a time to remind ourselves as Christians we have our Holy Spirit filter to run that information through.  If we do not rely on the spirit to filter our minds and souls we can allow the outside information to become hostile. 

As I read Romans 8:5-8, I am drawn to The Message.  I grew up reading the NIV and it is foundational in my understanding of scripture, but I always appreciate the wording of The Message to help me apply it immediately to my current situations in life. The verse states “attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.” When we aren’t always focused on all the “news” around us and we constantly refocus on God we are gifted with a “spacious, free life”. I always think of spaciousness and freedom as being in nature with no walls confining me.  These verses below remind me of that.  There may be walls being raised or guidelines being given but we as Christians will never be without a spacious, free life because we are filled with the Holy Spirit!

This week I encourage you to read these two translations of Romans 8:5-8 and write down three ways you can apply them to your current situation.  Keep that note on your refrigerator or in your bible to be reminded that just one verse a week in application can change our focus and allow us to refocus our eyes on God.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:5-8 NIV

^5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. Romans 8:5-8 MSG

Blessings

Pastor Hope