Philippians is .... oh, how shall I say it. I was going to say, "one of my favorite epistles". But they are all my favorites :) Do you think you will eventually try to memorize all of Philippians?
Psalm 91 -- I'd like to put in a mention of Psalm 91 :) If we believe in the Lord, we can have peace of mind and security, that He will protect us from evil.
amen :) I have an experience in the past, too, of singing a chorus partially based on the first verse of Psalm 8. It went, "O Lord our Lord how majestic is Your Name in all the earth! (repeat, and then) O Lord, we praise Your Name / O Lord, we magnify Your Name / Prince of Peace, Mighty God, / O Lord God Almighty!" I can still hear the melody in my mind, though it was about 46 years ago.
I thought I'd try to revive this group, as Romans is such an important letter. At the moment, I'm not reviewing Romans here on LearnScripture.net, but I am listening to a series of sermons on Romans by John MacArthur, and finding them to be very beneficial.
Is there anyone else out there who is studying Romans at the moment? :)
There are many of course but what comes to my mind first is Psalm 32. A long time ago, this Psalm meant a lot to me because of Verse 8. It comforted me greatly at the time to think that God promises His guidance to me (to all of us who believe).
More recently, as I've been studying Romans, Verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 32 have taken on new meaning to me. Verses 1-2 are quoted by Paul as he built his case in his letter to the Romans, in Romans 4:6-8. Of course, one could go on and on and on, when speaking of the Psalms ...
Rose Marie, I was just reviewing Philippians 2:12-13. For me personally, the truths in these two verses are key to putting old habits aside and behind. "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" .... "For it is God which worketh in you" ...
Let me first say quickly, this has nothing to do with salvation by works. We are justfified by faith when we believe in Jesus Christ, in the work which HE accomplished by dying for us on the cross and bearing our own sins in His body as the perfect sacrifice for all time.
The Greek word in verse 12 for "work out" is katergazesthe, to cause something to happen, to bring something about; you could say that what we are doing at this moment, by studying these verses, is a part of the working out of our salvation. We are saved when we believe, but we also must continually humble ourselves and allow God to "work it out" from within us, through His Word, in order that that salvation might begin to transform every aspect of our life and behavior, and this we could also call bearing fruit. (Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 5:22-23)
But now let me make my bigger point, which is, that what speaks to me deeply in these verses is the "fear and trembling" and the fact that it is GOD who is at work in us. To consider that the Holy God is at work in us, our God who hates sin and loves goodness, should cause us to experience fear and trembling; and that fear is a strong motivation to "put off" the old "man" or the old self as Paul says in Ephesians 4:22. "that ye put off .... the old man".
I hope that this is helpful to someone. Fear of God is not a topic much discussed in our modern churches in the English speaking world; and yet, our Bibles are full of references to the fear of God, not only in the Old Testament, but also most assuredly in the New!
Thank you for your openness, Phoenix. I'm sure that, what you shared, will encourage and motivate people. Paul said that he prayed "always" for Timothy. So we too can pray for each other as often as possible!