We all go through hard times. What we choose to focus on will make a difference as to how we come through it. I have heard too many stories about people who have gone through terrible ordeals, and they choose to not forgive and stay bitter.

Have you ever been in a situation where the Lord has done something significant in you, through you or revealed something to you? What did you do? Did you keep it to yourself or did you tell others about it? My first reaction is to tell others what happened. I often lack wisdom at times like this.

Paul is writing to the Corinthians about coming to make sure they are being truly faithful to Jesus. He urges them to evaluate themselves before he gets there. He wants them not to sin so that when he comes he does not have to be hard on them. Finally, he prays for their restoration (v 9).

In today’s reading we get a glimpse of what Paul’s missionary life was like. He has just left a riot in Ephesus, caused because his message of Christ was bad for the silver-smiths’ idol business. Only his Christian friends prevented him from being lynched by the mob.

We have no record of who founded the church in Rome. But Jews from Rome were present at Pentecost, and may well have returned with the gospel. By the time Paul wrote this letter to the Romans the Jews had been forced out of Rome by the emperor Claudius, and the church no longer had its founding teachers to lead them.

The worship leader starts (vv 1-5b) by calling the congregation to enthusiastic praise of God during a new moon festival (the first day of the month) as well as during the full moon (on the fifteenth day).

Pride, or thinking well of yourself, is a temptation that occurs everywhere in our world. So prevalent is it that we even see examples of pride throughout God’s creation:

The lion, who is the king of all he surveys.