What is A Laymen's Study Of Romans?
42 Lessons with commentary, a series of questions and a set of additional scriptures to reflect on. This unique guide written by a layman for laymen can be used for self-study, small groups or discipleship classes. The lessons in this guide yielded a closer relationship with God the father, God the son, and the Holy Spirit for myself and the participants. It is my hope as a servant of Christ that those who read the words on these pages are impacted in the manner that God wishes. The path God provides for you is through your faith in the risen Messiah and the sacrifice he made, which atoned for the original sin of Adam and your personal sin. You can return to rightness with the God of creation, embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and be transformed into the person that you were born to be through obedience to the conviction of the Holy Spirit . You can have a perfection to live in while you wait on the eternal perfection in the hereafter. The gospel of Jesus Christ is redemption and transformation for all. It is granted to those who answer the calling, and acknowledge their need for a savior. Glory be to God! Amen.
I never set out to write a book. If you would have asked me a few years ago what I would write about if I wrote one it would not have been about the epistle to the Romans. God delivered me from the servitude to drugs in 1999 and my life had been one of personal successes including elected and appointed civic positions within my community. With each success my relationship with God decresed as I started serving self in another way. Through a series of happenings God nudged me back on the path He wanted me on. I go into a little more detail in the introduction but the following is the short version. In 2016 I started attending church again after a 15 year absence.
In 2019 I changed churches because my attendance had become out of obligation and not out of true desire. I started attending Bible Study and Prayer Group, which led to more time in the scriptures and prayer. In 2020 covid rocked my world as it did for many but God through the Holy Spirit convicted me to move. God convicted me to host blood drives and community meals in our church’s building despite us having services in the parking lot. The community meals gave me the opportunity to work with people of the church in a manner many of them had never done before. It was truly the work of the Lord to watch men that had days before been in prison or a drug rehab giving of themselves to perfect strangers. That fall I was called to walk away from all 5 of the civic positions I had. I was not happy about it but I listened.
Six months later when I joined the church I was convicted to stop working on Sundays. I said yes despite knowing that I would eventually lose that job. It started becoming clear that God wanted me to start Sunday school at our church since we did not have one. This conviction was different. It was multi-layered, and there were multiple parts that I needed to say yes to. What became clear is what resulted in this book. We would go through the book of Romans, a book that I once told an Episcopalian Priest I did not read. I set aside time every week to read the scriptures, read multiple commentaries and study guides, and received inspiration to write the text that will follow. I then spent an hour each Sunday with other church members as we joined together to read and discern the Word.
Writing this book provided me with a path of discipleship. Through the dedication to the process of teaching others I have found a relationship with God that I did not believe was even possible. The Epistle to the Romans provides the believer a blueprint for following Christ. There are many commentaries on Romans, this one seeks to tie each lesson into the previous ones to build a firm scriptural foundation. Upon that foundation we can find a real relationship with the God of Creation.
