PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Roman 11:13-18 Gentiles become Jews not vice versa

Time to reflect: Although it is a convoluted argument, trying to gently convince resistant people to think differently, Paul carefully ties Gentiles and Jews, the Old Covenant and the New. Rather than rejecting his people, even those who reject Jesus, he shows how Gentiles are “grafted” like a branch onto the “tree” of Judaism. But he also goes on to show that the grafted branch is not required to adhere to the Jewish culture and practices.

Moving through the day: There is always a tendency to ignore the Old Testament as not applying to us. Paul says otherwise. What do you need to do to reclaim and make use of the Old Testament?

'I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.