A favorite quote of mine from C.S. Lewis is found in his work, “The Great Divorce.” As he is so apt to do, Lewis captures with just a few words the essence of both practical and spiritual reality. He wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.’” People who truly seek God, will diligently seek his will. They will place their trust in that will, and they will live their lives...

The letter that Paul writes to the church at Rome is one in which he is addressing both Jewish and Gentile Christians. These two religious groups grew from the soils of what seem like two different histories, but really aren’t. Paul believes that they should not be two wholly separate groups, but rather two peoples unified as one under the banner of Christ Jesus. He goes to great pains to make the case that the ingredient both groups should be sharing is a faith in Christ as the Jewish...

At the beginning of Romans 9, Paul shares the heart-wrenching desire he has for his Jewish brothers and sisters to know Christ. So strong is this desire for his ethnic family that he says he would willingly be accursed and cut off from Christ if they would be saved (Romans 9:2)! That is a radical level of unrestrained love and patriotism! It also reflects the change in Paul’s post-conversion heart, demonstrating that it had been made more like Christ’s sacrificial heart. At any rate, Paul...