Scripture Applied

"To all who are in Rome who are loved by G0d and called to be His holy people:  Grace and peace to you from G0d our Father and from the L0rd JC.  First, I thank my G0d through JC for all of you because your faith is being reported all over the world.  G0d, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the [Good News] of His Son, is my witness how constantly remember you in my pr@yers at all times; and I pr@y that now at last by G0d's will the way may be open for me to come to you.  I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong--that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles."  Romans 1:7-13

Recently I have started memorizing Romans 1 as part of The Roman's Project (several of us ladies in the city--and many other women all over the world--have been working on memorizing three chapters of Romans in a year).  Last week, I memorized the verses I wrote above.  At the time I wondered why I was memorizing these verses--they didn't seem to apply to my life very much (unless you count all those canceled village trips from last summer and fall).

Fast forward to today.

We were going to a village about 2.5 hours outside of the city to do some teaching.  About an hour outside the city, our vehicle broke down with a problem in the gear shift and brakes.  I know very little about automobiles, but this seemed like a pretty big problem.

Our driver said that another car would come to take us the rest of the way in 15 minutes.  Five and a half hours later, the car finally arrived after we had...been told the car will come or be fixed in 15 minutes at least 6 more times, had tea, made several phone calls back and forth to the women we were supposed to teach, sat at the auto repair shop for hours, ended up calling the ladies and telling we couldn't come, and eaten lunch.  We ended up riding the car back to the city, never having made it to the ladies we were to teach.

As we were waiting in the dust and sun at the mechanic shop, struggling with making a decision as to whether to still try to go on out to the village and teach the women or not, those verses came to mind.  Substitute the city Rome with our village's name and it applied quite perfectly.  Their faith is being reported all over the world, at least in my newsletters back to you.  We were pr@ying that by G0d's will the way would be open for us to come.  We were longing to see them and teach them something to make them strong in their faith.  We were wanting to be mutually encouraged by each other's faith and obedience, like we so often are with these women.  We were planning on coming, but were prevented from doing so.  We did want to come teach them so there would be a great harvest of souls amongst their people.

It fit.  Funny how scripture does that.  Even the parts that I might not think apply much to me at the time, actually do.  What a blessing that His Word is living and active!