Helping through intercession, celebrating the gospel invitation of faith (Romans 1:8-15)

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened 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.

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. Romans 1:8-15

Intercession in Romans is God-centered participation in the lives of others. The Holy Spirit intercedes within believers when words fail, Christ intercedes for believers before God, and Christians intercede for one another through earnest prayer. Paul presents prayer not as solitary effort, but as participation in the continuing ministry of the Spirit and the Son. When we pray for others we are joining Christ in his eternal work (Heb 7:25). 

Passage	Intercessor	Focus
Romans 1:9–10	Paul	Prays continually for the Roman believers and for an opportunity to visit them
Romans 8:26–27	Holy Spirit	Helps believers in weakness and intercedes when they do not know what to pray
Romans 8:34	Jesus Christ	Intercedes for believers at God’s right hand
Romans 10:1	Paul	Prays earnestly for Israel’s salvation
Romans 11:2	Elijah	A negative contrast: Elijah appeals to God against Israel
Romans 15:30–32	Roman believers	Asked to struggle alongside Paul in prayer for protection and fruitful ministry

Romans reveals three dimensions of intercession:

1. Divine intercession
   • The Spirit works within believers.
   • Christ represents believers before the Father.
   • Christian confidence rests on God’s activity, not the quality of our words.
2. Missional intercession
   • Paul prays for people to be saved.
   • He requests prayer for protection, acceptance of his ministry, and future service.
   • Intercession advances God’s mission through human dependence.
3. Relational intercession
   • Paul prays for people he has not yet met.
   • He asks the Roman church to “strive together” with him.
   • Prayer makes distant believers active partners in one another’s ministry.

Romans 8:26–27 does not necessarily teach that the Spirit merely gives believers special words. The emphasis is that the Spirit himself intercedes according to God’s will. Our weakness does not prevent effective prayer because God supplies what we lack. 

The movement in Romans is:

Our weakness → the Spirit’s help → Christ’s advocacy → the church’s participation → God’s purposes

Intercession is therefore more than asking God to change circumstances. It is joining God’s concern for people while trusting the Spirit to align our imperfect prayers with God’s will.

Romans also holds together confidence and struggle. Believers can be confident because Christ intercedes for them, yet Paul still describes prayer as strenuous participation. Divine sovereignty does not make prayer unnecessary. It makes prayer hopeful. 

The strongest claim is that intercession begins with God. Romans 8 places both the Spirit and Christ between human weakness and every possible accusation or hardship. Paul’s prayer requests then show how this divine ministry becomes a pattern for the church.

A common misunderstanding is that effective intercession requires eloquence, emotional intensity, or certainty about the desired outcome. Romans 8 challenges this assumption. Believers may not know what to pray, but they are still heard and helped. 

A useful Romans-based framework is HELP:

• Humble yourself: Admit that you may not know what should happen.
• Entrust the person to God: Depend on Christ’s advocacy.
• Listen for the Spirit: Allow your desires to be aligned with God’s will.
• Persist together: Invite others to participate through focused prayer.

Intercession is love expressed through dependence. It brings another person’s salvation, suffering, calling, or need before God while surrendering the outcome to his wisdom.

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Shepherding through group dynamics, aiming for kingdom culture

It's been an incredible week of ministry preparation for September small groups. 

• Last Wednesday I received Rooted Leadership training. The big takeaway was to create an environment of belonging, hospitality and connection. Rooted is built on three things: the foundation of the faith, the formation of a man, and the essential truths of what we believe. It walks through who Jesus is, what it means to have Christ living in you, and the everyday habits that grow a man: the Word, prayer, purity, sharing your faith, and standing firm when life gets hard. I'm doing this online Saturday at 8:00 a.m. CDT. Just specify you want to be in Ben Lorence's group here: https://atgrace.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/3892/responses/new 
• On Monday my friend Becky at Grace Church aligned that Spanish translation of Rooted would take a few weeks to modify the materials and ensure a high quality product. We aligned on developing an online Community to host Rooted Bible study participants. The platform will account for the goals belonging, connection, prayer support and life change in the context of daily Bible study. This morning I saw my idea to fix/simplify Spanish lectures with youtube went into production at grace.church/spanish
• Thursday was the BSF Leadership Workshop for the Roman's study year. We focused on our hearts, identifying where we're working in step with the Lord vs getting away from our calling. 
• Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Alpha Leadership training at Substance church with my TC friends and family. I received prayer to call additional leaders into the Portland house Alpha opportunity as this will be my last year of serving as the primary leader. Prayer on Thursday will continue. 
• We've also been praying for our own family dynamics, health issues and living situations. 

I'm like the Kook-aid guy crashing into the room with unreasonable expectations for myself and others. 

Alpha leader is not responsible for controlling the conversation or producing the “right” spiritual outcome. The leader creates a hospitable environment where people can honestly explore, while trusting the Holy Spirit to work. "Evangelism is joining a conversation the Holy Spirit is already having with another person." - Darrell Johnson

Jesus life models the "Kingdom Culture" for us, he made disciples in the marketplace and at synagogue. He modeled a life on mission, helping people everywhere learn about forgiveness, prayer, healing, hope and eternal life. He was fully integrated moving with people from their felt needs into trusting God with their whole lives. We however tend to lean into one or two of the areas that turns into striving, selfishness or shallowness - we call this "missing the mark." We do all these trainings to remind ourselves that we are witnesses of God working in other peoples lives - not "doing witnessing" as an activity or manipulation. 

The most useful strategic distinction is that Incubate → Implement → Increase → Influence describes organizational adoption, while Curriculum → Program → Ministry → Culture describes organizational transformation. A church can therefore measure not just "How many Alphas are we running?" but "How much has the Alpha posture changed how we engage people?"

How do we engage people coming from various perspectives:

• Skeptic: questions Christianity or its claims.
• Seeker: spiritually interested and actively exploring.
• Starter / re-starter: beginning faith or returning after time away.
• Struggler: wrestling with faith, circumstances, doubts, or behavior.
• Sampler: curious and willing to experience Alpha without necessarily committing.
• Server: already inclined toward faith and contributing to others.

The important implication is that people are not all starting from the same place, so leaders should not expect them to respond the same way.

What difficult group dynamics should leaders anticipate?

• Dominant guest
• Eager Christian who overshares
• Quiet guest
• Quiet group
• Chaotic group
• Guest dealing with significant personal problems

These are better understood as situations to shepherd rather than people to fix.

The “6 Ways to be Mindful” provide the leadership response:

Principle	Leadership behavior	What it protects
1. Recognize your own bias	Notice the assumptions you bring into the conversation	The guest from being judged through the leader's experience
2. Respect various perspectives	Make room for disagreement and different experiences	Psychological and relational safety
3. Model curiosity	Ask rather than immediately explain or correct	Discovery and authentic conversation
4. Absorb hostility	Remain gracious when challenged	The group from becoming defensive or adversarial
5. Lead carefully and confidently	Intervene when needed without dominating	Healthy boundaries and participation
6. Trust the Holy Spirit to be the Guide	Resist trying to manufacture spiritual outcomes	God's agency and the guest's freedom

There is an important progression here:

Self-awareness → hospitality toward others → curiosity → resilience → leadership → dependence on God.

The strongest leadership principle may be #6 because it changes how the other five are practiced. If the leader believes conversion or agreement depends primarily upon the leader's persuasive ability, curiosity easily becomes interrogation, confidence becomes control, and disagreement becomes something that must be defeated.

useful leadership framework emerges from the slides:

Receive → Explore → Shepherd → Release

Receive: “You are welcome here as you are.”

Explore: “Tell me more. What makes you think that?”

Shepherd: “Let's make sure we hear from some other people too.”

Release: “I don't have to force the conclusion. The Holy Spirit is the Guide.”

That produces a simple diagnostic question for an Alpha leader:

“What does this person need from me right now: space, curiosity, encouragement, a boundary, or nothing?”

That is especially powerful because the same behavior should not be applied uniformly. The dominant guest probably needs a boundary. The quiet guest probably needs space and invitation. The skeptic often needs curiosity. The struggler may need empathy. The eager Christian may need coaching. The personal-problems guest may need care beyond the group meeting.

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Day6 live idea

An important part of BSF Leadership is passage discovery/homiletics. It's my favorite take-away from BSF that gives me freedom to explore scripture and learn more after doing the day-by-day lesson. Often times we don't get into Day 6 of the lesson before the discussion time is over and many non-leaders in BSF don't know what homiletics is. So I thought about creating a space to share Day6 as an above and beyond option for people who are really into it or new leaders who are just getting starting and my be feeling overwhelmed. So I got the day6.live domain as I was contemplating these things. 

 "Day 6" in the Bible points in two directions — the sixth day of creation in Genesis 1, and the broader symbolism the number six picks up elsewhere. Here's both.

The sixth day itself (Genesis 1:24–31)

• Land animals — livestock, creeping things, and wild beasts, each "according to its kind," sharing the day with humanity. Humans are grouped with the land creatures, then sharply distinguished from them.
• The image of God — "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The deliberative plural, and the fact that God speaks about humanity rather than simply commanding it into being, sets this act apart from the previous five days.
• Male and female — both bear the image; the text gives no hierarchy in the bearing of it.
• Blessing and mandate — be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it (kabash), have dominion (radah). Often called the creation mandate or cultural mandate.
• Vegetarian provision — seed-bearing plants given as food to humans and animals alike, with no killing in view before Genesis 9.
• "Very good" — the only day that gets the intensified verdict (tov me'od) rather than plain "good." The sixth day completes and crowns the sequence.
• Genesis 2 then retells the same day up close: dust, the breath of life, the garden, the naming of animals, the woman drawn from the man's side.

Six as a symbolic number

• Labor before rest — six days of work, then Sabbath (Exodus 20:9–11); six years of service, freedom in the seventh (Exodus 21:2); six years of sowing, then the land's rest (Leviticus 25).
• Preparation day — the sixth day is when Israel gathers double manna for the coming Sabbath (Exodus 16:22–26). It's the day of getting ready.
• Falling short of seven — since seven signals completeness, six often carries a sense of the not-quite. Goliath stands six cubits with six pieces of armor; Nebuchadnezzar's image is sixty cubits by six; Revelation 13:18 gives 666 as "the number of a man."
• New-creation typology — many readers connect the crucifixion, which John places on the preparation day (the sixth), to the sixth day of creation: Pilate's "Behold the man," Jesus' "It is finished" echoing the finishing of Genesis 2:1, then rest in the tomb through the Sabbath. Paul's "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) and "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) run along the same line.

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Pure desire - pilgrims progress into the kingdom of heaven

Enjoyed breakfast with my friend who has been inspired by Pure Desire. We talked about freedom we have in Christ to follow a new way of living that fills us rather than destroys our well being and distracts us from our purpose. The devil comes to kill steal and destroy but Jesus comes to give life to the full. We talked about Young Washington and Brink of War. Wholesome entertainment that edifies rather than terrifies. Stories that you want to talk about rather than shame and guilt you hope nobody finds out about. I'm looking forward to leading Rooted in Faith Bible study with my church, helping men come out of Babylon into the kingdom of heaven. 

Reminds me of this part of Pilgrims Progress - interpreter bringing light where there are shadows - giving light to the rest of our journey (Passion vs Patience,  Hopelessness vs Hope). Look don't just see, listen don't just hear... Eyes that see, ears that hear and heart that understands

Gift from my mom for graduation decades after I graduated

We talked about the Thyatira — the fourth of the seven churches, addressed in Revelation 2:18–29. I was thinking about Thyatira, biblical love and sinful tolerance within the church just a month ago in Colorado. 

The letter actually opens with praise: Christ commends their love, faith, service, and endurance, noting their latter works exceed the first. The charge is that they "tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess," teaching believers to commit porneia and eat food sacrificed to idols (2:20). She's given time to repent and refuses, and the judgment language is severe — a sickbed for her, tribulation for her followers, death for "her children."

• "Jezebel" invokes memory of the Phoenician queen of 1 Kings 16–21 who imported Baal worship into Israel. The pairing of sexual immorality with idol-food is the same combination charged against Pergamum's Balaam faction.
• To those who don't hold her teaching — those who haven't known "the deep things of Satan" — the only burden is to hold fast, with the promise of authority over the nations and the morning star.
• Consecration is our obedience in Sanctification, thanking God for this Sabbath day reading Psalm 92
  

Biblical material on this is spread across law, prophecy, wisdom, gospel, and epistle, and the vocabulary itself is worth noticing first. The Hebrew zanah means to "whore" or be unfaithful, and gets used for both literal sexual acts and covenant betrayal. The Greek porneia — the New Testament's umbrella term, usually rendered "sexual immorality" — is left conspicuously undefined, which most scholars take to mean the writers assumed their readers knew the Levitical catalog behind it.

The legal core. Leviticus 18 and 20 give the fullest list: incest, adultery, bestiality, sex during menstruation, male same-sex intercourse, child sacrifice to Molech folded into the same chapter. The framing is striking — these are "the practices of Egypt and Canaan," and the land itself is said to vomit out its inhabitants over them. Deuteronomy 22 adds case law with a heavy emphasis on protecting women from false accusation and coerced sex. Adultery makes the Decalogue; so does coveting a neighbor's wife, which already moves the concern inward.

The prophetic metaphor. This is arguably the dominant thread and the one people miss. Hosea marries a promiscuous woman as a living parable; Jeremiah 2–3, Ezekiel 16 and 23 (shockingly graphic by any standard), and Malachi 2 all cast Israel's idolatry as adultery. The logic runs both directions — sexual unfaithfulness is treated as an icon of covenant unfaithfulness, and idolatry is described in explicitly sexual terms. Revelation closes the canon with the same image: Babylon as the great whore, her porneia bound up with imperial violence and luxury trade.

Jesus radicalizes and interiorizes. Matthew 5:27–30 relocates adultery to the lustful look, with deliberately absurd hyperbole about eyes and hands. His divorce sayings appeal past Mosaic concession back to Genesis 2:24 — "one flesh" as the created norm. Notably, his hardest words fall on men exploiting legal privilege, while his encounters with women accused of sexual sin (John 8, Luke 7, the Samaritan woman) are consistently disarming rather than condemnatory.

Paul gives the most developed argument, in 1 Corinthians 5–7. His case isn't primarily "the rules say so" — it's ontological: sex joins persons, even with a prostitute one becomes "one flesh," so porneia is uniquely a sin against one's own body, which is a temple of the Spirit and no longer self-owned. 1 Thessalonians 4 adds a communal-justice angle (don't wrong a brother in this matter), and the vice lists in Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 3 keep sexual sin in company with greed — which Paul twice calls idolatry.

Themes that recur across all of it:

• Sex is treated as covenantal and body-joining, never as a private, self-contained transaction — the "one flesh" language does most of the theological work.
• Sexual ethics function as a boundary marker, distinguishing Israel and then the church from surrounding cultures. The distinctiveness is part of the point.
• The body is not autonomous — it belongs to God, and within marriage, mutually to the spouse (1 Cor 7 is unusually reciprocal for its era).
• Interiority deepens over time, from act to desire.
• There's a persistent exploitation and justice dimension: protection of the vulnerable, and Ezekiel 16 famously names Sodom's sin as pride and neglect of the poor.
• Sex itself is affirmed as good. Genesis blesses it before any fall, the Song of Songs celebrates erotic love with no reproductive justification offered, and Paul assumes marriage is normal. The prohibitions aren't framed as anti-body.
• Restoration is always available. Hosea buys his wife back; David is confronted and not discarded; Paul tells the Corinthians "such were some of you — but you were washed."

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From envy and bitterness to clarity of purpose (Psalm 73:24)

I was captivated by this short video. Joni Eareckson Tada explains how unexpected influence became a responsibility to serve. After her autobiography and film generated thousands of letters from people with disabilities struggling with depression, healing, loneliness, and isolation, she sought God’s guidance. That discernment led her to establish Joni and Friends, turning individual responses into a scalable ministry providing spiritual hope and practical assistance. The central message: influence should be intentionally stewarded for the benefit of people who need it most.

Then I realized that my heart was bitter,

    and I was all torn up inside.

I was so foolish and ignorant—

    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

Yet I still belong to you;

    you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

    leading me to a glorious destiny.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

    I desire you more than anything on earth.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

    but God remains the strength of my heart;

    he is mine forever.

Those who desert him will perish,

    for you destroy those who abandon you.

But as for me, how good it is to be near God!

    I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,

    and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

Influence becomes meaningful when it is converted from visibility into a repeatable system that serves a clearly defined community.

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