I live in Montana surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. It's beautiful here. I grew up thirty miles from here and remember our Sunday afternoon drives as a family up in the mountains. Many, many times we'd take a picnic meal with us on Sunday afternoons and head to wherever the road would take us in that old '58 Dodge stationwagon.
I vividly remember one Sunday afternoon hiking around the foothills north of Helena and I remember looking up at the hill we had stopped by. Should I climb it? Could I climb it? I did, but I can still remember how climbing it made my young body feel. It was tough. I thought I was in pretty good shape physically as a young teen, but climbing that "mountain" wore me out. It turned out to be a daunting task.
Over the years I've wanted to start a hobby, a diet, a project of some kind and the prospect of doing whatever it was, was a little daunting as well. Some things (maybe a lot of things) in life are like that. They seem too overwhelming to even start.
Last Sunday morning I started to preach through Paul's Letter to the Romans. Let me tell you the prospect of teaching what theologians and biblical academics call "The Greatest Letter Ever Written" is a daunting task as well. As preparation I listened to John Piper's introductory message when he started to preach through Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome and he said the same thing I've felt for some years. He said the possibility of preaching through Romans felt like looking at a great mountain preparing to climb it.
I've wanted to preach through Romans for sometime now, and I'd come to the mountain called Romans and looked up, but I never could get started. It was too intimidating. If I'm honest it was too frightening. How could I preach and teach the flock that God has entrusted me with here in Boulder, Montana what Martin Luther called, "the chief part of the New Testament?"
But last Sunday the time was right in God's sovereignty and grace to start climbing Romans. And I will need a special measure of His grace to finish that magnificent letter. Starting it was amazing. I felt like there was material in the introduction that God could even use to grow me and others spiritually. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us as we drink from the depths of the New Testament in order for God to teach us and remind us and help us apply timeless truths from His word.
