1SAMUEL 25:God gave protection and victory to David. In a scene that must have caused Saul's men to roll their eyes several times, Saul was humbled before them as David directly confronted him. But after making peace, they didn't go back to the capital together.

PSALM 105a:Today's psalm is for teaching and reminding each generation of the children of Israel about the great things God has done for the Jewish people.

ROMANS 9a:What wonderful promises God has given to us in chapter 8 of Romans! That chapter always reminds me of a time when a Christian leader did wrong to me, and then said that it really didn't matter because it would all turn out OK because of Romans 8:28. That is the ultimate of hypocrisy! It ruined that verse for me for a long time. But God DOES indeed work all things for good for all of us who fulfill the conditions stated. This chapter also reminds me of Eloise Burson— the wife of one of my spiritual fathers, Richard. Some years after her husband's death, she showed me how her Bible— if you just let it fall open, would always open to Romans 8. There is no richer passage to meditate on or to memorize.

Note that we are entering a difficult section of Romans. Romans 12 starts with "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercies, …" But if you look back at what goes right before that in chapter 11, that doesn't seem to be what Paul is going back to with the word 'Therefore' and 'mercies'. Can you find what Paul was going back to and how the sections we will read for the next few days fit together?

NLT Translation notes:Rom. 8:33 Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!34 Who, then, will condemn [us//them]? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us!37 [No, but//That's true, but//No,] in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!Rom. 9:24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the [non-Jews//Gentiles].25 Concerning the [non-Jews//Gentiles], God says in the prophecy of Hosea,"Those who were not my people,I will now call my people.And I will love thosewhom I did not love before."30 What does all this mean? Even though the [non-Jews//Gentiles] were not trying to follow God's standards, they were made right with God. And it was by [their fully believing//faith] that this took place. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the lawo instead of by [fully believing his promises//trusting in him]. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. [Here the NLT was inconsistent. Before now they have used 'believe' and 'faith' to translate the same root 'pistews' And now they used 'trust'. Of course, every word of every language has a range of meanings. I have no problem with translating 'pisteos' as trust, per se. It is just that using 'trust' here does not help us see the continuity of what Paul has been saying in this book. I would be quite happy to go back through all of Romans and change 'fully believing' to 'fully trusting'. It is important we keep the cohesion between v.32, 33,and 10:4.]33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,"I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,a rock that makes them fall.But anyone who [believes//trusts] in himwill never be disgraced."

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.