Each major branch of Christianity answers this question differently: Roman Catholics understand that Today: 1 Thessalonians 5

many ways, preaching isn't all that different from what the great orators who traveled throughout the Roman

It's hard for any of us to imagine what life in an ancient Roman prison dungeon must have been like,

isn't a buffet where you can pick and choose only what you like (Photo credit: Unsplash) John 12:42-50 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV) 7  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim

Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 56 Q. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Romans 8

Children were an afterthought in that Roman society, and were often considered little more than household

Live momento mori - remembering that you'll die - but also view death as victory. 1 Corinthians 15:50 -57 (NIV) 50  I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53  For the 56  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57  But thanks be to God!

The book of Romans begins with an announcement that the gospel - the proclamation of the good news of

John 6:47-57 (NIV) CONTEXT: We began this passage yesterday. life. 48  I am the bread of life. 49  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 52  Then the Jews began to argue 53  Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink I will raise them up at the last day. 55  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56