{"id":195,"date":"2013-02-17T09:44:22","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T14:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/?p=195"},"modified":"2013-02-17T09:44:22","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T14:44:22","slug":"as-yourself-sketchnotes-on-romans-13-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/2013\/02\/17\/as-yourself-sketchnotes-on-romans-13-16\/","title":{"rendered":"As Yourself – Sketchnotes on Romans 13-16"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"13-01-24<\/a>Today’s sketch is a bit different. Several weeks ago, I was invited to contribute to “Journey to the Cross<\/a>,” a Lent devotional guide put together by my church, Rolling Hills Community Church. My contribution was to focus on Romans 13-16, and I decided to take a few sketchnotes on the passage before sitting down to write my devotional. You can see my sketchnotes above, and read my devotional below. And if you’re following along with the guide, you’ll see my contribution on February 28th!<\/p>\n

\n

As Yourself<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d\u00a0 A simple commandment, but not an easy one.\u00a0 How do you love a leader whose decisions don\u2019t seem to be in the best interest of those being led?\u00a0 How do you love a sister in Christ whose beliefs don\u2019t seem compatible with yours?\u00a0 How do you love someone outside your culture who doesn\u2019t know Jesus?\u00a0 How do you love a dear friend you haven\u2019t seen in years?<\/p>\n

Loving one\u2019s neighbor requires us to shift our focus from ourselves and our own desires to others and their needs.\u00a0 Being self-centered comes naturally to us.\u00a0 When things are going well, we revel in our \u201csuccess\u201d and wonder what character flaws lead others to struggle as they do.\u00a0 When life is hard, we pursue whatever pleasure we can, telling ourselves that we\u2019re \u201cowed\u201d a little relief from our struggles.\u00a0 But we\u2019re called to put aside these \u201cdeeds of darkness\u201d and let God help us overcome our self-centeredness and love our fellowman.<\/p>\n

Putting someone else\u2019s needs ahead of your own?\u00a0 That\u2019s an act of faith\u2014some kind of faith, even if it\u2019s not a faith in God.\u00a0 Doing so requires the belief that caring for others has value, that we as humans have a higher calling than our self-centered natures would indicate.\u00a0\u00a0 Having faith in God and His sovereignty (\u201cno authority except that which God has established\u201d) certainly helps when we\u2019re getting outside our comfort zone.\u00a0 When we serve a God who has the whole world in His hands\u2014and who is asking us to love our neighbors\u2014it\u2019s easier to invest our time and energy in others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.\u201d\u00a0 The good news for those struggling to love their neighbors is that we\u2019re not dependent on our own good will, talents, and smarts to do so.\u00a0 When we focus our attention on those around us and trust God to take care of us as we reach out, God works through us to bring blessings to this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s sketch is a bit different. Several weeks ago, I was invited to contribute to “Journey to the Cross,” a Lent devotional guide put together by my church, Rolling Hills Community Church. My contribution was to focus on Romans 13-16, and I decided to take a few sketchnotes on the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/sketchnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}