1. Today¡Çs sufferings
We are reading Epistle to the Romans and today is the eighth session. The concerning passage represents the essence of the whole letter. As we learned last week, Paul was fearful of the wrath of God before encountering resurrected Jesus Christ. He strived to reach at the salvation by perfectly observing the law, or commandments of God. However he felt himself unable to be perfect. Therefore he was groaning under the fear of God¡Çs anger. ; - What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?(Romans 7:24) (³¤­…)

1. Paul was Groaning
Through our life time, we experience sufferings and pains. For example, longtime jobless situation after being discharged generally causes severe financial conditions. Or a diagnosis of a cancer in inoperable phase makes us desperate. Furthermore, it might put those patients under negative effects of anticancer agents. Certain persons cannot get out of their home due to serious depression. Facing those difficulties, how should we deal with them? Epistle to the Romans gives us an answer like a light which pierce into the darkness. Because Paul, the author, had undergone very hard trials and overcame them. However he had groaned at first under weight of those pains as a normal human. ; - What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?(Romans 7:24) (³¤­…)

1. Dead to Sin
We celebrate the foundation day of Shinozaki church in this Sunday service . It opened at first as a preaching place annexed to the Shinkoiwa church. Since then, the congregation continued to observe the rite of worship every Sunday for 41 years. We carried out it to express our gratefulness to God for the salvation and share the same joy with neighbors around here. Sunday service has two facets, the response to God¡Çs grace and the evangelism for neighbors. Today we will reflect on the former aspect, the response to the mercy of God, by reading Romans 6. (³¤­…)

# Today¡Çs lecturer is the co-pastor Mizuguchi.

1. Saved through faith
We are reading Epistle to the Romans in line with the Bible study program. Today¡Çs lecture is the fifth session of the series and the passage concerns how to live after being saved through faith. As we read the last Sunday, Paul wrote , ¡ÈAbraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3) We continue to reflect on the same issue by reading the following portion, Chapter 5. Paul tlod in it what would happen to those who had received the salvation through the belief. He began the teaching with the reference to the story of Abraham again. ; - The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.¡ÊGenesis 13:14-16) (³¤­…)