Lovin' Romans 8 + an Announcement

This month, our church took on The Romans Challenge, reading the book of Romans 20 (yes, t-w-e-n-t-y!) times and writing it by hand. It was a daunting task and although the project culminated in a day of studying with the help of our partners from two nations (USA and Nigeria), many of us, including myself, are still at it. 

 

My Romans Project Notebook (written in NIV).

 
It's amazing how reading a passage so many times within a short span of time would still surprise me. Reading different versions also help. Here is a different take of what, to me, is a very familiar, favorite passage ( Romans 8: 35-39,New Living Translation) :

                 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no 

                 longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, 

                 or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 

                 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we 

                are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, 

                overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

When I read this, it was just, WOW! Like a new idea has hit me although this was most probably not the first time I read from this version. I have been going over this passage so many times (in NIV mostly) that I thought it was quite straightforward, something you just knew without further explaining. But putting it that way--"Does it mean He no longer loves us if..."--gives a whole new dimension to the passage, as if now I could understand it more clearly. If you want to compare, you could read different versions through the Bible Gateway site, I'm linking to the NIV version here.

Now, after having posted this non-food post onto the main page ( usually they are posted here.), let me go to "the Announcement." I have been thinking this over for a while now and I think this blog is ready for a major overhaul, so i have decided to make this a more general, more personal blog. Foodie stuff still, plus a whole lot more. I'd be making many changes in line with that in the coming..er..months (I am just sure it would take a long time) starting with this post. Hope you like it! :)