Chris Howse

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I like Paul’s letters. I know he divides opinion as he was very much a man of his time, but I still like him. Paul seems to have been a great do-er - everything is done to the best of his ability - it is just a pity that he possessed this enthusiasm before his conversion when he was persecuting the early Church.

When I started to read Romans I found it very difficult to follow. I wanted to give up but persevered and I found the further I read, the more I got out of the book. Things started to make sense, Romans was chasing me I could not stop reading it.

Sometimes God’s grace finds me when battling with a Bible passage, trying to make sense of it for me and the times we live in; but sometimes, having a simple faith, I just want things spelt out, this is what Paul does for me here. These words are a great comfort.