Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we're joined by a guest in the studio, Macy Snowden.

Hey, everyone. And she is one of our Institute students. In the Watermark Institute is a 10-month seminary intensive

raising up the next generation of church leaders. And in the second semester of this program,

you spend a lot of time studying the book of Romans. Yep, a lot of time. Yeah, extensive time.

Extensive time. So in addition to Devo writers coming on this month, I'm going to be bringing

several of our institute students to share what they've been learning from the book of Romans.

And Macy, part of why I wanted to bring you on for Romans too is because we've gotten to spend

an extended amount of time together. I've heard your story. And so I was pretty confident,

hopefully, we're about to find out. But I was pretty confident that you'd have some really

great and helpful observations to share with us. So the floor is yours. You read Romans 2. You've

been studying it. What stood out? Right. Okay. Great. Well, first of all, thanks for having me.

You're so welcome. I'm super excited. Romans 2, I love it so much because it relates a lot to my story like you were saying. And right off the bat, Romans 2 verse 1 says, therefore you have no excuse. Oh man. So he's straight up calling them out right now. You have no excuse. Every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another,

you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things. So I just, I hear some

humor in that because he's like, thank you for having a moral standard. But by having this moral

standard, you are showing that you also do not meet this moral standard. And so he's saying,

just because you're a Jew,

like just because you're a part of the people of Israel, this nation of Israel, does not excuse you

from following the law. And so he's saying, I'm glad you have this moral standard. I'm not

condemning you because you're judging and what you're judging, you're correct, that it does not

meet the mark, but you're failing to see that you also do not meet the mark. And in my Bible,

if you turn your page, maybe on yours, it's just a little ways down. A few verses later,

...