Romans application

Regarding Romans, how do I apply this to myself?

Dr. Cartledge states, "He wants the Church in that influential city to be well grounded on the fundamentals of the faith"(1).
  Back in the mid 1990's, when I was on a retreat with "Career Fellowship," the incredible singles group at McLean Presbyterian, and a group was giving away a number of framed Scripture verses. I looked through them all, and one really stood out for me. It stated, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"(Romans 6:23).
  That had been one of the Scripture memorization verses from the first singles group I was active with at The Falls Church, called Salt and Light. Yet I think there on the retreat was truly the first time I completely understood the reason Jesus had to die on the Cross. I realized He had to die in the place of people who otherwise would spiritually die because spiritual death is the consequences of our sins.
  Of all of the letters of Paul, this is my most treasured verse, because it explains why there needed to be a sacrifice of the "Lamb of God," a person to die in our place.

Regarding Romans, how do I apply this to my community?
  Back in the summer of 1994, a time when much was happening in my life as I was growing as a young Christian, I was travelling to visit my mom via a bus.  At the bus station, I bought a used paperback for something like a dollar.  The name of the book was How To Be A Christian Without Being Religious by Fritz Ridenour in 1967, which has been republished a number of times, and which is still in print, though I had never even heard of the book when I first picked it up.  That author was teaching the book of Romans by putting Paul's letter into language that was common for our day to be better understood.  As a young Christian I got much out of that book, which I read every day after work as I was coming home on the subway until I completed it.  That book helped me as a young Christian, and likewise I want to help young Christians today who can learn about the basics of Christianity.  Paul's letter to the Romans is full of the basics from which a person can build a faith in Christ, and continue to grow.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Samuel A. Cartledge, A Conservative Introduction to the New Testament
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1938), 127.   {Conservative re: exegesis, not having anything to do with politics.}