Thursday, June 9, 2005

Good Morning!

Note that we have an Administrative Board meeting tonight at 7P at the church, if you are a member of that group.

The new unit for this week is Unit 6, Good Stewards of Time

Focus Scripture for the Week: 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Keep alert, stand firm in the your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Today's scripture: John 7:1-13

-- to me, the scripture for today only has a passing reference to time and being a good steward of it. In this passage, Jesus is talking about not going to a major, public event because it was not the right time for him to reveal himself. Sometimes, stewardship of our time is not just about how we are spending our time, but when we spend our time, or devote ourselves to a program. In many cases, when we want to do something doesn't match up to when God wants us to do something. Making sure that we are applying ourselves at the time that God needs our time is another aspect of time stewardship.

-- the readings from Wesley are all around the various issues of time, and are illustrating how he evaluated how he was spending his time. He was constantly evaluating whether what he was doing was good use of his time. The passage that finishes at the top of page 56, at the end he mentions that he had thought about it, and that visiting a poor woman in town was a good use of his time. He also budgeted himself an "hour or two a week" to this visit -- this is an example of Wesley budgeting his time so that he could accomplish what was important.

-- the passage from Wesley on page 55, beginning "Yet it is certain there is business to be done . . ." This to me was an interesting passage, because Wesley is hitting a couple of topics -- time and money. He calls out and asks why someone might be working hard, and saving, and says that most people are working hard and saving up now so that they can living a life of ease -- so that they won't have to work. Wesley is hitting at that, because in his view, the time that is freed up due to retirement, etc. should be used for the work of the kingdom.

-- in that same passage, Wesley has a wonderful phrase -- he talks about treasuring up, or saving of silver and gold, for its own end, and says that that is about as useful as "treasuring up spiders, or the wings of butterflies". Just something very interesting about that passage and the language used.

Today's prayer request: Monica's nephew, Alex Lloyd

Alex has been our list for a while, and I believe today (or yesterday), he was going to have significant surgery on his hip. He is probably going to be in a waist-down cast for a while as he recovers from the surgery.

Today's class member prayer:

Kelly Thaxton

Have a great day.

Jay