Monday, August 15, 2005

Good Morning!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. This past Sunday, our class had a special visitor -- Jessica Christy Wesson came by and slept through class.

The new unit for this week is Unit 16 -- The Danger of Riches

Focus Scripture for the Week: 1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Today's Scriptures: Hebrews 13:1-6

Today's Discussion:

-- the passage from Hebrews is very similar to the other passages that we had last week, with various teachings about living a Christian life. This one ends with some teaching about the love of money, and the interesting twist on it in this passage is that it is framed as a confidence in God issue -- that we shouldn't have a love of money because God will care for us and provide for our needs. In this context, a love of money is seen as putting our faith in our own efforts, rather putting our faith in God.

-- in the Reflections, it is interesting what John Wesley's take on wealth was, particulary why he felt that it was a particular problem for Methodists -- that by living a very discipliined life of faith, that his some of his followers were going to become wealthy, through their work ethic and their frugal ways. This is a good bit different than the "Jesus will make you rich" theology that some TV preachers have been none to preach.

-- one of the fundamental questions about wealth in our culture is that it is a way of keeping score, of how we value people. Actually, in my view, I think that the challenge that our society and culture has is not that we think that rich people are good people, but that poor people are bad people -- that is where the culture and Christanity collide.

Question for Sunday:

-- can you think of an example of where/how our culture demonizes the poor?

Today's prayer request: Kim Alford's grandfather.

Kim Alford asked for prayer for her grandfather today, and if my handwriting was better I could give you more specifics. As it is, we just need the remember Kim's grandfather, and ask for God's assistance and blessings.

Today's class member prayer:

Susanne Russell

Have a great day.

Jay