Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Good Morning!

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: Matthew 13:18-23

Today's Discussion:

-- today's scripture is a portion of the parable of the sower and four soils. For the purposes of our lesson, the key to this passage is an understanding of the "deceitfulness of wealth" and how it could "choke" our understanding and acting on the Word. I think that there are three ways to understand that phrase.

-- One is that wealth can deceive us by giving us a false sense of security -- if we have material possessions, we can fall into the trap of feel secure because of we have those things, and in doing so we place our faith in those things rather in God.

-- Another way that wealth can deceive us is that we can take them as a sign of our own accomplishment - we can be led to think that we are completely responsible for our own success, and think nothing of God's role in blessing us with that wealth.

-- The third way wealth can deceive us is that it can cause us to elevate ourselves above others, and make us thing more highly of ourselves that we should (or conversely, think less of others than we should). If we are rich, aren't we better than those who are poor?

-- the fun question that people always ask each other is if they feel into a large sum of money -- inheritance, won the lottery, etc. --- would that change them? Everyone likes to think that it wouldn't, and maybe initially it wouldn't, given the suddenness of it all. The more realistic question is whether, after a number of years of working and saving, will the accumulation of wealth over time change you over time?

Question for Sunday:

-- how can keep financial success from choking your response to the word?

Today's prayer request: Jessica Wesson, Chris and Jerri's new baby

Jessica is going in for a test on Wednesday -- she has a little place on her back that the doctors want to look at. Chris and Jerri feel like it isn't a problem, but we need to pray that everything is OK with the newest Wesson.

Today's class member prayer:

Melissa Herring

Have a great day.

Jay