Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Good Morning!

Good morning from Chicago - headed home today.

The new unit for this week is Unit 14 -- Forgiveness

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scripture: Psalm 103 1:1-14

Today's Discussion:

-- today's scripture from Psalms is one that reassures us about God's view of forgiveness.

-- to me, there are two key thoughts in this passage about forgiveness -- the completeness of God's forgiveness, and the value of his forgiveness.

-- one is the idea expressed in verses 3 that God redeems all of our sins -- not just some of them, not just the little ones, or the big ones, but all of them. His forgiveness is complete. Verse 12 puts it even more poetically -- as far as the east is from the west is how far, how completely, God has removed our sins from us.

-- the second is in verse 4 and verse 10 -- the idea of the value of the forgiveness God provides -- he has redeemed our life from the pit. Without God's forgiveness, we are condemned. In verse 10, this idea is repeated, by saying that he does not treat as our sins deserve. Because of this, we should be thankful to God for the gift of his forgiveness. One of the dangers I think that we have is that we undervalue God's forgiveness because it is easy to ask for and receive -- but we should never forget the promise implied here and elsewhere in the scriptures -- God's forgiveness saves us from punishment. While God forgives and forgets, we should not be forgetful about our forgiveness -- we should always remember what God's forgiveness has given to us.

Question for Sunday:

-- How often do you thank God for the forgiveness he has provided for you?

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

Alex is a long-term prayer project because of the nature of his hip condition. He continues to recover from his surgery, and we need to pray for his continued recovery.

Today's class member prayer:

New father Chris Wesson

Have a great day.

Jay