Good Morning - Friday, September 23, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Sorry I missed sending an email yesterday.  I had terrible travel issues getting back from Arkansas, which resulted in me having to rent a car and drive from the Atlanta airport early Thursday morning, getting in about 130A.

 

Just fyi, most likely, I won't be able to be at class on Sunday.

 

The new unit for this week is  Unit 21, Opposition Along the Way   

 

Focus Scriptures for the Week:  

 

Matthew 5:10   

 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Ephesians 6:10-11

 

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil

 

Today's Scriptures:  1 Corinthians 4:1-13, Matthew 10:16-33, Romans 12:14-21

 

Today's Discussion: 

 

-- these are the scriptures from yesterday and for the rest of the week.  The Matthew reference was actually broken into two parts for our study, but I'm listing it as a single reading here.

 

-- there three passages are all different perspectives on the idea of hostility towards Christians.

 

-- the Corinthians passage was one I hadn't read before, but there were two main things I got out of it and the associated commentary in my Bible -- one was that this was dealing with the idea of divisions within the church in Corinth, and Paul was offering up some suggestions on how to mitigate those divisions.   The second is Paul's discussion, almost in despair, about how badly he and others had been treated for their faith.  He does this as a warning to the Corinthian church just to let know what was to come.

 

-- the passage from Matthew is a much darker passage, probably the darkest that we have read this week.  Jesus is painting a picture to his disciples about how difficult the road ahead is going to be for them.  And he offers some encouragment, but even it is bleak -- in verse 29 he tells them not to be afraid of men who can kill their body -- they need to be afraid of the one -- God -- who can destroy their soul and body.  I would say that the main idea in this passage is that being faithful is going to be extremely tough and dangerous, but that God is going to be there for you.

 

-- the third passage is, emotionally to me, 180 degrees different from the Matthew and Corinthian passages.  The passages from Romans are some of my favorite in all the Bible, and are verses that you can use everyday.  These verses give us simple direction and hope on how to deal with opposition and evil.  Verse 21 -- "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" is a verse you can put to work every day of your life.  Of course that is easy to say, and the actual application is much easier said than done, but I find a great encouragment in these verses.

 

Question for Sunday:  

 

the passages from Romans bring to mind a quote, many times attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr., but I think it is much older than that.  "The best way for evil to succeed in this world is for good men to do nothing."  How does that quotation/thought work with this idea from Romans -- "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone"?  It seems to me that the idea of "living in peace" is at odds with the idea that good people should be more active in their opposition to evil. What do you think?

 

Today's prayer request:   Hurricane Rita evacuees

 

This has the potential to be just as bad as Katrina was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast -- we need to pray that everyone gets out of the way in time to be safe.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Susanne Russell

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay