Good Morning - Friday, September 9, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Hope to see you all on Sunday. 

 

The new unit for this week is Unit  19 Justifying Grace  

 

Focus Scripture for the Week:   Titus 2:11  

 

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. 

 

Today's Scriptures:    Ephesians 2:1-10; 1 Peter 4:1-11; Luke 18:18-30    

 

Today's Discussion:  

 

-- three really good scripture passages to end the week.

 

-- the portion of a verse that stuck with me this morning is the one from Ephesians, talking about how salvation is from faith, not from works, "so that no man could boast"  What if salvation could be earned?  What would church life be like?   What would those who "had it made" be like among those who were who hadn't done enough to be saved?  I can't think that would be a pretty sight at all.  But it is an idea that drives home the fact not only is salvation something we can't earn, it is good thing we can't earn our salvation.

 

-- the scripture that we didn't read this week, but that speaks to what life might be like if we earned our salvation, is the parable about the workers in vineyard.  If you remember, the parable talks about three groups of workers, each recruited at different times of the day -- one first thing in the morning, one at midday, and one just an hour or so before quitting time.  At the end of the day, they all were paid exactly the same.  The ones who worked longer complained, saying it wasn't fair that those working just a couple of hours shouldn't have made the same.  The owner of vinyard told them, what was it to them what the latecomers where paid -- all the workers were paid what was agreed to, and after all, they didn't own the vinyard, and the owner could pay people what ever he wanted.

 

-- one of the things that this parable gets at is own resistance to the idea of salvation by faith, because of our own selfishness.  Sometimes, those who have lived a Christian life, for a long time, don't like the idea that someone can live a terrible life, and at the last minute, on their death bed, get salvation and into heaven.  How can that be fair?  It's like being caught in bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate for a long time, and then just as you get to the wreck that was holding things up, and just before traffic starts to move freely, someone comes along in the lane that was blocked just as it clears, and goes on their way, without having spent all that time in the traffic.

 

-- it is all centered in the idea that God wants all of us to be saved, and he offers to every human, freely, that opportunity.  He offers that grace to all, and in that we should rejoice.

 

Question for Sunday:   

 

-- if you were a vinyard worker, would you have reacted the same way?  Is that a situation that has actually happened to you in your real working life?  Does that parable teach us something also about how we should relate to our employer in issues of pay? 

 

Today's prayer request:   Amanda and David Edwards' daughter Kasey.

We need to continue remember Kasey -- I haven't heard an update, but I don't want us to forget her -- She was having problems with adjusting to school this year.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Krystle Hatton

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay