Friday, October 21, 2005

Good Morning!

Tonight is our SS party --- not too late yet if you are planning to come. Just need to let Monica know you are coming, and get some guidance on what side or dessert to bring. Her email is PHimpactyouth@aol.com, so drop her a note if you can attend.

More party information: Monica and Joey's house is at 4613 Nicholas Drive in Letson Farms. Show starts at 6P.

Don't let the fact that you may not have been to class discourage you from coming to the party -- as I mentioned yesterday, our in-person class attendance has been down a good bit, so we have been functioning mostly as a virtual class. If you are able to come, chances are you'll spend time with someone who has been there as much as you have (or me, for that matter).

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: John 15:12-17, Micah 6:6-8, 1 John 4:7-12

Today's Discussion:

-- three verses to close out our week.

-- I was struck by the passage from John and from Micah, both of which get at the idea that we as Christians are called to love, even commanded to love. In the passage from John, Jesus says a couple of times "this is my command". In the passage from Micah, the writer talks about "what does the Lord require".

-- in our limited view of love, we have a sense that you can't be commanded to love -- our society recoils at the idea of arranged marriages, for instance, for that very reason -- if marriage is about love, how can too people be forced to marry who don't know each other, much less love each other? When we are kids, and we get upset about having to visit relatives we don't like, we are told that we need to love our them because they are our kin. We believe that love simply happens when it is appropriate, and that it is simply out of our control to turn it off or on at will.

-- into this culture comes Jesus and his command that we should love each other, and not just in a trite, shallow way, but a deep and meaningful way. In the verses from John, he talks about a love that would die for friends. How can we get from where we are -- that love is a something that we can't control or command -- to where Jesus wants us to be -- which is where love is something that we show to everyone.

-- I think the key is in the idea of how we show love. Jesus doesn't just tell us to love each other; his teachings give us numerous examples of how we should love others -- the things that we should do for others that demonstrate our love for them. Our built in resistance to loving everyone is rooted, I think, in the idea that we just don't want to do things for everyone, or we don't want to put their needs ahead of our own. We want to be about ourselves. Being a follower of Christ turns that attitude around, and asks us to be focused on others.

-- So I think that when Jesus is talking about loving each other, and commanding us to love, he is really asking us to change our relationship with others -- to move away from our self-centeredness, to a life where we are focused on others and their needs and lives, where we care about others. We talked earlier in the week about the old mental exercise about identifying the opposite of love. The initial response many people have is that the opposite is hate, but many others identify the opposite of love as indifference. That thought really works here, because the thing I think Jesus wants to change in us is our indifference to those around us.

Question for Sunday:

-- who have you been indifferent to?

Today's prayer request: Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

We need to remember these men and women. With everything else that has gone on in the US with the hurricanes, etc. and with Jay Michael coming back home, we tend to forget that we still have a lot of soldiers stationed there and in danger there. In the spirit of our lesson today, think about the love that they are showing for us by serving. Need to remember them, and their families back here in the States.

Today's class member prayer:

Christie Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay