Monday, October 17, 2005

Good Morning!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Two more weeks left in this study.

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: 1 John 3:1-11

Today's Discussion:

-- this unit brings into focus yet another aspect of our faith that we tend to gloss over -- the central role of love in our faith. We talk alot about what we believe, and we talk alot about what we should do and shouldn't do, but we neglect to talk about the thing that drives all of that -- love.

-- that's sort of strange, because love is all over the Bible, and is in and around almost every verse. Maybe our issue with love comes from the way that love is marginalized in today's society. Because love is a very selfless thing -- it is focused on someone else. God's love is focused on us. Our love in response should be focused on others and God.

-- that's a dimension we need to bring to our daily prayers -- we should pray with love in mind, whether it is for each others, or the nameless victims of the hurricanes. And it is something we need to bring to our daily lives -- how would we live if we really believed God loved us? And how would we live if we loved others?

Question for Sunday:

-- a lot of writing has been about this topic, but think on this -- what do you think the opposite of love is?

Today's prayer request: Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims

Need to continue to remember this people, whose lives will remain in flux for the forseeable future. Need to pray for them to have peace, for comfort, and for them to get all of the assistance that they need to restore their lives

Today's class member prayer:

Monica Harbarger

Have a great day.

Jay