Wednesday, October 19, 2005 - Party Edition!

Good Morning!

Monica needs to get a count for the Sunday School party on Friday night, so we need to let her know how many to expect. Her email is PHimpactyouth@aol.com, so drop her a note if you can attend.

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.

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: Matthew 22:34-40

Today's Discussion:

-- when you have a unit entitled "God's Love"; the scriptures you are going to study for that unit are going to be some of the Bible's best-known verses. This Greatest Hits tour continues on today, with Jesus' summary of the law and prophets into two commandments.

-- couple of thoughts about these verses -- first, in my experience, for some reason these verses aren't put forth as instruction or a guide to living. When you think about the Bible verses that tell you how you should live as a Christian, most people -- I don't think -- will come to these verses. I don't know why that is, and I don't know if I'm right, but that is my impression.

-- the second thought is there is that idea of love being put front and center, and I guess the question for us is whether the idea of love is front and center in our Christian life. And think about how that runs counter to the idea that is popular in our culture of "looking out for number 1". When Jesus is talking about loving your neighbor as you love yourself, he talking about that looking out for number 1 approach, and spinning it around to focus on others.

-- the cynic would ask how do you expect to get ahead or how do you expect to be happy, if you don't put yourself first. The Christian knows how to answer that question, in a way that cynic wouldn't understand.

Question for Sunday:

- in Wesley's writings for this unit, you get a sense that his idea of moving on to perfection is really wrapped up in how well you live out these two commandments from Jesus. The closer you are to loving God every minute of every day, and loving your neighbor, the closer you are to perfection. A question would be then -- how much are these two commandments front and center in your life -- when you talk about being a better Christian, are these the verses that come to mind? If not, which verses guide you in your walk.

Today's prayer request: Our polictical leaders

-- at the city, county, state and national level, we all have people appointed or elected to represent us and your views, and to manage the business of the government. We need to pray for these people, so that they may go about their business -- our business -- in the best way possible. To help us focus, let's pray for President Bush, who daily bears a huge burden in terms of running the country.

Today's class member prayer:

Krystle Hatton

Have a great day.

Jay