Friday, May 27, 2005

Good Morning!

I will definitely not be in class this Sunday morning. Is there someone who can volunteer to lead the discussion this Sunday? One thing we definitely need to do is to write the web address above on the board so that everyone knows about it -- we have a few folks in the class who don't do email, or have problems with their email.

This week, we are working on Unit 4, Life in Christ

Focus Scripture for the Week: Colossians 2:6

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Today's scripture: Colossians 3:1-11 and Colossians 3:12-17

-- as discussed yesterday, the scripture selections this week are moving more and more towards specific instruction as to what "Life in Christ" means.

-- notice that I went ahead and included the Saturday scripture in this, since it was immediately adjacent to today's reading.

-- "set your hearts on things above" and "set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" are the summary verses for what this passage of scripture is all about. Following, we get a very good list of what we should and shouldn't do as Christians.

-- there isn't anything on the list that really is against the law -- there are things there that if you pursue them, you'll probably break some law in your pursuit of these traits, but no policeman is going to come to your house and arrest you for greed or malice or your language. These are things that we have to police ourselves, a standard that we have to make our own effort to live up to. And each of these is a daily battle, not only because they are elements of what Paul calls "our earthly nature", but also because the world around us somewhat celebrates, or at least tolerates, some of these behaviors.

-- one of the points of the daily effort of prayer and study is to help us keep our hearts and minds set on things above -- the more we are able to start our day with prayer and scripture, the more likely we are able to keep our "earthly nature" at bay.

Today's prayer request: Monica's nephew, Alex Lloyd

Alex is going to have a long-term presence on our list, due to the condition of his hip and the long term nature of his treatment.

Today's class member prayer:

Ron Ray

Have a great day.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Good Morning!

If you haven't been to this page before, here's what's here: all of our daily emails, links to Wesley's 22 questions, the Pleasant Hill web site, and the main Methodist church web site. It also has what I call "Culture Corner", which are book, movie and music reviews done by Methodists. I hope to continue to expand this into a site you can use everyday, or just when you can't get to your email.

Note - I found out yesterday that I will definitely not be in class this Sunday morning. Is there someone who can volunteer to lead the discussion this Sunday?

On other interesting thing -- I just happened to find two other Methodist churches that have just started this study. The Aldersgate Class at Fairfield Glade United Methodist Church in Tennessee is doing the study, as well as the full church at Pinehurst United Methodist Church in North Carolina, so I thought that was neat.

This week, we are working on Unit 4, Life in Christ

Focus Scripture for the Week: Colossians 2:6

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Today's scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

-- note that as we have moved through the scripture readings for this week, we have moved from encouragement for living for Christ to some specific instruction on how to do that. In that direction, the key scriptures for us in this passage are verses 3 and 4, which provides a starting point on how use Christ's life as an example for our own.

-- the commentary in my Bible notes that nothing in verse 3 (consider others better than yourselves) should lead you to putting yourself down, but instead it is a mindset that is focused on others. There is a sacrificial element to this approach to living, since we are giving up our "me first" approach

-- today, I read the Wesley segment that starts on the bottom of page 40 (From the preceding considerations . . . ), and I'm not sure exactly what he is getting at. It seems to me that he is saying that one of the principal ways that non-believers knock Christianity is by saying "he/she is a Christian, and look how they are living -- what good is that" I think he goes on to say, essentially, that there are a lot of people who call themselves Christian, but they really aren't, because they simply don't live a Christ-focused life. This goes back to our discussion and reading for Monday -- there are lot of people who do what it takes to be considered by the world to be religious, but very few who do what it takes to be Christian.

Today's prayer request: Megan's student Natalie

As Megan wrote yesterday, Natalie is actually having open-heart surgery today.

Today's class member prayer:

Joey Harbarger

Have a great day.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Good Morning!

Note - I'm not 100% sure, but there is a pretty good chance that I won't be able to make class on Sunday morning. I'll know for certain on Thursday, but just in case, is there someone who can volunteer to lead the discussion this Sunday?

This week, we are working on Unit 4, Life in Christ

Focus Scripture for the Week: Colossians 2:6

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Today's scripture: John 12:20-26

-- for the purposes of our focus this week, there are two verses we should focus on. One is verse 25 -- "the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life". Our focus this week is about life in Christ, and this verse is really about that priority. We have a choice about living for ourselves and the world, and making it a priority to maintain that life, or making our life for and in Christ a priority.

-- the next verse is a companion to that -- "whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be" and to me, essentially points out that making life in Christ a priority is about being obedient to Christ." These two verses seem to me to be very supportive of the focus scripture that we have this week, noted above.

-- I feel like like I'm getting like Wesley, in that everything I'm writing has quotation marks in it.

-- the passage from Wesley that begins on page 39 and goes to 40 (while man is in a mere natural state . . .) is a very good passage, and one that gets at what we individually want to happen to us -- this idea that are eyes and ears and heart will be more open to seeing and hearing what God is saying to us and what he is doing for us. We talked about that one of the things that happens as we pursue a daily routine of prayer and reading, is that we will be more likely to see things in our day that pertain to what we have been reading or praying about -- and it is more about our ability to perceive those things because we are more in tune with God.

-- don't forget what we discussed about money this past week -- the idea is that we would look for an opportunity to make a choice to do something a little more inexpensively, less extravagantly, and redirect those dollars to something such as a donation or a tithe.

Today's prayer request: Megan's student Natalie

Natalie is having open-heart surgery today.

Today's class member prayer:

Jerri Wesson

Have a great day.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Good Morning!

Also available at http://leapclass.blogspot.com/.

This week, we are working on Unit 4, Life in Christ

Focus Scripture for the Week: Colossians 2:6

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Today's scripture: Acts 17:22-28

Notes:

--- the verse that I really like from the scripture reading is from verse 27 -- "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." There is a great deal of encouragement in that verse.

-- the second reading from Wesley has a very nice explanation of what this section is about, which is really about going beyond the obvious. When we first discussed this study, we talked about jumping into the deep end of the pool. The passage from Wesley is almost like describing what the shallow end of the pool is like, with his three points about what the religion of the world considers a religious person -- doing no harm, the outward thing like robbery, etc. -- doing good, or being charitable -- and using some of the means of grace, at least going to church and to Communion. Wesley characterizes this as something that will not satisfy the soul hungry for God, a soul that wants something higher and deeper than this. And I will say that I have a sense that all of us in our class knows exactly what Wesley is talking about there, and thus the willingness to embrace and practice what is presented by this study.

-- we know that there are a lot of people who don't even get to doing those three basic points that Wesley outlined, and there is something to be said for bringing people to that point -- where they refrain from sin, they give to the poor, and they attend church. But there is much more there, much more to do in our walk, and our call is to seek that for ourselves, and then model and share that behavior with the others who can't see or don't know that there is more.

Today's prayer request: Nelson Ferreiro, a family friend of Megan Douglas

Nelson was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, and had surgery to remove the tumor. However, they could not remove all of it, and he was given 2 - 6 months to live. We need to pray for him and his family.

Today's class member prayer:

Jay Waters

Have a great week.

Monday, May 23, 2005

This week, we are working on Unit 4, Life in Christ

Focus Scripture for the Week: Colossians 2:6

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Today's scripture: John 11:17-27

Notes:

-- the scripture today about Lazarus doesn't focus on Jesus raising Lazarus, but rather Martha's interaction with Jesus when he arrived. It is in these verses that we can see what Martha believed, and how deeply.

-- this is another scripture where Jesus asks one of his trusted believers what they believed. In Luke, Jesus asks his disciples "who do you say that I am?" Here is John, he asks Martha, again another devoted follower, "do you believe this?"

-- it is interesting to me that these questions get asked of his most trusted and devoted followers, not the crowds of the curious and the new believers. And I think that the process of answering that question, both for Peter and Martha, helped to solidify their faith. There is something about saying something out loud; of answering a direct question directly, that builds up our commitment and faith. When we join the church, we are asked a direct question about what we believe, but we are rarely asked again, and we rarely have to answer again.

-- the Reflections section of our reading for this week, in a way, asks us that direct question about what we believe. In that reading, there is a real challenge for us to answer. Early on in that section, it says that "the simple spiritual disciplines of regular worship, Bible study, prayer, participation in the Lord's Supper and doing good, is not all that life in Christ includes". We are in four weeks into a study that is already challenging us to make more time each day for expressing our faith, and now it is telling us that that isn't enough. That could be a discouraging, but don't let it be.

-- think on it this way -- our initial commitment to this study, is about making time - say 15-30 minutes -- during our day to spend time focusing on Jesus and his word. This section is about how we approach the other 23+ hours each day -- how we live out what we have learned, about how loudly we answer the question "do you believe this?" with our lives.

Today's prayer request: Monica's nephew, Alex Lloyd

Alex is going to have a long-term presence on our list, due to the condition of his hip and the long term nature of his treatment

Today's class member prayer:

Andrew Peebles

Have a great week.