Friday, July 1, 2005

Good Morning!

Remember about the Fourth of July celebration on Sunday, July 3 at the church.

The new unit for this week is Unit 9 , Marks of a Methodist

Focus Scripture for the Week: Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Today's topic:

Just a fyi, I will be at church on Sunday. Hope to see all of you there, but if you are traveling this weekend, be careful.

-- Given that we are finishing Unit 9, we are a little more than 1/3 of the way through the study, and that today is July 1, the beginning of the second half of the year, thought I would throw out some thoughts for us to think about at this point. I always like to think about July 1 like I do January 1 -- a good time to make some resolutions to do better, be better, etc. My January 1 resolutions are usually long gone by now, and I don't like waiting all the way to next January to try again, so I use July 1 as start over date.

-- Additionally, this week's study is called Marks of a Methodist, and there is some excellent commentary in our lesson this week about that, commentary that provides us some benchmarks to measure our own growth and performances as Christians and Methodists.

-- Not thinking about our study, but just our class committment, how do you think you are doing? Are you doing more than you were doing prior to the start of the class, in terms of setting aside a time daily for prayer, reading, etc.? Do you feel like you are making that a habit -- something that is becoming part of what you are about? What kind of grade would you give yourself on meeting your committment to the class?

-- Do you find yourself doing a better job of incorporating your faith into your daily life at work, at home, etc.? How are you doing generally vs. Wesley's 22 questions? (A link to these are on the class web site). How are you doing on some of the topics we have already studied? How are you doing

-- The important thing to note, and the thing to take encouragment from, is this Wesleyan idea of "moving towards perfection" -- the idea that we never going to be perfect, and we might not be all the Christian that we can be as begin our journey, but we should be doing something everyday that moves us in that direction, and that Methodism provides us a framework for getting better as a follower of Christ. Everyday we should feel like we have done something that moves us a little closer to being that follower of Christ that we are called to be.

Today's prayer request: Holiday travelers

July 4th holiday is the deadliest time of the year for accidents -- let's pray for safety for everyone who is traveling this weekend. To be a little more focused, and perhaps make it a little more concrete for ourselves, let's specifically pray for everyone who passes our church on the interstate this weekend.

Today's class member prayer:

Melissa Herring

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Good Morning!

Sorry, but I just couldn't get an email out yesterday.

Remember about the Fourth of July celebration on Sunday, July 3 at the church.

The new unit for this week is Unit 9 , Marks of a Methodist

Focus Scripture for the Week: Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Today's scriptures: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Philippians 2:12-18

-- in both of these sections, Paul outlines the way he wants the Christians in Corith and Philippi to act; not only because it is right way to live, but also so that they will be witnesses to the Christ to others through their living.

-- the truth of the matter is, whether we are talking about Corinth or Philippi 2,000 years ago, or Birmingham, Alabama today, living as committed Christian will make you stand out from the crowd.

-- While he didn't use these exact words, what Paul is outlining is what he considers the marks of a Christian, and asking his readers to aspire to those. As Paul says in the beginning of the passage from Corinthians, he doesn't want the way that Christians are living to "put a stumbling block in anyone's path", because to do so would discredit Paul's - and their's - ministry.

-- if you don't think that happens, that Christians can discredit the ministry of the church by the way they live, just not the newspapers. How many times do you hear of someone in trouble with the law, having some position of responsibility with the church -- pastor, teacher, administrative or just active member. While no one says anything or writes anything specific, you can just see and feel the church being diminished and discredited as the story is reported.

-- as Wesley notes at the end of the long section in this unit, after he has outlined what he considered to be the "marks" of a Methodist, he says that some would say that the marks he outlines are nothing more than what you should expect from any Christian -- which Wesley says is exactly his point. Being a Methodist is not about being a Methodist, it is about becoming a more committed Christian.

-- that said, I hope that you are seeing that there is meaning in your decision to become a Methodist Christian. Often times, we tend to think of the Protestant denominations as interchangable and generic, and not adding any value to our Christian experience. Our tendency is to equate being a Methodist or Baptist or whatever else to have no more value than saying we are an Alabama fan or Auburn fan -- just some identification about who we cheer for. Think about it -- if you asked someone at your workplace where they go to church, and they say Baptist or Methodist or Episcopal -- does their response automatically trigger in you some sense of how they are living out their Christian life? But I think that we are all learning that if we go beyond simply attending a Methodist church to living our lives as a Methodist, then there is whole other level of meaning that we can add to the term Methodist, one that speaks to how we are trying to live out our Christian life.

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:

Susanne Russell

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Good Morning!

On the road this morning in Miami -- short note today.

Remember about the Fourth of July celebration on Sunday, July 3 at the church.

The new unit for this week is Unit 9 , Marks of a Methodist

Focus Scripture for the Week: Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Today's scripture: John 3: 22-23

-- in reading the long passage from John Wesley in this unit, this line jumped out at me -- "In retirement or company, in leisure, business or conversation, his heart is ever with the Lord." To me, that is a personal goal that we should we aspiring to.

the scripture choice today I will say is a bit odd, because I don't see how it ties in with, or moves ahead, our lesson for the week. Perhaps it is simply the idea of Jesus and John being about the work of the church, or the fact that they were so many people coming.

-- the long passage from Wesley lays out a very high standard of not just behavior, but of a way of thinking and living, that I think can be discouraging because it is such a high standard. The idea though is that we move towards that standard, steadily and daily -- we shouldn't get discouraged or feel guilty because we can't get there right away.

Today's prayer request: Natalee Holloway and her family.

are more than three weeks into this, and still no resolution. Her mother, in particular, has been under tremendous strain - not just from the disappearance, but from the constant media pressure. Pray for Natalee's safe return, and for continued strength for her family and friends.

Today's class member prayer:

Kyle Findlay

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, June 27, 2005

Good Morning!

Hope you had a good weekend. I will be at class this coming Sunday -- thanks for being patient with my schedule.

Also, just a reminder -- we had trouble with our email system at work a couple of times this past week, so the morning emails went out late or not at all. Usually, even if that happens, I can post here, so if you don't have the morning email, try here.

The new unit for this week is Unit 9 , Marks of a Methodist

Focus Scripture for the Week: Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Today's scripture: John 3:16-21

-- very familiar scripture for us this week. One of the challenges of reading familar scripture is that we tend to gloss over the words, thinking that we have already learned everything there is to know from it. We should try our best to read all scripture, even very familiar scripture, with a sense of expectation -- that we will learn something new. Sometimes, you have to train yourself to read it slowly, or out loud, as a way of experiencing it in a different way.

-- the commentary in my Bible had an interesting comment on this verse. It said that many people - particularly people who don't know Christ -- make decisions as if this life -- their life on earth -- is the only life we have. Christians have a different perspective on things.

-- I think that the Reflections section of the lesson today captures perfectly and completely what I think we want from this class. I think that we all can read that section and say yes, that is what I want to be about. But "wantin' ain't gettin'" as the quote from Gone with the Wind says -- we have to make the effort everyday. And that is the discipline that we are striving for in the class -- in setting time aside for reading scripture and prayer everyday, in examining all that we do through a particular point of view, in taking seriously the committment that we have made to each other.

-- if you haven't looked at them lately, go to the web site and look for the link to Wesley's 22 Questions -- they provide an interesting guide for daily living. These were the questions that one of Wesley's first prayer groups/classes adopted as their committment to each other. Maybe we should specifically adopt these questions for our own use, or develop our own version of the questions.

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:

Nicole McKinney

Have a great day.

Jay