Friday, July 8, 2005

Good Morning!

Just a reminder that today's email, plus past emails and other resources, are available at our class web site at www.leapclass.blogspot.com

Note -- I'm pretty sure that I will not be at class on this Sunday -- unless the weather gets bad quicker from Dennis.

The new unit for this week is Unit 10 , The Centrality of Scripture

Focus Scripture for the Week: John 5:39

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.

Today's topic: Acts 18:24-28, Romans 4:1-8, Luke 24:13-35

-- finishing up with the remaining scriptures for the week.

-- true to the title of this unit, these verses of scripture point out how scripture is key to our understanding of God. The Romans passage is an example of how Paul was using scripture to explain and teach the word - he wasn't simply relying on his own persuasive powers. In Acts, the story is of Apollos, someone who was well versed in the scriptures, who was using that information to teach. However, he did not know the full story of Jesus until Aquilla and Priscilla took him aside and added to what he knew from the scriptures by telling the story about Jesus and how he fulfilled the scriptures.

-- the third example, and actually the reading for today, is another example of how Jesus himself used scripture to explain and teach about his coming. As noted, the travelers said that their hearts were burning inside them as Jesus "opened" the scriptures up to them. And remember, what we know as the New Testament did not exist at this time -- it had not been written down yet -- Jesus used the Old Testament to validate his story to this travelers. One thing to note -- in order for Jesus to tell his story this way, and to have the effect on the travelers that he did, they had to have already been very familiar with scripture.

-- so we can take away from this story the idea that in order for God to have that effect on us -- to cause our hearts to burn as we have the scriptures opened us to us -- we need to be readers of scripture. The travelers on the Emmaus road already had been students of scripture, so that is where Jesus started. And again note -- when Jesus wanted to convince the travelers that they should believe in Jesus and his story -- he did it not by pointing to his miracles or other things -- we went back to the scriptures and used them as the basis to present himself as the fulfillment of scripture.

-- what have we learned this week? I think that the primary takeaway is that reading our Bibles is not simply an optional enhancement to our spiritual lives -- it is an essential, fundamental component. It is how we learn and grow as Christians, and how we protect ourselves from false teachings. Over and over again, Jesus went back to scripture to teach and communicate to others. Sounds like a pretty good endorsement of their importance.

Today's prayer request: Family of one of Michelle Ray's co-workers.

Two people drowned at Smith Lake over the 4th holiday, and one of them was the long time boyfriend of the daughter of one of Michelle's co-workers. We need to pray for all of the families involved

Today's class member prayer:

Joey Harbarger

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Good Morning!

The new unit for this week is Unit 10 , The Centrality of Scripture

Focus Scripture for the Week: John 5:39

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.

Today's topic: Mark 12:18-27

-- to put today's scripture in context, this event took place during Jesus' stay in Jerusalem the week leading up to the crucifixion. He was in the Temple teaching, and one group after another from the various Jewish sects were coming up to him with questions, trying to stump him and prove that he was not the son of God. The passage immediately prior to this question was the one about whether they should pay taxes to Caesar.

-- while not exactly on topic for our lesson, I think that it is interesting that these Jewish groups, faced with numerous examples of Jesus' extraordinary power from his miracles and healing, felt that the way they could prove that Jesus was not who he said he was by asking him really tough questions.

-- the lesson for us falls into the "what would Jesus do" area -- obviously, to answer their questions, in the context that his challengers would somewhat accept, Jesus had to know the scriptures very well. Now there is the question as to whether Jesus had to study the scriptures or already knew them, but the example is that he used scriptures to answer the Pharisees and Sadducees and others questions. The lesson for us is that the more we know our Bibles, the more that we can use it to answer the questions, even the tough ones, that we have to answer in life.

-- the other lesson that we can take away from this verse, and others related to it, is that we can be very good about reading scripture, but if we don't read it with our minds and hearts open to receiving God's message, then we can miss the point entirely. All of the men who confronted Jesus in the Temple during this time were considered very learned men - people who had devoted their entire lives to the study of God's word -- and they all missed the fact that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the scriptures.

Today's prayer request: America's friends in London .

No country is as much a friend of the United States as the people of the UK. We need to pray for them, and particularly the people of London, as they deal with today's terrorists attacks.

Today's class member prayer:

Jeri Wesson

Have a great day.

Jay

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Good Morning!

The new unit for this week is Unit 10 , The Centrality of Scripture

Focus Scripture for the Week: John 5:39

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.

Today's topic: Acts 17:10-15

-- today's scripture is about one of the uses of scripture, which is for our own use in evaluating preaching and teaching that we hear. In this example, the people of Berea were listening to Paul making the case for Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures, and the people made it there point to read their scriptures and come to their own conclusion about whether Paul's teachings were true.

-- for us to use scripture in this way, we need to be familiar with scripture, which is another reason why we should read regularly, if not daily. It is easy to be deceived by a narrow reading of one particular passage of scripture if we don't know that it is a very narrow reading from our own experience and knowledge.

-- the Bible is a big book, and it can be intimidating to think that our charge is to become familiar with all of it. That kind of thinking can freeze us into not reading at all, since it seems an overwhelming task. But doing what we are doing in this class -- first with the study of Luke we finished this spring, and now with this study -- is the exact way to approach it -- bit by bit, consistently studying parts until, over time, we have studied most of it.

-- the important thing is not speed in which we read through the Bible, but the consistency of our effort and the quality of the time that we spend with that part which we read. Wesley, in his first section, gives us some pointers on how to approach our reading.

Today's prayer request: Family of one of Michelle Ray's co-workers.

Two people drowned at Smith Lake over the 4th holiday, and one of them was the long time boyfriend of the daughter of one of Michelle's co-workers. We need to pray for all of the families involved.

Today's class member prayer:

Jay Waters

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Good Morning!

The new unit for this week is Unit 10 , The Centrality of Scripture

Focus Scripture for the Week: John 5:39

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.

Today's topic: Luke 4:16-22

-- this week's unit outlines the case for making reading your Bible a regular priority.

-- there are those who feel that the Bible does have something to say to them, but they use it like a reference book -- in that they read it only when they have a problem, and they hope that they can find the right teaching through their hit and miss approach. And I am one that that feels that God will usually direct you to the right passage in the Bible if you are in this mode.

-- but there is much more to be gained through a consistent reading program, such as what our study is about. Everyday Bible reading keeps the dialog up between you and God, and it constantly places new learning and understanding in front of you, often in ways that you don't realize until after the time that you have put that new learning and understanding to use.

-- a regular reading program also helps you in that you will keep coming across the same verses over and over. For instance, today's scripture from Luke I've read and studied in the past few months because our last class study was a daily bible study on Luke. Other times, passages that Bobby will preach on are passages that I've encountered earlier through this study or others. And to me, listening to a sermon on a verse or passage that I've already read and studied makes the sermon more interesting and more useful.

-- Wesley's first blurb covers many of the ideas about reading scripture that we've covered or discussed. I will remind you of one that is mentioned, because we have not really discussed it much in class lately. That is the approach of taking time with a passage -- reading it slowly, pausing after every word or every few words, and thinking and meditating on each word or passage for a few moments. Our suggested daily study routine asks us to do the same. If the Bible is to speak to us, we need to make sure we build in time for us to listen.

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

He is still in his almost full body cast as he continues to recover from surgery, but the latest check of the hip by his doctors shows that it is healing is proceeding very well. We just need to keep him and his family in our prayers as we get him and them through this.

Today's class member prayer:

Andrew Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay