Friday, August 5, 2005

Good Morning!

I will see you guys on Sunday. Now that summer is starting to wind down, I hope that all of the traveling that all of us have been doing will start to settle down and more of us can get to class, including myself. We are only just a bit over halfway through, so there is plenty of this study left.

The new unit for this week is Unit 14 -- Forgiveness

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scriptures: Acts 10:34-43, Luke 5-1-26, Mark 11-20-26

Today's Discussion:

-- these are our last three scripture readings for the week.

-- the three cover a variety of things, and our topic this week of forgiveness is the thing we will focus on. In general, all three passages are hear to give us assurance that Jesus is the way to forgiveness. They are, in a way, designed to help alleviate the doubt we might have forgiveness that plagued John and Charles Wesley for so long.

-- the Acts passage is primarily Peter's testimony that Jesus can forgive sins, that he did die on a cross but Peter himself saw him and ate with him after he had been dead and buried. Peter's sermon, for our focus hits two points -- what the plan for forgiveness was (Jesus coming and dying on a cross and being raised again), and his eyewitness testimony that it actually happened.

-- the Luke passage, as regards forgiveness, there are two things -- one are a recounting of miracles that Jesus performed, and then we have one particular miracle that combines forgiveness and proving Jesus' power. The story of the crippled man being lowered through the roof of a house would be interesting if it was a healing miracle alone, but the way the story happened, it is even more remarkable. Jesus told the man first that his sins were forgiven. The attending Pharisees and such correctly thought that only God can forgive sins, and Jesus (heard?) what they were thinking. And Jesus' response is right on the money -- it is easy to say "Your sins are forgiven" - I could say it, you could say it, anyone could say it without any risk of contradiction because you can't prove it. But it is far more difficult to say to a crippled man "Stand up and walk", because that can be proved or disproved immediately. And Jesus' ability to tell the crippled man to walk gives us assurance that when he tells us that "Your sins are forgiven" it is so.

-- the third passage, from Mark, has two particular thoughts about forgiveness -- one is that we need to have confidence and faith in God when we pray, and secondly, that as we are praying, that we need to forgive others as we pray. This passage from Mark echoes other passages throughout the Bible, where our willingness to forgive others is linked to God's willingness to forgive us. Who are we to be stingier with forgiveness than God? Why should we have higher standards?

Question for Sunday:

-- do you know of anyone who has refused for a long time to forgive someone for some transgression? How has that effected that person?

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

Alex is a long-term prayer project because of the nature of his hip condition. He continues to recover from his surgery, and we need to pray for his continued recovery.

Today's class member prayer:

Brigitte Severance

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, August 4, 2005

Good Morning!

The new unit for this week is Unit 14 -- Forgiveness

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scripture: Colossians 2:8-15

Today's Discussion:

-- a new passage to me -- hadn't read this particular one before.

-- in the spirit of the lesson topic, this scripture is a restatement and a reassurance to us that God can forgive our sins and that that forgiveness comes to us through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

-- though we may not think that reassurance that God can and will forgive our sins is important -- we all may be completely comfortable about that -- not everyone is completely convinced that God can do that. Even Wesley -- as we can see from his writings -- had a hard time and wasn't completely reassured until his Aldersgate experience.

-- though it is off-topic a bit, verse 8 of our reading I think is particularly interesting in light of our daily news -- "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ". Think about that scripture in light of all the Tom Cruise publicity over Scientology, or other celebrities who have adopted certain belief systems. For whatever reason, so many celebrities adopt these "hollow and deceptive philosophies", and many average members of the public follow them to these belief systems. In Paul's day, there was the worship of idols and other "gods", and there were those who lived by certain philosophies that had no deity attached to them, they were just teachings of some gifted but misguided philosophers. In that respect, nothing much has changed in 2,000 years.

Question for Sunday:

-- do you know anyone who has, or is currently, living their life based on something like Scientology?

Today's prayer request: Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Once Jay Michael came home, I sort of lost focus on our troops overseas. But there still are thousands of soldiers still there, and all of them are in danger every day. We need to pray for the safety of all of these, and for victory over their enemies who seek to harm them.

Today's class member prayer:

Christie Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Good Morning!

Good morning from Chicago - headed home today.

The new unit for this week is Unit 14 -- Forgiveness

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scripture: Psalm 103 1:1-14

Today's Discussion:

-- today's scripture from Psalms is one that reassures us about God's view of forgiveness.

-- to me, there are two key thoughts in this passage about forgiveness -- the completeness of God's forgiveness, and the value of his forgiveness.

-- one is the idea expressed in verses 3 that God redeems all of our sins -- not just some of them, not just the little ones, or the big ones, but all of them. His forgiveness is complete. Verse 12 puts it even more poetically -- as far as the east is from the west is how far, how completely, God has removed our sins from us.

-- the second is in verse 4 and verse 10 -- the idea of the value of the forgiveness God provides -- he has redeemed our life from the pit. Without God's forgiveness, we are condemned. In verse 10, this idea is repeated, by saying that he does not treat as our sins deserve. Because of this, we should be thankful to God for the gift of his forgiveness. One of the dangers I think that we have is that we undervalue God's forgiveness because it is easy to ask for and receive -- but we should never forget the promise implied here and elsewhere in the scriptures -- God's forgiveness saves us from punishment. While God forgives and forgets, we should not be forgetful about our forgiveness -- we should always remember what God's forgiveness has given to us.

Question for Sunday:

-- How often do you thank God for the forgiveness he has provided for you?

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

Alex is a long-term prayer project because of the nature of his hip condition. He continues to recover from his surgery, and we need to pray for his continued recovery.

Today's class member prayer:

New father Chris Wesson

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Good Morning!

Good morning from Chicago - another clear and hot day here.

Don't forget that our site on the web -- www.leapclass.blogspot.com -- has the current daily email, plus all of the back emails posted, plus links to other information from the United Methodist Church.

The new unit for this week is Unit 14 -- Forgiveness

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scripture: 1 John 1:5-10

Today's Discussion:

-- this is an interesting take on the forgiveness issue. This passage challenges those who are resistant to asking for forgiveness for their sins because they think they don't need to ask for forgiveness.

-- in this passage, it essentially says that if you think you have not sinned, you are making God out to be liar, because God's word says that all have sinned and fallen short. To claim otherwise is counter to the word of God.

-- so, in the last couple of days, in both our scripture and our other reading, a couple of scenarios -- there are those who feel that their sins are so great that God can't forgive them, and then there are those who feel that they haven't sinned and are not in need of forgiveness. In the first case, we are saying that our sins are too big for God, in the second, that we have not sinned at all. In these cases, for these people to be right, God has to be weak, or wrong or a liar.

-- looking at where we are so far this week, one thing that I draw from this is that the barriers preventing us from asking for forgiveness are ones that we put up ourselves - barriers built based on unwillingness to admit that God's forgiveness is a gift, freely available to all and that God can forgive.

-- as part of our daily prayer life, we ought to ask God for forgiveness for those things we do each day that put distance between us and God.

Question for Sunday:

-- Do you know of someone who thought that they were beyond God's power of forgiveness?

Today's prayer request: Our bosses and others in positions of authority at our workplaces.

Part of our Christian calling is the idea of serving faithfully in our roles as employee and citizen. Let us pray for those in authority at our workplace -- pray for them to make good decisions, to be fair and to be honest.

Today's class member prayer:

Krystle Hatton

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, August 1, 2005

Good Morning!

I'm still in Chicago through Wednesday night, so might not be able to get the emails done the first part of this week.

The new unit for this week is Unit 14

Focus Scripture for the Week: Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened his minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations"

Today's Scripture: Matthew 6:7-14

Today's Discussion:

-- quick couple of thoughts for the day -- we often forget that forgiveness of sins is what this is all about -- that sin puts distance between us and God, and that forgiveness spans that distance and repairs that breach. We are called to be forgiven and to forgive others. That is the key portion of the scripture reading for the day.

-- the commentary for this unit makes a great observation -- that acknowledging the need for forgiveness for sin is something that our society has a hard time coming to grips with - the idea that there is something that you can't handle on your own -- that you need power greater than yourself to give you that forgiveness. You can't even work hard to get it -- it is a gift that only has to be asked for.

Question for Sunday:

-- Who was the last person that you forgave for something that they did?

Today's prayer request: Natalee Holloway's family

They are still in Aruba, and the news continues to be grim. Continue to pray for their strength and for a resolution for the family.

Today's class member prayer:

Michelle Ray

Have a great day.

Jay