Good Morning - Friday, September 9, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Hope to see you all on Sunday. 

 

The new unit for this week is Unit  19 Justifying Grace  

 

Focus Scripture for the Week:   Titus 2:11  

 

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. 

 

Today's Scriptures:    Ephesians 2:1-10; 1 Peter 4:1-11; Luke 18:18-30    

 

Today's Discussion:  

 

-- three really good scripture passages to end the week.

 

-- the portion of a verse that stuck with me this morning is the one from Ephesians, talking about how salvation is from faith, not from works, "so that no man could boast"  What if salvation could be earned?  What would church life be like?   What would those who "had it made" be like among those who were who hadn't done enough to be saved?  I can't think that would be a pretty sight at all.  But it is an idea that drives home the fact not only is salvation something we can't earn, it is good thing we can't earn our salvation.

 

-- the scripture that we didn't read this week, but that speaks to what life might be like if we earned our salvation, is the parable about the workers in vineyard.  If you remember, the parable talks about three groups of workers, each recruited at different times of the day -- one first thing in the morning, one at midday, and one just an hour or so before quitting time.  At the end of the day, they all were paid exactly the same.  The ones who worked longer complained, saying it wasn't fair that those working just a couple of hours shouldn't have made the same.  The owner of vinyard told them, what was it to them what the latecomers where paid -- all the workers were paid what was agreed to, and after all, they didn't own the vinyard, and the owner could pay people what ever he wanted.

 

-- one of the things that this parable gets at is own resistance to the idea of salvation by faith, because of our own selfishness.  Sometimes, those who have lived a Christian life, for a long time, don't like the idea that someone can live a terrible life, and at the last minute, on their death bed, get salvation and into heaven.  How can that be fair?  It's like being caught in bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate for a long time, and then just as you get to the wreck that was holding things up, and just before traffic starts to move freely, someone comes along in the lane that was blocked just as it clears, and goes on their way, without having spent all that time in the traffic.

 

-- it is all centered in the idea that God wants all of us to be saved, and he offers to every human, freely, that opportunity.  He offers that grace to all, and in that we should rejoice.

 

Question for Sunday:   

 

-- if you were a vinyard worker, would you have reacted the same way?  Is that a situation that has actually happened to you in your real working life?  Does that parable teach us something also about how we should relate to our employer in issues of pay? 

 

Today's prayer request:   Amanda and David Edwards' daughter Kasey.

We need to continue remember Kasey -- I haven't heard an update, but I don't want us to forget her -- She was having problems with adjusting to school this year.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Krystle Hatton

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Good Morning - Thursday, September 8, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Couple of notes.  I will definitely be there on Sunday.  Also, we need to have some discussion about our next lesson/study idea.  Any suggestions/ideas/thoughts on that?

 

Don't forget that you can find all of the back issues of the daily email on the web at www.leapclass.blogspot.com.  

 

The new unit for this week is Unit  19 Justifying Grace  

 

Focus Scripture for the Week:   Titus 2:11  

 

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. 

 

Today's Scriptures:    Acts 15:1-11     

 

Today's Discussion:   

 

--  this chapter is a variation on the theme/topic in yesterday's scripture.

 

-- note that Galatians, the book from which we read yesterday, as probably written prior to the church conference written about here in Acts, since the subject that Paul was writing on in Galatians was resolved at the church conference discussed in today's reading.

 

-- the way the question was really framed in this scripture was -- did you have to be Jewish before you became a Christian?  And the general impetus for that thought was the number of former Pharisees who had converted to Christianity, but still had that legalistic/law approach to faith.

 

-- I think there is something very neat and interesting about this whole episode - sending delegates to a conference, having discussion, agreeing on a solution and sending out a note regarding the decision of the conference, the way that this is reported and detailed and it's similarity to the way we would do things 2,000 years later is just an interesting thing to me.

 

-- Wesley, as you can tell from his writings, was originally in the "works" camp.  He was like the Pharisees in this chapter of Acts that he just felt that their had to be some requirement, some major effort on the part of the person seeking salvation, in order to receive it.  But he eventually was convinced of the nature of justifying grace, which, once he began preaching, put him at odds with the Church of England, and forced him into a path that eventually led to his founding of the Methodist church.

 

Question for Sunday:   

 

-- so, what do you think about this topic?  One of the best examples of the conflict that this approach causes is the idea of deathbed confessions of faith?  Wesley, for a long time, believed that their could not be any such thing, since no works could take place -- what is your thought?

 

Today's prayer request:   Hurricane Katrina survivors

 

They are spread all over the country, and wondering what to do next.  Rachel got a new student, Desmond, in her class yesterday whose family is living here, in Bessemer, in a hotel.  There are hundreds of thousands of families in the same predicament as Desmond's.  We need to remember all of them in our prayers.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Michelle Ray

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Good Morning - Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Did hear yesterday that Joey returned over the weekend from the Gulf Coast.  Valerie's brother Ron was reassigned enroute to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 

 

Don't forget that you can find all of the back issues of the daily email on the web at www.leapclass.blogspot.com.  

 

The new unit for this week is Unit  19 Justifying Grace  

 

Focus Scripture for the Week:   Titus 2:11  

 

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. 

 

Today's Scriptures:    Galatians 2:15-21     

 

Today's Discussion:   

 

-- this passage talks about a topic that we discussed in the past during our study of Romans.

 

-- the Jewish approach to salvation was all centered on the keeping the law -- not just the Ten Commandments, but all of various rules and restrictions, many of which are outlined in the early Old Testament books.  Some of the law had been developed by various rabbis as elaborations or explanations of the scriptures.  The net result was a overwhelming number of rules that a Jew had to follow in order to follow the law, including rules on food, housing, work, relationships, rest, worship, etc. etc.

 

-- the Jewish approach was that someone could earn God's favor and salvation through careful adherence to the law.  In some sense, there was a feeling that God could owe them salvation, if they were very good in keeping the law. This was clearly an example of a works-based approach to forgiveness.

 

-- in this passage, Paul spells out (again) the fact that keeping the law will not bring you to salvation; that man cannot earn salvation. As Paul says, if you could earn your salvation on your own by keeping the law, then why did Christ die?

 

--  while this passage is focused on the particular case of the Jews and their beliefs, its teachings are transferable to anyone who thinks that if they are a "good person" and "always do the right thing" that they will earn God's salvation, without having to profess a belief in Jesus Christ.  Again, it is the Pearly Gates vision of salvation -- do more good things than bad things, so that when St. Peter checks your account, if you are ahead on the good things, they have to let you into heaven.  That is what the Jews thought, and that is what many people are deceived about today.  There is only one way in.

 

Question for Sunday:   

 

-- do you know someone who is trying to earn their way into heaven, rather than believing? 

 

Today's prayer request:   Natalee Holloway's family

 

This story has been pushed completely out of the news due to Katrina and Chief Justice Reinquist dying, but it has been a heart breaking week for the family, with the release of all the suspects and seemingly no resolution in sight at all.  I think that the only prayer now for them is that they find the strength to go on with their lives without the resolution that they had hoped for, and pray that the resolution they want comes one day.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Monica Harbarger

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Good Morning - September 6, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. 

 

Don't forget that you can find all of the back issues of the daily email on the web at www.leapclass.blogspot.com.  

 

The new unit for this week is Unit  19 Justifying Grace  

 

Focus Scripture for the Week:   Titus 2:11  

 

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. 

 

Today's Scriptures:    Romans 5:1-11; Romans 5:12-22     

 

Today's Discussion:   

 

-- scripture for today is both yesterday's and today's readings, to get us caught up.

 

-- I've come to really appreciate the Reflections section of our study so much, since the author does a very good job of making things simple and straightforward.  Justification can be a difficult concept, and I think we will see as much in both the scripture and Wesley's writings.

 

-- let's start this week at the end, and work our way through it.  The main things to remember --

 

-- we could never earn our salvation -- the gulf between us and God is too great.

 

-- our salvation is a gift from God, freely available -- he is the one that justifies us.

 

-- the way we should live our lives -- in obedience and discipleship, should be done as a reaction to what God has done for us, not as an effort to earn our salvation.

 

-- one way to look at this is that to think of the proverbial "Pearly Gates" moment that we all talk about in jokes and stories.  A lot of those stories and jokes build on the idea that the gatekeeper -- St. Peter usually -- looks you up in the book, makes note of everything you've done, and makes a decision about whether to let you come in or not based on what you've done.  And there is a lot of fun and laughter in a lot of those stories.  But we all need to know that that isn't the truth.  There is nothing that could be written down about what we've done to get us past St. Peter.  The only way in is our acceptance of God has done for us, providing Jesus.  Our salvation is not based on an essay question - What did we do?.  Is based on a single True/False question -- did we believe?   And additionally, we don't get graded A, B, C -- it only Pass/Fail. 

 

Question for Sunday:   

 

-- what's the best Pearly Gates story you know?

 

Today's prayer request:   The storm victims of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.   

 

This will be with us for a while, and real dimensions of the tragedy are still yet to be known -- the dead, the damage, the length of time before an entire city begins anew.  And we need to remember those who have gone to help out, keep security, and to do rescue and recovery, because it is going to be difficult for them as well.  I haven't heard if Joey Harbarger is back yet or not, and Valerie's brother Ron Bowen (a Birmingham policeman) left yesterday for Harahan(?) outside of New Orleans to do security.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Brad Douglas 

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay