Friday, October 21, 2005

Good Morning!

Tonight is our SS party --- not too late yet if you are planning to come. Just need to let Monica know you are coming, and get some guidance on what side or dessert to bring. Her email is PHimpactyouth@aol.com, so drop her a note if you can attend.

More party information: Monica and Joey's house is at 4613 Nicholas Drive in Letson Farms. Show starts at 6P.

Don't let the fact that you may not have been to class discourage you from coming to the party -- as I mentioned yesterday, our in-person class attendance has been down a good bit, so we have been functioning mostly as a virtual class. If you are able to come, chances are you'll spend time with someone who has been there as much as you have (or me, for that matter).

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: John 15:12-17, Micah 6:6-8, 1 John 4:7-12

Today's Discussion:

-- three verses to close out our week.

-- I was struck by the passage from John and from Micah, both of which get at the idea that we as Christians are called to love, even commanded to love. In the passage from John, Jesus says a couple of times "this is my command". In the passage from Micah, the writer talks about "what does the Lord require".

-- in our limited view of love, we have a sense that you can't be commanded to love -- our society recoils at the idea of arranged marriages, for instance, for that very reason -- if marriage is about love, how can too people be forced to marry who don't know each other, much less love each other? When we are kids, and we get upset about having to visit relatives we don't like, we are told that we need to love our them because they are our kin. We believe that love simply happens when it is appropriate, and that it is simply out of our control to turn it off or on at will.

-- into this culture comes Jesus and his command that we should love each other, and not just in a trite, shallow way, but a deep and meaningful way. In the verses from John, he talks about a love that would die for friends. How can we get from where we are -- that love is a something that we can't control or command -- to where Jesus wants us to be -- which is where love is something that we show to everyone.

-- I think the key is in the idea of how we show love. Jesus doesn't just tell us to love each other; his teachings give us numerous examples of how we should love others -- the things that we should do for others that demonstrate our love for them. Our built in resistance to loving everyone is rooted, I think, in the idea that we just don't want to do things for everyone, or we don't want to put their needs ahead of our own. We want to be about ourselves. Being a follower of Christ turns that attitude around, and asks us to be focused on others.

-- So I think that when Jesus is talking about loving each other, and commanding us to love, he is really asking us to change our relationship with others -- to move away from our self-centeredness, to a life where we are focused on others and their needs and lives, where we care about others. We talked earlier in the week about the old mental exercise about identifying the opposite of love. The initial response many people have is that the opposite is hate, but many others identify the opposite of love as indifference. That thought really works here, because the thing I think Jesus wants to change in us is our indifference to those around us.

Question for Sunday:

-- who have you been indifferent to?

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

We need to remember these men and women. With everything else that has gone on in the US with the hurricanes, etc. and with Jay Michael coming back home, we tend to forget that we still have a lot of soldiers stationed there and in danger there. In the spirit of our lesson today, think about the love that they are showing for us by serving. Need to remember them, and their families back here in the States.

Today's class member prayer:

Christie Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Good Morning!

Monica needs to get a count for the Sunday School party on Friday night, so we need to let her know how many to expect. Her email is PHimpactyouth@aol.com, so drop her a note if you can attend.

More party information: Monica and Joey's house is at 4613 Nicholas Drive in Letson Farms. Show starts at 6P. Monica and Joey will have the drinks and chicken fingers -- you just need to bring a dessert or side. Just let her know what you are bringing so she can gently guide you to something else if that item is already on its way.

Don't let the fact that you may not have been to class discourage you from coming to the party -- as I mentioned yesterday, our in-person class attendance has been down a good bit, so we have been functioning mostly as a virtual class. If you are able to come, chances are you'll spend time with someone who has been there as much as you have (or me, for that matter).

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: John 13-31-35

Today's Discussion:

-- the heart of today's scripture is verse 34 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so must love one another."

-- there are two elements of this. First is the somewhat obvious idea that love is the spirit through we which we should relate to each other, it is the thing that drives our response as Christians to those in need. Love also drives our relationships with others -- there is a reason that love and peace are often mentioned together -- is that love does bring peace to many relationships, as well as bringing peace to us as individuals.

-- the second element of the role of love is in verse 35 -- Jesus knows that if his followers live out his command to love others, it is a great witness to non-believers. We know this to be true. Over and over again, we have heard stories about how a Christian, showing love to others, was a powerful witness to someone who observed it and wanted to know more about the Way. We heard it in our Laity Sunday message this past week. The folks we identify as Christians at work and in other places -- we don't know them because we see them praying at work -- we know them because we recognize that they show love to others through their actions.

Question for Sunday:

-- how did you show love today to someone?

Today's prayer request: Two from Brad Douglas:

"First is a coworker of my mothers was badly burned this weekend in Montgomery by a gas can that caught fire beside him.

Also, a coworker of mine's wife had surgery on Wednesday to remove a lump from her breast, she begins her chemo today."

Today's class member prayer:

Chris Wesson

Have a great day.

Jay

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 - Party Edition!

Good Morning!

Monica needs to get a count for the Sunday School party on Friday night, so we need to let her know how many to expect. Her email is PHimpactyouth@aol.com, so drop her a note if you can attend.

Don't let the fact that you may not have been to class discourage you from coming to the party -- as I mentioned yesterday, our in-person class attendance has been down a good bit, so we have been functioning mostly as a virtual class. If you are able to come, chances are you'll spend time with someone who has been there as much as you have.

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours.

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: Matthew 22:34-40

Today's Discussion:

-- when you have a unit entitled "God's Love"; the scriptures you are going to study for that unit are going to be some of the Bible's best-known verses. This Greatest Hits tour continues on today, with Jesus' summary of the law and prophets into two commandments.

-- couple of thoughts about these verses -- first, in my experience, for some reason these verses aren't put forth as instruction or a guide to living. When you think about the Bible verses that tell you how you should live as a Christian, most people -- I don't think -- will come to these verses. I don't know why that is, and I don't know if I'm right, but that is my impression.

-- the second thought is there is that idea of love being put front and center, and I guess the question for us is whether the idea of love is front and center in our Christian life. And think about how that runs counter to the idea that is popular in our culture of "looking out for number 1". When Jesus is talking about loving your neighbor as you love yourself, he talking about that looking out for number 1 approach, and spinning it around to focus on others.

-- the cynic would ask how do you expect to get ahead or how do you expect to be happy, if you don't put yourself first. The Christian knows how to answer that question, in a way that cynic wouldn't understand.

Question for Sunday:

- in Wesley's writings for this unit, you get a sense that his idea of moving on to perfection is really wrapped up in how well you live out these two commandments from Jesus. The closer you are to loving God every minute of every day, and loving your neighbor, the closer you are to perfection. A question would be then -- how much are these two commandments front and center in your life -- when you talk about being a better Christian, are these the verses that come to mind? If not, which verses guide you in your walk.

Today's prayer request: Our polictical leaders

-- at the city, county, state and national level, we all have people appointed or elected to represent us and your views, and to manage the business of the government. We need to pray for these people, so that they may go about their business -- our business -- in the best way possible. To help us focus, let's pray for President Bush, who daily bears a huge burden in terms of running the country.

Today's class member prayer:

Krystle Hatton

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Good Morning!

I think that we are generally beginning to settle on Purpose Driven Life as our next study. Note that that is a 40 Day study, which would work out well from this perspective -- we have about two weeks left in this study, which would leave us about 8 weeks till the end of the year. That would allow us to finish the Purpose Driven Life by the first of the year, when we can start a new study. Any thoughts from anyone on that schedule?

ALSO -- completely different topic -- Sunday School Party this Friday night at Monica and Joey's house. I'll send along some more details today once I get to work, but they are providing the chicken fingers, and we are each supposed to bring something else, which is in her email at the office. It would be great if everyone can come -- we have somewhat of a virtual class, and I think that everyone would like to put faces to the names that show up here in the email.

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: Matthew 5:43-44

Today's Discussion:

-- ok, this is a tough scripture to rally behind. Love your enemies? That is tough. I think that it is actually a lot tougher than we think, because our first impression is that we don't have that many enemies. But we have conflicts with more people than we realize -- from the co-worker that you have a long period of hostility with, to the anoymous stranger who cuts you off in traffic.

-- if you think that this is tough, remember the set up of the scripture, that we should love everyone, even our enemies, because God loves everyone.

-- when we talk about 'moving on to perfection" and the idea that being a Christian is a process that we learn over time, this is one of the big proactive things that does take time to learn how to do -- how do you use your spiritual maturity and knowledge to react to the day-to-day conflicts that occur in everyday life. The better we become at that, the more we are "moving on to perfection".

Question for Sunday:

-- do you believe that love can overcome evil? in all cases? in some cases? what are the limits?

Today's prayer request: Someone you have conflict with at your office

Let's put the scripture to practice. Think of someone at your office that you have a conflict with - either personality-wise, or maybe someone who isn't very nice. Now here's the tricky part -- Jesus didn't say how to pray for them. Here's my suggestion, based on the idea that you praying to overcome the conflict:

-- Pray that you do everything possible in your power to eliminate the conflict -- in other words, examine honestly whether you are the source of the conflict, and to have the courage to change whatever you are doing that contributes to the conflict

-- Pray that that the other person be honest with themselves about the conflict, recognize their contribution to the conflict, if any, and have the courage necessary to change whatever they are doing contributing to the conflict.

-- Pray for the strength and wisdom to deal with the other person with love and gentleness, in an effort to overcome the conflict with love.

-- Pray for the other person to respond in love and to the love that you show.

Today's class member prayer:

Michelle Ray

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, October 17, 2005

Good Morning!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Two more weeks left in this study.

The new unit for this week is Unit 25, God's Love and Ours

Focus Scripture for the Week:

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

Today's Scriptures: 1 John 3:1-11

Today's Discussion:

-- this unit brings into focus yet another aspect of our faith that we tend to gloss over -- the central role of love in our faith. We talk alot about what we believe, and we talk alot about what we should do and shouldn't do, but we neglect to talk about the thing that drives all of that -- love.

-- that's sort of strange, because love is all over the Bible, and is in and around almost every verse. Maybe our issue with love comes from the way that love is marginalized in today's society. Because love is a very selfless thing -- it is focused on someone else. God's love is focused on us. Our love in response should be focused on others and God.

-- that's a dimension we need to bring to our daily prayers -- we should pray with love in mind, whether it is for each others, or the nameless victims of the hurricanes. And it is something we need to bring to our daily lives -- how would we live if we really believed God loved us? And how would we live if we loved others?

Question for Sunday:

-- a lot of writing has been about this topic, but think on this -- what do you think the opposite of love is?

Today's prayer request: Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims

Need to continue to remember this people, whose lives will remain in flux for the forseeable future. Need to pray for them to have peace, for comfort, and for them to get all of the assistance that they need to restore their lives

Today's class member prayer:

Monica Harbarger

Have a great day.

Jay