Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Good Morning

 

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:18-29; read pages 118-122 in Barclay; stop before "The Letter to Sardis"

 

-- finishing up on Thyatira.

 

-- the interesting thing about Jezebel is not that she was teaching sexual immorality and that it was ok to eat food sacrificed to idols -- but that she was a member of the church in Thyatira.  Remember, the thing that Jesus was holding against this church, and was calling them out on, was their tolerance of this woman.  She and the ones that followed her were going to be punished, as Jesus said, but the church was being held accountable for their tolerance of her teaching.

 

-- I think that is the takeaway for us of this letter, the application of this teaching to the universal church -- we have to know the difference between right and wrong, and have to make that difference matter.  In today's world, we are not encouraged to think that the difference between right and wrong matters, or in some cases, that there is a difference between right and wrong.  That's where the world begins to erode into our faith, where the values of the world seep into the values of the church.  Tolerance of all points of view and opinions might be something that the world cherishes and values, but it isn't a value that the church should hold to.  The letter to Thyatira is plain -- Christ holds against us when we allow bad teachings and wrong points of view a place in the church.

 

-- there is something about that intolerance that is scary and seemingly unchristian, but I don't see anyway around what looks to me to be plainly written scripture.

 

Today's Scripture

 

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15

Today's prayer requests:   Nelson Ferreiro, friend of Megan's family

He has just completed chemo after surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.  The tumor is gone as of now, they will recheck in 60 days, but we need to pray for his continued improvement, and that the cancer stays gone.

Just fyi, my dad is doing better -- they are going to do a heart catherization and possibly a stent today, but the plan is for him to go home tomorrow. 

Today's class member prayer:

Lynn Rocksvold

Have a great day.

Jay