Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Good Morning

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 3:7-13; read pages 141-144 in Barclay; stop at "Promise and Warning"

 

-- continuing with the church at Philadelphia.

 

-- before getting to today's reading, just another quick noteabout yesterday and the thought about having "the key" to something.  I think today when we say someone has the key to something, that they have all the answers about a topic.  That works too in the verses we are reading, but adding the idea of authority over something rounds out the picture of what is meant by Jesus having this key.

 

-- over and over again in these letters to the different churches, Jesus (and I say Jesus, since he is the one speaking in John's vision) hammers home several points:

 

--- Things will get tough, if they are not already tough.

--- I will be there for those who are faithful, regardless of how tough things get.

--- Those who don't believe, or are not faithful, or who are against me, will be given numerous chances to repent.

--- In the end, those who are faithful to me will be richly, gloriously rewarded, and those who are not faithful, or do not believe, will be severely, even violently punished.

 

-- Again, these letters can be taken as speaking to the whole church today, our individual church today as well as the specific churches that they were written to at the time.  And in that spirit, there is a lot of language about persevering and overcoming and holding on.  In today's world, there are Christians to whom that is reflective of their reality -- Christians in China, or in Iraq, or in Saudi Arabia where the practice of being a Christian is very much defined by the concept of faithfulness in a hostile envirnoment.  I think that a lot of Christians in America today feel like they are in a hostile environment, due to the culture that surounds us and the attitudes about the church. 

 

-- So I guess the question for us today is how hostile do you consider your environment -- your work life, your community, your circle of friends -- to be to your faith?  On our Hostility Meter ( a new meter for our class) -- if members of the church at Philadephia or Sardis are at a 10 on the hostility meter -- with 10 being intense persecution, even unto death for being a Christian -- where do our lives score on the Hostility Meter?  And, again, thinking about the letters to the churches and what they are being chatised for -- are our Hostility Meter scores too low? -- in other words, do we not have much hostility towards us from others for our faith because we are not being strong enough in the faith, are we being too accomondating and reserved in our practice of our faith? 

 

Today's Scripture

 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

 

John 8:12

Today's prayer requests:   Saundra Aaron

This is Valerie's brother's mother-in-law, who is being treated for breast cancer.  Need to continue to remember her as she continues her treatment and her family

Prayer Notes:

Today's class member prayer:

Brad Douglas

Have a great day.

Jay