Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Good Morning

 

Remember that this week we will three worship services -- our two regular services at 8:45A and 11A, and a sunrise service at 6A.  There will be breakfast served after the 6A service.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 7:13-14, pages 35-36, stop at "The Saints Who Have . . . "

 

-- the interesting point in today's reading to me is the one that Barclay makes about the Jewish view of blood -- that it represents/symbolizes the life (not just life), and God forbade them to eat meat that still had lifeblood in it (Genesis 9:4).  As I read elsewhere, a commentator said that God didn't want them to eat/drink blood, not because it was too vile or gross, but because blood was too sacred.  They were to seek their life from God, not from any creature.

 

- that said, it starts to pull together when you think about communion, and the idea that Jesus sets before us a ritual that involves our symbolic drinking of his blood, you start getting the idea of his life, and becoming one with him.

 

-- for the lesson today, the point that Barclay makes is that blood of the Lamb represents the sacrafice that Christ made in order to restore the relationship between God and man.

 

Today's Scripture (this week, passages from Luke about the Easter story)

 

Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.  For the time will come when you will say, "Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed! Then they will say to the mountains "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"

Luke 23:28-30

Today's prayer requests:   Corey. Megan's student

Corey has been on the prayer list for a while, and we need to continue to remember him and his family as they deal with his spells/seizures and try to determine the cause.

Today's class member prayer:

April Walker

Jay