Friday, January 13, 2006

Good Morning!

 

Last night, at our stewarship communications meeting,  Michelle Ray gave a short talk about what Pleasant Hill meant to her and her family.  It was really good, and I was proud that I knew her.  You can ask her why she ended up doing it instead of Ron.

 

Also, in a separate email, I'm going to send everyone a copy of the PowerPoint deck that was the handout from the stewardship meetings.  If you can't read or open PowerPoint, not to worry -- you can get a hard copy at church.

 

Today is Friday the 13th, a day that causes everyone to cringe.  There is a whole conversation that we could have about Christians and their opinion/belief in superstitions, but if you want to know more about the superstition, here are two links to web sites that discuss Friday the 13th  

 

http://www.snopes.com/luck/friday13.asp

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

 

Two interesting facts I picked up:

 

Fear of Friday the 13th is called, among other things, paraskavedekatriaphobia.

 

In the Spanish speaking world, Tuesday the 13th is considered the unlucky day.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 1:4-7

 

Another really full section for a short passage -- I don't think he goes to this length for every passage, but in getting started he is really going in-depth:

 

-- a lot of what Barclay explains to us and goes over is a very detailed scholarship of the language, and while it seems minute, he is doing for us about Greek what we already do for ourselves in English -- we are aware in any number of ways, about the very subtle differences in the way writers and speakers will put together words to make a specific point.  But we do all of that without really thinking about it, we just do it because English is our native tongue, and we have years and years of learning about all the subtle ways that we can change the meaning of a sentence.  All of this is probably really boring to those of you who speak and read Greek, but for the rest of us hopefully it hits some interesting points.

 

-- Not going in depth in the reading, but two things caught my attention.  The first was that we are just a few verses into Revelation, and already the numbers are appearing.  As Barclay notes, John has 54 references to the number 7 in the book.

 

-- Second, the thinking/teaching of Barclay that ties the meaning of the number 7 (of representing completeness) to the letters to the seven churches, which can be interpreted in that he is writing to the whole church.  That makes these letters and teachings more relevant to our place and time.

Today's Scripture

 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith..

Ephesians 3:16-17a

Today's prayer request:      Our bosses

 

Need to pray for those who lead us at work -- the managers, owners, etc. that we work for.  We need to pray that they lead in a manner that is consistent with our faith, and that they do the right things for the right reasons.

 

Today's class member prayer:

Michelle Ray

 

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Good Morning!

 

Remember, that tonight is the fourth of four stewardship meetings this week.  I believe that Ron Ray is one of the speakers tonight on the program, giving his testimony about what Pleasant Hill has met to him and his family.  Meeting starts at 7P.

 

Also, in connection with our capital stewardship campaign, we will have a Day of Prayer on Saturday, January 28 from 9A to 9P.  Our class will have one of the hour shifts -- I just don't know which one as of yet.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 1:1-3

 

Getting started with the actual scripture, and Barclay packs a lot into the first day's lesson:

 

-- He has a long section about the use of the word apocalypse, which is the other word that could be used for this book instead of revelation, and is close to what the original Greek says.  He also notes that the idea of apocalypse, or revelation, is that God is always revealing his message, his word to us. The book of Revelation is the only revelation by God to us.

 

-- Barclay speaks a little big about the idea of how this revelation is being communicated to us -- God gave it to Jesus, who gave it to an angel to give to John, who gave it to us.

 

-- Barclay also notes one of the first passages that tend to cloud the water as to what Revelation is about -- John says that these are things that "must soon take place".  I'm sure that we will return to this as we try to understand what time period this revelation or vision is about.

 

-- Barclay talks about the original word that is translated as servants in our Bibles -- both the Greek and Hebrew words that are translated as servant in our English bible are probably more correctly translated as slave.  The point is that, to us, slave would point out a higher standard of belonging than does servant -- if we said that we are called to be the slave of God as opposed to the servant of God, how does that change your understanding of the relationship of you as a believer to God?

 

-- Barclay talks about the threefold blessing given to those who read this word, hear this word, and take this word to heart.  He also mentions the first of many, many numberologies in the book -- the "blessed are" in this scripture is the first of seven in the book of Revelation.  Note that we tend to gloss over, in all the scripture, the "blessed are" type verses in favor of what we consider more substantive verses, but think about it -- we are being blessed for what we are doing -- reading and trying to understand this book of scripture.  We have devalued the idea of blessing -- after all, we say whenever someone sneezes, but we need to understand that when we see it in this kind of context, that is not an inconsequential thing. 

Today's Scripture

 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

Today's prayer request:      The family of Allie Hamilton

 

If I've correct, today is the funeral for Allie Hamilton, who was a senior at McAdory.  We need to remember the family at this time, and her friends and classmates -- many who are youth who attend Pleasant Hill.

 

Today's class member prayer:

Monica Harbarger

 

Have a great day.

Jay

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Good Morning!

 

Remember, that tonight is the third of four stewardship meetings this week.  You should have received a letter about which night you should attend, but the short answer is that you are welcome any night that you can attend.  Meetings start at 7P each night, Monday through Thursday.

 

Today's Reading

 

For the first three days of this week, we are going to cover the introduction to the study:

 

Monday - pages 1 - 7

Tuesday - pages 7 - 15

Wednesday pages 15-23

 

Notes about Wednesday's reading.

 

- the last section of the introduction is pretty straightforward, and deals with the timing of when John wrote Revelation.  Barclay uses two different paths to arrive at the same dating -- around 95 A.D.

 

The first way of dating these is the most obvious, in that he simply refers to some of the written records from the earliest church historians.  But he also uses a way that is more subjective, but a method which a lot of historians use, which is to "read between the lines" of a work so to speak in order to figure out other information. 

 

Essentially what Barclay (and others like him) do in this case is to say that most Roman emperors provided a degree of religious freedom to Jews and Christians alike, and most of the New Testament writings reflect a respect, if not an appreciation for Roman law.

 

Things really changed under the emperor Domitian, and there was an active, brutal and violent persecution of Christians during his reign.  That was the time that John wrote Revelation, and his attitude towards the Rome and the Romans was completely different than any thing seen in the rest of the Bible.  So, in reading between the lines, Barclay and other scholars conclude that John must have lived during this time, or else he wouldn't have had that attitude about Rome.

 

So, in short, you get an interesting chronology of Roman emperors in today's reading.

 

A quick note on something completely different:

 

This jumps way ahead in our study, but you are all somewhat familar with some of the signs and symbols in Revelation, one of which is the idea of the beast or his priest (I can't remember which one) almost dies or is thought to have died from bad head wound, and then through some miracle he survives.  Again, I may be jumbling it up a bit, but that is the gist of it.

 

I was thinking that we probably will hear from some people that think that Ariel Sharon (the Israeli prime minister) is fulfillment of that prophesy, because of his stroke (bad head wound) and his surprising recovery from that wound and the surgery.

 

Just a thought, but it points out one of the continuing challenges of Revelation -- everyone who is even somewhat familiar with the book is always looking at the news and history and thinking -- is this what John saw?  Is this one piece of the puzzle?  That's probably what we are getting ourselves into, but we'll see how it turns out.

Today's Scripture

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18

Today's prayer request:      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.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

Brad Douglas

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Good Morning!

 

Remember, that tonight is the second of four stewardship meetings this week.  You should have received a letter about which night you should attend, but the short answer is that you are welcome any night that you can attend.  Meetings start at 7P each night, Monday through Thursday.

 

Today's Reading

 

For the first three days of this week, we are going to cover the introduction to the study:

 

Monday - pages 1 - 7

Tuesday - pages 7 - 15

Wednesday pages 15-23

 

Notes about Tuesday's reading.

 

-- Their are three main sections in the study for the day.

 

-- It is a bit confusing at first, but what Barclay is doing in the first two sections is looking at the major ideas/images from Revelations and noting where similar language/ideas/images are noted in the Jewish apocalyptic writings (mot of which are not in our Bible.)  If you have read Revelation at all, it is interesting at the similarities between Revelation and those other writings.  And in particular, the overall feeling you come away is that the times that are discussed in those writings will be terrifying.  But also, Barclay is going to make the point down the road that whoever wrote Revelation had to have a familiarity with these other writings, since there is such a consistency, and based on what I've seen here, I'd agree.  That said, one of the reasons that they could be consistent is that they are accurate visions of the future -- if both the writer of Revelation and the writers of these other books were given visions by God of the future, it stands to reason that God would have shown them the same future.

 

-- In the third section, Barclay talks about the authorship of the book of Revelation. Conventional church wisdom is that the John noted as the author is the apostle John.  That's what the commentary portion of my Bible has.  And to be true, I love the story that goes with that, that we discussed in Sunday School -- the last apostle, late in life, writing this vision.

 

-- That said, Barclay argues the facts, and he has a strong case that in fact the John who wrote Revelation was not the apostle John.  To be honest, I don't believe the author ever claims to be the apostle John, I think everyone just assumed this.  And to be fair to Barclay, this isn't just his skepticism at work -- we knew going in that there were two schools of thought about the authorship. (you can check the Wikipedia entry for Revelation linked on the website for that discussion).  So as much as I love the romanticism of the story about John being the Apostle John, I'm persuaded that Barclay is right on this point -- that our author is not the apostle John.  It would be interesting to hear your points of view on this on Sunday. Are you persuaded by Barclay's discussion?

Today's Scripture

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorius

Isiah 11:10

Today's prayer request:      The family of Allie Hamilton

 

From Monica:

 

I need to enlist prayers for a family that attended our church some in the past. Allie Hamilton, who is a senior at McAdory, was killed in a car accident last night. Her mother Sue Hamilton Salvago is refusing anyone to visit her who did not know Allie personally. Please be in prayer for the youth of our church who are hurting at this time.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

Wes Russell

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, January 9, 2006 - Special Prayer Request

This was something that I didn't think could wait till tomorrow.

 

From Monica --

 

I need to enlist prayers for a family that attended our church some in the past. Allie Hamilton, who is a senior at McAdory, was killed in a car accident last night. Her mother Sue Hamilton Salvago is refusing anyone to visit her who did not know Allie personally. Please be in prayer for the youth of our church who are hurting at this time.

 

 

Monday, January 9, 2006

Good Morning!

 

We had a really good turnout on Sunday for the kick-off of our study, so I'm excited.  This week we are going to cover the introduction and the first couple of entries, so there is still plenty of time to get on board.  If you need a book dropped off at your house or mailed, just send me an email and I will get one to you.

 

Also, note that tonight starts the first of four stewardship meetings this week.  You should have received a letter about which night, but the short answer is that you are welcome any night that you can attend.  Meetings start at 7P each night, Monday through Thursday.

 

Today's Reading

 

For the first three days of this week, we are going to cover the introduction to the study:

 

Monday - pages 1 - 7

Tuesday - pages 7 - 15

Wednesday pages 15-23

 

In the first reading for today, we cover some of the same ground we discussed on Sunday.  Three or four key points:

 

-- The difference of Revelation from the rest of the New Testament - which has led some church thinkers/leaders over the years, such as Martin Luther, to exclude Revelation from their versions of the Bible.  In fact, Revelation does not appear in the Greek Orthodox church's version of the New Testament.

 

-- The description of Revelation as apocalyptic literature, and what that means.  While Revelation is the best known example of apocalyptic literature, and we might think that the Apocalypse is specific to Revelation, in fact there is a great deal of apocalyptic literature, most of it rising from the Jewish tradition and writings that fall between the Old and New Testament.

 

-- The differences between apocalyptic and prophetic literature.  Prophetic writings are straightforward accounts about what is to come in this world and time, and what good things must happen if the bad things are not to happen.  Apocalyptic writings are not about the opportunity for this world and time to redeem itself; apocalyptic writings write about the end of this world and the coming of new, better world.

 

The main thing that we get from the first section is that Revelation is -- surprise, surprise -- difficult book to understand.  That said, that is common for apocalyptic literature.  But that is the reason that many church leaders wanted to exclude it from the Bible -- they didn't see the fairness of the book that promised difficulties for those who didn't heed the warnings in the book, but then deliberately made the warnings so obscure and hidden that no one could figure them out.

 

The other thing about Revelation that makes it difficult for many to embrace is that they don't recognize the God or the Jesus that is portrayed in this book.  There is vengance; judgments are made; punishments are handed out. There is very little love or redemption or forgiveness -- the time for those have apparently passed by, and we can see what the other side of that time is going to look like.  In much of the New Testament, as well as our lives, the question is "Whose Side Are You On?"  In Revelation, sides have been chosen, we get to see how the game plays out.

Today's Scripture

Instead, they will serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Jeremiah 30:9

Today's prayer request:       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.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

Kelly Thaxton

Have a great day.

Jay