Day of Prayer question

All,

Today is the Day of Prayer portion of the Capital Stewardship Campaign, which I mentioned in yesterday's email. Twink called me last night and wanted to know if our class could have someone come in the 6P to 7P time period. To participate, you just need to come about 10 minutes early, get a quick briefing on the process, and then you'll be able to leave at 7P. I participated in our last prayer day three years ago, and it is both a very moving experience and a very quick one -- you'll be surprised at how quickly an hour passes.

If anyone is checking email or the blog today and reads this, come on down to the church -- I think we are doing it in the Family Life Center.

Jay

Friday, January 27, 2006

Good Morning

 

Don't forget that this Sunday is the culmination of the capital stewardship campaign.  A letter should have arrived yesterday or today with more details.  Tomorrow is the Day of Prayer event at the church in the FLC, going from 9A to 9P.   This is event is part of the capital campaign, and is open to anyone at anytime who may want to come and pray at the church as part of the church wide effort.  There are also some prayer request slips that have been filled out for those coming to pray.  Generally speaking, if you want to participate, need to show up about 5-10 minutes before the hour, and prepare to stay for an hour.

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:8-11

 

-- second of John's letters to the churches -- this one to the church in Smyrna.

 

-- a couple of notes that are not in our book.  One is that Smyrna is about 25 miles from Ephesus, so in close proximity.  The second is a point that the commentary in my Bible makes -- the letters are written in the order that someone would deliver them, if traveling from Patmos -- you'd reach Ephesus first, then go to Smyrna and make a large semi-circle on the way to Laodicea, the last of the churches.

 

-- there is a very close distinction that Barclay doesn't make in his commentary, that I think should be made.  In the scripture, there is a lot of talk about the persecution that comes from the Jews in Smyrna who are opposed to the Christians living there.  Barclay's commentary talks about John calling the Jews being a "synagogue of Satan".  John doesn't exactly do that, the way I'm reading it -- John says that these are "those who call themselves Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan"  Barclay's discussion leaves it like the Jews behavior is Jewish; to me, John is saying that the behavior is inconsistent with being a Jew.  It's like when someone says today that "he says he is a Christian, but then he does this" -- which to me is recognition by the speaker that the behavior being critizized is inconsistent with the claimed faith.  John is doing the same thing here.  That doesn't mean that the people doing this weren't Jewish, I just think John is taking great care not to paint all Jews in a bad light, but Barclay just bulls over that point.

 

-- another thing that was a curve ball to me was that this letter does not fault the church at Smyrna for anything -- in the earlier writing by Barclay, he gave the impression that each of the churches were being repremanded for something - in this case the church at Smyrna was being prepared and encouraged for tough times.

 

-- in the spirit of the idea that the letters to the seven churches are to be guides to the entire church, including us in this day and age, then the letter to the church at Smyrna should be seen as our encouragement vs. persecution, even when the prevailing culture is against you.  As Barclay mentions, and as does the commentary in my Bible,  Smyrna was a lovely town, but not necessarily for Christians -- you had a particularly hostile group of Jews living there, as well as a strong group of people loyal to Rome and the emperor, plus a long history of worship of other gods.  The environment and the culture of the day was hostile to Christians.  The message to them, and to us, is that we are to be strong in the face of this persecution, and that we will be rewarded in the end for our faithfulness.

-- Today's Scripture

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

Today's prayer requests:     Jessie Abercrombie, co-worker of Ron Ray's

She was admitted to the hospital earlier this week. She woke up Wednesday, after two days in ICU, with no feeling in the left side of her body. She has a son that is about 6 years old.

Today's class member prayer:

Andrew Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Good Morning

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:1-7

-- long section today -- 16 pages -- about this letter. 

-- starting on the first of the seven letters to the churches.  Note that each letter is not that long, but they are all rebukes to the churches for something that they have done or failed to do.  Note that while these letters are written to specific churches that actually existed, the symbolism that surrounds these letters that we discussed makes it clear that these letters are to the whole church, up to our day.

-- along those lines, one of the things to imagine/project onto these letters to the churches is to imagine that they are addressed to us at Pleasant Hill, and how that might change how we would read them.

-- there were two thoughts from Barclay's commentary and the scripture that particularly stuck with me.

-- one was the idea that Christ is among the churches, and is intimately aware of what is going on.  In this letter (and I imagine in the others) Jesus is talking about specific events and problems and moods within a specific church.  When we talk about Christ being present in our church, this passage gives us a whole new perspective on what that really means -- he really knows what is going on at every church, and at our church.

-- the second is the idea that the church at Ephesus had "forsaken your first love" - that was what Jesus was rebuking them for.  Barclay's analysis says that he thinks that this could have two meanings -- one, that they had lost their initial zeal for the faith; the second, that they had lost their love for each other.  It just seems to me that there is a simpler, more obvious meaning -- I think that they had lost their love of Christ -- they were still working as a church, but they had lost their love of, and their focus on, Christ.  I think that they had failed to keep Christ first in all they were doing, and they were caught up in the other distractions that come with a church -- the social networks, the building, the organization, etc.  Our first love as Christians is Christ, and we need not forget him, which is what Jesus is saying to Ephesus and to all of us.

Today's Scripture

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Ephesians 5:8-10

Today's prayer requests:     Margaret Rose Severance

Brigette's grandmother, who has been battling complications from a fall last summer that resulted in a broken leg.  She went back to the hospital this week as part of her recovery, but she needs our prayers to help her recover more fully from the broken leg and the complications and the immobility that has resulted.

Today's class member prayer:

Susanne Russell

Have a great day.

Jay

Special Prayer Request

I have a prayer request. I work with Jackie Abercrombie. She was admitted to the hospital earlier this week. She woke up this morning, after two days in ICU, with no feeling in the left side of her body. She has a son that is about 6 years old.

Ron

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Good Morning

Today's Reading:  Revelation 1:20

-- today we have the first bit of symbolism that needs to be explained.  Actually, in this case, the first symbolism is explained for us -- the seven stars (that were in Christ's hand)and the seven lampstands (which Christ is standing among).

-- the thing that stumps Barclay and other commentaries is the connection of the angels and the churches.   On the surface, the use of the word angel is pretty straightforward -- except that in the letters that are about the follow, Jesus is rebuking/repremanding the angels and the churches that they represent.  Given that, the idea that an angel could fall short of their duty and faithfulness and be repremanded by Jesus doesn't really fit into our vison of angels

-- the other thought in my mind that challenges that is -- if Jesus had something to say to the angels about the way that they were performing, he didn't have to go to John to have him write them a letter.

-- my take is that angel in this sense is means messenger.  Barclay makes a lot about the fact that John doesn't use angel to refer to any earthly person in rest of the book, why should he use it now to mean some one human, etc, that the word John is using is spelled the same, etc.  My response to that would be that isn't necessarily a problem -- thinking of the word angel, we would use the same word with no difference in spelling to mean both earthly and heavenly beings -- as is "Monica was an angel to bring the donuts to class" and "An angel must have been looking out for me when I ran that red light." So I don't know why John couldn't use the same words.

-- On the other hand, that still doesn't tell us who the angels of the seven churches are, but whoever they are, Jesus is about to call them out in the letters to come.

-- To the other point that Barclay makes in the commentary, it was an interesting the tweak to the idea that we as Christians are the light of the world -- that we are actually vessels for reflecting the light of the world, which is Christ.

Today's Scripture

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.

Luke 1:26-27

Today's prayer requests:     Saundra Aaron

Valerie's brother's mother-in-law, who is in the middle of chemo -- we need to remember her and the family around her that is caring for her.

Today's class member prayer:

Nicole McKinney

Have a great day.

Jay

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Good Morning!

 

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 1:14-19

 

-- first off, we are doing more than two verses in a day -- Barclay picking up the pace a bit.

 

-- I mentioned yesterday that the passage reminded me of the Mercy Me song "I Can Only Imagine", and as it turns out, today's passage is even more evocative of that song than yesterday's.  If you are not familiar with the lyrics, here's a link to the lyrics:  http://www.lyricsbeat.com/lyrics/1464/Mercy_Me/I_Can_Only_Imagine.aspx.

 

-- when I read yesterday's passage, the first two verses of this section, talking about the golden lampstands, I got a feeling of calmness, of peace -- in my mind's eye it had that look of a movie scene shot in soft focus, the effect that is used when someone is thinking back or remembering something.  Today's passage is in sharp contrast -- sharp is actually a good word.  There is a fierceness about Christ in this description, a sharpness that goes beyond the idea of his tongue being a two edged sword. 

 

-- Even though this is supposed to be a book about the future, it is interesting how much this book is about the past -- building on the language of both the Old Testament especially.  But on the other hand, John has a very difficult task -- he is trying to describe in this case, the glory of the risen Christ.  I'm sure that is something that is almost beyond human ability to do, so the language and the imagery has to be severe and "out there".

 

-- Barclay backtracks a bit on his assertion that the John writing this is not John the apostle, when he talks about the idea that perhaps John had seen this view of Christ before -- at the transfiguration mentioned in the Gospels.

 

-- Here's a thought -- all of our lives, we have seen pictures of Christ, especially in church -- the shepard, standing and reaching out to children, a peaceful, serene man standing under a tree reaching up to Nicodemus, etc. -- we know that man, that picture, that image. We have a wonderful stained glass window in the front of our church of that Jesus.  But, to my knowledge, no where in the New Testament does any of the Gospel writers describe Jesus in any way -- they simply tell his story.  Here is an eyewitness description of Jesus -- in all his glory -- yet no one hangs a picture of this Christ up in the church.  I think that it's obvious why - it is a very different man, a very different picture than what we are used to seeing -- it might even be considered a scary picture.  Can you imagine if we had a stained glass window in the front of our church with John's image of Christ?

Today's Scripture

For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

 

Hebrews 4:12

Today's prayer requests:     Two prayer requests came in for today:

 

From Brigitte:

 

Good morning!  I wanted to add my Grandmother (Margaret Rose Severance) to our prayer list.  She fell in June 2005 and broke her femur between her total hip and total knee.  She is getting better, but she was admitted back to the hospital (UAB West) Sat and they are doing a bone scan this morning.  She has had a lot of set backs with this injury (infections, etc) and has been wheelchair bound the entire time.  Hopefully she will be able to return to Self Nursing Home this week, but she all the prayers she can get so she can get "back on her feet" if not physically then mentally!

 

From Megan:

 

Please make Nelson Ferreiro the prayer request for tomorrow.  He is a friend of the family.  We had him on the list a few months ago, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was given only 6 months to live.  He underwent surgery to remove the tumor and they took as much as they could take without taking any of his functioning.  The surgery was successful and the tumor is no longer visible on an MRI.  He underwent his last Chemo treatment yesterday.  They will recheck in 2 months.  Let's pray for him to continue to improve.  (Jay's note:  We had Nelson on our prayer list in May and June, 6+ months ago.  At the time, he was given 2 - 6 months to live.  As John says in Revelation, God is almighty.)

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

Matt Rocksvold

 

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, January 23, 2006

Good Morning!

 

Sorry I wasn't able to get a note out on Friday.

 

Note that our Capital Stewardship Campaign culminates on this Sunday with our Celebration Sunday event.  You should be getting a letter this week in the mail with all the details.

 

Also, note that we have a number of extra books at the church, in the church office and in the Sunday School room.  If you don't have a book and need one, you can stop by the church during the week to get one.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 1:12-13

 

-- With these verses, we start to dive into the first of John's visions.

 

-- In the big picture, the main thing that I take from Barclay's commentary is just how thickly symbolic the words and images in Revelations are -- layer upon layer of imagery from the Old and New Testament referenced in the images that John describes.

 

-- the overall takeaway from these two verses to me is the majesty of Christ in his appearance in heaven -- golden clothing and linen and gold lampstands make up a majestic vision.

 

-- one modern connection that I make with this passage that John is writing -- the next few verses as he encounters Christ -- is the Mercy Me song "I Can Only Imagine."  In that song, the thought is what will I do when I come into the presence of Christ, and the song does a great job in expressing the majesty of Christ, not through a description of him and how he will look, but through our reaction to being in his presence.  I think that as we read this passage, and probably the whole of Revelation, that we can use that as background music to get the feel of what John must have been feeling as he is seeing and reacting to this vision.

Today's Scripture

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.  He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.  He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

 

Daniel 7:13-14

Today's prayer request:     Saundra Aaron

 

Valerie's brother's mother-in-law, who is in the middle of chemo -- we need to remember her and the family around her that is caring for her.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

April Walker

 

Have a great day.

Jay