Friday, February 17, 2006

Good Morning

 

Just fyi, if you haven't been to our website lately (www.leapclass.blogspot.com), one thing that is new is that we now have a search feature.  You can search for any term or word from any of the posts that are archived there -- right now, archives go back to May 2005.

 

Also, just note that we are getting close to the end of this study book.  I'm going to order volume 2 of this study for delivery next week, so that people can start picking them up at church a week from Sunday.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 3:14-22; read pages 148 - 152 in Barclay; stop at "The Claims of Christ"

 

-- beginning with the last of the seven churches -- Laodicea

 

-- today's section is simply the background on the city of Laodicea, so not too much to comment on.  One thing that I will say is that when I was reading the scripture and the description in the study guide, the descriptions of the wealth of the city made me think about the United States -- we are a rich country, and we live in a culture of wealth, and I wonder how much of this will resonate with us.

 

-- one of the more familar texts in the Bible is in this section -- "Behold, I stand at the door and knock . . . "  Bobby just preached on this text about three weeks ago.  He mentioned that one of the more iconic pictures of Jesus from over the years is one inspired by this verse,  the one of Jesus outside in front of an old wooden door, at night, with a light, knocking.  What is odd to me is how disconnected our impressions and understanding of that verse of scripture is from the context in which it appears (in the midst of a letter to one church).  Lots of other verses we know, we can connect it to the story around it and that precedes it and follows it.  I'd bet that hardly anyone who is familar with that scripture has any idea about where it comes from.  For me, it's like driving through a strange part of town, and then all of the sudden seeing something very familar, and thinking "What is that doing here?  I didn't know that was here."

 

Today's Scripture

 

Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

 

Luke 12:35-36

Today's prayer requests:   Margaret Rose Severance

Brigette's grandmother has been battling complications from a broken leg.  She needs our prayers to help her recover more fully from the broken leg and the complications and immobility that has resulted.

Today's class member prayer:

Michelle Ray

Have a great day.

Jay

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Good Morning

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 3:7-13; read pages 144-148 in Barclay; stop at "Letter to Laodicea"

 

-- finishing up with the church at Philadelphia.

 

-- Barclay talks about several things, but the one thing that struck me today was the discussion about this bit of scripture:

 

"Hold on to what you have, that no one may take your crown."

 

-- I glossed over that a bit when I first read it, but Barclay's commentary makes you think -- how can you lose your place with Christ?  And as Barclay says, this isn't someone coming in and stealing it from us -- it is God taking it from us and giving it to someone else.  The list that Barclay has of people in the Bible who had lost their place with God was very interesting  -- beginning with Esau losing his place to Jacob.

 

-- this is much like the conversation we had in class and online about the Book of Life -- are you in or are you out - can your name be erased from the book?  This seems like unto that discussion.  Is your salvation permanent - does it last without any further effort on your part? The New Testament is full of assurances about the constancy of God towards those who believe, but here in Revelation there seems to be some talk about the consequences for those who don't live their faith -- that they lose their salvation.

 

-- The questions then for us are:

 

-- What do we think of this idea of losing our salvation?  How does it square with what else we know? Are we -- and Barclay -- reading this correctly?

 

-- If think that is what is being said here, what are the requirements to keep from losing our place?

 

 

Today's Scripture

 

Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

 

James 4:8

Today's prayer requests:   Dr. Page

Dr. Page is Ron and Brads' finance teacher at Auburn, who has lymphoma, and is not doing well.  We need to remember him as he struggles with the disease and the treatment.

Today's class member prayer:

Monica Harbarger

Have a great day.

Jay

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

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Good Morning

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

I was traveling yesterday with one of my clients, and in our conversation she mentioned that her girls did not observe Valentine's Day at their public school because it was a holiday with Christian connections. (the whole God in the classroom argument).  That got me thinking about knowing more about the story of St. Valentine, so here it is, from our reliable Wikipedia friends:

St. Valentine's Day falls on February 14, and is the traditional day on which lovers in certain cultures let each other know about their love, commonly by sending Valentine's cards, which are often anonymous. The history of Valentine's day can be traced back to a Catholic Church feast day, in honor of Saint Valentine. The day's associations with romantic love arrived after the High Middle Ages, during which the concept of romantic love was formulated.

The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Jay's note:  St. Valentine was taken off the Catholic Church feast calendar in 1969, because from what I can tell, the church didn't really know how legit his story was. More about the day and St. Valentine's story at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_Day

Today's Reading:  Revelation 3:7-13; read pages 138-141 in Barclay; stop before "Inheritors of the Promise"

 

-- continuing with the church at Philadelphia.

 

-- couple of things today, not exactly on topic

 

-- one is the idea of holy.  Barclay talks about what exactly that word means, and it is different than the way I would have described it.  Holy, as he mentions, means different, separate from.  God is holy because he is different than us, as humans.  We have had an ongoing discussion in our class about the word holiness, and our call to be holy as Christians.  When you think of "holy" as above, two things are clear.  One is that we can't be holy as God is holy, simply because there will always be a difference between us and God.  The second is the idea that we can be holy in that we can aspire to be different, to be separate from the world and the culture around us.

 

Note though, I think that we need some more perspectives on the word holy and its meaning. I'll find some more discussion on that later this week.

 

-- the other thought is a simple one, but the idea of having a key as a sign of authority.  I know that I've read this section more than a few times, and didn't really get the idea of authority from the idea of having the key.  I guess I always thought about the keys in these verses as ownership maybe, or symbolic of having information.  But Barclay got me thinking about the idea of key as authority, and it really is true -- you think about a retail store -- who has the keys to the store -- the managers -- and some people have more keys than others, depending on their authority and responsibility.

 

Just an interesting twist to something that we see everyday.

 

Today's Scripture

 

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Today's prayer requests:   Corey

Corey is one of Megan's students, who recently found out he had a tumor on this brain.  They are going to do more tests on March 21, so they won't know anything more till then as to how they will be able to treat this.  We just need to remember him and his family in our prayers.

Prayer Notes:

My dad did well yesterday -- he was at home by 3P.  He's a little down in that the procedure wasn't a more permanent fix, or at least the doctors didn't promise that to him, but he seems to be doing well.

Here's a note from Kelley Thaxton, who was our class member prayer for yesterday.  Kelley has been following the class by email for a long time:

Jay, and others,

There are some days that I do not have enough time to read the devotional that you send.  I have a folder set up for those occasions.  Today, however, I felt that I should read it.  My family and I have been struggling for the past few months with illnesses (mononucleosis included) and finances.  This weekend brought the most unexpected and humiliating experience, as a result of finances, that I could imagine.  I won’t go into details, but I spent most of the weekend in tears (which is not normal, to be sure). 

The only reason that I am sharing this information is that I truly believe in the power of intercessory prayer.  I thank you, greatly, for listing me as your class member prayer today.  Please pray for us.  We can’t make it through this without God’s intervention, wisdom, patience, and strength. 

Thank you, to everyone who prays in faith that God’s will be done.

In Him,

Kelley

Today's class member prayer:

Wes Russell

Have a great day.

Jay

Monday, February 13, 2006

Good Morning

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 3:7-13; read pages 135-138 in Barclay; stop before "Titles and Claims"

 

-- we are on the sixth of the seven churches, Philadelphia.

 

-- today's reading is background about the city.

 

-- interesting thing is that this letter doesn't condemn or convict the church in Philadelphia -- their letter is filled with praise for their work.

 

-- per our conversation yesterday, a couple of word definitions.  I would have done Wikipedia, but the site was down this morning.

 

faith

1. Faith Christianity The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will.

hope

 

1. Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

 

Today's Scripture

 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

 

Galatians 5:1

Today's prayer requests:   Jerry Waters, my dad

My dad is having another procedure done today on his heart -- they are going to remove some scar tissue related to the problems he had last week.  Just need prayer that things will go well with the procedure.

Today's class member prayer:

Kelly Thaxton

Have a great day.

Jay