This week we looked at the passage in the Bible that tells us to store our treasures in Heaven, not on Earth; and goes on to tell us not to worry but to put all our trust in the Lord.
In this passage (Matthew 6:19-34), Jesus tells us that everything around us on Earth is temporary and may be destroyed or stolen (verse 19), so we should instead "Store up for [ourselves] treasures in Heaven" because this treasure will never fade or be ruined (verse 20). He then says that "Where [our] treasure is, there [our] heart will be also," so if we believe that we are Christians, we should be wanting God not things on Earth: our hearts and minds should be always on him and wanting to be with him. If we are obsessed with or even care about earthly 'riches' then this is where our hearts will be: Heaven would be a strange and unknown place to us. The next two verses talk about the eye being the "Lamp of the body," Jesus says "If your eyes are good, your whole body will be filled with light, but if your eyes are bad your whole body will be full of darkness." We talked about how Jesus was saying that what you looked to defined who you were: if you were always looking to your earthly possessions and wanting to increase or protect them, then you are not seeking God and therefore cannot have your heart in the right place. However, if you are always looking to God for direction and following him in all you do, you heart loves God and you will be full of his light. Verse 24 tells us that we cannot be devoted to two masters, that we "cannot love both God and Money." This tells us plainly that if we really do love earthly things and build our world around them, we cannot also love God. We have to make a choice.
Then Jesus goes on to talk about worry. He reminds us of the birds in the air, saying that "They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet [our] heavenly Father feeds them." He tells us that we are much more important than the birds and so what cause do we have for worrying about whether or not we will have enough to eat? He also says we shouldn't worry about whether or not we will have enough clothes, reminding us that our heavenly Father dresses even the lilies of the field so of course he will make sure we have everything we need as he knows what we need and how to provide it, and we are far more important to him than flowers. Jesus also asks us, "Who among you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Showing that not only is it not trusting God when we worry, because it's not accepting that he is Lord over our lives and able to give us all we need, but it is also futile: what will we achieve by worrying about things? Nothing. Jesus says, "The pagans run after these things," showing that if we chase earthly things and let them occupy our minds, we are behaving like those who do not follow God. Jesus tells us that, rather than worrying about keeping everything in control ourselves, we should "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to [us] as well." In other words, if we stay within his will and seek him in our lives, we know God will give us all we need to carry out his will. If we deviate from the path of righteousness or stop acting to bring his Kingdom to Earth, we probably have more reason to worry because we are relying on ourselves rather than the One who can really look after us. Finally, in verse 34, Jesus says that we should not "Worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." This reminds us that we should live for God in the hear and now and not let ourselves think about what the future might bring but instead make sure we are doing all we can to bring God glory today.
Lois and Eleanor
Friday, 5 December 2008
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Week 10 (16.11.08)
This week we looked at the passage in which Jesus talks about praying, giving to the needy and fasting for the right reasons rather than doing these things so that other people think you look 'holy.'
This passage (Matthew 6:1-18) first looks at giving to the needy, then prayer and finally fasting. In each passage, Jesus tells us not to do these things so that they are 'seen by others' because this is 'as the hypocrites do.' He gives various examples of the ways in which people go about making their 'acts of righteousness' obvious to others so that they are revered and honoured by men. Jesus says that these people have 'received their reward in full.' Instead he tells us that we ought to do these things 'in secret' because our 'Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward' us.
In the passage about prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), Jesus gives us a perfect example of how to pray in what we now know as 'The Lord's Prayer' (or the 'Our Father,' if you are Catholic). This begins with praise and adoration of our Father, remembering who and where he is (that he is in Heaven and therefore sovereign). Then the prayer goes on to express the hope that the Lord's will alone is done and that his Kingdom will start to break out here on Earth as it will be in Heaven. Then, Jesus says we should humbly ask God to provide all that we need for while we are here on Earth before asking him to forgive all that we have done wrong, which in turn is followed by the promise that we in turn will forgive those who have wronged us. Finally the prayer asks God to keep us safe from temptation and give us deliverance from evil. Once he has finished the prayer, Jesus tells us that 'If we forgive those who sin against us, our heavenly Father will also forgive us, but if we do not forgive others their sins, our Father will not forgive our sins.' (Verses 14-15) Which is something we all must not take lightly: there's no footnote reading a list of examples of when somebody has done something 'so bad' that it's okay if we don't forgive them. We must remember that when we accept Jesus into our lives, confessing and repenting from our sins, the Lord forgives us infinitely more than we will ever have to forgive another person. When others wrong us, it's easy to feel like we're wholly in the right, but we can forget that we will, in our life times, hurt others just as much if not more and therefore we are not perfect. God, however, is perfect and will never wrong us. So, when he forgives our sins, he expects us to do the same for others. He reminds us in other parts of the Bible (eg Romans 12:19) that he sees all that happens and will repay those who wrong us if they do not repent, and therefore it's not up to us to seek revenge. (God does not say anywhere that he is happy when other people sin against us, or even that he does not care. Therefore, 'forgiveness' is not saying that it is okay for us to be wronged, but rather that we will not continue to be tangled in that wrong: if the person who committed the wrong is never sorry, that will essentially only ever be their problem).
The overall message of these three passages is that we should check where our hearts are and what our motives for living the way we do are. For example, in the passage about giving to the needy (Matthew 6:1-4), Jesus says that when we give to the poor we should: 'Not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.' This taken literally, however, is not possible: of course we ourselves will be aware of what we do. Therefore we know that God is really saying that we should be naturally wanting to do things like giving to the poor: it should not be a special occasion when we do 'acts of righteousness' (good deeds) but rather it should just be the way that we live. We are called to live lives of love, and this is the sort of behaviour that would naturally occur if we were. Similarly, we need to make sure that we are praying simply for the joy of speaking to our heavenly Father rather than to show other people what long and 'beautiful' prayers we can say. We shouldn't be worried about saying 'the right thing,' but rather talking from the heart as if no one else were able to hear (which sometimes may come out as a rather long prayer, but we shouldn't say long prayers just to make it look like we have a lot of 'holy' things to say: if it's an honest prayer from the heart that happens to also be long, this is not a sin). Finally, on fasting, Jesus says that we shouldn't moan about being hungry throughout our fast. (If and) when we fast, this is between us and God: there will be specific personal reasons why we have chosen to do so and other people don't need to know about it.
Lois and Eleanor
This passage (Matthew 6:1-18) first looks at giving to the needy, then prayer and finally fasting. In each passage, Jesus tells us not to do these things so that they are 'seen by others' because this is 'as the hypocrites do.' He gives various examples of the ways in which people go about making their 'acts of righteousness' obvious to others so that they are revered and honoured by men. Jesus says that these people have 'received their reward in full.' Instead he tells us that we ought to do these things 'in secret' because our 'Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward' us.
In the passage about prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), Jesus gives us a perfect example of how to pray in what we now know as 'The Lord's Prayer' (or the 'Our Father,' if you are Catholic). This begins with praise and adoration of our Father, remembering who and where he is (that he is in Heaven and therefore sovereign). Then the prayer goes on to express the hope that the Lord's will alone is done and that his Kingdom will start to break out here on Earth as it will be in Heaven. Then, Jesus says we should humbly ask God to provide all that we need for while we are here on Earth before asking him to forgive all that we have done wrong, which in turn is followed by the promise that we in turn will forgive those who have wronged us. Finally the prayer asks God to keep us safe from temptation and give us deliverance from evil. Once he has finished the prayer, Jesus tells us that 'If we forgive those who sin against us, our heavenly Father will also forgive us, but if we do not forgive others their sins, our Father will not forgive our sins.' (Verses 14-15) Which is something we all must not take lightly: there's no footnote reading a list of examples of when somebody has done something 'so bad' that it's okay if we don't forgive them. We must remember that when we accept Jesus into our lives, confessing and repenting from our sins, the Lord forgives us infinitely more than we will ever have to forgive another person. When others wrong us, it's easy to feel like we're wholly in the right, but we can forget that we will, in our life times, hurt others just as much if not more and therefore we are not perfect. God, however, is perfect and will never wrong us. So, when he forgives our sins, he expects us to do the same for others. He reminds us in other parts of the Bible (eg Romans 12:19) that he sees all that happens and will repay those who wrong us if they do not repent, and therefore it's not up to us to seek revenge. (God does not say anywhere that he is happy when other people sin against us, or even that he does not care. Therefore, 'forgiveness' is not saying that it is okay for us to be wronged, but rather that we will not continue to be tangled in that wrong: if the person who committed the wrong is never sorry, that will essentially only ever be their problem).
The overall message of these three passages is that we should check where our hearts are and what our motives for living the way we do are. For example, in the passage about giving to the needy (Matthew 6:1-4), Jesus says that when we give to the poor we should: 'Not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.' This taken literally, however, is not possible: of course we ourselves will be aware of what we do. Therefore we know that God is really saying that we should be naturally wanting to do things like giving to the poor: it should not be a special occasion when we do 'acts of righteousness' (good deeds) but rather it should just be the way that we live. We are called to live lives of love, and this is the sort of behaviour that would naturally occur if we were. Similarly, we need to make sure that we are praying simply for the joy of speaking to our heavenly Father rather than to show other people what long and 'beautiful' prayers we can say. We shouldn't be worried about saying 'the right thing,' but rather talking from the heart as if no one else were able to hear (which sometimes may come out as a rather long prayer, but we shouldn't say long prayers just to make it look like we have a lot of 'holy' things to say: if it's an honest prayer from the heart that happens to also be long, this is not a sin). Finally, on fasting, Jesus says that we shouldn't moan about being hungry throughout our fast. (If and) when we fast, this is between us and God: there will be specific personal reasons why we have chosen to do so and other people don't need to know about it.
Lois and Eleanor
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Week 9 (09.11.08)
This week we looked at the part of the Bible in which Jesus talks about the Old Testament saying, "Eye for eye and tooth for tooth," and about love for our enemies.
In this passage (Matthew 5:38-48), Jesus quotes the scriptures where it says "eye for eye and tooth for tooth." He then tell his listeners that they shouldn't "resist an evil person." If someone hits them on the right cheek, they should turn their left cheek to be hit also. And if someone wants to take their tunic they should give them their cloak as well. If someone forces them to "go one mile" they should go two miles. He also says that we should give to those who ask for things from us, and that we should not turn away from those who want to borrow something. He then goes on to quote the saying "Love your neighbour and hate your enemy," the first part of which can be found in Leviticus 19:18, but tells us that instead we should love those who are our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we can be true children of our Father in Heaven. He goes on to say that God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do good and those who don't at the same time. He says that there is no reward for those who love people that show them love back, reminding us that even the tax collectors (who everyone knew to be evil in Jesus' time) manage to love those who love them in return. Again he says that if we only greet those we love we are behaving in exactly the same way as everyone else because even the pagans (the people who were neither Jews nor Christians in that time) did this. He concludes by saying, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
We first spoke about what Jesus was saying about revenge. We thought that this passage had a lot of references to things that would have been relevant in Jesus' time, but that don't really make sense today, so we went through the passage verse by verse to 'translate' it so that it speaks more clearly to us today. So in the end, we had four 'stories' that looked something like this: "You have heard it said, 'If someone steals your car, take their car, and if someone steals your money, take their money too,' but I tell you, do not give into the temptation to do wrong to someone who has done wrong to you. If someone breaks one window in your house, let them break the rest of the windows in your house too, if they want to sue you for your house, give them your car as well, if someone makes you help them with the shopping on one day, carry their shopping for the whole week." Basically our conclusion was that Jesus doesn't want us to take revenge on people who have hurt us in some way; or that if someone wants to take advantage of you in some way, we should show that we love them anyway, and rather than retaliating with more evil, we will show that we aren't letting them take advantage of us by giving them more than they tried to take.
We also spoke about the passage that speaks about loving our enemies. Jesus knows that there are going to be people who we find annoying or who really don't like us for some reason (maybe because we follow him), so he is not saying that we should pretend to get on with everyone, but that we should especially take care to love those who we don't and treat us badly, even if the way they treat us seems unfair. We asked why we should love those who clearly don't love us and we thought that, for one thing, we might actually start liking them or help them like us and no longer want to treat us badly; and secondly because we want to be different from all the people around us who don't follow Jesus, we want to show them that being a Christian actually makes us different from the world, so we would be teaching the person who is our enemy the gospel by returning their hate with God's love. Finally we thought about what it means to 'love' someone who actually we don't like for various reasons. Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13, and from reading this we soon find out that love is not just a feeling but is actually in what you choose to do and how you choose to treat someone. For example, if you do not like someone, you could choose to make this obvious in various ways, or you could choose to treat them with love anyway. This is not to show off or to be a 'goody two-shoes,' but if done in a spirit of wanting to please God and to live in such a way that would reveal him to those who don't yet know him, or to set an example to those who do; then we can know that we have a clear conscience, because we've done all we can to make sure that a friendly relationship between us and our enemy is possible. This can be really difficult, but it is something God has commanded us to do and therefore he will help us and we know it is possible because he would not ask us to do something that isn't possible: as Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength." Moreover, if someone knows that they are treating you deliberately badly and you return this with a loving attitude and actions that show them love, you will really have an impact on their life, even if you don't see this in the time that you know them. Romans 12:19-20 says "Do not take revenge, my friends ... on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." This does not mean that we should seek to act kindly towards those who are our enemies in order that burning coals will suddenly fall from the heavens onto their heads, because that is not a loving attitude! It means that they will be ashamed of the way in which they have treated you because of the way that you are responding to this treatment. This doesn't mean that they will always change the way they see you: sometimes people will harden their hearts when faced with this way of being that is so much the opposite of how the world tells us we should behave, but at least you know and God knows that you are blameless in the situation and therefore if you are only treated worse by the one you are trying to be loving towards, you can trust that God will sort that out. However, often when we respond to cruel behaviour with persistent love, we see God work through and turn the situation around, so we should always carry on living the way he wants us to and pray that he will help us to do so and also that he will use the fact that we are being faithful to him to change the lives of those around us.
The last thing we took note of was verse 42 which tells us to give to those who ask and not to reject anyone who wants to borrow something from us. We spoke about how everything we own really belongs to God and therefore if he has blessed us with more things and more money than others, it is not because he loves us more, or wants us to be 'happier' than others for some reason. Instead, he wants us to use these things in the same way as we should our talents: to bring him glory. Therefore if we have something, we have it so that we can help those who do not, they will see God's love when they see how generous and kind you are. We will talk more about this when we look at 'Treasures in Heaven.'
Lois and Eleanor
In this passage (Matthew 5:38-48), Jesus quotes the scriptures where it says "eye for eye and tooth for tooth." He then tell his listeners that they shouldn't "resist an evil person." If someone hits them on the right cheek, they should turn their left cheek to be hit also. And if someone wants to take their tunic they should give them their cloak as well. If someone forces them to "go one mile" they should go two miles. He also says that we should give to those who ask for things from us, and that we should not turn away from those who want to borrow something. He then goes on to quote the saying "Love your neighbour and hate your enemy," the first part of which can be found in Leviticus 19:18, but tells us that instead we should love those who are our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we can be true children of our Father in Heaven. He goes on to say that God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do good and those who don't at the same time. He says that there is no reward for those who love people that show them love back, reminding us that even the tax collectors (who everyone knew to be evil in Jesus' time) manage to love those who love them in return. Again he says that if we only greet those we love we are behaving in exactly the same way as everyone else because even the pagans (the people who were neither Jews nor Christians in that time) did this. He concludes by saying, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
We first spoke about what Jesus was saying about revenge. We thought that this passage had a lot of references to things that would have been relevant in Jesus' time, but that don't really make sense today, so we went through the passage verse by verse to 'translate' it so that it speaks more clearly to us today. So in the end, we had four 'stories' that looked something like this: "You have heard it said, 'If someone steals your car, take their car, and if someone steals your money, take their money too,' but I tell you, do not give into the temptation to do wrong to someone who has done wrong to you. If someone breaks one window in your house, let them break the rest of the windows in your house too, if they want to sue you for your house, give them your car as well, if someone makes you help them with the shopping on one day, carry their shopping for the whole week." Basically our conclusion was that Jesus doesn't want us to take revenge on people who have hurt us in some way; or that if someone wants to take advantage of you in some way, we should show that we love them anyway, and rather than retaliating with more evil, we will show that we aren't letting them take advantage of us by giving them more than they tried to take.
We also spoke about the passage that speaks about loving our enemies. Jesus knows that there are going to be people who we find annoying or who really don't like us for some reason (maybe because we follow him), so he is not saying that we should pretend to get on with everyone, but that we should especially take care to love those who we don't and treat us badly, even if the way they treat us seems unfair. We asked why we should love those who clearly don't love us and we thought that, for one thing, we might actually start liking them or help them like us and no longer want to treat us badly; and secondly because we want to be different from all the people around us who don't follow Jesus, we want to show them that being a Christian actually makes us different from the world, so we would be teaching the person who is our enemy the gospel by returning their hate with God's love. Finally we thought about what it means to 'love' someone who actually we don't like for various reasons. Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13, and from reading this we soon find out that love is not just a feeling but is actually in what you choose to do and how you choose to treat someone. For example, if you do not like someone, you could choose to make this obvious in various ways, or you could choose to treat them with love anyway. This is not to show off or to be a 'goody two-shoes,' but if done in a spirit of wanting to please God and to live in such a way that would reveal him to those who don't yet know him, or to set an example to those who do; then we can know that we have a clear conscience, because we've done all we can to make sure that a friendly relationship between us and our enemy is possible. This can be really difficult, but it is something God has commanded us to do and therefore he will help us and we know it is possible because he would not ask us to do something that isn't possible: as Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength." Moreover, if someone knows that they are treating you deliberately badly and you return this with a loving attitude and actions that show them love, you will really have an impact on their life, even if you don't see this in the time that you know them. Romans 12:19-20 says "Do not take revenge, my friends ... on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." This does not mean that we should seek to act kindly towards those who are our enemies in order that burning coals will suddenly fall from the heavens onto their heads, because that is not a loving attitude! It means that they will be ashamed of the way in which they have treated you because of the way that you are responding to this treatment. This doesn't mean that they will always change the way they see you: sometimes people will harden their hearts when faced with this way of being that is so much the opposite of how the world tells us we should behave, but at least you know and God knows that you are blameless in the situation and therefore if you are only treated worse by the one you are trying to be loving towards, you can trust that God will sort that out. However, often when we respond to cruel behaviour with persistent love, we see God work through and turn the situation around, so we should always carry on living the way he wants us to and pray that he will help us to do so and also that he will use the fact that we are being faithful to him to change the lives of those around us.
The last thing we took note of was verse 42 which tells us to give to those who ask and not to reject anyone who wants to borrow something from us. We spoke about how everything we own really belongs to God and therefore if he has blessed us with more things and more money than others, it is not because he loves us more, or wants us to be 'happier' than others for some reason. Instead, he wants us to use these things in the same way as we should our talents: to bring him glory. Therefore if we have something, we have it so that we can help those who do not, they will see God's love when they see how generous and kind you are. We will talk more about this when we look at 'Treasures in Heaven.'
Lois and Eleanor
Friday, 7 November 2008
Week 8 (02.11.08)
This week we looked at the passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about adultary, divorce and oaths (making a promise in the name of something).
In this passage (Matthew 5:27-37), Jesus reminds us of the Commandment, "Do not commit adultary" from Exodus 20:14 and then says that "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already commited adultary with her in his heart. He then tells us to chop off the hand that causes us to sin, or to gouge the eye that causes us to sin out, for "It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." Then Jesus goes on to talk about divorce, quoting the place in the scriptures where it says that "Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce" and then adds that "Anyone who divorves his wife forces her to commit adultary and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultary." Finally, Jesus uses an old saying, "Do not break your oaths but keep those you made to the Lord," and then tells us we should "Not swear at all" by anything, for nothing is ours to swear by: it all belongs to to God. Jesus says instead that we should let our " 'Yes be yes and [our] no be no. " (ie, say what we mean; if we say we will do something, we should, and equally if we say we won't we should not do it.)
We first talked about the way in which all three of these subsections speak about how we as Christians should keep our promises. When you marry someone, you promise to give yourself only to them and to love and respect them for the rest of your life, so if you commit adultary, you break this promise and this does a lot of damage to the person you betrayed and also to yourself (all sin is always harmful to the one who commits it). Again, if you marry someone, you promise to remain married to them for the rest of your life as this is the way God intended marriage to be, so if you divorce them then you have broken this promise. If divorcing someone causes them to become an adulterer/ess (unless they have been unfaithful in the marriage, which Jesus says is different), then you should not want to do this as if it is wrong to sin yourself, it is worse to lead someone else into sin. Then Jesus tells us we should never swear by anything, for example, if I were to say I was going to do something "By Heaven," and then did not do it, I would have made a promise by something that does not belong to me in the first place which is really wrong. Moreover, if you are a Christian and you make promises to your non-Christian friends and family "By Heaven" and then do not keep your promise you will firstly be behaving the same way everyone else who does not follow Jesus does and therefore won't be showing that being a Christian makes any difference to your life, and secondly it will seem as if the Heaven you swore by meant nothing to you. So Jesus finishes by telling us that we should only make a promise if we really mean to keep it and that if we know we won't, we should say so to begin with rather than letting someone put their hope in us and us letting them down and ultimately being dishonest.
Then we said how this passage is telling us to put off sin. Jesus says that it is better to get rid of the part of our body which causes us to sin than for us to end up in hell. He did not mean that we should start going about loping off our arms and legs when we hit and kick people, but rather that we should take practical measures to avoid falling into patterns of sin in areas we know we are weak in. For example, if from time to time we feel tempted to go on websites we know we shouldn't, it is better for us to stop using the computer all together than for us to do this more and more often and risk falling away from God in the end. (That is not to say that our sins affect our salvation, or that any sin is too much to be washed clean by Jesus, but rather that when we sin continually without repenting / turning away from this sin our hearts become hard and it becomes more difficult to hear from God and some people can get so caught up in sin that they lose their faith altogether).
We then looked at how this passage is also talking about the fact that we should be respectful towards members of the opposite sex. Sometimes, we think that we are doing well because we haven't ACTUALLY commited adultary (this includes sleeping with someone before you're married too, even if you intend to marry this person), but here Jesus tells us that even if we have just wanted someone who we are not married to in that way then we have already commited adultary with them in our hearts. Purity is not just about actions we carry out, but about our hearts. If we think about people in a lustful way then we are not treating them with the love that Jesus says we should treat everyone. He wants us to look at our brothers and sisters and friends who are not Christians in the same way he looks at them and at us.
Finally, we spoke about what we can learn from this for all relationships in our lives: friends and family as well as romantic ones. We said that Jesus blesses us with relationships not just so that we can benefit from what the other person does for us all the time but also because of the ways in which we can bless them and their lives. We said that we should look at our motives behind certain friendships and romantic relationships; ie, do you just want a boyfriend because it 'looks cool' and all your friends have one? Do you just want to be friends with her because she's clever and lets you copy her homework? Do you respect your parents, or do you treat your mum in a way that shows that you think she is just there to run around after you? Or do you really love and value the people God has put in your life and want to be the sort of person that they always look forward to seeing and talking to because you show them this love so clearly?
Sometimes it's hard to tell if we are doing all these things properly because we can think we are showing everyone love when in fact we are just being selfish in relationships and therefore we should all regularly pray that God would reveal areas in our lives to us in which we are not living the way he wants so that we can give these over to him and start trying our best, with his help, to love everyone as we should.
Lois and Eleanor
In this passage (Matthew 5:27-37), Jesus reminds us of the Commandment, "Do not commit adultary" from Exodus 20:14 and then says that "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already commited adultary with her in his heart. He then tells us to chop off the hand that causes us to sin, or to gouge the eye that causes us to sin out, for "It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." Then Jesus goes on to talk about divorce, quoting the place in the scriptures where it says that "Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce" and then adds that "Anyone who divorves his wife forces her to commit adultary and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultary." Finally, Jesus uses an old saying, "Do not break your oaths but keep those you made to the Lord," and then tells us we should "Not swear at all" by anything, for nothing is ours to swear by: it all belongs to to God. Jesus says instead that we should let our " 'Yes be yes and [our] no be no. " (ie, say what we mean; if we say we will do something, we should, and equally if we say we won't we should not do it.)
We first talked about the way in which all three of these subsections speak about how we as Christians should keep our promises. When you marry someone, you promise to give yourself only to them and to love and respect them for the rest of your life, so if you commit adultary, you break this promise and this does a lot of damage to the person you betrayed and also to yourself (all sin is always harmful to the one who commits it). Again, if you marry someone, you promise to remain married to them for the rest of your life as this is the way God intended marriage to be, so if you divorce them then you have broken this promise. If divorcing someone causes them to become an adulterer/ess (unless they have been unfaithful in the marriage, which Jesus says is different), then you should not want to do this as if it is wrong to sin yourself, it is worse to lead someone else into sin. Then Jesus tells us we should never swear by anything, for example, if I were to say I was going to do something "By Heaven," and then did not do it, I would have made a promise by something that does not belong to me in the first place which is really wrong. Moreover, if you are a Christian and you make promises to your non-Christian friends and family "By Heaven" and then do not keep your promise you will firstly be behaving the same way everyone else who does not follow Jesus does and therefore won't be showing that being a Christian makes any difference to your life, and secondly it will seem as if the Heaven you swore by meant nothing to you. So Jesus finishes by telling us that we should only make a promise if we really mean to keep it and that if we know we won't, we should say so to begin with rather than letting someone put their hope in us and us letting them down and ultimately being dishonest.
Then we said how this passage is telling us to put off sin. Jesus says that it is better to get rid of the part of our body which causes us to sin than for us to end up in hell. He did not mean that we should start going about loping off our arms and legs when we hit and kick people, but rather that we should take practical measures to avoid falling into patterns of sin in areas we know we are weak in. For example, if from time to time we feel tempted to go on websites we know we shouldn't, it is better for us to stop using the computer all together than for us to do this more and more often and risk falling away from God in the end. (That is not to say that our sins affect our salvation, or that any sin is too much to be washed clean by Jesus, but rather that when we sin continually without repenting / turning away from this sin our hearts become hard and it becomes more difficult to hear from God and some people can get so caught up in sin that they lose their faith altogether).
We then looked at how this passage is also talking about the fact that we should be respectful towards members of the opposite sex. Sometimes, we think that we are doing well because we haven't ACTUALLY commited adultary (this includes sleeping with someone before you're married too, even if you intend to marry this person), but here Jesus tells us that even if we have just wanted someone who we are not married to in that way then we have already commited adultary with them in our hearts. Purity is not just about actions we carry out, but about our hearts. If we think about people in a lustful way then we are not treating them with the love that Jesus says we should treat everyone. He wants us to look at our brothers and sisters and friends who are not Christians in the same way he looks at them and at us.
Finally, we spoke about what we can learn from this for all relationships in our lives: friends and family as well as romantic ones. We said that Jesus blesses us with relationships not just so that we can benefit from what the other person does for us all the time but also because of the ways in which we can bless them and their lives. We said that we should look at our motives behind certain friendships and romantic relationships; ie, do you just want a boyfriend because it 'looks cool' and all your friends have one? Do you just want to be friends with her because she's clever and lets you copy her homework? Do you respect your parents, or do you treat your mum in a way that shows that you think she is just there to run around after you? Or do you really love and value the people God has put in your life and want to be the sort of person that they always look forward to seeing and talking to because you show them this love so clearly?
Sometimes it's hard to tell if we are doing all these things properly because we can think we are showing everyone love when in fact we are just being selfish in relationships and therefore we should all regularly pray that God would reveal areas in our lives to us in which we are not living the way he wants so that we can give these over to him and start trying our best, with his help, to love everyone as we should.
Lois and Eleanor
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Week 7 (26.10.08)
This week we looked at the passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about anger.
In this passage (Matthew 5:21-26), Jesus brings up the Old Testament law "Do not murder," (Exodus 20:13) as well as a bit that had been added on to the end, "For any who murders will be subject to judgement." He then says that "Anyone who is angry with their brother will be subject to judgement." This is not Jesus saying that committing murder is okay now, but that to be angry with someone in your heart is just as bad in God's eyes. This is hard for us to understand because we see sin in a human way (being human..), but God, who is completely good and knows a lot more than we do anyway, sees things differently. Jesus says that if we are angry with someone then we will be subject to judgement just as much as someone who has murdered someone else, so we shouldn't think that we're doing well just to be angry with someone but not kill them, but instead we should give that anger over to God.
Then Jesus says that if you call someone else a name (he uses the word "raca" here, which was something people back then called one another to show great dislike), then you are subject to judgement from the "Sanhedrin" - this would be like the Jewish elders... sort of - again showing that it's not okay just to show anger in other ways that are not physically violent or going to hurt someone's body. Instead, any display of anger or any anger that we've allowed to stay in our hearts is wrong and damaging.
Finally Jesus says that anyone who calls someone else a "fool" is "in danger of the fires of hell." This is the worst result of all the things he has mentioned so far, and at first this can look a little confusing, why should just saying someone else is stupid be worse than calling them names, being angry or even murdering them? Well, it's about the attitude of our hearts. Thinking someone else is a fool is thinking that you are better than them, but to God we are all equal: not one of us deserves to go to Heaven by what we've done or not done in our lives and none of us is worse than anyone else. We are loved by him the same and Jesus died on the cross for us all, so we need to remember that and not look down on others.
Thankfully, if we are truly sorry about our anger or times when we have thought other people were worth less than ourselves, we can give these things to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness from him. Because of what Jesus has done, we don't have to suffer for these things we have done wrong if we decide to trust in him instead of ourselves.
Lois and Eleanor
In this passage (Matthew 5:21-26), Jesus brings up the Old Testament law "Do not murder," (Exodus 20:13) as well as a bit that had been added on to the end, "For any who murders will be subject to judgement." He then says that "Anyone who is angry with their brother will be subject to judgement." This is not Jesus saying that committing murder is okay now, but that to be angry with someone in your heart is just as bad in God's eyes. This is hard for us to understand because we see sin in a human way (being human..), but God, who is completely good and knows a lot more than we do anyway, sees things differently. Jesus says that if we are angry with someone then we will be subject to judgement just as much as someone who has murdered someone else, so we shouldn't think that we're doing well just to be angry with someone but not kill them, but instead we should give that anger over to God.
Then Jesus says that if you call someone else a name (he uses the word "raca" here, which was something people back then called one another to show great dislike), then you are subject to judgement from the "Sanhedrin" - this would be like the Jewish elders... sort of - again showing that it's not okay just to show anger in other ways that are not physically violent or going to hurt someone's body. Instead, any display of anger or any anger that we've allowed to stay in our hearts is wrong and damaging.
Finally Jesus says that anyone who calls someone else a "fool" is "in danger of the fires of hell." This is the worst result of all the things he has mentioned so far, and at first this can look a little confusing, why should just saying someone else is stupid be worse than calling them names, being angry or even murdering them? Well, it's about the attitude of our hearts. Thinking someone else is a fool is thinking that you are better than them, but to God we are all equal: not one of us deserves to go to Heaven by what we've done or not done in our lives and none of us is worse than anyone else. We are loved by him the same and Jesus died on the cross for us all, so we need to remember that and not look down on others.
Thankfully, if we are truly sorry about our anger or times when we have thought other people were worth less than ourselves, we can give these things to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness from him. Because of what Jesus has done, we don't have to suffer for these things we have done wrong if we decide to trust in him instead of ourselves.
Lois and Eleanor
Friday, 24 October 2008
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Week 6 (19.10.08)
This week we prayed! We looked a three different areas of prayer: praying about our worries, praying for each other, and asking God for forgiveness.
At one prayer station, we thought of things we wanted to bring to God in prayer, and made plasticine models of something that represented this so that we could reflect on it more easily and so that, when we prayed as a group in the end, we could remember what everyone wanted prayer for. Philippians 4:6-7 says: "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So we know that we should bring all worries to God who will take them from us and help us cope with whatever we're going through. Nothing is too big for him to cope with, and nothing is too small for him to care about: if it matters to you, it matters to him!
At the second prayer station, we talked about praying with other people. The Bible says in many places that it is very important for us to pray for other Christians (as well as non-Christians!) both on our own remembering them in our private prayers, but also with them, and it is also vital that we feel we can bring our prayer requests to other Christians. The Bible says that we are a family and that we should love one another, and what better way to do so than to pray with each other about all the things that we are burdened by or all the things we have to thank God for?! We spoke about basic do's and don'ts when praying other people: we said that it was better for girls to pray with girls and boys with boys (unless praying in a group, in which case there should be at least one person of the same gender as the person being prayed for present - it's just easier that way!); that it is good to lay hands on the person being prayed for - if they want it! - but that that should always be in an appropriate place (common sense, people!); we also said that if someone asks you to pray about something with them, we don't go telling all our friends what they needed prayer for. The people we are praying for are loved by Jesus just as much as we are, he died for them as much as he did for you and therefore we must treat them with the utmost respect and love. When someone has come to you for prayer, they should, if nothing else, go away knowing that they are loved by God and by you. We pray for one another to build community in Christ and to be a part of what God wants to do in each other's lives: it's very exciting that we have the privilege to do this, but we must remember that anything that God does is done by him and not by us just because it was us praying! We also said that we shouldn't be afraid of silences in prayer, that it is good to wait on God and to see what it is he wants to do.
Finally at the third prayer station we talked about confessing our sins to God. 1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." We know that there is nothing that God won't forgive us if we bring it to him and ask for forgiveness, Romans 8:1 says: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," so we shouldn't live with the guilt of all the wrong things we have done and feel undeserving of forgiveness: of course we don't deserve it, but none of us do and yet God's grace covers all our sin anyway: he has forgiven us even though we don't deserve it. He wants us to live in freedom from sin and so if we don't tell him about what we've done and say that we're sorry, it will stay will us and hold us back from our relationship with him.
We were going to go on to do a big praise session together, but didn't have the time (which we can only think is a good thing because we obviously got so into our praying together in groups!) so we will hopefully cover this another time.
Special thank you to FAY for running the confession station for us, you're a star!!!
Lois and Eleanor
At one prayer station, we thought of things we wanted to bring to God in prayer, and made plasticine models of something that represented this so that we could reflect on it more easily and so that, when we prayed as a group in the end, we could remember what everyone wanted prayer for. Philippians 4:6-7 says: "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So we know that we should bring all worries to God who will take them from us and help us cope with whatever we're going through. Nothing is too big for him to cope with, and nothing is too small for him to care about: if it matters to you, it matters to him!
At the second prayer station, we talked about praying with other people. The Bible says in many places that it is very important for us to pray for other Christians (as well as non-Christians!) both on our own remembering them in our private prayers, but also with them, and it is also vital that we feel we can bring our prayer requests to other Christians. The Bible says that we are a family and that we should love one another, and what better way to do so than to pray with each other about all the things that we are burdened by or all the things we have to thank God for?! We spoke about basic do's and don'ts when praying other people: we said that it was better for girls to pray with girls and boys with boys (unless praying in a group, in which case there should be at least one person of the same gender as the person being prayed for present - it's just easier that way!); that it is good to lay hands on the person being prayed for - if they want it! - but that that should always be in an appropriate place (common sense, people!); we also said that if someone asks you to pray about something with them, we don't go telling all our friends what they needed prayer for. The people we are praying for are loved by Jesus just as much as we are, he died for them as much as he did for you and therefore we must treat them with the utmost respect and love. When someone has come to you for prayer, they should, if nothing else, go away knowing that they are loved by God and by you. We pray for one another to build community in Christ and to be a part of what God wants to do in each other's lives: it's very exciting that we have the privilege to do this, but we must remember that anything that God does is done by him and not by us just because it was us praying! We also said that we shouldn't be afraid of silences in prayer, that it is good to wait on God and to see what it is he wants to do.
Finally at the third prayer station we talked about confessing our sins to God. 1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." We know that there is nothing that God won't forgive us if we bring it to him and ask for forgiveness, Romans 8:1 says: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," so we shouldn't live with the guilt of all the wrong things we have done and feel undeserving of forgiveness: of course we don't deserve it, but none of us do and yet God's grace covers all our sin anyway: he has forgiven us even though we don't deserve it. He wants us to live in freedom from sin and so if we don't tell him about what we've done and say that we're sorry, it will stay will us and hold us back from our relationship with him.
We were going to go on to do a big praise session together, but didn't have the time (which we can only think is a good thing because we obviously got so into our praying together in groups!) so we will hopefully cover this another time.
Special thank you to FAY for running the confession station for us, you're a star!!!
Lois and Eleanor
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Week 4 (05.10.08)
This week we looked at where Jesus tells us he has come to fulfil the law and what the prophets taught rather than to abolish this.
In this passage (Matthew 5:17-20), Jesus tells us not to think that he has come to abolish the law or what the prophets say (so none of what he says or does will contradict the 10 Commandments and anything the prophets in the old testament say about the coming of a Messiah will in some way comply with him), but rather to fulfil this: he will live a perfect life and never break God's law, and events/circumstances in his life will show that he is the Messiah the prophets spoke about. Jesus then says that all of the law (10 Commandments) still is in place: he says that not one part of it will leave until life as we know it is over, so he has not come to change this or to make it any less valid. He goes on to say that anyone who breaks these commandments and teaches others to do the same "will be called least in the kingdom of heaven," while those who live them out will be "called great in" God's kingdom. Finally, Jesus says in this passage that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees (these were teachers of the law at that time: they all seemed to follow the law along with many other laws they had written themselves to the letter, but Jesus knew their hearts were not after God, they just wanted glory themselves from other people) or we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
We talked about how because the law still stands and hasn't changed a bit, Jesus came to fulfil it for us because it was impossible for us to live a life free of sin. If the law was broken, the penalty was death, and because we all have broken the law at least once in our lives, we all deserve this. However, Jesus came to live a life that never breaks that law, but also took the punishment we deserve, and therefore, because the law was fulfilled, we can now be saved and have eternal life FREE OF CHARGE! This is what we mean when we say we're sharing the "Good news" - we, who have sinned and therefore deserve death, can have eternal life because Jesus fulfilled the law FOR us!
Finally, we talked about what Jesus meant when he said that if our righteousness is not more than that of the Pharisees, we could not enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that we cannot enter the kingdom by works (what we do) because it is by grace (all that stuff we were saying about being able to enter the kingdom because Jesus took the blame for us) that we are saved, so then why does Jesus say we have to be more righteous than the Pharisees? Romans 3:21-24 talks about the fact that we have all sinned but that we are justified, or made right, through FAITH in Jesus Christ. Therefore to be righteous is to have faith in him. So although the Pharisees believed they did everything the right way and everyone saw them as great role models to respect and try to be like, this was not God's opinion because he could see their hearts and knew what made them want to behave that way: not a love for him but a love for themselves. We need to look at our own hearts and ask God to show us anything that is there that has not come from a love of him so that we can give it to him. We can only be saved by faith in Jesus, not by following the rules or just going to church!
Lois and Eleanor
In this passage (Matthew 5:17-20), Jesus tells us not to think that he has come to abolish the law or what the prophets say (so none of what he says or does will contradict the 10 Commandments and anything the prophets in the old testament say about the coming of a Messiah will in some way comply with him), but rather to fulfil this: he will live a perfect life and never break God's law, and events/circumstances in his life will show that he is the Messiah the prophets spoke about. Jesus then says that all of the law (10 Commandments) still is in place: he says that not one part of it will leave until life as we know it is over, so he has not come to change this or to make it any less valid. He goes on to say that anyone who breaks these commandments and teaches others to do the same "will be called least in the kingdom of heaven," while those who live them out will be "called great in" God's kingdom. Finally, Jesus says in this passage that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees (these were teachers of the law at that time: they all seemed to follow the law along with many other laws they had written themselves to the letter, but Jesus knew their hearts were not after God, they just wanted glory themselves from other people) or we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
We talked about how because the law still stands and hasn't changed a bit, Jesus came to fulfil it for us because it was impossible for us to live a life free of sin. If the law was broken, the penalty was death, and because we all have broken the law at least once in our lives, we all deserve this. However, Jesus came to live a life that never breaks that law, but also took the punishment we deserve, and therefore, because the law was fulfilled, we can now be saved and have eternal life FREE OF CHARGE! This is what we mean when we say we're sharing the "Good news" - we, who have sinned and therefore deserve death, can have eternal life because Jesus fulfilled the law FOR us!
Finally, we talked about what Jesus meant when he said that if our righteousness is not more than that of the Pharisees, we could not enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that we cannot enter the kingdom by works (what we do) because it is by grace (all that stuff we were saying about being able to enter the kingdom because Jesus took the blame for us) that we are saved, so then why does Jesus say we have to be more righteous than the Pharisees? Romans 3:21-24 talks about the fact that we have all sinned but that we are justified, or made right, through FAITH in Jesus Christ. Therefore to be righteous is to have faith in him. So although the Pharisees believed they did everything the right way and everyone saw them as great role models to respect and try to be like, this was not God's opinion because he could see their hearts and knew what made them want to behave that way: not a love for him but a love for themselves. We need to look at our own hearts and ask God to show us anything that is there that has not come from a love of him so that we can give it to him. We can only be saved by faith in Jesus, not by following the rules or just going to church!
Lois and Eleanor
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Week 3 (28.09.08)
This week we looked at the passage where Jesus tells us we are salt and light and what it actually means to be these.
The passage (Matthew 5:13-16) first tells us that we are "the salt of the earth," and we talked about all the properties of salt and how it was used in Jesus' time: it brings out the flavour of food; it preserves (so back in the day before fridges were around, people used to put salt on their meat etc to stop it from going off so quickly); it cleans and heals (so if you had a cut, you would often put salt in the wound to stop it getting infected) and it makes you thirsty if you eat too much. This isn't a good thing for our bodies, and all these properties were quite confusing anyway, so we started to think about what Jesus might have been trying to say instead... If Jesus says we are "the salt of the earth," then he wants us to 'bring flavour' to the world, so to make life more exciting for those around us. If we are to be preservatives, we are to tell our friends and families the life-giving message about the hope we have in Jesus. If we are to cleanse, we are to try to live the way the Bible tells us in the hope that others want to do the same so that more people are saved. If we are to bring healing, we are to tell people about Jesus and how he can heal them emotionally, physically and of their sin. Finally, we as Christians want everyone to be passionate about God and make getting to know him more their number one priority: to have a thirst for him, so we should have this same passion, because a love of something or someone is infectious!
Jesus warns us that if we lose our saltiness, we will become good for nothing. FACT: when salt is left in the salt shaker for too long without being used, it clumps together and stops tasting salty; it's good for nothing. In the same way, if all we ever do is stick around other Christians and never reach out to or make friends with non-Christians, we will be useless because we won't be doing what we are here to do: spreading the Word. When salt is sprinkled over food, it disappears into it but we still know it's there because of the taste. We are to go out into the world and let people know that we are Christians not because we're stuck in church but because we have Jesus with us wherever we go.
Then Jesus says we are "the light of the world." When we accept Jesus into our lives, we ask his Spirit to live within us, so wherever we go, we bring the Light of the World with us! Jesus tells us that no one hides a light under a bucket, because that would be ridiculous! People stick lights in the ceiling, or at least up somewhere high so that they give light to the whole room. We shouldn't hide either, if the light in our bedroom doesn't run in fear from the dark, nor should we: if we go out into the world (or the playground) bringing the message of our faith, the 'darkness' out there won't stand a chance. When you turn your light on, the dark is gone straight away: when we bring Jesus to people, nothing will stand in our way. We also talked about how if someone lit a bonfire on a hill in the middle of the night, the surrounding fields would be able to see the light but would still be in darkness themselves, but if people took branches, set them alight from the fire and took them out into the fields, the light would be everywhere. So, like with the salt sticking together in the shaker if it's left there too long, we shouldn't always be around other Christians: we're made to bring light to those in darkness, not just to those already in light.
So, how do we do all this? Well, like we said, it's about telling people about Jesus and showing them how much we love him by loving those he created (ie. everyone!). If we live in a way that shows that the words he says have really impacted us, others will naturally be attracted to him. So get salting!
Lois and Eleanor
The passage (Matthew 5:13-16) first tells us that we are "the salt of the earth," and we talked about all the properties of salt and how it was used in Jesus' time: it brings out the flavour of food; it preserves (so back in the day before fridges were around, people used to put salt on their meat etc to stop it from going off so quickly); it cleans and heals (so if you had a cut, you would often put salt in the wound to stop it getting infected) and it makes you thirsty if you eat too much. This isn't a good thing for our bodies, and all these properties were quite confusing anyway, so we started to think about what Jesus might have been trying to say instead... If Jesus says we are "the salt of the earth," then he wants us to 'bring flavour' to the world, so to make life more exciting for those around us. If we are to be preservatives, we are to tell our friends and families the life-giving message about the hope we have in Jesus. If we are to cleanse, we are to try to live the way the Bible tells us in the hope that others want to do the same so that more people are saved. If we are to bring healing, we are to tell people about Jesus and how he can heal them emotionally, physically and of their sin. Finally, we as Christians want everyone to be passionate about God and make getting to know him more their number one priority: to have a thirst for him, so we should have this same passion, because a love of something or someone is infectious!
Jesus warns us that if we lose our saltiness, we will become good for nothing. FACT: when salt is left in the salt shaker for too long without being used, it clumps together and stops tasting salty; it's good for nothing. In the same way, if all we ever do is stick around other Christians and never reach out to or make friends with non-Christians, we will be useless because we won't be doing what we are here to do: spreading the Word. When salt is sprinkled over food, it disappears into it but we still know it's there because of the taste. We are to go out into the world and let people know that we are Christians not because we're stuck in church but because we have Jesus with us wherever we go.
Then Jesus says we are "the light of the world." When we accept Jesus into our lives, we ask his Spirit to live within us, so wherever we go, we bring the Light of the World with us! Jesus tells us that no one hides a light under a bucket, because that would be ridiculous! People stick lights in the ceiling, or at least up somewhere high so that they give light to the whole room. We shouldn't hide either, if the light in our bedroom doesn't run in fear from the dark, nor should we: if we go out into the world (or the playground) bringing the message of our faith, the 'darkness' out there won't stand a chance. When you turn your light on, the dark is gone straight away: when we bring Jesus to people, nothing will stand in our way. We also talked about how if someone lit a bonfire on a hill in the middle of the night, the surrounding fields would be able to see the light but would still be in darkness themselves, but if people took branches, set them alight from the fire and took them out into the fields, the light would be everywhere. So, like with the salt sticking together in the shaker if it's left there too long, we shouldn't always be around other Christians: we're made to bring light to those in darkness, not just to those already in light.
So, how do we do all this? Well, like we said, it's about telling people about Jesus and showing them how much we love him by loving those he created (ie. everyone!). If we live in a way that shows that the words he says have really impacted us, others will naturally be attracted to him. So get salting!
Lois and Eleanor
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Friday, 26 September 2008
This evening
Remember the prayer meeting tonight at the Rizzos' house. It will be great - and even better if you lot are able to go!
Hope to see you there.
Hope to see you there.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
COMING SOON....
This Friday: (26th)
PRAYER NIGHT! Come along, we're in for half and then playing games... It's gonna be good!
Following Friday: (3rd)
ReFuel! Iiiiiiit's movie night!
Weekend 10-12th:
CHOSEN (weekend away in Les Diablerets.... More on this soon!)
PRAYER NIGHT! Come along, we're in for half and then playing games... It's gonna be good!
Following Friday: (3rd)
ReFuel! Iiiiiiit's movie night!
Weekend 10-12th:
CHOSEN (weekend away in Les Diablerets.... More on this soon!)
Week 2 (21.09.08)
This week we took a look at the Beatitudes and explored reasons why Jesus might have been saying this stuff to begin with (!)
The passage (Matthew 5:1-12) on one level gives us a basic guide as to how we should react as Christians when life isn't going the way we'd like. More than this though, it is Jesus telling us that if we want to bring his Kingdom on earth (when we talk about the "Kingdom," what we mean is trying to make God King on earth; so living the way he wants us to live, which will show everyone around us what it really means to be a Christian... In other words, the way we live now should reflect what Heaven looks like), we will be blessed. He says that living this way will be tough at times, but that God is with us and he understands. It is a passage that lets us know how our hearts should be, but also what this looks like in action.
Reading this passage usually brings up questions, like: "What on earth are you talking about, Jesus?!" This is because what he is saying is completely different to the sort of thing we would expect. After all, who feels 'blessed' when someone dies? Or when people hate you for what you believe? Jesus is not trying to say that these things in themselves are good, God doesn't want you to suffer but he knows that, whilst we are on earth, we will and doesn't want us to give up when we do. The way we respond to tough stuff (here comes that "Kingdom" idea again!) will show that God is with us and changing our hearts for the better and will start to bring his Kingdom on earth. Non-Christians will look at us and want to know how we can handle things so well and when we tell them it's because we have Jesus with us to share the load, hopefully they'll want to get to know him too!
Lois and Eleanor
The passage (Matthew 5:1-12) on one level gives us a basic guide as to how we should react as Christians when life isn't going the way we'd like. More than this though, it is Jesus telling us that if we want to bring his Kingdom on earth (when we talk about the "Kingdom," what we mean is trying to make God King on earth; so living the way he wants us to live, which will show everyone around us what it really means to be a Christian... In other words, the way we live now should reflect what Heaven looks like), we will be blessed. He says that living this way will be tough at times, but that God is with us and he understands. It is a passage that lets us know how our hearts should be, but also what this looks like in action.
Reading this passage usually brings up questions, like: "What on earth are you talking about, Jesus?!" This is because what he is saying is completely different to the sort of thing we would expect. After all, who feels 'blessed' when someone dies? Or when people hate you for what you believe? Jesus is not trying to say that these things in themselves are good, God doesn't want you to suffer but he knows that, whilst we are on earth, we will and doesn't want us to give up when we do. The way we respond to tough stuff (here comes that "Kingdom" idea again!) will show that God is with us and changing our hearts for the better and will start to bring his Kingdom on earth. Non-Christians will look at us and want to know how we can handle things so well and when we tell them it's because we have Jesus with us to share the load, hopefully they'll want to get to know him too!
Lois and Eleanor
Week 1 (14.09.08)
This week we did "wise and foolish builders" and talked about why it is so important to live our lives according to what the Bible says.
The passage (Matthew 7:24-27) tells us that if you read the Word and do what it says, making God the foundation of your life, then when things go wrong you won't fall apart or lose your faith. However, if you read the Word but don't let it have an effect on your life, then you won't be able to hold everything together when bad things come your way. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we should always ask God to teach us from his Word and help us to be impacted by it.
Then we spoke about how we can go about reading the Bible in the first place: it's a big book and sometimes we just don't know where to start!
So... If you're interested in getting your teeth into the Bible (not literally) and really starting to get to know God a bit better, but you're just not sure how, here's a few tips:
1) Don't just open the Bible randomly and read any passage out of context (it just won't make sense!)
2) We would recommend that you made your way slowly and steadily, rather than trying to tackle huge chunks.
3) Read a book at a time, start at the beginning of your chosen book and try to read a bit every day (whether that's two verses or a chapter at a time: whatever suits you best)
4) Start with a gospel (that's any of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and continue with books from the New Testament. (We're not saying the Old Testament is bad, we love it! It's just easier to start with the New)
5) Don't get put off by lists of names (we can't pronounce them either!) - just skim through or leave them out and go to the next bit....
6) Finally and most importantly, we think we should always pray before we start to read. The Bible was written by God and therefore we're never going to understand it all straight away and we need his help, so by praying before we begin, we're asking him to make the words on the page come alive to us as we read.
Reading the Bible is a great way just to hang out with God, it's great to get to spend time with him in this way and we would really recommend it.
If ever you come across something that really doesn't make sense, or if you find something really interesting, we'd love to hear about it and have a chat with you about your thoughts, so let us know!
Lois and Eleanor
The passage (Matthew 7:24-27) tells us that if you read the Word and do what it says, making God the foundation of your life, then when things go wrong you won't fall apart or lose your faith. However, if you read the Word but don't let it have an effect on your life, then you won't be able to hold everything together when bad things come your way. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we should always ask God to teach us from his Word and help us to be impacted by it.
Then we spoke about how we can go about reading the Bible in the first place: it's a big book and sometimes we just don't know where to start!
So... If you're interested in getting your teeth into the Bible (not literally) and really starting to get to know God a bit better, but you're just not sure how, here's a few tips:
1) Don't just open the Bible randomly and read any passage out of context (it just won't make sense!)
2) We would recommend that you made your way slowly and steadily, rather than trying to tackle huge chunks.
3) Read a book at a time, start at the beginning of your chosen book and try to read a bit every day (whether that's two verses or a chapter at a time: whatever suits you best)
4) Start with a gospel (that's any of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and continue with books from the New Testament. (We're not saying the Old Testament is bad, we love it! It's just easier to start with the New)
5) Don't get put off by lists of names (we can't pronounce them either!) - just skim through or leave them out and go to the next bit....
6) Finally and most importantly, we think we should always pray before we start to read. The Bible was written by God and therefore we're never going to understand it all straight away and we need his help, so by praying before we begin, we're asking him to make the words on the page come alive to us as we read.
Reading the Bible is a great way just to hang out with God, it's great to get to spend time with him in this way and we would really recommend it.
If ever you come across something that really doesn't make sense, or if you find something really interesting, we'd love to hear about it and have a chat with you about your thoughts, so let us know!
Lois and Eleanor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)