February 20, 2011

Scriptures for February 20th: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Psalm 119:33-40;
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5:38-48. Theme: faith is a personal commitment to holiness; Song: Take Time to Be Holy – UMH 395

1 Corinthians: Paul continues on his theme that we are God’s building. He is saying that the church is God’s building. But he goes even further to say that each of us is the temple of God. We, the people, are God’s building also, but not by ourselves. We are sort of like rooms. Each room has to be built on a firm and common foundation. Once we are a part of the foundation, we can decorate the walls as we want. The walls can be changed, but the foundation must remain the same. We must take care of ourselves and our lives, they are both valuable to God. They also do not belong to us, but to God. Being spiritual means living according to Christ’s words.

Matthew : Jesus is continuing the sermon on the mount. He is continuing to remind us how to go from an ordinary faith, to an extraordinary faith. We are to go out of our way to love others, even those who don’t love us. We are to live love, to breathe love, to practice love at all times to all people. Jesus knows that is not easy, but we have to remember that if God didn’t love us, we wouldn’t be able to love others. When we commit our lives to God, God gives us the strength to not necessarily be perfect, but to always strive to be perfect. John Wesley asks us – are we going on the perfection? Do we commit to letting love in all areas of our lives? If so, we can be better than our enemies.

Questions: How was your church founded? Do you still live according to those promises? Where is Jesus in your beliefs? Is Jesus the foundation of your life, or your life the foundation of your faith in Jesus? Is it really possible to love all people? What skills do we need to learn in order to love our enemies? What does it mean to go onto a perfect faith?