Friday, October 5, 2012

October 14, 2012

Scriptures for October 14th: Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22: 1-15; Hebrews 4::12-16; Mark 10:17-31 Theme: cry to God in times of trouble Song: I Want Jesus to Walk with Me – UMH 521 Hebrews: We live in a world where there are many choices for our faith journey. It used to be that everyone that we met, believed just life us. Even in the same church there are differences. John Wesley says that it is okay to have diversity of belief in things that are not essential to our salvation. But in the essentials – we have to be united. The author of Hebrews (who is not Paul), is trying to tell us that the essential of life is Jesus. Jesus is superior to any other revelation of God. Jesus is also the word of God. He is the revelation of God for our time. That revelation is not always nice to us, nor does it always tell us what we want to hear. It can cut you like a knife. It is designed to perfect us for the journey to heaven. It is designed to address the sin in our lives. Jesus also knew that in order to truly follow His word, that we have to have an example. Hebrews says that Jesus is the high priest, the one responsible for taking away our sin – through example and through action. Jesus is the complete package of all that we need. Mark: We have heard this story before. It is the story of the rich young ruler. It is the story of the young man who had been raised in a good home, who had did everything right, who has some success in his life. Everything seemed to be going right. But he has the foresight to realize that there was one thing missing. He may have had it all together in this life, but he also understood that this life is not all that there is. He needed to start to work to receive eternal life. But Jesus undermines all that he has worked for in this life, he tells him to sell it all and give it to the poor. That takes a spiritual insight that not everyone has. It goes against all that we have been taught in the world. And all of us are just like that rich ruler, we don’t want to give up what we have in life. Jesus encourages us to take a chance and to trust God. Trust God to transform your heart. Trust God to open the door so that you can see things that the rest of the world cannot see. Just as Job received his riches for trusting in God, God makes the same promise to all of us. What we don’t receive in this life, we will receive in the next. We just have to have faith that there is a next world. Questions: How often do you read the word of God? How often are you challenged by what you read? How often do you grow since you read the bible last? What is it about your life that it is hard for you to give up for God?

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