August 12, 2018

Breaking Open the Scripture Scriptures for August 12th: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, psalm 130, Ephesians 4:25-5:2, John 6:35, 41-51: Theme: Getting along with others in the church. Ephesians: Gentleness can be defined as living a life controlled by God. It is learning to get angry at the right times and to never get angry at the wrong time. That was the theme of the first part of chapter 4, the second part is about how to deal with anger in the church. How to be angry in the right way. I like that the writer says that the church should be the place where the truth is told. But the truth can sometimes hurt our feelings. So the church is also the place where we deal with our honest feelings. Living in community can be hard, but Christ asks us to learn to be in community with one another. In order for us to be a community of love, we have to deal with our anger. The writer of Ephesians says that we should look at life through the mind of Christ, not our own. We should see people as Christ sees them, not as we see them. That means forgiving them and staying connected in love. John: We are still studying the important concept of the bread of heaven. We are still learning how Jesus feeds us and sustains us through life. The people are happy with Jesus, but they are still complaining about life. Jesus tells them that he comes to point us to God. He came to remind us to look to God for our strength and our sustenance. What Jesus is doing for us, is so that we can rely on God. Jesus is making the ultimate sacrifice of his own flesh, so that we can have direct access to the grace of God in our lives. Jesus is giving us bread that will keep us full for a lifetime. The manna that the ancestors got only lasted for a day, and them they had to get more. Once again Jesus is saying that man cannot live by bread alone, but we have to live on the word of God in our lives. Questions: What do your do when you are angry at a fellow Christian? Is the church a place where the truth is told? What does it mean for Jesus to be the bread of life? When was a time when you were fed and nurtured by God?