July 14, 2019

Breaking Open the Scripture Scriptures for July 14th: Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37: theme: How do we live a righteous life? Luke: Now that Jesus has others spreading his stories, people are starting to notice. They want the sense of peace and confidence that they see in his followers. So a lawyer comes to him and want to be a part of the movement. He has gotten everything that he ever wanted in life, and since he is rich, if he cannot get it he can buy it. So now he wants to know what to do in order to be a part of Jesus group. Jesus does not make it easy for him. Money does not buy him a ticket into this group. Jesus tells a parable to help him to realize this for himself. What have you done to help others? What have you done to accept those who you don’t like. The lawyer does not even want to say the word Samaritan. But in this story the Samaritan knew what he must do to be saved. Jesus tells the lawyer that if he knows right from wrong, then he should practice it. Amos: Amos is a farmer who finds it very hard to get used to the ways of the city people. God uses that uncomfortableness for Amos to give the city folk an important message. They are not thinking about how their actions affect other people. They are not trying to help those who are less fortunate than they are. So Amos judges their actions. He says that God will look at their lives and see that they are not living in keeping with his teachings. Amos tells them that until they think of others, they don’t have a right relationship with God. And if they don’t have a right relationship, then life will get worse. Today we too are encouraged to examination our life and to think about who is less fortunate than we that we can help. We can learn from the bad luck of others, and change our society before it is too late. Questions: What are you doing to help those less fortunate? How hard it is to get right with God? What does our present society need to repent from to become a better world?