ok all, we're going to try something a little different with the Scripture readings here (read: we're going to try something that's a little less time-consuming for me to create in my posts)...i'm elimintaing the footnotes and the extra links...i was really hoping that i could keep it up, but pasting all those little links and adding the asterisks and all that was just a lot cutting a pasting and by the time i was done with the whole thing, it had taken me an hour to prep one little stinkin' measley post...not that Scripture is measley, but it was still a lot of time spent on nada...
so i'm going to assume that ya'll are smart enough to figure most of this stuff out on your own and present something more streamlined and more straightforward: here's the text of the passage, here's the link to the chapter, and here's what i think about it...kinda like i did my first couple of posts...anyway, to begin the September catch-up, here's a week's worth to start with...enjoy!...
Matthew 9:9-13
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
and keep in mind that when the sinners know that you're a Christian, they're watching you...your example is part of what draws them in or pushes them further away (well, when you get down to it, if God is drawing them, it's not like they can resist, but you may delay the inevitable by your poor example)...bear in mind that when we set foot outside, we don't know who's watching, what they know, or what they're thinking...remember whose child you are & be proud of it...
Psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. 5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
even struck by oppression and derision, the Psalmist remembers that God is soveriegn and has a good bead on things...he remember what God has done in the past, he remembers that God is faithful and fulfills His promises...with these thoughts in his mind he can still worship and hold to his faith...how often do we forget the things that God has done in our lives?...one of my pastors had us go through an excercise in a class about worship: spend 30 minutes in prayer doing nothing but thanking God...no pleas, no supplications, no praying for other people, no asking for anything, just offering thanks (all of these prayers are good prayers, however for this excercise, we skipped 'em)...it's amazing how fast 30 minutes will go by if you just walk through your house thanking God for your material stuff...then thanking Him for the job that lets you buy all that stuff, then the education that helped you get the job, and your parents for caring enough to make sure you got the education, and the rest of your family...next thing you know, it's a whole hour later, and you're still going...
at that point, start going through the things that He's done for you, prayers that were answered, miracles that you've been a part of, help in a time of need...then continue in that vein and think of how God feels to be in such a position to give you those things...and think about how you felt to receive those gifts...and connect with Him...Pastor Jerry led a whole room full of grown adults to tears as each and every one of us connected with God on a deeper level than we ever had, and we worshipped...it was beautiful...
and i think that's what the Psalmist is doing here, or soemthing along those lines...
John 15:9-17
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
v16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you instead"...i'm still dealing with the whole pre-destination thing, but that seems to cover it, doesn't it?...
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which
yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
so to those of you who wail about the harm Bush has done, i say go read Psalm 1...to those of you who fear for the harm Kerry may do, i say go read Psalm 1...and to all of you, i say go read Psalm 42 again...even if it gets bad, we'll have a place to go, and we have a God who's in control...
John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
this kind of stuff gives me pause when i'm doing something and i ask myself "would i do this in front of my friends at the church?"...like when i go out and have a few beers...i ask myself that question, and i reply "yeah, i would"...but sometimes there's other things to which i end answering "no"...if i'd be embarrassed to act in ceratin ways in front of my pastor and his family, why should i be okay with myself for doing it elsewhere?...
Colossians 3:22-4:1
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. 1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
please see the above comment...
2 Corinthians 3:7-18
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
i wonder what the modern Jewish faith believes in regards to this?...
