e-Soundings

God's Love Letter 3) "U-Turns Allowed Here"

Part three of our series on the Bible explored one of the most (if not the most) important theme of our scripture: Sin.

 

Sin can be defined many ways, but is most simply put as "anything that distracts, discourages us from or pulls us away from God."

 

This means that even good things could be sinful if we hold them above God and consider them more important than God.

 

In the Bible, we find this pattern over and over again: 

    Sin –> Repentence –> Forgiveness –> New Life. 

 

  Sin is part of our human nature.  We want it our way.  We have a 'bent to sinning' that John Wesley wrote about in the famous church hymn: "Love Divine All Loves Excelling."

 

  God gives us the opportunity to repent, which allows the full force of God's Forgiveness to come into our lives, offering us new life.

 

  The 12-step tradition has this as their first step to recovery: 

We admitted we were powerless over our addiction,

that our lives had become unmanageable.

 

And so we all need to say:

"Hi, I'm Terry.  I'm a Recovering Sinner."

 

And follow that up by saying that we are relying on a higher power, the power of God through Jesus Christ.

 

This kind of repentance, honest and deep sharing of our darkest corners and crevices of our hearts allows God to heal us and make us whole.  Giving us a new life to live and an eternity to live it in.

 

Our church fellowship is a place where such "U-Turns" are not only allowed, but encouraged.

 

3^rd Week Homework:

1)   Read the Beatitudes: Matt. 5 (and perhaps Matt 5-7 too.)

 

2)    Read Psalm  51 (or 59)

 

3)    Question to ask of yourself:

"How could you be more like God wants you to be today?"

 

4)    Questions on card will be collected next week.

 

God's Love Letter 2) "Ordinary People with an Extraordinary Love."

In the second part of this series, we have looked at the honest but clearly flawed people of the bible.  

God has gone way out of the way to find the most ordinary people and fill them with an extraordinary love! 

And we learned that in addition to the Spiritual Truth of the Bible that we explored last week, there is a fundamental and important level of factual truth that we must also contend with.

1.  That there is One God, loving and creating the world and all the universe.

2. People in the bible were real, ordinary people, chosen by God for an extraordinary love.

3. Jesus lived, taught and died.

4. Jesus was resurrected from the dead and appeared alive to many witnesses.

5. The Holy Spirit of God is with us today.

Homework for this week includes:

1) Read Luke 15 (The Lost Chapter) and  Matthew 16 all the way through.

When you come to a puzzling or challenging scripture, stop and let it sink in.  Dwell on what it means to you.

2) Finish with an ending praise Psalm:  145, 146 or 150

3) Initiate a discussion with someone who is not close to you about their experience with the Bible.  

Has it been good or problematic?  Has it been helpful or hurtful.  What do they remember about the bible.  And just listen, don't argue with them or try to convince them about something.

Just listen.  Show them some extraordinary love.

4) And continue to jot down some questions you may have about the bible.  We'll be collecting them soon for an "Ask the Preacher" Sunday.

Prayer is having a conversation with God

Prayer is defined as having a conversation with God.

 

However, most of us make it a “one way” thing.

 

We tell God what we think we need, or what we think needs to be done, and then we wait to see if it happens.

 

That’s like going to the doctor and telling him or her all your ailments, never listening to what the Doctor might say, and then expecting to be cured.

 

Prayer has to be more than a “we speak / God listens” activity.

 

Prayer is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. 

 

Yet we rarely explore the fullness and power of that gift. 

 

If our marriages and relationships were like that, one person would be constantly asking for things, and the other would be expected to deliver.  No relationship would