Hope

I picked up a book yesterday which I dearly love. It's called "The Rabbi's Heartbeat" by Brennan Manning. I've read it two other times and I really connect with his thoughts every time. Here's a nugget I pull from yesterday's reading time:

"The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Hope knows that if great trials are avoided, great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted. Pessimism and defeat are never the fruit of the life-giving Spirit but rather reveal our unawareness of present risenness (of Jesus)."

Wow. I needed that yesterday. And today. And most likely tomorrow. It's been a rough week already. Yet...there is hope.

Acts 13

Last night we looked at Acts 13...all 52 verses of it. As Ryan said, "52 verses of unadulterated fun!" Nice! So, yeah, we talked about Acts 13 and the sharing of the message of Jesus on Paul's first missionary journey. Here are the talk points that we began with:

The text says that Barnabas and Paul were set apart for this mission. Often saying ‘yes’ to God means saying ‘no’ to the things that keep us from fulfilling the call. What might God be asking you (or us) to say ‘no’ to to fulfill God’s call?

Some people end up rejecting Jesus because of the way He changes our relationship with other people. Some would rather hold on to their bitterness and animosity towards others than turn to Jesus and be reconciled.

We didn't necessarily stay with that thought, but feel free to respond to those. We also took side trips in discussion regarding how we go about sharing the message of Jesus. What is the approach considering what the stetting is and who the audience is? How do we go about sharing the love and grace of God? Hmmm...I can't remember what else we discussed. Feel free to chime in!

Acts 12

Man, we had awesome discussion on this evening's scripture. I wish we could have recorded it on the podcast so that everyone could benefit from hearing other peoples' perspectives. Wow! Anyway, the scripture was Acts 12 (reading it will make these points make more sense) and here are topics of discussion that were jumping off points:

Are we able to “sleep” in times of trial?

Have you ever asked someone a question only to walk away before hearing the answer? Have you ever prayed to God, hoping for an answer, but decided not to look and see what God might do? Are there answers to our prayers all around us that we have not noticed?

What is our view of prayer and our approach to prayer?

What do you think? Where are you at? Again, the discussion was great, but let's continue to dialogue on this here at the blog.

I'm gone on vacation this week. Don't talk about me while I'm gone. :-)

PC's

As I write this on my Mac, I'm sitting next to Lori's new PC. I took care of the installation for her. Now I'm ready to toss it out the window. Window's Vista...crap. Office software installation...crap. Shut down and restart 57 times...crap. Computer asking me if I'm sure I want to do what I just told it to do...crap. I tried to recover a document for Lori and as it tried to open it, it told me there was too little memory to perform the task...crap. How can a laptop that's only one day old be low on memory? It has 1 GB of memory. There were no programs open (although Windows is notorious for having 20 programs running in the background that you don't know about). Crap!

All that to say that I love my Mac and will never go back.

Acts 11

This past Sunday we talked at Journey about Acts 11. Ryan did a great job of walking us through the text. We saw the further development of the church. We saw the development of leaders in the church. We saw the contrast between the he church being open to what God is doing and not being open. Here were two of the thought s that Ryan led us toward as we embarked on our discussion time:

Barnabas knew his limits and went off to get Saul. Do we know our limits? Are you stuck in the rut of trying to be all things to all people? Can an entire church function that way and be healthy?

The believers’ prior experience told the believers that they should behave and interact one way with Gentiles; the Spirit prompted another, and it was acted on. Where are the places our previous experiences hold us back? How can we work at pushing past them and heading down the paths that God is leading down?

What do you think? Do you have thoughts on thsese questions? Where are you living in the text adn what is causing you to stop and think? Let's continue our discussion time...

Acts 10-

Last night we looked at Acts 10. The summary version of this passage is that Peter had a vision from God that entailed crossing the boundary between what was considered clean and unclean. God's message for him was that all people are "clean" and acceptable as they are created by God and that all people are welcome in the family of God. That's the snapshot, but I recommend you read it as well.

Here are the talk points that we offered as a part of our discussion time:

1. Throughout our past study of the books of Mark and Luke we saw the concept of “leveling” happening between the high and low of society. In this text we see a different kind of leveling between Jew and non-Jew. Do we recognize this leveling in our world? What does that look like today? Do we recognize that the church is for all people?

2. This text demonstrates God’s ability to orchestrate meetings for His purposes and spreading His message. How are we being open to God’s revelation of truth to us? How are we applying that truth to the situations and interactions in which we find ourselves?

We had some good conversation surrounding these points. One person pointed out that the second point doesn't happen until the first point is figured out. Do you have other thoughts to add to the conversation?

Bridge Collapse

I just read an article on cnn.com about t the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis. The article talked about a man who had already had a brush with death in his past and now almost drove off the bridge. The man's mother said, "God and the Virgin Mary saved my son, because otherwise he would have tumbled into the water with all the other cars," . I guess the same old question arises...why him and not the others. Was God looking out for this man and not the others? Was he looking out for all of them? I don't know. I'm sure it grieves him completely for each person affected. It conjures up memories of the bus crash that killed some Bluffton baseball players and left others unharmed. We'll never know. It certainly makes me cautious to say something like this woman said, though. I can't imagine that it helps anyone else in their view of God-those who lost a loved one in the event, even though it sustains her in her faith.

I'm not necessarily looking for reactions...just thinking. Whatever. Post if you want to.