The Psalm of the Ascent

What a wonderful treat it was to be in Sunday School today. I hope you were as blessed as I was in watching our youth lead us in study. What a wonderful scripture they provided us. I love the book of Psalms. These last few months I have a developed a new love for this book. I never really understood the importance of this "Prayerbook of the Bible" until I read D. Bonoeffer's book on the Psalm. Its as though a gift that I have always had was just opened and enjoyed. As I mentioned in class today, the scripture we read is a bigger part of 15 chapters that make up the Psalm of the Ascent. It begins with Psalm 120 and ends with Psalm 134. The pilgrims would sing these psalms as they climbed the steps to the temple , which happens to be 15 steps. This would have happended three times a year. During the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. Each Psalm would have had a specific meaning. Take time if you can this week and each morning when you wake up, read a psalm for that day. I know you will be blessed and I know each one will dramatically change your outlook on your daily life. I remember whn I first read Psalm 120:1 "In my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me." It brought such comfort to know that He HEARS me, until I thought, Uh-Oh HE HEARS ME!!! He hears my praises, but he also hears my grumblings, my doubts, my gossip, my unpleasantness, HE HEARS ME!! Think about that and let it sink in. What is God hearing from you. That must have been on Pauls mind when he wrote Col:4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Mary Gets It

Jesus. Loved and adored by his followers, despised and hated by his opponents, a man who managed to evoke every human emotion in those he had contact with. Yet he lived and taught with rigid consistency. Never once did his message deviate from the truth he lived by. The truth he taught. The massage was always the same. "If you have seen me, you have seen my Father." "I and my Father are one." "Not my will, but my Father's will." He was the Savior, the redeemer, a teacher and a friend. He loved like no other because he was like no other. He simply was not just the son of God, He was God. Her on earth, to live and dwell among his creation. A glimpse of our Creator. A peek into the mind of God, and his message was Love. God's love so overpowering that he had to come here with us the set the path straight. To make the way new again. What makes his story so controversial? Perhaps the fact that he was controversial. The disciples saw a Messiah, the Pharisees saw a threat. The crowds saw a healer, the Sadducees saw a destroyer to their comfortable way of life. But perhaps no one saw his as clearly as Mary, the sister of Martha. This woman knew who he was. She saw the Lord. She abolished all tradition to anoint her Savior. She got it. While others ran around wondering what to do, she was doing it. Loving him back. Not trying to position herself for royalty, not trying to make a name for herself in the kingdom, not playing by society rules. She simply worshipped her Lord and poured herself out to him.

Anointed In Bethany

I am so delighted to have our youth teaching this Sunday. I think that we all are in for a treat and I for one am excited. No doubt, their insight will bring a new perspective to our class. I did want to point out something I never noticed in this passage before. Don't you just love it when the Word of God reaches beyond the printed pages and directly pricks your heart, even if its for rebuking, God's word coming alive makes me once again realize that I have a fluid thriving relationship with our Creator. This week we will be discussing Matthew 26:3-16. I will not be discussing the main point for this lesson, just in case that is what our youth are preparing, however their is one thing that jumped out at me today that I wonder if you can see as well. Read the passage completly. Only twice during this passage do the disciples speak and look real closely. Here is their Messiah. The one they have seen accomplish many miracles and preach about God and yet both occasions their mindset seems to be on something else. What is the topic of their question? It is true that one motive was for others and the other was for self, but just the same neither was on Christ.

Are you BOUND or are you LOOSED?

I have a confession to make. Every Sunday after Sunday School, I go home and reflect on what was said during class. I reevaluate what was taught and by Monday morning Im on to the next lesson. However, there is that rare time when the previous lesson just won't leave my head. No matter how hard I try to move forward, its as if God tells me something was not said that needed to be heard. Today is such a day and the passage that is stuck in my brain is from Matthew 16:19. If you remember Jesus had just asked his disciples who people say he is, then get to the heart of the matter and asks, "Who do YOU say I am?". Through divine revelation Peter responds, "Thou art the Christ." This response pleases Jesus and then tells Peter and therefor all believers "I will give you the KEYS of the Kingdom of heaven on earth and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." I started thinking, what exactly are the keys? Look back again to the previous verses and I think you can find the answer. Remember? Christ had just finished telling Peter that for the first time he had recieved knowledge from God that Christ was in fact the Messiah. All truth has already been decided in heaven and believer can never change that we only confirm what God has already established. So understanding that, I want you to take a look at another passage that grabbed my attention. It comes from the book of Luke 13:11-12. Its the story of a woman with an infirmity for 18 years and Christ moves to her and declares her loosed from her infirmity. Are you starting to see was has me so excited? Her problem was already loosed in heaven, only when she recieved divine guidance ws she loosed from it here on earth. What has you bound? What do you need to be loosed from? The heavens already have it declared it loosed its up to you through Christ to free yourself from it here on earth. And Christ has given us the keys to do so!!!!

Declared by Peter

This weeks lesson takes place in the 16th chapter of the book of Matthew. If you have an opportunity please read the text. ( Matthew 16:13-27). Before we begin to discuss this portion, I hope you all will take a look at the encounter Christ has with the Pharisees and the Saducees in the opening verses of the same chapter. We will not be discussing this in class but it has some profound implications on the way people percieve their God even in todays climate. Look at what is happening. The Pharasees and Saducees are asking Jesus for a sign. Read Jesus' response to them. No doubt Christ could have satisfy their need for a sign, but why do you think Christ chose not to? I would love to see some of your responses.