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God Lessons
WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT GOD?
I have heard people expounding on “God lessons” relative to the recent disaster in Haiti.
One of the TV preachers said that the disaster is a result of the special sinfulness of the Haitian people. Of course that is not what Jesus says. When a tower collapsed on eighteen people in Siloam, he made it clear that such disasters are not the special judgment of God, although they are always a warning to all sinners to repent. No one knows the day of his death.
One of the “save the earth” preachers said that the disaster is a result of the impact of global warming. He wants us to figure out a way to turn the heat down so that the earth will be calm and quiet. Of course that is not what Jesus says. Near the culmination of his earthly ministry, Jesus told us that there will always be wars, famines and earthquakes. We should not delude ourselves nor exhaust ourselves trying to make things perfect in this world. While we should always do what we can to be good stewards and alleviate human suffering, our greater goal is to make sure that people are connected to Jesus forever in his Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Here is the “God lesson” that I am seeing. In Haiti the problem right now is not supplies, but distribution. Lots of what is needed to help hurting people has indeed already been provided and is sitting at the airport. The problem rests in the people charged with getting the supplies delivered. There are territorial issues, pride issues and greed issues.
Think about this: God always provides the earth with all that is needed to sustain life. The problem is with the human delivery chain. We people get caught up in territory, pride and greed issues. The blame for human need not being met has to do with the distribution system, not the supplier.
NOTE: If you want to contribute to the relief effort, you can go to http://www.lwr.org or https://catalog.lcms.org/givenow/Gift_Input.asp?ID=800. If you are a Thrivent member, you can have your donations matched if you go through the Thrivent website.
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WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT PEARLS?
A number of us have been working through a home group study that focused on pearls. In the study I made a case that when we see pearls featured in a Scripture passage, we should associate the pearls with the people of God.
Pearls = Christians.
Do you know how pearls are made? I got this from Wikipedia:
Pearls form when mollusks react to an irritant, more likely an invading parasite than a grain of sand, by covering that irritant with succeeding layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and a substance called conchiolin. Natural pearls are quite rare. This rarity accounts for their great value. Cultured pearls grow in oyster farms. Generally a cultured pearl is formed by inserting a small bead into an oyster onto which it secrets a few layers calcium carbonate and conchiolin. Cultured pears take at least six months to grow.
Consider this: In our sin we are an “irritant” to the Kingdom of God. But God in his grace covers us over and over with the righteousness of Jesus and turns us into a beautiful and precious pearl.
Something like that. Think on that.
(If you are interested in looking at the whole study, go to http://www.stlukehas.com and find the first winter home group study.)
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WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT SCRIPTURE?
I am very pleased that more and more of you are reading the Bible more and more. Good!
Isn’t this what we learn? We learn that:
- Reading the Bible is possible and interesting
- God keeps his promises and uses his power to save
- Jesus is the central figure of the Bible and that it all points to him
- The more we learn the more we learn that we have more to learn (just like most things in life!)
- Scripture reading changes us… for the better.
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BIBLE TREASURE HUNT
Find this Bible passage for next week: Clue 1: {III times (XVII plus IX)} minus LIV plus (II times CXL) minus D plus CXCVIII; Clue 2: The first syllable of a synonym for shy, reticent and bashful; Clue 3: This clue says it all; Clue 4: The age at which a permit becomes an issue and the age of skyrocketing insurance premiums.
(Each week during the Epiphany Season we are providing a Bible Treasure Hunt in the announcements. The answer to last week was Ephesians 2:8-9.)
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SOME TREASURE!
When Jesus performed his first sign, changing water into wine at a wedding in Cana, he was just giving us a sign of things to come! Consider what a treasure Jesus is:
Kind
Generous
Extravagant
Salvific
If you missed the message, you can listen to the podcast found at http://www.stlukehas.com.
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Enjoy the rest of the week. A couple big games this weekend!