October 09, 2006

Blogging is Back

Sorry for the long absence from blogging. We'll just call it a summer break... that went a tad into the fall. We are currently in the midst of a message series on Jesus' parables. This week was a particularly hard parable. Luke 16:1-13

What makes it hard is that Jesus tells us a story about a dishonest man, who seemingly shows his lack of character by cheating his master after being fired, and then says that the man was commended for his action.

Jesus, by telling the parable this way is emphasizing how earthly treasures, money and pursuits mean little in comparison to the eternal. Don't love what you have, but if you have it, use it with eternity in mind.

We also looked at Luke 20:20-26 and talked about giving to Ceasar what is Ceasers and God what is God's. We learned that if Ceaser's image is on the coin, we need to know that God's image is on men. So give Ceaser the coin, but give God your life.

We ended with the challeng, once again, easy to say and hard to do... the challeng being to look at the heart and walk of your life. In which direction is your heart focused?

I look forward to reigniting discussion again...

peace friends-

ben

Posted by Genesis Worship at 09:14:21 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |
Comments
1 - Use "it" with eternity in mind, what does that look like in action? To quote the Newsboys, the proof is when you hear your heart starts asking, "What´s my motivation?" How do you balance this in todays culture? Especially in workplaces that are keenly focused seemingly the opposite way?

It's interesting to learn that they couldn't carry coin with ceasar's engraved image. How did that work when they needed to pay ceasar?
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Written by: Anonymous at 2006/10/09 - 09:55:31
2 - , Welcome back. I'm sure I don't have this figured out however, it's probably more about concentrating on the last sentence - how we're walking.

What's our motivation for doing anything? I've been really frustrated lately with my own motivation and will probably project that into my comments.

I found a verse Luke 6:45 which says: The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. Maybe the best reason why we do anything should just be that we love God and love each other and the spending of worldly wealth will reflect that love?

Course easy to say but how in the world do I do it?

Maybe I'm just too hung up on the actual words to move on with the lesson? In this parable I'm still not entirely clear why the dishonest man was commended? What does it mean - use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings?
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Written by: Tina at 2006/10/10 - 06:29:03 in reply to: 1
3 - I've probably missed something in my own interpretation which often gets skewed by my lack of knowlegdge of history and the bible interpretation. How can you tell the difference in the actual straight meaning of words vs. some sort of allegory, or are parables all allegorical somewhat? Also just a curosity question, but were the parable teachings presented in the same order as they appear in the Bible?

Which leads me back to a question from a few weeks ago about Jeremiah written out of sequence, was this just a literary choice or was there a purpose for writing it that way? (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2006/10/10 - 10:42:00
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