Readings for Sunday, January 30

Everyone hopes to some extent.  Everyone is afflicted.  Anyone can pray.  What makes the Christian different is that he goes higher up, deeper down and further in.

Reason will permit a certain amount of hope.  But the hope of the Christian quickly exceeds what reason would permit and keeps going.

The Christian is no more or less likely to suffer affliction, but he does not resist his suffering in the panicky manner of the lost.  The Christian finds that Jesus left the seat of suffering warm for him.  In suffering the Christian discovers an affinity with the suffering Savior.

And, while anyone is capable of praying, the prayer of the believer is not a matter of gasps and murmurs.  It is steady and progressive, part of an ongoing conversation building up to something.  Being faithful in prayer means participating in a conversation where many of the sentences will end in question marks and ellipses, but in which the last sentence ends with a delightful exclamation mark.

Higher up, deeper down, and further in.

January 30, 2011

Call to Repentance

Hebrews 12:11 (page 1877)

Call to Worship

Psalm 8 (page 848)

OT Reading

Proverbs 8:1-11 (page 994)

NT Reading

Galatians 6:1-10 (page 1816)

Message

Higher Up, Deeper Down, and Further In

Romans 12:12 (page 1764)

Readings for Sunday January 15

A proud king is afflicted with insanity and acts like a donkey for years.  He only stops eating grass when his long lost sanity, accompanied by his even longer lost humility, comes back to him.

Then later his son repeats the father's folly and gives free reign to pride.  Then one night a hand appears and writes on the wall "Weighed, weighed and found wanting."

The king made himself out to be someone very valuable and important but when measured on God's scale he did not amount to that much.  He was found wanting, lacking.

When we love others with devotion and treat them as though they were more important than we are we don't need to worry about the writing on the wall. 

Call to Repentance

John 15:6-8  (page 1677)

Call to Worship

Psalm 63  (page 899)

OT Reading

Daniel 5:18-31  (page 1380)

NT Reading

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 (page 1840)

Message

Found Wanting

Romans 12:10 (page 1764)

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

Readings for Sunday, January 9, 2011

In this passage Paul tells us that our love should be sincere, genuine and authentic, that it should not be hypocritical.  We can't take that imperative seriously without asking the question of what it means for love to be hypocritical and insincere.  If my attitude toward evil falls anywhere short of hatred, if the good is something that I salute but fail to cling to than my "love" is a hollow and fragile thing, like a porcelain hammer: perfect in regard to detail, but useless as to purpose.  

Call to Repentance
Romans 12:1-2 (page 1763)

Call to Worship
Psalm 97  (page 935)

OT Reading
Amos 5:4-15  (page 1425)

NT Reading
John 3:16-21  (page 1650

Message
A Love That Does Not Lie
Romans 12:9