Week 3 friday

Luke 17:1-4

Teachings about Forgiveness and Faith

1 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! 2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. 3 So watch yourselves!
“If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. 4 Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.”

Forgiveness without repentance! This is what Bonhoeffer calls "cheap grace" this can rarely restore our relationships. The goal of forgiveness and repentance must be restored relationship but if our "brother" doesnt want forgiveness( makes no effort at repentance) how can relationship be restored! Sometimes forgiveness can be one sided but this kind of forgiveness is for ourselves so we are freed from the bondage hate and despair. If the one who sinned against us passes away before they can repent we may need to forgive to free ourselves.




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Week 3 thur

The Pharisees were very good at making rules and forcing people to keep them , who you can eat with how to prepare food and yourself for the meal on what day you can and cannot work. Jesus says not in my kingdom in my kingdom we dont put obstacles in the path of the lost and suffering we remove the obstacles.


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Week 3 wed

Jesus sends out the disciples and tells them to rely on him, not to plan for their trip out of their own supplies. Then he feeds the people when the disciples cant figure out how they will ever afford it. Do we try to do ministry under our own abilities also? I wonder what would happen if we just left it up to Jesus?.


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Week 3 tue

"why do you eat and drink with such scum?" matt 5:30

Why do we spend our lives around all the best people?


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Week 3 day 1

Luke1-4
Luke 4:18-21
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Good news to the poor, captives released, blind seeing and oppressed set free... Is that what we see happening in our world? Is that the same good news we are sharing with people. We need to think about what "Good News" means in our society.


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Week 2 day 5 gospel challenge

The last 3 chapters tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. For the last 2 weeks we have read the other 25 chapters of Matthew. Why did matthew bother if the death and resurrection is the totality of the "Good news", he could have saved a lot of papyrus? Out of the 89 chapters of the Gospels only13 chapters are dedicated to his death and resurrection.
Well perhaps that was not the only message that Jesus came to tell or that Matthew, Mark , Luke and John wanted us to hear. The rest of the Gospels tell us that Jesus came to begin his kingdom and how we should live as his followers/subjects.
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Week 2 day 4 gospel challenge

Matt 24-25 be "ready" what does that mean? I dont need to "DO" anything for my salvation do I ? We certainly need to be ready so that we are prepared for the day that Jesus comes again.

Just as a pilot practices his craft over and over and over again with monotonous repetition, so that it becomes more than second nature it becomes instinct. One day he might find a bird flies into his engine and in 3 minutes from take off he needs to crash land his plane in the busiest city in the world. His training and discipline will determine how many passengers survive and how many dont. It doesnt matter that at some stage he got a licence to fly , what matters is his character and his commitment to do what has become second natureor instinct.( for the real story read here

We too need to practise our "craft" and become discipled to Jesus so that when we are called into action we can be ready. Ready to use our character, second nature or instinct for God. We need to be ready.



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