Sunday September 15, 2019

Notes from Sunday's service (Thanks, Jean)

Dr. Barclay
Something to Think About: 

We are to think and love like Jesus, not judge like the pharisees.

There is more to the bible than we realize. For those who do not know the bible,  it is a mystery 66 books that seem like a jig saw puzzle. In the passage Mark 2:13-17, we read where Jesus dines with tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees mockingly question him, Jesus sharply rebukes them, explaining he has come to those in the greatest need of him (Mark 2:17). The Pharisees were noted for keeping the commandments to the letter, but lacked love and compassion. The parable of the prodigal son in, Luke 15:11-32 has much we can learn from. The older son that stayed home with the father, had an attitude just like the Pharisees, he was proud and judgmental, lacking mercy and compassion. From what we know in the story, the older brother did not forgive his younger brother for wasting his father’s money and having lived in rebellion and a sinful lifestyle and he did not forgive his father for welcoming the wayward son home and showing love and hospitality to him. If we want our prayers answered we have to forgive (Matthew 6:15). God wants us to have compassion, mercy and forgiveness and not have an attitude like the pharisee’s. God calls us to have an attitude of humility and love.

Roxann Spicer
Theme: Forgiveness

Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.

We have been commanded by Jesus to forgive one another, this is how we can live in right relationship with God and our fellow man. When we refuse to forgive someone, we are building a wall between ourselves and God. The walls of resentment have to come down and then God can work on our attitudes. Unforgiving and bitterness is not just harmful to our spiritual and mental health it is also harmful to physical body. Forgiveness is an act of our will to obey the scriptures. Our emotions and sense of self will not want us to for give. Forgiving each other is not easy and we may not always want to forgive, but we can forgive because of our love for God.

God is love and his nature is love.

Colossians

3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do

Sunday September 1, 2019

Notes from Sunday's service:  (Thanks, Jean)

Dr. Barclay

Something To Think About: We have to have an attitude of love, welcoming everyone back to Christ, and rid ourselves of any attitudes of mockery and doubt.

Luke 15:11-31 Parable of the Lost Son

The younger son is the prodigal who goes off into the world looking for fun and excitement. The older son remains loyal and stays home with the father.

Due to the request of the younger son, the father divides his wealth between his two sons. Before he has died, he divided and gave away his wealth while still living.

After a time of sinful living, the younger son spent all the money the father gave him, he was destitute and hungry and finally gave up doing his own thing and went home and his father gladly received him with great celebration. Yet the older son who had remained faithful to the father was angry and questioned why his father would display such happiness and fanfare, when the prodigal son came home.

Luke 15:31“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”

The younger son represents believers in Christ who have gone astray. The older son represents, the pharisees, people who been in church, yet very cynical and self centered. God wants us to welcome everyone back into church and not be indignant or want our own way.

Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.