Sunday Jan 22, 2006

These Notes are Rough, but I hope you can glean something from them, guys!
Lew

Recap on Blogs
• Jeremiah Blog
o www.jeremiahbiblestudy.blogspot.com
• Chase House Sundays Blog
o www.chasehousesundays.blogspot.com

On the Centrality of Scripture to your Formation
• Would disgust me to be quoted among you without the Scripture at the center!

We Hate to Be Corrected
• Painful in the past?
o Criticized?
• Criticism is an “-ism schism”…
• Sometimes it’s totally unjustified
• Mostly it’s unkind, ungentle

Col. 3:16
• “Let the Word of Christ in all its richness dwell in your hearts as you… teach and admonish one another in all spiritual wisdom…”
o You are the teachers in the Body
• On a Daily Basis
o This isn’t a message from Lew.
• This is and has been a message from Jesus Christ for 2000 years!

The Job of Teaching and Admonishing one another
• My Eldership
o All the good elders were already taken
o We’re the scum of the earth
o Last in parade
• Suck it up and get walking

Admonishment!
• Role playing with Zach
o Don’t leave your bag/my bag where the cats piss…
• Correcting behavior that has negative consequences…

Our Aversion to Correction:
• Pathologically Averse to Correction
o We avoid it like a stink in a room
• Either get the stink out
• Or you get out
• When We pray together, a lot of times it’s affected by this
o We pray veiled criticisms and admonishments
o We add in our encouragements, too…
• Not to be confused with blessings
• Happens when we have a lot of unsaid admonishments…
o We want Sympathy, but not Correction
•
We’re not to tolerate in our midst:
• Sin
• Worry
• Evil
• Injustice
o We’re to Correct each other!
o
We want the preacher to do it to us all together
• Reducing the impact
• Saving the flesh
We’re to do this for one another!
• You know each other better than any preacher can!
For Example:
• Faithfulness at our jobs!
o Let people know that we are all to work as unto the Lord!
• Lew’s Job
o Not afraid to admit when I do well
There are a lot of places in daily life where you guys are slacking off.
• Some of that matters
• We’re hamstrung
o You don’t allow each other the room to correct…

Pr. 6:23—The commands of scripture (don’t worry)
• inappropriate to worry
o speak the truth in love (eph 4-5) to those who worry
• need to help each other out by speaking truth
• You’re not a worrier!
o You’re a beloved child of God
• 2 Cor 10—mighty weapons to control thoughts
• Rom 8 Same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead…
Prov. 6:23—the corrections of discipline are the way to life
• discipline as a noun is attractive to us
• the verb is abhorrent to us
o punishment
o to train
• fathers beat the sons
• Heb. 12 says that it’s a sign of our membership in the Family of God…
• Do you crave the corrections?
o If you have a thin skin to corrections, you won’t go far in the community of the cross
o
10:17—Heeds Discipline shows the way to life/ignores correction leads others astray
• Empowered dark side
o Indian proverb of two dogs inside the foolish young man…
o Don’t poison each other by your handling of discipline
• don’t want that on your head, do you?
o How thin-skinned you’ve been
o Mad at people who’ve told you the truth
• Become whole and right in your thinking
• For the sake or yourself
• For the sake of those who are affected by your example
o We aren’t walking in the Strength of the Truth of the DGospel,
• We’re surrounded by poor examples
• We’re intolerant of truth in love correction
My job is an Equipper
• I don’t DO this ministry
• I don’t change a neighborhood
• I don’t change my neighbor
• I love you and I equip you!
o Fo ryou to love your neighbor

Prov. 12:1
• Loves Discipline/Loves Knowledge
• Hates correction/is a fool
• Foolishness is criminal in nature
o Lawbreaking
Deep folly ground in
• American independence is a spiritually criminal state…
• In Xist, of course I can’t make it
o Jesus not a crutch, he’s a stretcher
• If you don’t love correction…
• I love it.
• It helps me
Pr. 13: 18 Heed correction
• You have to be wrong!
• Exposed
• Confessional
• Honest acceptance
• Admission of guilt/folly/fault
• We must crave it
o I didn’t join this to be covered
o I started this to be healed
No wonder Bible study is boring
• You can’t use it!
o First sign of correction is “harrumph!”
• You know what’s wrong with you?
• Look honey, don’t worry!
 I don’t want to pray! Angry response…
o Just confess it and agree with correction and don’t fall into shame!
o Be patient with your self!
o Be gentle with others!!!
• You’ll all become mature and strong!
•
Don’t hold back just because you’re disqualified.
• The Message is true when it lines up with Scripture
o Been being spoken since before the foundation of the earth!
o Confession of sin can be followed by gentle correction!
• This never fleshes out in a haughty, condemning way!
• Fruit of Spirit
• 1 Cor. 13 love
Judging/Condemning
• Two kinds of Judging
o Condemnation
• Bigotry
• exclusion
o Discernment
•
o Matthew 7
o Luke 6
o Discernment vs. Condemnation
• Your worrying is killing you and I can’t just sit by and watch it happen
• Take care of each other!
o I would want you all to help me as much as you possibly could…
Why are we all so Thin-Skinned?
• It doesn’t matter!
• We must trust and change!
• Accept yourself, by Grace.
• Receive Love from God (believe it)
• Listen to the Truth
o Recognise it by knowing the scriptures!

End of transcription. More on audio…

Ephesians 5:21 Submission to one another: Medicine for this Sickness!
• Recognizing Christ when he’s speaking through another Christian
• Looking past the vessel to the contents
• Honoring the Word when it comes from someone whose flaws you know…
When you get as close as we all are
• You need to be able to admonish each other
• Pray with each other
• Challenge each other
• Correct each other
We are to be SAFE
• Without a love for correction,
o We’ll never be safe for one another…
AUBMISSION Next week
• Blog page on it
• Search page from Ephesians on
o This is gonna help you come to love correction.
5:21
• Submit
• One another
• Reverence
• Christ
o Do you recognize Him in each other?
o Those of us who are walking in this stuff
o Living in this life
o In whom this life is living
o When this is in you, Christ is in you (not bread and wine, the holy Spirit).
• Did you ever just know that someone is/is not a Christian by the Holy Spirit
 Then you listen to what they’re saying
How could anyone prophesy in a group like ours?
• It’s not safe to correct us!
• We don’t WANT it!
• The Bible says we are to LOVE IT!
o Thanks to all who help every Sunday!
• But until we’re submitted to one another out of reverence for Christ, you’ll be hatin on the prophets.
We Got bent by the World
• Christ is refashioning us like a bent sword
• Restoring us to sharpness, usefulness, beauty, dangerousness
o Hammer
o Fire
o Anvil
o Striking
• Discipline
• Correction
• Admonishment
 Heb. 12
• Don’t sweat “sons”! Men are the Bride of Christ!
This is the beginning of a conversation.
• I’m ready for you to correct me!
Rule of St. Benedict
• Good example of how Xians fleshed out this submission…
• Check it out on the Web.
•
So Don’t we have growing to do?
• Sign He’s training us
• Some of us have never known a good, disciplining father
o You do, now that you know Xist!
Mercy and Peace…
Until we love correction:
• We aren’t safe

Sunday Night January 15, 2006

Notes and Scriptures from Jan. 15

This is rough, guys, but bear with, and read the scripture references! Don't take my word for it...


• Matt. 25
o Urgency (Rick)
• Urgency speaks of consequences
 Activity
• If we “buy oil”/get ready/filled with Spirit
• We enter the wedding
 Inactivity
• Not ready/filled w/Spirit
• We are left out.
Self-Preservation (Matt 25, Matt 10, Acts 2:40)
• Legitimate motivation!
• Acts 2 “Save Yourselves from this perverse generation”
• Matthew 10 “be afraid”
o Gehenna/trash heap
• Who wants to be thrown on Gods trash heap?
 What will you find there?
• The demons?
• The damned?
o And it is burning
o Valley of Ben Hinnom was where they burned their sons and daughters in the fire. That’s what gehenna, the place, was in the day of Jesus.
• I said they burned bones there. Not true. But in the days of Josiah, it had become a place of infant sacrifice.
• King Josiah desecrated it…
• It was a symbol of demons
• I don’t want to be one of those who get lost to God in this way!!!

Luke 16 Recap:
• Parable set in terms we could understand
o Money
o Jesus got demanding and bossy about money
o And scary!
o Correlation between this world and “light”
• This world is darkness
• Not your home
• 1 John (only 5 chapters) don’t love the world
 it’s passing away
 lust of flesh
 lust of eyes
 pride of life
o Use money to get friends
• Make friends withthosse of high status!
 Not “nobodies”. Somebodies
 And who is greater than Jesus?
• Matt. 25: He is the least of these!
• James 1
o Rich are low
o Poor are high
• First are last, last are first
Metanoia
• Turn your mind around!
o Repent!
• Romans 12—reneweing of the mind. Not in conformity with the world!
• Our New Language (of the TURNED MIND) Praise
o One of the most important things of ourlife
o Eph 4 ane 5
• Thanksgiving is our new language
• Much better to be silly in praise than to be fitting in with the typical complaining and bitterness
•

Scripture lists are necessary
• Radical life change required
• Consider what you’re getting involved in!!!
• Is it a cult?
• Or is it the Gospel?

Mt. 25—seriously get your heads into it and get it into your head!
Renewing of the mind!
• Five categories:
o Hungry
o Thirsty
o Stranger
o Sick
o Prisoner
• Repeated severally!
• When it’s repeated, it’s important!
• Four times repeated! Hello!

2 Cor. 13:5
• classic prooftexting! Check it out!
• Paul has been calling them throughout the letter to return to faithfulness to the way
o Harsh even
• Smitty reads it.
• “How dare you question my faith?”
o we dare very well question you!
o It’s for your own good
o And for the Lord’s pleasure
• We’re bold to question each other!
• JP shares:
o Ephesian elders warned Acts 26
• The evil comes from within
• Watch out
• Be on guard
•
Making a Scripture list is so important

Greed:
• In terms of people in this room
o So soaked in greed that we can’t even see it
o So out of touch with poverty
o That I think it’s like

Christmas Eve.
• We’re about to receive precious gifts from God our father
• The opening of the kingdom to our hearts is a convicting, painful thing, but we’re being HEALED!
o Nehemiah 8:10—
• They were utterly undone when they learned what they had been missing!
• They are weeping, but Ezra and Nehemiah were telling them to rejoice and celebrate
 It’s natural to weep when we realize we’ve been on the wrong path.
 It’s supernatural to rejoice when we are shown our wrong…
• Mt.5 Second Beattitude
 Blessed are those who mourn
• Happiness in grief!


Taking Spiritual Responsibility/Gaining Spiritual Maturity
• Nehemiah 8
o They take responsibility
• Ezra reads the law
• They realize their state
• They understand
 in mourning
 in action
• They take responsibility
 Jubilee practices
• major reform!
 Celebrating at table
 Shares for the poor
 Shares to the levites

o The American ChurchWe have Neglected
• Why?
 Doesn’t matter!
 It’s not our fault
 Or it is!
 But it’s not important why!
 It’s important to realize that it’s our RESPONSIBILITY!
• Grow up now! Maturity!
o If you’d grown up 100 year s from now…
o And the environment were poisonous…
o You would be RESPONSIBLE to fix it!
 Well the environment is poisonous with Greed. And you and I must fix it!
• We must take responsibility for it and fix it…
o It might be inherited from our forefathers
o It might be because of unfaithful leaders
o It might be totally just the water we swim in
o But it is OUR responsibility to reform it!
• To be reformed by Jesus/the Word
• To be transformed by the renewing of our minds!
 To let that Word work its way out in our lives


…This is as far as I was able to get transcription of the audio notes… do with it what youcan…

Submission

Hey, look at the Later New Testament references to Submission (click on the Title, up there). This is the answer for our "Correction" blues...

Get in it and GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Correction

We're talking about Correction this weekend. Most of us hate to be corrected. We hate to find out that we've been doing something wrong. This is rooted deeply in us because our culture has been independent and proud... No kidding.

But as we look at the scripture and what it says about correction, we'll see that we really can't get our lives straight without others "setting us straight".

Submissiveness to the Truth is the Key!

When any one of us speaks the truth in love, we are beholden to listen!

Sunday Jan. 8

This sunday, like last, was really different for me.

by the way, i've found that the notes are "copious"--there are a LOT of notes to transcribe from the audio file on this week's time in the word--so I'm going to make this blog entry about the EXPERIENCE of sunday night, trying to fit in all the scriptures about it, too...

Well, the sunday before, we were in Luke 16, looking into the issue of how we use money in this life, in the light of the topical emphasis on GIVING.

We established that Jesus is calling us to:
not serve money and God--you can't
use our money, tainted as it is, to make FRIENDS with people who will welcome us into "eternal dwellings", or "tents of eternity", as my Jerusalem Bible puts it...

What are the "tents of eternity", and who has good ones?
Answer: the tents of eternity refers to the final kingdom dwelling/state that we have in Christ.
the poor are the ones who have the good ones...

James 1:7 puts the poor in high rank
Matthew 25 puts the "least of these" in high rank, too.

we are made to fear, as we consider that God will treat the poor of this world as rich in the next...
Jas. 2:5

Then we went on to be terrified by the
next parable in Luke 16, about a Rich man and a man named Lazarus.
We noted a lot of things there, but the point made us fear, lest we forget Lazarus in our own life, seeing that Jesus described a judgment that rewards the poor...

conclusion?
it seems that the way to blessing isn't just to HELP the poor, but to BECOME the poor!

Look at Luke 6! (remember, this is a series on giving) and see how blessed the poor are! look at the curse of the rich!
Woe is us if we pile up wealth in this world! Woe!

So that was a recap of Jan 8th.

That was the point!

The notes are available from me. email me and i'll send them... They're transcribed from audio...

This week's Notes

good morning everybody!
It's 720 here at my house.
the day started with prayer and praise
I read john 15, 16, 17, and Psalm 69 this morning to start the day...
I had a cup of Earl Grey and a cup of Green tea
got Tim to the bus stop
got aaron, Pappa, and Lil D to school in time for breakfast
got Seth installed on Public Television
with a PBJ
and a cup of juice
and now i'm gonna get the notes to you from Sunday Night.
I'm so happy that you were there...
wasn't worshipping with song great!
I love to sing praises, no matter how bad i've been.

the scriptures say, "it is fitting for the upright to praise Him". Well, I'm not sure about how "upright" i may seem to myself, or the rest of the world, startign with Judy, but I know that Jesus' blood has wiped my sin out. It's out of the picture (Rom.5), and now I walk with God! And I know that Jesus has credited me with righteousness by faith, and if I abide in Him (John 15), that righteousness will bleed through me into this life in the world.

So I have hope, as I praise Him, that "He who began a good work in [me] will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."
and "when he is revealed [my] life will be revealed" (Col.3), (1 JOhn 3)

that's always my hope when I praise Him, never that I have behaved well, or that I somehow have lived up to something... always spiritual poverty and hope! Amen?

I'll end this intro post and the one above it will be about Sunday Night.

Jubilee

Hey, look at these twenty scriptures on Jubilee, today! Read and meditate on what God is saying to us today! There is such a thing as Jubilee for us,too! it's the release of prisoners!

Consider this, as well: Jesus started his public ministry off with this:
Luke 4: 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[e]

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
_________________________________________________________________

There are a lot of us who hear the Jubilee in this! Jesus has ushered in an age of "Jubilee" for us! No kidding! Soak this in!
it's everywhere in the teachings of Jesus. He is the Jubilee! Meditate on it!

Gleaning

This is a topic I'm really interested in us getting familiar with. Did you know that we are supposed to leave extra for the poor, the stranger, the alien, the widow, the orphan? This concept of Gleaning is a call to us to be sensitive about how we deal with Surplus!

Look at the parable of the Rich man who had extra!
____________________________________________________________________________________
Luke 12:15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Think of how much wiser it is to handle the "extra" of our lives with generosity!
From tipping waiters to taking our change at the Thrift Store, we can RELAX and stop scraping after every cent, when we put our hearts on generosity!

Look at the teaching that follows this! The next verses are all about not worrying! When you are generous/rich toward God, you won't be consumed by worries about gaining and preserving your material wealth! What a load off!
__________________________________________________________
22Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
--------------------------------------------------

It is my prayer for us all that our lives would be consumed with generosity--that our worries would be lost in the joy of losing this life/gaining the next!

Look at what Jesus is teaching us! he is teaching us that we don't have to harvest our fields down to the last olive, grape, or sheaf of grain! He's telling us to be generous, and then to relax and trust! Get rid of the extra! Stop scrapping and scraping to get the best and most!

Kingdom come means a different life! Live differently!

Sabbath

Click on the title to go straight to a Scripture Search on Sabbath.

You'll find that there is the Sabbath: a day of rest

There is the Sabbath of the Land: a year of rest for fields

And there is the Sabbath of the New Covenant: a state of rest for the believer...

Please read up this week and prepare for this Sunday.

Jan. 3 About Topical Study

Ladies’ group requested that our teachings get a little more topical… it’s hard to do topical teaching in the Body.
Topical Teaching
• Xian life not a group of ideas that we sew together to try to create Christian Living.
o It’s not Pieces of knowledge that we collect.
o It’s a Person, Jesus, who called Himself “The Way” as one of His NAMES!
• This is GOOD NEWS to those who have come to know that we are utter failures in following rules and precepts.
• When we ask, “What does God want me to do about say, for example, Giving?”
o The answer to the question is often perplexing.
• It’s “Jesus”.
• The answer is not a method
• Not an idea
• Not a plan
• Not a program
• Not even and “answer” to the question.
• When we ask “what does God want me to do about Giving?” We get the answer, “JESUS”.
•
If you’re looking for a religion that answers questions like these with ANSWERS,
• you might consider the Pharisees.
o We aren’t part of a religion like that of the Old Covenant that wrote laws on stone and answered the practical daily questions with law and rules.