The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States Weekly Devotions: Grow Pray Study Guide - “Freely by his grace” for Wednesday, 17 January 2018

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States Weekly Devotions: Grow Pray Study Guide - “Freely by his grace” for Wednesday, 17 January 2018
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“Freely by his grace”

Wednesday, 17 January 2018

Romans 3:19 Moreover, we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those living within the framework of the Torah, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God’s adverse judgment. 20 For in his sight no one alive will be considered righteous[Romans 3:20 Psalm 143:2] on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, because what Torah really does is show people how sinful they are.

21 But now, quite apart from Torah, God’s way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well — 22 and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, 23 since all have sinned and come short of earning God’s praise. 24 By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua. 25 God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God’s righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past; 26 and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua’s faithfulness.

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“Hindus believe in the law of karma…. we build up good karma through good thoughts and deeds…. Through this cycle of birth, death and rebirth…we can build up more good karma until, finally, no bad karma remains.” * But for Christians, the apostle Paul wrote that no one earns enough merit to deserve eternal life with God. Yet God generously accepts everyone who seeks him, based on grace, not merit (Romans 3:23, 24). 

• Elsewhere (cf. Philippians 3:4-9), Paul wrote about how it transformed him to accept that he was a sinner accepted through Christ’s grace. Have you ever seen in someone else, or felt in yourself, a (duly modest) sense of superiority due to race, education, religious affiliation or any other force that creates division between people? How can you (and God) allow the reality of your need for God’s grace to shift your view of people of other faiths? 

• “Is God the God of Jews only?” Paul went on to ask in Romans 3:29 (clearly implying that the answer was “no”). “Isn’t God the God of Gentiles also?” Practice plugging other labels (e.g. Americans/ Mexicans, Christians/__________—choose a faith tradition, etc.) into those questions, and monitor your inner responses. Ask God to help you get rid of any gratuitous feelings of arrogance this exercise shows you. 

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for offering your grace to the whole human family, including me, through Jesus. Help me to celebrate, not my own goodness, but your goodness living through me. Amen. 

* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 40-41. 

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Jennifer Creagar
Jennifer Creagar is the Financial Care Program Director in Congregational Care at Resurrection Leawood. She is married and loves spending time with her family, and she enjoys writing and photography.I love the old hymns of my childhood, and recently the worship team at Resurrection Downtown included one of my favorites in the weekend worship mix. "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (United Methodist Hymnal #400) has one verse that really speaks to me:

1. Oh to grace how great a debtor 

daily I’m constrained to be! 

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 

bind my wandering heart to thee. 

2. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 

prone to leave the God I love; 

here’s my heart, O take and seal it, 

seal it for thy courts above.

“Prone to wander… prone to leave the God I love…” That is such a perfect description. I know what God asks of me. I want to follow the path laid out in Scripture. I long to always love my neighbor, always seek justice, and be full of mercy, and love the Lord my God with all my heart and all my mind and all my strength. And then something shiny, or frustrating, or confusing comes along and I wander into self-centeredness or I turn my eyes away so I don’t see an inconvenient injustice. Someone asks me for mercy and I don’t reach out and offer it in abundance because it isn’t easy.
I know I am always in debt to God’s grace, “God’s righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him” (Romans 3:22). What a great joy it is to know that God has taken my wandering heart and sealed it for his Kingdom, and that I have the blessing of God’s grace.

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“Saved by God’s grace”

Thursday, 18 January 2018

Ephesians 2:1 You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience. 2 You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. 3 Indeed, we all once lived this way — we followed the passions of our old nature and obeyed the wishes of our old nature and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else.

4 But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love 5 that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, he brought us to life along with the Messiah — it is by grace that you have been delivered. 6 That is, God raised us up with the Messiah Yeshua and seated us with him in heaven, 7 in order to exhibit in the ages to come how infinitely rich is his grace, how great is his kindness toward us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. 8 For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. 9 You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. 10 For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.

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“Hinduism holds…. that our struggle is not with sin, but with ignorance. If we do bad things, even though we have God within us, it is because we do not understand…. We need to gain knowledge.” * But the apostle Paul believed it was important for Christians in Ephesus to understand that the significant changes in their lives (cf. Acts 19:18-20) were not something they had accomplished on their own initiative or strength. They were God’s accomplishment (Greek poema), living out the kind of life God desired them to live. 

• Today’s reading said salvation “is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of.” In what ways does Ephesians’ language fit your life experience? Do you ever pause to realize that the good changes in your life are not solely your “accomplishment,” but (even if you invest hard work in changing habits or patterns) originated in God’s power at work in your life? 

• To what extent have God’s priorities become, not just an occasional exercise that you do when there’s a special church activity, but woven into the way that you live your life? How open are you to letting God continue to shape the way you live even the “secular” parts of your life—driving, shopping, business activities, playing and watching sports, and the like? 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to be your accomplishment, to be an example of what your spiritual craftsmanship can do in a human being. Please keep shaping and guiding me in all I do today. Amen. 

* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 39-40. 

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"One life rather than many"

Friday, 19 2018

Hebrews 9:24 For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

25 Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like the cohen hagadol who enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer death many times — from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,[Hebrews 9:28 Isaiah 53:12] will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.

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“Hindus believe in reincarnation…this essence of God that is placed within us begins its journey as a very simple life form…. through a cycle of deaths and reincarnations we progress up the evolutionary chain…finally, after many lives, we are set free from the cycle of death and reincarnation.” * Christianity does not teach reincarnation. As the letter the Hebrews said plainly, “People are destined to die once.” 

• Hebrews did not use the idea of “judgment” to instill fear, as too many Christian preachers have tried to do. Rather, it placed judgment in the context of the message that Christ did not need a repeated cycle to save us. He ‘was offered once to take on himself the sins of many people” (verse 28). What has helped you to internalize the saving power of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, to deliver you from fear of judgment? 

• The Hindu view of many cycles seems to reflect a rueful recognition that a human life seldom even approaches a high enough state to accrue all good karma. Christians agree with that, but see the solution differently. “The answer to our problem is not within us but beyond us. We cannot make ourselves holy and forgive our own sins…. We need a Savior.” ** Did you ever see it as up to your own goodness and effort to save yourself? If so, what (if anything) changed that for you? 

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, thank you taking the burden of my sins on yourself. Thank you that I need not fear meeting you at the end of my earthly life. Amen. 

* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 41. ** Ibid., p. 44.

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“Where I am you will be too”

Saturday, 20 January 2018

John 14:1 “Don’t let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many places to live. If there weren’t, I would have told you; because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 Since I am going and preparing a place for you, I will return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be also. 4 Furthermore, you know where I’m going; and you know the way there.”

5 T’oma said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going; so how can we know the way?” 6 Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.

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Unlike Hindus, Christians do not believe that when this life ends (after however many cycles), we are united with the divine Brahman like a drop of water in an ocean. Rather, “we have a chance to see God face-to-face, to be known and to know those who have gone before us.” * In John 13:36, Jesus told his disciples, “Where I am going, you can’t follow me now, but you will follow later.” Jesus’ disciples seem to have been frightened by his talk of going away. So he added, “Don’t be troubled…. My Father’s house has room to spare.” He promised that he would return, and when he did his followers could always be with him. Archeologists say most homes in Galilee were small, with one room, two at most. But Jesus’ comforting image of the afterlife was a huge, warm family home where God always has room to spare. 

• Madeleine l’Engle’s A Wind in the Door imagined a setting in which her young hero Meg demanded to know “Where are the ones who saved me?” The answer was, “Where doesn’t matter.” ** When Thomas asked where Jesus was going, Jesus said that he was going “to the Father”—a person, not a place. He emphasized that God, the personal God, was/is completely trustworthy. Our key to being untroubled about what comes after this life is trust. Have you ever struggled with the question of “where” you or a loved one goes after death? What has helped you learn to trust that “safe with God,” wherever that is and however that works, is the ultimate key that Jesus taught us to have peace? 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the assurance that there will always be room for me in your Father’s house. Keep my feet steady on the path that leads to that eternal home. Amen. 

* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 46. 

** L'Engle, Madeleine, A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet Book 2), (p. 185). Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). Kindle Edition. 

Family Activity: The major world religions value serving others as part of their faith. As Christians, with Jesus as our example, we share God’s love by serving others. How does your family work together to serve others? How does each person serve individually? Could you discover and commit to some new ways of serving? Ask an older child or youth to research some ways to volunteer in your area. He or she could explore the church website (www.cor.org, then choose your campus) for service opportunities that fit your family. Also consider brainstorming some less-structured ways to serve others with God’s love such as helping others in your neighborhood or at school. At a family gathering, ask the “researcher” to present these opportunities to the rest of the family. Ask God’s guidance as you discuss the possibilities. Choose one or two ways your family can share God’s love by serving others. 

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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:

• Joe Nesselhuf and family on the death of his wife Jolene Nesselhuf, 1/9/18. 

• Sue Hess and family on the death of her husband Mike Hess, 1/6/18. 

• Elsie Pickett and family on the death of her husband Jim Pickett, 1/5/18. 

• Sue Scott and family on the death of her husband Greg Scott, 1/5/18. 

• Theresa Hayes and family on the death of her mother Alpha Koonce, 1/5/18. 

• Ashly Cooley and family on the death of her grandmother Alpha Koonce, 1/5/18. 

• Randall, Fred, and Dave Rock and families on the death of their sister Denise Rock, 1/4/18. 

• Shelley Hatton and family on the death of her father Jerry Drews, 1/4/18. 

• Ashley Zugelter and family on the death of her husband Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18. 

• Clarence and Margo Zugelter and family on the death of their son Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18. 

• Kerry and Paula Drake and family on the death of their son-in-law Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18. 

• Ed Bokern and family on the death of his brother Bob Bokern, 1/2/18. 

• Marcie Jasper-Neal and family on the death of her grandmother Marcene Jasper, 1/2/18. 

• Joline Rinard and family on the death of her husband Syd Rinard, 12/31/17

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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

13720 Roe Avenue

Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States

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