Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor[Matthew 5:43 Leviticus 19:18] — and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. 46 What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that!
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How did Pastor Burton move forward after 20 years of unfair detention? He lived into the focus of Jesus’ teaching about tragedy or suffering. Jesus was not much concerned with assigning blame for the bad things that happen in life, but rather with bringing healing. He taught that God doesn’t send bad things into our lives, but rather can find ways to redeem even those when they happen.
• Pastor Hamilton wrote, “God does not take from us our freedom, nor does God
miraculously deliver us from the consequences of our actions or the actions of others…. God does promise to sustain us and force good to come from the painful things we experience in this life.”1 What makes it important to you that Jesus pictured God as a just, loving, merciful parent, not a monster who makes bad things happen to us?
• Jesus said that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust alike. How often are you tempted to limit your help and your efforts to bless only to people you like, or consider “worthy”? How do you understand the idea of loving your enemies? Do you believe Jesus meant having mushy, affectionate feelings about them, or choosing to act for their good despite what they have done? How can making those hard choices help you grow in character and maturity?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, hate is so tempting—and, in the end, so destructive to me, and to your
purposes for my life. Teach me more each day about how to love and pray for even my
enemies. Amen.
1 Adam Hamilton, Why? Making Sense of God’s Will. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011, p. 20.
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Insights from Steven Blair
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How did Pastor Burton move forward after 20 years of unfair detention? He lived into the focus of Jesus’ teaching about tragedy or suffering. Jesus was not much concerned with assigning blame for the bad things that happen in life, but rather with bringing healing. He taught that God doesn’t send bad things into our lives, but rather can find ways to redeem even those when they happen.
• Pastor Hamilton wrote, “God does not take from us our freedom, nor does God
miraculously deliver us from the consequences of our actions or the actions of others…. God does promise to sustain us and force good to come from the painful things we experience in this life.”1 What makes it important to you that Jesus pictured God as a just, loving, merciful parent, not a monster who makes bad things happen to us?
• Jesus said that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust alike. How often are you tempted to limit your help and your efforts to bless only to people you like, or consider “worthy”? How do you understand the idea of loving your enemies? Do you believe Jesus meant having mushy, affectionate feelings about them, or choosing to act for their good despite what they have done? How can making those hard choices help you grow in character and maturity?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, hate is so tempting—and, in the end, so destructive to me, and to your
purposes for my life. Teach me more each day about how to love and pray for even my
enemies. Amen.
1 Adam Hamilton, Why? Making Sense of God’s Will. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011, p. 20.
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Insights from Steven Blair
Rev. Steven Blair is the Congregational Care Pastor of Live Forward and Live Well Emotional Wellness Ministry. www.cor.org/liveforwardSimple, But Hard.
Simple usually means easy, except when it doesn’t. ‘Love your enemies’ is a simple idea that requires incredible strength and dedication. Praying for them is equally difficult.
When I hear Jesus calling us to ‘love our enemies and pray for them,’ what I hear Jesus saying is ‘want good things for them.’ There are going to be people at work, home, or in public that we will not like as much. It will sometimes feel like they are against us, an enemy. When that happens, Jesus wants us to respond in ways that shows we want good things for them.
For Pastor Darryl, that meant wanting the snitch witnesses to find Jesus. For us that might mean wanting a co-worker to find healing in something other than prejudice or pettiness. We might want our political enemies to find love and community even if we disagree with them.
If you have an enemy, ask yourself whether you want good things for them. If not, ask Jesus to help you love your enemy. It is simple, but not easy.-------
"Forgive—as God forgives" for Thursday, 3 November 2016
Luke 6:31 “Treat other people as you would like them to treat you. 32 What credit is it to you if you love only those who love you? Why, even sinners love those who love them. 33 What credit is it to you if you do good only to those who do good to you? Even sinners do that. 34 What credit is it to you if you lend only to those who you expect will pay you back? Even sinners lend to each other, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing back! Your reward will be great, and you will be children of Ha‘Elyon; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.
37 “Don’t judge,
and you won’t be judged.
Don’t condemn,
and you won’t be condemned.
“Forgive,
and you will be forgiven.
38 Give,
and you will receive gifts —
the full measure, compacted, shaken together and overflowing, will be put right in your lap. For the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure back to you!”
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Luke used much (but not all) of the material from “The Sermon on the Mount” (cf. Matthew 5-7) in this passage. That does not mean we have to choose the “right” version. Most scholars believe these principles were likely the core of most of Jesus’ sermons. Too often, we are a bit glib about forgiving. “No big deal—it doesn’t matter,” we want others to say. But it IS a big deal to forgive. Forgiving as God forgave reminds us that it took the cross to show us God’s forgiveness.
• Luke linked the Golden Rule (“Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat
you”—verse 31) to Jesus’ words about how to treat enemies. In what relationships do you
find it hardest for you to treat others as you’d wish to be treated? How can Jesus’ teaching help you discern how to live out the Golden Rule in ways that bless others while you maintain healthy boundaries and self-care?
• From Francis of Assisi to his namesake Pope Francis, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to
Mother Teresa, many Christ followers have stood with the poor and victims of injustice.
The Message rendered Luke 6:46 as, “Why are you…always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s
right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These…are words to build a life on.” How are you building your life on Jesus’ values, as so many of his followers through the centuries have done?
Prayer: O Jesus, I’m not God—but you promised me that you can shape me to be more and
more like you. I offer my life to your re-shaping hand, because ultimately your way of life is the best way of life. Amen.
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"Living with hope" for Friday, 4 November 2016
Romans 5:1 So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. 2 Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 3 But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope; 5 and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh who has been given to us.
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The apostle Paul sketched the spiritual growth process through which every Christ-follower can develop a character that meets challenges (like unfair conviction, or any of life’s dark twists and turns) with hope and trust, not despair. God, the apostle said, has the power to bend even bad things to good purposes in our lives. Paul said that as we meet trouble in God’s grace we grow in the kind of resolute, grounded hope needed to survive and thrive.
• The apostle didn’t write through naïve, rose-colored glasses. Human nature is not at all inclined to view tests as something to “take pride” in. That’s why he focused on God’s wisdom and love as the divine gifts that can turn hard times into times of growth. When has God given you wisdom to face a tough challenge, or surrounded you with love and support for the strength you needed? In what ways does God’s ability to “grow you” through life’s challenges help you view hard times differently?
• Later in Romans, Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). How close to “overflowing” is your inner supply of joy and hope today, whether you face good situations, hard ones or a mix? How can you open your heart and allow God to fill you to overflowing with all joy and peace?
Prayer: Lord God, come and fill me. Replace fear, doubt and despair with your joy, peace,
faith and hope. Let me walk every day in the light and love you pour into my heart. Amen.
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“Nothing can separate us from God’s love” for Saturday, 5 November 2016
Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, 39 neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.
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Pastor Burton’s remarkable story reminds us that seeking justice matters to all of us as God’s people (cf. Amos 5:24). It also shows us the truth of Romans 8:38-39: nothing (!) can separate us from God’s love. When he wrote that, the apostle Paul knew all about “trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” (verse 35). Those are the parts of life that often shake our faith in God’s love. But Paul said God allows us to face them, but never leaves us while we face them. Scholar N. T. Wright wrote, “Look around at the many things that threaten to separate you from the powerful love seen through the cross and
resurrection, and learn that they are all beaten foes. Learn to dance and sing for joy to celebrate God’s victory. The end of Romans 8 deserves to be written in letters of fire on the living tablets of our hearts.”1
• The compound Greek word translated “sweeping victory” was hupernikaō. “Huper” was a superlative, the origin of the English “hyper.” And the “nik” in the middle of the word came from the Greek word for “victory,” a word we know from shoes and athletic gear—“nikē”! Paul asked two compelling questions: “If God is for us, who is against us?” and “Who will separate us from Christ’s love?” Both were phrased in a way that assumed the answer was “Nobody and nothing!” In what ways does that confidence shape your daily life for the better? What can help you, even on the hardest of days, to open your heart to the sweeping victory God offers you?
Prayer: All powerful God, whatever comes my way, hold me close in the shelter of your love. Thank you that, through you, I can win a sweeping victory in “all these things.”
Amen.
1 N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone, Romans Part 1: Chapters 1–8. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 159.
Family Activity: Sometimes people get angry with or hurt one another. It is important for us to ask forgiveness when we sin against someone, and forgive those who’ve hurt us. Place a handful of coins in a container and go as a family to a nearby fountain. Ask each person to take one or more coins. Explain that this is a time to tell God “I’m sorry” for my wrongs, and start the process of forgiving hurts from others. Ask each person to pray (aloud or silently), “Lord, I am sorry I…” and/or “Lord, help me to forgive….” Toss the coins into the water. Invite family members to dip their hands in the fountain for a quick washing. End by praying, “Thank
you, God, for the reality of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Amen.” Make sure to also ask forgiveness of the ones who have been hurt by your words or actions.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Jessie Fetters and family on the death of her brother Alvin Pemberton, 10/23
•Kaye Schultz and family on the death of her brother Gaylord Freshley, 10/20
• Jaime Kernaghan and family on the death of her father Bob Kernaghan, 10/17
•Stacy Vollmar and Kristin Vollmar on the death of their father Dean Vollmar, 10/1
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13720 Roe Avenue
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