October 26, 2009

Gooooood Morning!

I hope all is well with you this morning and that you will have a Great Week!

SOCIAL STUFF!

Well this past week I turned 62 years old! It doesn't feel much different than 61 but it sure feels a heck of a lot different than 22! I did sign up for Social Security on Friday and the experience went pretty smooth.

Jane took me to dinner at Red Lobster on Thursday the 22nd, which is my birthday, and we then went to see the play "Sleuth" at the Repertory Theater in Webster Groves. I enjoy going to such things as plays and concerts. I enjoyed the play very much and we had a great evening.

On Friday night, Jane and I joined a few of the senior folks by going to a fish fry at the Ballwin VFW hall and enjoyed an excellent meal and time. If you like fried fish this was a very good experience. Either the VFW or the American Legion has these fish fries every Friday night and so I am thinking Jane and I will be trying these again.

On Saturday, Jane and I went to a birthday party for one of our nieces' children and had a good time.

Yesterday, we went to the Rams football game and saw the Rams get edged out 43-6 by the Indianapolis Colts. It was a pretty close game until the coin toss, which the Rams lost, but then it went downhill from there.

Koinonia Sunday School Class

Attendees: Bill Nichols, Genny Maas, Cindie Jones, Josh Schlobohm, Jane and Terry Pursley:

Prayers were requested for:

1. Ester Smith who is experiencing some aging issues that are always tough.

2. A friend of Cyndie Jones by the name of Carol who has been diagnosed with two types of breast cancer.

3. Cory and Jessica Mack whose pregnancy seems to be going well this time while Cory is in Irag.
4. Amanda Vogt who is having to deal with another issue related to cancer.

5. The Ernie Nicewonger family whose 36 year old daughter, Karen, died this past week from cancer.

6. Jimmy and Samantha Pursley (relatives of Terry) who are two good young unmarried people with a young son and who for the first time have started attending a Church with Jimmy's parents. Good kids who just need a little spiritual guidance to help make the road of life a little easier to navigate.

Class Material:

This Sunday we studied Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Acts. We studied these two chapters since Chapter 6 is fairly short and the message of the two Chapters are closely united.

At the beginning of Chapter 6 we see the number of "Believers" is growing rapidly and as a result the social issues are also growing. Apparently the sharing of food was becoming complicated because of a language barrier between the Greeks and Hebrews. As a result "hard feelings" were being generated because of the language barrier. This issue was beginning to consume much of the Apostles time so they decided to develop a committee of lay persons to help with the distribution of the food. Seven faithful members where selected to lead this effort. The main point of this section would seem to be that we are witnessing the beginning in the Church of a need for the pastoral and lay members of the Church to work together to create an effective ministry. This symbiotic relationship still exists today and remains just as important.

In Chapter 6 verse 8 we begin reading the story of Stephen, who is the man who will be stoned to death. In verse 8 we find Stephen described as "a man full of God's grace and Power" and who is performing amazing miracles and signs among the people. Of course under the philosophy that "no good deed goes unpunished" two members of a group called "Synagogue of Freed Slaves" challenge Stephen's efforts and evidently they lose their debate with Stephen. Because they lose their debate with Stephen they elect to use the "tried and true" method of lying and wrongly accusing Stephen of blaspheming Moses and even God. These deceitful efforts are effective and Stephen is brought before the "high council" where Stephen was asked "Are these accusations true?"

In Chapter 7 we find Stephen's response to the "high council's" question. Stephen's response is not a simple "No" but rather Stephen spends the bulk of Chapter 7 providing an excellent verbal record of the history of the relationship between God and Israel. Stephen starts with Abraham and moves through the Jewish history up through David, and up to this point Stephen has not caused much anxiety with the high council, but then things take a nasty turn.

Stephen uses this history to accuse the high council and the people by saying:

You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One - the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, even though you received it from the hands of angels."

This condemnation by Stephen infuriated the high council members and the listening crowd to the point where they dragged Stephen out of the city and then stoned Stephen to death!

The lesson I find interesting here is the "church's" ability to "resist" the Holy Spirit. Stephen's message tells us the Holy Spirit is constantly "talking" to us and in return we have the tendency to "resist" the Holy Spirit's message. The "church" of Stephen's day as well as the "church" that existed before and after Stephen, was and is comprised of people who want to love God but only if God conforms to the "church's" visage of who God should be. Stephen doesn't accuse the "Church" of not "Hearing" the message of the "Holy Spirit" but rather he accuses them of "Resisting" the message. BIG DIFFERENCE! I suggest we each need to assess our own "faith experience" and determine if we are doing what the "Holy Spirit" tells us to do, or are we "resisting" the message by altering the message so it fits better with what we, in our opinion, believe the message should be. This is what Stephen challenge the high council members to do and their response was to continue their "resistance" by getting rid of the messenger.

Next week we will study Chapter 8 which starts out with the following sentence in reference to the stoning of Stephen - "Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen." As you know Saul will eventually have his name changed to Paul and will become one of the great leaders of the Christian faith. Next week our study will begin to see how this transformation of Saul/Paul takes place.

Have a Great Week and Enjoy Life!

Terry