Monday Musings

Sojourners Adult Bible Class

Sunday morning was bitter sweet. I finished John chapter 3 in the Sojourners class. We saw that Jesus was the perfect witness for the Father. He came to reveal the Father to us. We saw that Jesus can speak of the things of God because He has first hand knowledge of God and heavenly things. That ties back to the startling statement that Jesus made to Nicodemus – “unless one is born from above, or “fathered” from God one cannot see nor enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus came to reveal those things from above or from heaven.

Therefore Jesus is to be believed for three reasons. The first is that He is from above as we have mentioned so He has perfect, complete, and experiential knowledge to reveal. Second, because the Father has given to Jesus the Holy Spirit without limit to teach, reveal, and testify of the heavenly things necessary for salvation. Third, the end result is so important – if one believes present tense, continues to believe one has eternal life, if one does not believe the wrath of God that one was conceived and born under remains for ever.

This was my last class with the Sojourners. At least for some time. I have taught for almost three years and have loved every minute. We have had some tremendous times in the Word together. I shall miss the teaching outlet.

Sunday Morning Message

Our pastor is currently going through Ephesians. This morning we examined chapter 3:1-13. He reminded us that Paul was chained in the Mamertine Prison as a prisoner of Christ. Paul didn’t complain and say he was a prisoner of Rome, but of Christ for the sake of the Ephesians. Paul was a prisoner to reveal the mystery of how God would bring both Jews and Gentiles into one body through a marvelous plan of redemption.

This mystery was not known prior to God’s sovereign timing of revealing it to Paul who in turn revealed this mystery to the churches, particularly the Ephesian church. Paul considered himself the least of saints, unworthy of this privilege.

God engineered this wonderful plan in such a way that all would marvel, including the angels. The angels are amazed at how God has worked out a plan of redemption for the elect. So Paul did not want the Ephesians believers to worry or be discouraged because he was a prisoner for preaching the gospel.

Sunday afternoon

It was a short drive home and a very lazy afternoon. Irene fixed sausage dogs the way I like them (mustard and onions please) and French fries. We then determined that we were not going anywhere the rest of the day and we figured no one else was coming over so we resumed out project of “offing” our tremendous VHS collection of movies. We jammied up and made three piles of movies. Pile one was, we know we are not keeping this one, pile two was, hmm, let’s watch and see if it makes the cut, and pile three was, we are definitely keeping.

We watched The Talented Mr. Ripley and decided the language and material was not suitable so it was moved from the let’s see if it makes the cut to the get rid of pile. We then watched Sweet Dreams, the Patsy Cline story. The opening scenes were not all that wholesome but the rest of the movie was very interesting and the sound track was of this world. So, it is going to stay for a bit.

Supper was a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. Irene and I talked about a few things for awhile. She went to bed early to read. I settled in and read from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

The old man  (Theophilus) laid on the top of the couch and just slept while I read. While Miss Thing, (Coco ) played with her pink mouse.

All in all, it was a good Sunday! How was yours?