Scripture: 1st Peter 1:22-23
As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth so that you might have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly. Do this because you have been given new birth—not from the type of seed that decays but from seed that doesn’t. This seed is God’s life-giving and enduring word.
Thought for the Day: The Qumran Community (Jewish sect that lived away from society, and was the source of the Dead Sea Scrolls) had a manual for discipleship, and it called upon its members to love all the children of light and hate all the children of darkness. Like most of Christian scripture, 1st Peter resists this division. Instead, there is a new birth (transformation) within a person that comes by means of God’s life-giving (or living) and enduring word. This logou zontos (word alive/breathing) was not the written scripture (the New Testament had not yet taken shape), but the Gospel proclaimed in both word and deed. Scripture is this amazing gift, but it should never be confused with the living word which is Christ – God’s redemptive and transformative power unleashed upon the world in the Good News of God’s unconditional love and the proclaiming of this Good News. Scripture can reveal and teach us about Christ, but there is a difference between reading the manual and actually encountering that which the manual describes. As I am currently trying to get a new printer online, I have been reading the manual. There have been numerous times when the manual’s description has left me confused, but upon fiddling with the printer itself, I have come to understand. Or as I have said on occasion, the Bible is a dating service that introduces us to Jesus. At some point, you need to stop talking to the dating service and actually go out on a date.
Prayer: Continue to plant the seed of your unconditional love within me, O Life-giving Word. Allow it to dwell deeply within the soil of my soul, take root and flourish. Allow it, through my regular attention and care, to produce fruit that will bless others as well. Amen.
TODAY’S STUDIES CANCELED
(Concerened about the Sidewalks)
Children, Youth, Choir
and Community Center Board Meeting
Also Canceled
