The Final Session of the FCC Summer Scripture Study - September the 10th 2009
Posted on: Wed, 2009/09/09 - 09:46
Anonymous
The Final Session of the FCC Summer Scripture Study - September the 10th 2009
Hello Everyone
I hope that you are having a great week so far! I would like to invite you to join us this again, this Thursday September 10th as we continue our Summer Scripture Study Series at the FCC.
This will be the final session in this series before the Alpha and
Omega classes start next week.
The format for the prayer session is the following:
1) Sign of the Cross
2) Song #1
3) PRAYER: Holy Spirit Prayers: "Please come Holy Spirit"
4) Song #2
5) PRAYER: Praise to God: "Praise be to God"
6) Read the Gospel
7) Discussion on the Gospel
8) PRAYER: Thanksgiving: "Thanks be to God"
9) Song #3
10) PRAYER: Supplication (Requests): "Lord hear our prayers"
11) Song #4
12) PRAYER: Final Prayer
The reading will be next Sunday's Gospel. Please see the Gospel passage below. You will also notice below a nice meditation on the Gospel provided to us by Ira.
We will gather at around 7:00pm and start the prayer session at 7:30pm.
We will wrap up around 8:30pm.
We will not be serving any food or beverages so please bring your own
if you want anything to eat or drink.
Please feel free to invite your friends. Our doors are always open!
God Bless
Anthony
Here is next week's Gospel for Sunday the September 13th 2009:
Gospel - Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it.”
Peter had a striking insight and dared to express it to Jesus and his
fellow disciples:"You are the Messiah!"(Mark8:29). In Matthew's account (Matthew 16:13-19), Jesus calls Simon "blessed" for being open to divine revelation. However, Jesus doesn't let Peter bask in this moment. Right away, he begins to describe what being the Messiah means: suffering and death for Jesus.
Peter's reaction is swift and understandable: horror. Jesus in turn
rebukes him for thinking like a human being rather than thinking with God's perspective, and that should change everything.
Next, Jesus calls Peter to leadership. But Peter has to understand
that leading doesn't meant lording it over others but laying down his life for them (Mark 10:42-45). He can't be a leader like this based on his own strength and wisdom. He must bring these things to Jesus and receive
the gifts that God is offering him: a new heart, a new mind, a new way of life.
One specific way of denying ourselves and taking up our cross is to
put aside our natural but fallen ways of thinking and ask God to help us see things as he does. The obvious example here is that suffering and death
aren't the ultimate evil; far worse are sin and failure to do the Father's will.
What other ways of thinking might you need to adjust? Perhaps the judgement that this (career, security) is very important, or that (taking care of home and children, keeping church laws) is not so important. Perhaps the commonsense but inadequate approach that I can't love others
unless I first love myself; that my needs, then the needs of my family, come before the claims of the poor; or that material needs are more fundamental than spiritual ones.
Spend a few moments today asking God to show you one way in which you
need to change your mind so that you can make room for his love and his way of thinking.
"Father, fill me with the riches of your wisdom. I want to see
everything and everyone as you see them."
Hello Everyone
I hope that you are having a great week so far! I would like to invite you to join us this again, this Thursday September 10th as we continue our Summer Scripture Study Series at the FCC.
This will be the final session in this series before the Alpha and
Omega classes start next week.
The format for the prayer session is the following:
1) Sign of the Cross
2) Song #1
3) PRAYER: Holy Spirit Prayers: "Please come Holy Spirit"
4) Song #2
5) PRAYER: Praise to God: "Praise be to God"
6) Read the Gospel
7) Discussion on the Gospel
8) PRAYER: Thanksgiving: "Thanks be to God"
9) Song #3
10) PRAYER: Supplication (Requests): "Lord hear our prayers"
11) Song #4
12) PRAYER: Final Prayer
The reading will be next Sunday's Gospel. Please see the Gospel passage below. You will also notice below a nice meditation on the Gospel provided to us by Ira.
We will gather at around 7:00pm and start the prayer session at 7:30pm.
We will wrap up around 8:30pm.
We will not be serving any food or beverages so please bring your own
if you want anything to eat or drink.
Please feel free to invite your friends. Our doors are always open!
God Bless
Anthony
Here is next week's Gospel for Sunday the September 13th 2009:
Gospel - Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Meditation for Sunday, September 13 Mark 8:27-35
Peter had a striking insight and dared to express it to Jesus and his
fellow disciples:"You are the Messiah!"(Mark8:29). In Matthew's account (Matthew 16:13-19), Jesus calls Simon "blessed" for being open to divine revelation. However, Jesus doesn't let Peter bask in this moment. Right away, he begins to describe what being the Messiah means: suffering and death for Jesus.
Peter's reaction is swift and understandable: horror. Jesus in turn
rebukes him for thinking like a human being rather than thinking with God's perspective, and that should change everything.
Next, Jesus calls Peter to leadership. But Peter has to understand
that leading doesn't meant lording it over others but laying down his life for them (Mark 10:42-45). He can't be a leader like this based on his own strength and wisdom. He must bring these things to Jesus and receive
the gifts that God is offering him: a new heart, a new mind, a new way of life.
One specific way of denying ourselves and taking up our cross is to
put aside our natural but fallen ways of thinking and ask God to help us see things as he does. The obvious example here is that suffering and death
aren't the ultimate evil; far worse are sin and failure to do the Father's will.
What other ways of thinking might you need to adjust? Perhaps the judgement that this (career, security) is very important, or that (taking care of home and children, keeping church laws) is not so important. Perhaps the commonsense but inadequate approach that I can't love others
unless I first love myself; that my needs, then the needs of my family, come before the claims of the poor; or that material needs are more fundamental than spiritual ones.
Spend a few moments today asking God to show you one way in which you
need to change your mind so that you can make room for his love and his way of thinking.
"Father, fill me with the riches of your wisdom. I want to see
everything and everyone as you see them."