Class 1
Original URL Sunday, May 5, 2024
Transcript
So, I'm going to be leading our Sunday school class for the next couple of weeks and I wanted to share with you something that the brothers and I had done a couple of weeks ago. I want to talk specifically about drawing near to God. I want us to think about the relationship that we have with God and with his son, our Lord Jesus. And this came to the fore for me because quite frankly I have found over the last year or so that I've found that I've been in one of these sort of spiritual lulls. Perhaps you know what I'm talking about, there are times in our lives when we are firing on all cylinders as they say, when we are truly connecting with God, when God is at the forefront of every thought and there are other times when that's not the case for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's because life gets busy, sometimes it's because of health challenges that we might be enduring, other times it might be just a variety of circumstances. And I get the sense that I'm probably not alone in this. I get the sense that all of us have periods where we find ourselves waning and weakening. And this is what sort of prompted me to want to develop this series and I'd like to begin by asking you to turn with me to the book of James. So you know with the Hebrews James towards the end of the Old Testament of course we come to a passage that's probably familiar to us. And I'm going to start in the seventh verse because one of the reasons why sometimes people find themselves falling away or feeling distant from God is because of temptations and struggles that they endure in life. And verse seven says this, I'm sorry, James chapter 4. It says, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. So the first thing that I want to draw out is this idea of resistance. And when I look back on my life, and I imagine it's the same with you, there were probably times when there were temptations that were challenging for you as they were for me. But over the years those things that once were difficult to endure have become substantially easier. It's sort of like weight training if you will, right? You know you go to a gym and you start lifting weights and you're doing a bench press and you know boy you know with me a hundred pounds you know I'm struggling to get it up. But if I continue with a weight training routine over periods of time, the muscles develop to the point where it's quite easy to lift that hundred pounds that I once struggled with. Resistance training is what the athletes call it. And so here we have this passage that says resist the devil and it will flee from you or he will flee from you. And the idea is that those things that were once difficult to overcome become less of a problem. And I think the next section in this passage is really what I'd want to draw our attention to. Because it's not just about you know muscular Christianity, right? It's not about like trying to fight our way through challenges, but instead it's about relying on God. Because God supports us and strengthens us and wants brothers and sisters to have a relationship with you and with me. And so what we see here in Romans in James chapter 4 verse 8 is this section that says come near to God and he will come near to you. Brothers and sisters we need to draw near to God. And that's what I'd like to have as the focus of our series over this next month. Ways that we can draw near to God. Because there is really more than one way that we can strengthen the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. You know so if you think about our personalities as an example, there are many different personality types. There are many different styles of personality. I remember talking with brother Jim Sullivan and Jim was saying that at work he in the human resource area administers, I don't know if it's a personality test, but it's called DISC. And it helps employers and employees understand how best to interact with one another. And some people are drivers. Some people are, I don't know what the I stands for. I want to say introvert but it's the opposite of that Jim. Inspirers, right? You know we all have different personalities. We all have different styles. We connect with one another in different ways. In the that I've used before. So for some of us we have a real sweet tooth. We love the taste of sugar and candy and those things are the things that we go toward, right? And there are other people who don't have a sweet tooth and would prefer something more savory. And that's their preference. Well when we talk about drawing near to God, just as there are different personality styles, just as there are different taste buds, there are different ways that one can find that strength to draw near to God. There are different ways that we can connect with our Heavenly Father. Some people, for example, feel closest to God when they're doing things. When they're doing acts of service. You know you can think about that. Like I look at my wife. Sandy loves to serve. You know she loves to host. This is what she's good. This is her act of service. There are other people who like to study. They feel closest by, they open the book and they delve into the meaning of words and they get out their concordance and they do word studies and they understand the Greek and the Hebrew. And through that process, that style of person can feel a drawing nearer to God through that approach. So these are just two examples of several different ways in which we can draw near to God. So in our conversations over the next month, I want to look at six different ways that we can find a pathway that brings us back to God or closer to God. Ways that we can draw nearer to him. So we're going to look at, I think what I'd like to do today is sort of present an overview of these six different pathways. And then in succeeding weeks, I'd like to delve in a little bit deeper and seek, you know, hopefully some conversation about what works for you. Things that have happened in your lives that you find helpful and I'll hopefully share the same. So the first two that I want us to consider, let me just stop there. Am I alone in feeling like there are times in my life when I draw, when I find that I'm not as near to God as I once was? No, right? And my question then, before we get into any of these details, if you feel like sharing, when you've been in a place like that, what's worked for you? What has sort of rekindled the spark in you to feel that connection again? So I'll just stop and I'm going to wait you out until we get some volunteers. Butch says the word. So what do you mean by that? Get back to the reading. Yeah. I don't know if you know this, Butch, but we have a microphone in the meeting house and that allows people online to hear what we're saying. Oh, it's my first day. Sorry. So you were saying the word and getting back to the reading. Getting back to the reading. You know, that's the way we're told to transform your minds, right? Where does our faith come from, from hearing the word, reading the word? So that's what works for me anyway. Yeah, good. I think for me, a lot of times the impetus to get back into the word, to get back into an act of prayer life, the things that we know are going to sustain our spiritual mindset, our relationship with God. One of the things that helps me kind of get back into that mode, if I've been out of it, is community and having brothers and sisters, you know, participating in kind of shared activities like the Brothers Weekend. For me, last weekend, that was a huge shot in the arm because I saw the enthusiasm of my brothers and sisters. I saw people I looked up to as spiritual mentors and leaders who were there. I saw their zeal and it rubs off, right? So, you know, if I'm, I agree, I think the word is key, right? But sometimes it's hard to get back into that and that's where community helps. Yeah, I think that's really, I think that's really interesting. And the two things that we've just described are in some ways on opposite ends of the spectrum. When we talk about getting back into the word, in some ways that's a very solitary thing. It's, you know, myself and my Bible and it's me, you know, reading. Whereas Ben describes the strength that he derived from organizing and participating in a Brothers Weekend where men from all over the Northeast came together last weekend in Oxford, Massachusetts, and had a weekend of Bible study of conversation centered around a shared hope. I mean, and it was a communal thing. So, so those are two examples. Yeah, Chris. Yeah, so just to add to that, yeah, definitely, I find that when I'm more active in participating, giving back to the Ecclesiast, because we take so much from it that I feel closer. But conversely, when you are feeling that you're not doing that, then it seems to you feel to have a lull and more of an alienation when you're not actively giving back as much as perhaps you're taking. Interesting, alienation. That's a really interesting word. So what do you mean by that? You're just not feeling as close to both God and your brethren and so forth as, you know, and so I find my ebb and flow, you know, perhaps working up to an excitation, you draw closer. But if there's long periods of time, you know, then you can sometimes feel not as close. So it's not just alienation from God and his son, but even alienation among ourselves, the brothers and sisters, sort of feel like you're just sort of sliding back into the shadows. Perhaps, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I share that because sometimes that's something that I think is- I think perhaps your conscience is pricking you that you need to be, you know, more active in participating and therefore you feel, you know, that you're not holding up your pot. Yeah, OK. OK. Anybody else? Well, here's one. One way that I find that is helpful for me is to contemplate God through nature. To contemplate God through the beauty of nature. Let me give you a couple of examples. Let's turn to Mark, Chapter 6. So, Ben, years ago, Brother John Perks came down from Ottawa to, I think it was to lead a brother's weekend. And in his class, he talked about connecting with God, sort of out in the woods. You know, going for a walk, sort of disconnecting from life, from work, from responsibility, sort of unplugging, if you will. And going out into nature and sitting by a brook and just like listening to the water lap against the rocks. And just that quiet contemplation was a spark for him. And I think that's something that we see throughout the Scriptures. So in Mark, Chapter 6, we've got this example of our Lord, Jesus. And we're going to look towards the end of the chapter. And it's the section that talks about Jesus walking on water. But before he walked on the water to get to his disciples, you'll remember there was a reason he wasn't in the boat with them in the first place. And I think it's at this point in time that we see Jesus sort of unplugging. Not from the internet, but unplugging from the chaos of the crowds, from the chaos of the people. But it says, Jesus has just fed the 5,000. And verse 45 says, immediately Jesus made his disciples to get in the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida while he was dismissing the crowd. And after leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. To me, this is an example where we see Jesus sort of going someplace to connect with God. He is going out of his way to a unique place that's distinct from sort of the everyday hustle and bustle of the world. He's going up to a mountainside to pray. Look at what we find in Luke, Luke Chapter 22. This is the chapter that I, when I preside, often read because it describes the breaking of bread. In Luke Chapter 22, we're going to follow up and see what Jesus did after the breaking of bread service, after he gathered his disciples together for that Last Supper. And we're going to jump in in the 39th verse. It says, Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives. Isn't that interesting? He went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. And on reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. So these are two examples of Jesus, you know, going to a unique place sort of separate from the everyday for the purpose of connecting with his God. Goes up to a mountainside, goes out to a garden. And I would suggest to you that these may be ways that we too can connect with our Father in heaven. When we're feeling that distance, when we're feeling that we can't concentrate, when we feel that we can't effectively pray to our God, you may find, as I find, that this is a great way to do it. Let's look at David, Psalm 8, verse 3. And here's David, right? So we're talking about, you know, connecting or contemplating God through the beauty of nature. And the third verse says, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? When was the last time, brothers and sisters, that you went outdoors on a starry night? When was the last time you were in an area where there was no light pollution and you could just look to the skies and see the beauty, the moon and the stars which God has set in place? Anybody have any particularly memorable views? I'll share one. Sandy and I were at the Minooka Bible School a million years ago now, out in the Portland, Oregon area, right on the Columbia River. And one evening, one of the brothers said, What a beautiful night. You know, we had just sort of finished up. We were sort of retiring to our cabins. And this brother said, Hey, I got an idea. And he he suggested that we all grab some blankets and head out into a field. Oh, it was amazing. You know, so a bunch of us got out there, laid these blankets down, laid on our backs and just stared up at the sky. And it was something that I hadn't done since I was a little boy. And to do it as a grown man, it just had this like different feel. And I just it was just a mind boggling experience, as common as it might seem, just to sort of do it in the context of recognizing that God has created all of this. It made me feel small, but it made me feel very close to God. And so for you, you might find that contemplating God through the beauty of nature is is a helpful thing. Hey, Phil, I'm wondering if you could play a hymn for us. I didn't even ask you that. But could you just play one of the stanzas from him? One hundred and ten. We we know this hymn. I'm going to ask Phil to play two two hymns. The first one is him one hundred and ten and the second one is him seventy six. So I've got my hymn book here. So anytime you're ready, Phil. So that's great. No, that's good. That's enough. So we know that him. Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy handeth made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, the power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. So to me, brothers and sisters, the hymn writer here was one who connected to God. His sort of taste, but his personality style was one that could contemplate God through the beauty of nature. And that may be something that's helpful for you. One other hymn. Could you just play the opening line or so to him? Seventy six. Yeah, just the prelude. That's fine. Yeah. So we know that all creatures of our God and King lift up your voice and with us sing hallelujah. So why are the creatures lifting up their voices and singing to God? Because the burning sun and the golden beam and the silver moon with the softer green. You know, it's an expression of seeing the sun and the moon. The rushing wind that thou art so strong, the clouds that sail in heaven along. Oh, praise him. The flowing water, pure and clear, make music for thy Lord to hear. Hallelujah. The bounteous earth that day by day unfolds blessings on our way. Oh, praise him. Hallelujah. So these are ways that I think are biblical. These are ways that sort of tradition through the hymns point us to. And they're ways that, quite frankly, I connect with. When I'm down, there are times that I'll just get out on my bike and I'll go someplace so that I can just be away and I can just think and I can commune with God. And it's a way that is a spark for me. So any comments about your experiences in nature and how they've helped you draw nearer to God? Or does this resonate with you? Chris? You all know when spring comes along and you feel the sun on your face. It's just natural to us like flowers or trees that we just feel, you know, almost an idea of seeing the Son of God. Okay, the idea of the sun. But, you know, the hope that we've been promised that look up that your redemption draweth nigh is the same type of thing that out of the four seasons and that we're always to look up and draw strength from your redemption draweth nigh. That you never lose sight of that. Yeah, that's good. So Chris, Chris started before the microphone kicked on and he says, you know, we're told to keep looking up. You know, Chris, I remember my dad had a client. What's his name? Can't remember his name, but he had an expression like when you'd see somebody, you say, you know, how you doing or hope you have a good day. And he would always say, hey, Bob, keep looking up. That's that's what he always said. No matter who it was, he would just say, keep looking up. Just a great expression, don't you think? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't just keep your chin up. It was like, keep looking up. Nate, you were going to say something? I had to come up in the other room for this one. Big advocate. I know the omnipresence of God, but it's reference also in Old and New Testament, the ascending to the high places to draw closer. But as a as a skier or hiker, I just find any time that I'm in the mountains, even driving up, you know, whether it's Route 16 or 93 going into the White Mountains, I always turn to care. I'm like, I just inherently feel closer to God in the mountains. And then ideally, it's a cheerless hiking also. But when we had a we had some young brothers that came for a hike and we went to the summit, even though the wind is just howling and it's, you know, it's snow capped. And this is like October, November. I'm like, guys, do you not feel closer to God here? It was like this resounding. Yes. Yeah, big advocate towards just the ascending of a mountain and being able to look at the grandeur. That's that's really where I feel closest in nature. Yeah. Ben. Yeah, go ahead now. It's on now. All right. So just today's point a couple summers ago, I had the New Hampshire forty eight four thousand footers. And I remember you did what the New Hampshire forty eight four thousand footers. You hiked all forty eight of them. So so one time on Mount Tecumseh, which you'll know for Waterville Valley. Right. So this was in the summertime. There wasn't any snow. I kept the ski slopes to get up there. Somebody had put a bench up near the summit and I carried a bench. Yeah. Somebody had brought a bench up there at this beautiful scenic overlook. And I just kind of felt moved to sing a hymn. And it was something that I really ordinarily probably wouldn't do. But just the circumstances of being outdoors, beautiful day, beautiful views, kind of feeling that connection to God. It was kind of like Dave with the tabernacle coming in, you know, his Michael's mocking him for his behavior. And probably I'd be too inhibited to sing a hymn. So, you know, maybe something comes across. It didn't matter in the moment. So it just kind of goes to show how being in these spaces can kind of open you up. But but not everybody. Obviously, it's kind of unusual to have experience. I think your point was it makes some time to find a solitary place. Maybe you can't be on a mountaintop. Maybe you're in your car. But take a few quiet moments to pray. Because too often we're praying when we're, you know, before meals or in some situation where we're just hurried. So stepping aside, taking a moment, I think is like Gordon, I get the sense you're not going to be climbing any 4000 foot mountains these days. Yeah. All right. So Gordon is not going to be climbing any mountains. But, you know, you can get in the car and go down to the ocean. Yeah. Go ahead, Gordon. Thank you. In life, there's going to be an awful lot of ups and downs, sometimes more downs than up. So the important thing I found, you have to trust in God. Because there's a sign in our kitchen that reads, we love because he first loved us. And if you can keep that in mind that God loves us, then it makes it easier to straddle all the difficulties that are going to come your way. And they're going to, I've experienced a lot of them, believe me. But what you, over the years, at the beginning when you're young, God doesn't enter into your mind so much, doesn't enter your life. Because there's so many things. You're raising a family, you're trying to work to support them. And God isn't there all the time. Your mind is working on other things. But as you get older, the realization slowly comes along that God has always been there and has always directed your path through so many difficulties. And that's all I wanted to say to all you young people. Thanks for that, Gordon. So trust in God, that's the bottom line. And he loved us first. Thank you. And he loved us first. Oh yeah, he loved us first from the very beginning. So Gordon talks about God loving us from the very beginning. And when we think about the creation process, it's fascinating to me to think of the idea of God existing from eternity, from the very beginning, while the earth was formless and void, when the earth was wild and waste, right? God is there. And when he forms the earth as we know it, he does so with the purpose of it being filled, inhabited by a created being, man. So that these beings, so that we can experience the beauty of creation and so that we can reflect God's glory, God created us. And I believe that in and of itself tells us that he wants a relationship with us. I mean, God could have created this world. He could look out at the sun and the stars and the moon and enjoy them, but he wanted to share these things. Why else would we be created? And so because God created us, I think we can be confident that he wants us to have a relationship. He wants us to draw near to him. And so what we've done so far this morning is we've talked about just one of the many different pathways to finding a closer relationship with God. The one that we've just been discussing is drawing near to God through nature. And that resonates with many of us. It's resonated with people in the Bible. But there is another way that I want to talk about now. And this is drawing near to God through tradition. Drawing near to God by contemplating him through the familiarity and the comfort of tradition and ritual. It's on the opposite end of the spectrum from what we've just talked about, isn't it? When we think about contemplating God through nature, that can be a very spontaneous thing. That can be, I'm just going to get up and go down to the beach and look out over the ocean and just feel God's presence there because it's separate from the world and I can just concentrate and connect with him. That's spontaneous. But there are other people that gravitate and feel closer to God through structure. And I'll give you an example from my own life. I remember as a young boy being at the Wilbraham Bible School. The Eastern Bible School was held at Wilbraham. We used to go every summer as kids. And when I was a teenager, I remember being in the chapel there at the Wilbraham Academy. Can anybody picture it? Am I that old that nobody remembers it? But it was a beautiful little chapel and it was filled with other brothers and sisters. And we were singing a hymn. And it was just so comforting to me to sort of be in a familiar place with familiar people, all gathered together. We were participating in a memorial service. And so one of the rituals that we keep even to this day is the ritual that Christ instituted. Do this in remembrance of me. And there is a structure to that, brothers and sisters. When you come together, it's about coming together. It's about remembering Jesus in the appointed way. And I think that that is a way that many people can find comfort and a closeness to God. Let's look at Luke chapter 22. We were in this chapter earlier this morning. My Bible is still open to it. This was the chapter that we read when it spoke about Jesus after the Last Supper going out to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom. But earlier in the chapter, it's here that Jesus institutes the tradition or the ritual of breaking bread. And we'll start at the 19th verse. And he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them saying, I don't even have to read it, do I? I mean, we read this so often. It's familiar to us. It's comforting to us, right? It's that, OK, I'm in my place. I'm here on a Sunday morning. I'm feeling this special place to commune with God and his Son. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. And so as Christadelphians, brothers and sisters, I think one of the things that makes us unique is that we have strived to rediscover sort of original Christianity, right? What were the things that Jesus and his disciples taught and preached? And we sort of stripped away a lot of the traditions of men. We've tried to. But some traditions remain, biblical traditions. I've mentioned the breaking of bread. What's another one? Chris? Baptism. You know, when you are downstairs witnessing a baptism, does that spark memories of the commitment that you had on the day you were baptized? Yeah. You know, when I was when I was putting these classes together, I was thinking about Tommy Cannon for two reasons. Nate was talking about going up onto the mountain. But I don't know if if you remember when Tom's memorial service took place, there was a photograph that I think Brian Lloyd took. Brian and Tom were there a couple of guys that went out and climbed one of the big mountains. It was the last hike that Tom ever took. And it was a crisp fall day. There was snow on the top of the mountain. And there was a picture of Tom. And when I saw that picture, it was at his memorial service, which was held at that camp. And where was it? Hanson? Hanson. And it was at that same camp where his two boys were baptized months later. And I remember walking down those stairs, right, and coming to that pond and seeing those young men walk into the water, that cold, frigid water on that day. And Rich Deneen Senior's voice and Josh Deneen's booming voice as they as they baptized these boys. And boy, I got to tell you, I mean, I felt close to God right then. That was a that was an experience. So ritual, there are times that we can sort of dismiss ritual as being worldly or as being extra biblical. But the rituals that we perform, the rituals that we follow are truly biblical. The breaking of bread, baptism. And for a lot of people, these are the things that that cause them to draw nearer to God. It's that pathway that can spark a feeling of closeness. Any comments or anything that anybody wants to share? OK, so we're I'm going to just share a couple of other things. It doesn't have to be breaking of bread and baptism. These are these are pretty clearly understood. But the daily readings is something that that can be a real comfort for people. One of the things that's really unique about our community is the fact that Christadelphians have traditionally followed the same reading plan, which means that Brenda can open her Bible on a Monday morning, maybe all by yourself, and know that there is another sister or another brother in the next town or the next county or the next state or a different part of the world that is also reading that same passage of scripture. And there's just some sort of comfort in knowing that. That there are brethren beneath the western skies, as the hymn says, you know, that are awakening and doing these same readings. For some, that can bring a great comfort. Other people find just the just the traditional way of performing a memorial service, the order. While there's nothing scriptural about the order of service that we have, it's sort of just a you know, it comes from some Scottish tradition that we open with a certain number of hymns and sing these type of hymns. I mean, but it brings comfort to people. You know, to sing out of the green hymn book or before that, the blue hymn book, you know, it's familiar. And just that that that that in and of itself can cause people to feel more comfortable. So these are just two of the two of the many ways that we can draw nearer to God. We'll close here, but I wanted to just sort of highlight those two because they can be very different from one another. You know, one is spontaneous, one that can be done with people or by yourself. Others, the other, you know, drawing near through tradition and contemplating God through the comfort of tradition and ritual. That's much more structured. And it's not that one is right and one is wrong. They're both acceptable to our heavenly fathers. And the goal of this discussion today and hopefully in the coming weeks is to sort of think about ways that you can sort of spark that that relationship with God again. I'll end with this. I've shared this before, but it just was a powerful thing in my life. Sandy was going through a depression. She was really struggling. This was after, you know, this was a postpartum depression that she had. And she was having a hard time praying, couldn't even pray. She felt. Just so distant from God. And she confided in a trusted sister. It was Jane Dixon. And she told Jane, I can't even pray. And Jane said, dear, that's why we pray for you. And. Those words just resonated with Sandy. You know, it was a spark that lifted her. It allowed her to sort of not keep her chin up, but allowed her to keep looking up, you know, at a time when she was in a dark place. And so we're going to be talking about all different ways that individuals, yourself included, can find a pathway back to God. And that's my goal this week.Class 2
Original URL Sunday, May 12, 2024
Transcript
I'm going to see if I can put a couple of pictures on the screen. These were pictures that I referenced last week. That, brothers and sisters, is a picture of Tom Cannon on the hike that he took in New Hampshire with Brian Lloyd before he died. And we were talking in the context of this, of course, was that we were speaking about how to draw close to God. And one of the ways that people can sometimes feel a closeness to God is to sort of head off into nature, to head off into the mountains. And so these were some of the pictures that were taken that day of Brian. And I think Ian Stewart was there. But look at that. Isn't that just gorgeous? That's New Hampshire. You can see how cold it is. They're in the top of the mountain. And you've got the frost on all of the pumpkins. So if you imagine hiking up there, you can certainly see how it is that one would feel a closeness to God. That's sort of one of my pathways of feeling that closeness. So this was the crew. But just look at that. Pretty neat, huh? And so for 45 minutes, we'll be looking at these pictures. There's one other set that I wanted to show. And this was, yeah, just, isn't that a pretty one? OK. That's it. Thanks, Phil. So here we are, brothers and sisters. The idea behind our series this month is trying to understand how it is that we can feel closer to God. There are times when, in my own life, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster. There are periods in my life where I feel a real connection with God, where he's in the center of my mind. When I wake up in the morning, and there are other times when it's not the case. And I know I'm not alone in that. And the premise behind these classes are there are, like taste buds, there are certain things that we might do, that you might do, that I might do, that might be different from someone else in terms of rekindling that spark. And so last week, we spoke about two of these different pathways. One pathway to God that we spoke about was drawing close to him through nature, contemplating God through the beauty of nature. And we talked about Jesus and how Jesus was in the regular habit of heading out into the Mount of Olives, where he would pray to God. Or where he would be with all the crowds, and he would dismiss the crowds. And where would he go? Up onto a mountain to be alone and to pray. We saw David doing similar things, where David would contemplate God through the beauty of nature. And we read a couple of psalms. And then we went and looked at some of the hymns that we sing. Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand has made. We read these lyrics and we say, yeah, there is something there for a lot of us that causes us to feel this draw to God. So that was one of the things that we looked at last week. The second thing that we looked at was tradition. These are sort of two opposite ends of the spectrum. It's like the person who likes bitter things and the person that likes sweet things. They're taste buds. We all have taste buds, but some people have a preference. Some people, they're not interested in nature. Not that they're not interested, but that it doesn't have that same draw to God that others might. Tradition is sort of an opposite end of the spectrum thing where it requires a certain structure that you don't see with the spontaneity of going for a walk. That tradition that we spoke about last week, we talked about two of the traditions that we follow as Christadelphians. These traditions is the tradition of baptism. It's a ritual, it's a rite. I think some churches might refer to it that way, but we view baptism as a tradition that is hugely important. And for me, all it takes is to see a Sunday school student that grows up and says, you know what, I'm gonna enter the waters of baptism. And you're sitting downstairs and you're watching William get baptized. And it's like, whoa, and it just brings you right back. We talked about the cannon boys out in the water outdoors on a cold day getting baptized. And those sorts of traditions are things that can cause us to feel this nearness to God. There are other traditions that we follow, certainly the breaking of bread. And when we have this time during the passing of our memorial emblems or the sharing of the bread and the wine, we contemplate. We pause, we sort of clear our mind and have this moment of meditation. And for some people, that moment of meditation, that moment of reflection really strengthens that connection. The Lord is in his holy temple is the prelude that we often play before the start of meeting. That's a tradition. It doesn't make it right or wrong, but it's one of those things that just for many people, there's a comfort level there. It's like, oh yeah, okay, God's here in our presence. And this is my happy place, right? This is where I am to be. Structure as opposed to spontaneity. I think all of these things are important aspects. Any reflections or comments about last week's class? Okay. How about prayers? There are some people who pray using these and thou's, right? That's a very comforting language for them. And that's a way that some people feel a real closeness to God. It's sort of like, okay, this is not my everyday language. This is language that is set aside for the purpose of worship or the purpose of remembering God. And for folks that feel that way, I think that's a terrific thing. Yeah, so those were some of the notes that I had on that. What I wanna do now is I wanna look at two additional pathways. So the first one was using nature as a way of drawing closer to God. The second one was tradition as a way of drawing closer. The third and the fourth. The third one is drawing close to God through intellect. Contemplating God through the mind. Butch, when we first started this discussion, and I asked the question, how do you draw closer to God? You remember what you said? Go to the word. Go to the word. Go to the word. And is there a microphone around? I wanna get some discussions here. So when you think about going to the word, why is it that that helps you? Okay. In that downward thing, the word is in the back of the mind, right? So you hit that word and it brings it all back to the front of your mind where it belongs. And it's a comfort. All those words, and you're taking that impact that this is the word of the Almighty. And that should have a big impact on us. So there's a lot of comforting words in there. So that's kind of what it does for me. And doing like a Bible study, the in-depth, like you're saying, the intellectual stuff can be quite helpful as well because you're spending a lot of time in it. Yeah. The word is how God communicates with us today. You know, we don't have the Lord speaking to us. His communication is through the word. And so if we are feeling that we are drawing away or if we are feeling stagnant in our relationship, then perhaps that's a way that we can get back. Lindy. Am I in the dark here? I feel like it's dark. Ah, now I can see my notes. So if I may reflect back to, sorry if I'm kind of diverting here, back to prayer. I remember your dad gave an exhortation once, well, quite a few times, but on prayer specifically. And he said, the question was, how do you start your day? How do you end your day? You know, when you're waking up. And I remember he said he starts with prayer. And then when he goes to sleep, he ends with prayer. And it kind of like opens the day and closes the day, I think, when we can reflect like that. It might not happen every day, but that's been helpful for me over the years, for sure. Awesome. So that's just my little. Yeah, that's good, that's good. So I've identified that as sort of reaching out to God through solitude. And we'll talk more about prayer because I do think for a lot of us, that is a real strengthener. Just as the word is God speaking to us, prayer is us having an opportunity to speak to the creator, right? So there's sort of two sides of the same, different sides of the same coin. It's about communication, right? And I think that communication is one of the things that I find to really be helpful in feeling stronger in our faith. So when it comes to the word and the study of the word, the contemplation of God through our minds, I wanna ask you to turn with me to a couple of places. So the first is a passage that we'll look up, but it's a passage that you're probably very familiar with. It's sort of a well-known one. It's Mark chapter 12. And in Mark chapter 12 towards the end of the chapter, I guess about halfway through the chapter, we read about the greatest commandment. Verse 28, one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating and noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer. He asked him, of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one answered Jesus is this, hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. So this is the Shema from Exodus. Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. So the first and the greatest commandment, Jesus says is to love the Lord with all your soul, strength. And of course, for the discussion here, the focus that I want us to be looking at is our mind. So how do we love Jesus? How do we love God with our minds? And I think part of that is reading the word and contemplating the word. Let's go to the Old Testament and we'll look at a couple of passages from the Old Testament. The first two will be in Proverbs. So you can imagine that Proverbs will have some good places for us to turn regarding prayer and meditation, Lindy, but also the word itself. So we're gonna look at Proverbs four. Why don't we start in Proverbs two. We'll go Proverbs two. Now I'm gonna really look at the first 15 verses here. My son, the teacher says, my son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom, applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight, so this is more than just reading. This is more than just reading for reading's sake. It's like reading for insight. If you're looking for insight, if you cry aloud for understanding, if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, for the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. I think this is, to me, this section of passages is one of those that resonated with me particularly earlier in my life. Not that it doesn't now, but I remember there was a time where I was spending an awful lot of time in studious Bible study, right? And Phil, you have on our website an amazing treasure of recordings. I looked at it this morning for a specific purpose. Not only does Phil have, I think at last count it was over 7,000 audio recordings throughout Christadelfia, but it has the ability to search these recordings by words and phrases. It's amazing. So I jumped onto the website this morning. I went to the audio archive, which is in our members' section, and I found all of these talks, and there's a search bar there. And in the search bar, I typed a vein of gold, a vein of gold. And the reason I did that was because I, as a young man, young brother, remember a speaker who was talking about reading through the Bible and finding a passage that was interesting but just as he read it and as he looked at cross references and as he began to explore what this passage was all about, it was like the miner who is out and hits some gold and finds that there's a vein there. And he just goes deeper and deeper and deeper into this vein of gold. And it's like searching for treasure. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about the Bible and the reading of the Bible. It's that you can just go so deep, right? I mean, for anybody that's done it, it's just a fascinating thing. I'm a little disappointed with myself. I had some notes that I had prepared yesterday, and I didn't bring them with me. But it was on this particular subject, I was gonna give you an example of sort of digging deeper. But it was from David Levin's recent book, Legalism Versus Faith. So it's an old book, but he updated it recently. And there was a section there about the beginning of Genesis. And for me, this was an example of sort of hitting a vein of gold. Because the context of David's writing here was about a relationship with God. And this is what sort of prompted me to develop this series of talks. In Genesis, and I'll just have you turn there now, sort of as an aside, but as an example more about these veins of gold. Genesis chapter one, we're reading about the creation. And it says in chapter one, verse one, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And all through chapter one, the Hebrew word for God is simply Elohim. It's like a job title, I think is how David described it. It's a title, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. And everything that we see in chapter one of Genesis is God speaking, he used the phrase, rhetorically. He's speaking, but there's no one that can hear him. He's just speaking, and God said, let there be light. And it's only when we come to chapter two do we see that God is no longer referred to simply as Elohim, but now he's referred to as the Lord God. Yahweh, Elohim. And no longer do we see God speaking rhetorically, he is now in dialogue, he has now created individuals who can not only understand what God is saying, but act on it. And David's point here was that this section of, these two chapters are an early demonstration of the fact that God truly does want us to have a relationship with him. He wants us to draw near to him, he wants us to be close to him. And so when we delve into the word, when we read the Bible and contemplate God through our intellect, through our mind, we can discover things like this. And when we read that, for some people, it truly is that euphoric feeling of like, I've discovered something, this is really cool. It's like the miner that hits the vein of gold, and when that happens, the miner doesn't go, oh, I'll come back and sort of hit this mine later on, and when I've got some time, you just delve in. So I thought that was interesting. I would recommend that book to you, and it's worth reading. Comments? Okay, so we're reading in Proverbs chapter two, we came down where it says the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he's a shield for those whose walk is blameless. Verse nine, then you will understand what is the right and just and fair, every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Direction will protect you. This is direction from God. This isn't like listening to social media, this isn't listening to what current thought is, this is listening to the word of God. And God's way is the way that will direct you and protect you, and his understanding will guard you. I think these are some really great passages about how we can draw close to God through wisdom and through our mind. Let's turn over to chapter four, verse seven. Wisdom is supreme, the teacher says, therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding, esteem her. This is how important it is. If there's anything in the world, this is what you ought to be striving for, this wisdom. Not worldly wisdom, not wisdom in terms of books and science, and those things are important and good, but wisdom in terms of what God teaches. And when we come to Ecclesiastes, this is the last section that we'll look at from the Old Testament, we'll look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Mm-hmm. So Ecclesiastes 12, we'll start in the ninth verse. This is the conclusion of the matter. This is after the writer here has sort of looked out and saw that all is vanity, and then he says, not only was the teacher wise, verse nine, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The teacher searched to find just the right words and what he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like golds. They are collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books, there's no end. And much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard, here's the conclusion of the matter. Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it's good or evil. So the point that I wanted to emphasize there is what we see in verse nine about how the teacher imparted knowledge to the people, pondered and searched and set in order all these proverbs. There's a great benefit, brothers and sisters, to doing these sorts of things, to working on our mind. Give you some practical examples or practical help, things that I found really helpful. One of the things that I did many years ago when I would prepare, not an exhortation, but like a Bible study on a book, for example, I did it with the book of Hebrews. I got my printer, my computer, and I copied the whole book of Hebrews. And I printed it so that the margin on the right-hand side of the page was extremely wide for writing. And I would, as I would go through and read these, not verse by verse, but like thought by thought, or the section, the paragraph, on the right-hand side, I would paraphrase what I thought the writer was explaining. I would put in my own words the things that he was saying. And for me, that process was the thing that just helped me better understand what was being written. I remember talking to Mark Vincent about this, and Mark would often do that with whole books, too, where he would basically create his own paraphrase of a book. The reason behind it is when you're trying to explain it in your own words, it's easy to understand when you don't understand, right? If you have to explain it, then that's a way that you can learn, I think, and remember better. So that was some of the things that have been helpful to me. And of course, you think about Jesus. Even as a young man, Jesus was about his father's business. That was about opening the word, studying the word, and trying to figure it all out. Anybody wanna share some thoughts about listening to Bible talks or podcasts? Does anybody find that to be a helpful thing? We've talked about the reservoir of 7,000 talks on our website. Anybody listen to any particular talks or podcasts? You do? Anything in particular? Yeah, like you said, there's a wealth of classes, Christadelphian videos. I like to watch the videos. There'll be some sort of presentation with it instead of listening to a podcast, per se. Because the visual helps you? I like the visual aids better. And the hand is on the pause button. Because like you said, you wanna stop and go, wait a second, we wanna read to understand. So I'll pause it and go, okay, what is he trying to say? And then like you just said, put it in my own words. Because we wanna read to understand. And if you understand, then you should be able to explain it to somebody. So that's kind of the thought process that I go through as well. I should be able to explain this to somebody. So the hand's on the pause button. Where was he going? What was he saying? Okay. And yeah, the Christadelphian videos is typically where I go, but there's, like you said, there's so much out there on whatever subject you want, right? We should be taking advantage of that if we can. Anybody else? Okay. How about magazines and books? Anybody getting or reading any magazines or books? I'm on the tidings magazine committee, so this is where everybody raises their hands and says, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we read the tidings. But we've been publishing a lot on social media. A lot of the articles that are in the tidings get put onto Instagram and Facebook. And there's a huge number of, we can tell how many people are reading them and it's really big. So I think there's a lot of really good information. And reading may not be your thing. Listening may help. Watching something may help. And I think you've got to figure out what it is that works for you. I always remember Jim Sullivan telling the story about not being able to sleep at night. And he would listen to these audio recordings and it just sort of was a way that sort of helped him out, got into his mind. Okay, so here's some things. We're talking about not only reading the Bible, but studying it, meditating on it, thinking about it. Preparing Bible classes and exhortations. Not everybody is in a position to do that. For me, that's a really helpful thing. I really find that personally to be a real help. And if you're not preparing them, listening to them, that's another good thing. Okay, anybody else want to add anything on this subject? I feel like I'm losing everybody. Yeah, all right, so contemplating God through the mind. The next one we're going to talk about is again, so we're looking at opposites. So there are some people that are just like, you know what, I'm not a student. I'm just not interested. It's just not my strength. It's not what I'm good at. And that's okay, right? That's the point of, I think, these classes. It's everybody can find another way, their way of drawing close to God. Certainly reading the Bible is critically important for all of us, but whether you have to become a scholar or not is the point. You don't. You think about all of the people that Jesus spoke to and taught in the first century, and many of them were illiterate, let alone scholars. So again, the Bible is there for us to read. We have the ability, through technology, to have our own copy. We can read it and study it, but that may not be your thing. Studying it as an intellectual exercise may not be your thing, but what may be, one thing that may allow you to draw closer to God is by caregiving, very different thing, but equally important, caregiving. Drawing close to God by loving God through loving others. So I can tell you that for Sandy, this is sort of her thing. Let's see, I've got a note here. Yeah, let's look at some examples of caregiving, and we'll go to the New Testament first. We're gonna look at Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. This is a section where we have many different parables in Matthew, and halfway through this chapter in verse 31, we read the parable of the sheep and the goats. We'll pick it up in the 34th verse. It says, then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world, for I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me. So here we see Jesus in this parable talking about the importance of caring for others, of loving others, and when we do that, it is really an expression of loving God. It's a way that you might, while you may not be the intellectual type to find strength and a closeness to God through studying, you may find that when you are giving a cup of water to someone in Jesus' name, that that in and of itself is a way that you can draw close to God. It's an important thing that we do. We have to be careful, particularly in our community, that we don't elevate the people who are at the platform over the people who are in the kitchen, right? They are equally important jobs, and Jesus emphasizes that here in this important parable where he talks about how people are doing these things. These are actions that they do. Jesus emphasized helping others as an important act of worship, important act of service to God. So we looked at the parable of the sheep and the goats. If we continue on that parable, it says, the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry or feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see a stranger invite you, when did we see you a stranger invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you a sick person or in prison and go to visit you? And the king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brethren, you did for me. That's the point, right? If we are being hospitable to others, it's as though we are being hospitable to the Lord himself. Anybody wanna talk about that? Lindy, I love it. So just sharing personal experience for me, as a couple weeks ago when we had the great opportunity to serve our brothers in Christ and the team that was there, we just all worked great together and it was truly a pleasure and honor to be able to do that for the brothers that were at the weekend and thinking of other brothers as well. So it just was a great effort by all and just that service in the Lord, right, when we can do it. Not all can, but that's okay too when we each have, I think, service that we can do. Maybe it's this small or this big, however, because we each have a talent, right? That's right. And if I may make one more comment. Sister Nancy Rice, AKA my mom, happy Mother's Day, everybody. Happy Mother's Day. She brought up about Brother Doug Eagles and how getting the mind focused through memory verses and one coming to her mind is Psalm 23. So having those memory verses. So are you gonna recite that for us? Sure, yeah. Yeah, about memory? No, but anyways, that's just my side comment. So thank you. Sharon. Yeah, I was in Coles yesterday and in the shoe department and there was an older woman, probably my age, but anyways, she looked older to me, trying on a new pair of sneakers. She was all alone and she was walking in them and she was debating them and I just looked over and I said to her, those look really nice on you. And I could tell from her expression, she was happy to not have to make the decision all by herself and made me feel good because I felt like if it was my mother doing that, I would like someone to have reached out to her and said, those look really nice on you. Yeah, it's a cup of water, kind word. That's very nice, that's good. Luke chapter four is another passage that talks about caring for others and it's not just, it's caring for the stranger. It's caring for those who are less fortunate. It's caring and helping the poor and the needy. That's what we read about here in Luke chapter four. So Jesus has gone to his hometown of Nazareth here and if we look at verse 16, it says, he went to Nazareth where he had been brought up. This is right after the temptations in the wilderness. This is right when Jesus is starting his ministry. He goes to his hometown. Went to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and on the Sabbath, he went to the synagogue as was his custom. Now that's an interesting thing, right? Going to the synagogue wasn't an unusual thing for Jesus. It was his custom. This was sort of, we're talking now about loving God and loving others but this is an example where Jesus was getting his mind into the word. That's why he would go to the synagogue. It was at the synagogue that the holy scriptures, the Jewish scriptures were and that's where he would read, that's how Jesus was able to be about his father's business when he went to the temple or as his custom was here in his hometown, going to the synagogue. So he went to the synagogue as was his custom and he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and on rolling it, he found the place where it was written. So once again, Jesus was a young man of the word. He was a student of the word. He goes to the synagogue as was his custom. He's about to read the scroll but he was so familiar with it that remember, he's not looking at the top right margin of his book and flipping pages. He finds the place in the scroll that he wanted to emphasize as he started his ministry. What does he read? The spirit of Yahweh is on me because he has anointed me to do what? To preach good news to the poor and he sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then he rolled up his scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. You know, do you remember Lincoln's Gettysburg address? Lincoln's Gettysburg address was, I don't know how many words it was, 421. I mean, it was a short, short speech. And so memorable because of its brevity. The person who spoke right before Abraham Lincoln was, I believe, a senator from Massachusetts and he spoke for two hours and nobody remembers a word he said, right? Lincoln, because of the brevity of his speech, has, you know, has been able to cause that speech to go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest speeches ever. And similarly, here's Jesus starting his ministry. He goes into the synagogue as his custom. He finds the book of Isaiah. He opens the scroll and turns and turns and turns until he finds the passage and then he reads, what? Two verses and sits down. And what are the two verses? That he was anointed by God to preach the good news to the poor and to proclaim freedom to the prisoners. And I think the point here is that one way that we can draw close to God is to draw close to him by helping others. By caring for the poor and the needy. You think about all the miracles that Jesus performed, you know, the healings. Jesus would heal and purposely do so in a confrontational way when he spoke and healed on the Sabbath, for example. He was confronting religious leaders who were oppressing the poor and the needy. Jesus was always looking out for the common man. Let's just take one more look at that. We'll be in Matthew this time, Matthew chapter 23. We're gonna end shortly after this. Matthew 23 verse one. Then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders and they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see. And the point here is Jesus is confronting these religious leaders because they were oppressing the common man. And so one way that we can feel a closeness to God is by loving the common man, by loving those that are in need. Nancy, you're in the back of the hall, but you are a wonderful example to us. I think of you, Nancy and Kathy, and the prayers that you continually offer to God on behalf of those who are in need. And I think that your example is one that we can all learn from. And this may be a way that you can feel close to God, but certainly it teaches us and shows us a great way to draw near to God too. Praying for family and friends, maintaining a prayer list. Michelle, your grandmother on her kitchen window, you know what I'm gonna say? Yeah, yeah, she had a prayer list that she kept on her window above her sink. And every time she was at the sink, she would say, these are people that I wanna remember in prayer. Great example. We can provide meals to the sick and the elderly. I know yesterday, Ellen Schlagerter said that a lot of the New England CYC kids showed up at her house. Gary's been off his feet for months now, and they came to help open up the gardens and do some work and clean up the yard. That's an example, brothers and sisters, of loving people who are in need. And doing so is a benefit not just to the recipient. I think the point I'm trying to make is doing so can be a benefit to the giver as well. Sharon, just like you feel good about making a comment to a woman who is alone, here you are providing support to her, and it makes you feel good, right? So hospitality, opening our homes to visitors and the ecclesias one way, driving patients to doctor's appointments is another. These are just ways that we can help. All right, so let's close, and we'll continue this next week.Class 3
Original URL Sunday, May 26, 2024