Posts by tablemanna (Page 54)

Our reading for Sunday will be Matthew 6.24-34.  Read the full text here. The reading begins, 24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

John Wesley, in the Preface to Explanatory Notes to the Old Testament, outlines ways to search the Scriptures.  You’ll find a link to Wesley’s framework and further reading here.  Wesley writes, If you desire to read the scripture in such a manner as may most effectually answer this end, would it not be advisable, 1. To set apart a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose? 2. At each time if you have leisure, to…

Kevin Watson writes, Searching the scriptures is important to discipleship…because it is the primary place where one finds guidance for how to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Just as it is not controversial to suggest that Christians should spend time in prayer, it is not likely to stir up controversy to suggest that Christians should read the Bible. However, saying that it is important and actually doing it can be very different things (A Blueprint for Discipleship, 87).

We’ll conclude our three-week series, Staying in Love with God, this Sunday with reflection on the disciplines of searching the scriptures and expounding upon the Word through witness. Henri Nouwen writes, The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now. The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the word?…

In our reading for Sunday we will continue with the Sermon on the Mount by reading Matthew 5.38-48.  Read the text here. Russell Rathbun writes, In the context of the Roman Empire, the Sermon on the Mount is a radical proposal for resistance. Written just years after Titus (who succeeds his father as Emperor during this period) destroys Jerusalem along with the temple, it is a call not to arms but an invitation to a nonviolent reorientation of civilization. There is…

These words from Thomas Merton, a 20th Century Trappist monk and writer, have become known as The Merton Prayer: MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire…

Our worship series, Staying in Love with God, continues this week with reflections on Prayer and Fasting. John Wesley wrote in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, Whether we think of; or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for [God], all is prayer, when we have no other object than [God’s] love, and the desire of pleasing [God]. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to…

Our reading for Sunday will be from Matthew 5: 21“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the…

A selection from Stepping Westward by Denise Leverrov: …If I bear burdens they begin to be remembered as gifts, goods, a basket of bread that hurts my shoulders but blouses me in fragrance.  I can eat as I go.

Ruth Duck writes, The image of life as a journey is another way of saying that faith and worship grow out of our stories and the story of God’s people moving throughout time.  This approach to faith and worship assumes that the experiences out of which they grow are important…we have a journey that is ours to follow [at The Table].  The bread that sustains us in the presence of the Spirit and of the others who travel with us,…

We will focus on what it means to practice the Christian disciplines as a way to stay in love with God over the next three weeks in worship at The Table. The founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, identified the following ways to stay in love with God:  The public worship of God; The Ministry of the Word, either read or expounded; The Supper of the Lord, Family and private prayer; Searching the Scriptures; and fasting or abstinence… Kevin…

The audio podcast from Sunday’s message is available here.