Thanksgiving Day and Preview of class November 29, 2009

Dear Friends -
    How much thankfulness ought we to express to our great God and Savior, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ!  This time has been an especially poignant Thanksgiving season for me because of the events with my son following on his medical emergency, and his return to my home.
     One of the many spiritual blessings we share together is the fellowship of the saints at Clarkson Community Church, as we devote ourselves to the Apostle's teaching, breaking of bread, and prayer.  As we learn together in God's word, we are reminded that we are a group of pilgrims travelling together to a celestial city from God, where we will dwell together in perfect harmony, love, and joy, and will glory in the unsearchable riches of Christ.
     This week, in our Sunday School class, we will dive back into our current Bible passage in Hebrews 4:1-13 and continue wrestling with this rather difficult text.  Some of our small groups will need a bit more time to finish their presentations from this text, so the rest of us will begin immersing ourselves in it.  Our goal will be to try to enter the author's mind and to think his thoughts after him.  After all, they are the thoughts placed there by the inspiring Spirit of God, and we are seeking to understand them.
     Immersing oneself into a text can become a messy endeavor.  We might end up with unexpected results.

This fellow was certainly immersed in his work!

As we study the text carefully, we will see that it contains a most remarkable chronology as well as some very sobering statements.  I am looking forward to digging in with you.

Open Discussion Forum - The Flow of Logic in Hebrews Chapter Four

Dear Friends -
            The homework assignment this week is that we all read Hebrews 4:1-13 daily in an all-out attempt to understand the flow of logic and what the writer was trying to communicate in this text.  The writer speaks of various ideas: rest, the Sabbath, a new day ("Today"), the failure of Joshua to give rest, and paradoxical striving after rest.  I admit freely to being rather befuddled trying to pick out the logical flow of thought, and badly need help.  The individual sentences and thoughts are simple enough, but how do they hang together?  What reasoning animated the writer?  For example, what does the seventh-day rest of God have to do with anything here?  Left to my own devices, you all may not like what you get.
           As you (hopefully) grow in your understanding as the week progresses, post comments on this blog entry to share with our learning community.  Feel free to respectfully interact with each others' thoughts.

           Now it is well known that some of you do not exactly relish the thought of homework.

YOU

Well, then I have the opportunity to be Mr. Bad Guy and expect you to do it anyway.

ME