John SD
Well-known member
I'm sure I'm not alone missing the regular Sunday message on ranchers this morning. I hope everything is well with Shortgrass and Mrs Shortgrass. Here's a few of my thoughts for the day.
This morning at church we read 1 Kings19:16b,19-21, Galatians5:1,13-18 and Luke9:51-62. The theme among these texts seems to be someone is being asked to do something new and different, something radical in order to serve God.
In Kings, we read about Elijah choosing Elisha to succeed him as a prophet. Elisha happens to be out in the field plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. So Elisha slaughters the oxen and burned the plowing equipment for fuel to cook the meat for his people. Then Elisha took off with Elijah. That's pretty radical.
In his letter, Paul tells the Galatians that Christ has set them free. They are to live by the Spirit and not the flesh. Not only are the Galatians free from the gods they had previously served, they are also free from observing Jewish legal observances. That's pretty radical.
In Luke's Gospel, the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus because He was headed for Jerusalem. That seems perfectly natural with Jews and Samaritans historically being on poor terms toward each other. So the disciples with Him were quite surprised when Jesus rebuked their suggestion to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. That's pretty radical.
What I came away with from this weeks scripture was, what can we do to step "outside the box" and do something radical to serve the Lord? Maybe it's taking time to pray and study scripture with your family. Maybe it's something as simple as remembering to give thanks at meal time.
This morning at church we read 1 Kings19:16b,19-21, Galatians5:1,13-18 and Luke9:51-62. The theme among these texts seems to be someone is being asked to do something new and different, something radical in order to serve God.
In Kings, we read about Elijah choosing Elisha to succeed him as a prophet. Elisha happens to be out in the field plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. So Elisha slaughters the oxen and burned the plowing equipment for fuel to cook the meat for his people. Then Elisha took off with Elijah. That's pretty radical.
In his letter, Paul tells the Galatians that Christ has set them free. They are to live by the Spirit and not the flesh. Not only are the Galatians free from the gods they had previously served, they are also free from observing Jewish legal observances. That's pretty radical.
In Luke's Gospel, the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus because He was headed for Jerusalem. That seems perfectly natural with Jews and Samaritans historically being on poor terms toward each other. So the disciples with Him were quite surprised when Jesus rebuked their suggestion to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. That's pretty radical.
What I came away with from this weeks scripture was, what can we do to step "outside the box" and do something radical to serve the Lord? Maybe it's taking time to pray and study scripture with your family. Maybe it's something as simple as remembering to give thanks at meal time.
:shock: :wink: