Sunday reflections...

     One of my highlights this Sunday was Sunday School.  Our normal teacher was sick so I jumped in to cover for the class.  Looking again at the material I see it was about forgiveness and I had just read chapters on confession and forgiveness in Paul Tripp's book "What Did You Expect??"  Talk about the Lord preparing me ahead of time for the class.  Here are a couple quotes that helped me that I could draw upon.

"Healthy marriages are healthy because the people in those marriages find joy in canceling debts.  I cannot think of a more essential ingredient in marriage than forgiveness."

"Because the patterns of sin and failure were not accompanied by patterns of confession and forgiveness; what was left was the compilation of the wrongs of the other."

"Often, forgiveness is a process, not an event."

"The biblical call to confession and forgiveness is to be followed only in instances when one spouse has done something to the other that the Bible calls sin."

     And the big one for me,

"Here is what you have to understand:  forgiveness is a vertical commitment that is followed by a horizontal transaction."

     So I ultimately don't forgive the other because I love that person but because I love God first and the relationship I have with Him dictates the kind of relationships I will have with others.  It was a great Sunday School class.

     Matthew 3 proved to be a great introduction to John the Baptist and the emergence of Jesus, the Messiah.  The whole service had a building feeling from start to finish.  This week will be concentrating on Matthew 4 and namely the Temptations of Jesus or maybe to keep with the theme, the introduction of the Enemy, Satan.  I think it is fitting that Matthew would not only give some time line to Jesus' life but also spiritually if you repent (turn from the world and turn to God) and confess your sins, most likely Satan will be to visit you to try to undo what you just did.

     Lastly, I hate it when I cancel a church event because of coming weather that doesn't really show up until after the event is over.  A Freezing Rain Advisory was issued right during our Sunday evening Bible study.  We were scheduled to go over 1 Timothy 3 which deals with the qualifications of elders and deacons.  I was so looking forward to that time but maybe this will give us another week to look at the passage.  Open time for Stephanie and I always seems to give us time to connect with our family so we redeemed the time.

Adam