The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 22 January 2021

 The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 22 January 2021

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection <info@mc.cor.org>

Friday, 22 January 2021

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Friday, 22 January 2021

The spiritual purpose of the Bible

Daily Scripture:

2 Timothy 3:10-17

10 But you have paid attention to my teaching, conduct, purpose, faithfulness, patience, love, and endurance. 11 You have seen me experience physical abuse and ordeals in places such as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I put up with all sorts of abuse, and the Lord rescued me from it all! 12 In fact, anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed. 13 But evil people and swindlers will grow even worse, as they deceive others while being deceived themselves.

14 But you must continue with the things you have learned and found convincing. You know who taught you. 15 Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. 16 Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, 17 so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.

Reflection Questions:

The Bible is not short on details, from naming generations in the Old Testament to the locations where God delivered Paul from abuse. They don’t always seem to match perfectly. But the details aren’t the point of the Scripture’s deep story. God’s loving acts redeeming humanity are. Every inspired Scripture is part of a story aimed at bringing people into a vibrant relationship with God through word and deed. As followers of God, Scripture shows humans how to live a life reflective of God’s love and redemption.

When you read Scripture, how often do you find some of the details deflecting your attention from the larger story? Whether in the GPS, in sermons or in your personal devotions, do your best to view each individual passage, especially its details, in the framework of the larger story, the “meta-narrative,” that the Bible has delivered for centuries.

To say that “Scripture is inspired by God” means that the writers of the Bible “were filled with God's Spirit as they wrote the truth to the best of their knowledge.” This is the reason that “The authority of Scripture derives from the movement of God's Spirit in times past and in our reading of it today.”* How do you open your heart and mind to let God’s Spirit, who guided the Bible’s writers, also guide you to let the Bible authoritatively shape your life?

Prayer:

Lord God, help us to see the wisdom contained in your word so that we may life lives inspired to do everything that is good. Amen.

* www.umc.org

Want more reflection on today's GPS?

Read the GPS Insight by Darren Lippe

Darren Lippe

Darren Lippe helps facilitate Journey 101 “Loving God” classes, guides a 7th-grade Sunday school class, is a member of a small group and a men’s group, and serves on the curriculum team.

Boy, today’s theme is quite convicting for me. As I read the Bible, I’m always tempted to veer off the main subject & go down all sorts of rabbit trails. (Like when I read in Luke 9:28 that Jesus goes up onto a mountain to pray just before His Transfiguration, I’m immediately distracted to check out which mountain He climbed.)

To help reduce my distractions when facilitating Bible studies, I’ll bring along a bright red sheet of paper labeled, “Questions –Too Hot to Handle.” When we come across a question that we don’t have time to adequately address during our time together, or might steer us too far off the beaten path, or might require a little extra research, I’ll place the question on this sheet.

Typically, these questions don’t linger very long. A question of the Pharaoh’s heart being hardened during the plague scene in Exodus, for example, can be resolved by a review of a few well-written commentaries. A challenging passage including the phrase, “jealous God,” becomes a bit easier to understand if we exchange the word, “jealous” with a synonym like “protective.” Or as one continues to read & study the Scriptures, some questions fade with added perspective.

I’ll request that my personal sheet of “Questions for God” be placed in my suit jacket at my funeral. (Of course, if I opt for cremation, they will be literally “too hot to handle.”) Here are a few of my “burning” questions:

What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?

Who shot JFK?

What was Jesus writing in the sand as He redeems the sinful woman? (John 8:6)

What happened to Amelia Earhart?

Did Peter’s mere shadow really heal the sick? (Acts 5:14-16)

Was God laughing to Himself the day He created the giraffe? – Jacob age 6

Is the Copper Scroll treasure real?

Do dogs go to heaven? - Matthew age 10 (I’ve concluded this is a definitive “yes” - so it is scratched off.)

Did the sun really stand still? (Joshua 10:12-14)

Why do wives send their husbands to the grocery store to buy “yogurt,” give no further details &, worse yet, immediately go on “radio-silence?”

One of my all-time favorite verses I’m dying to ask God about is found in Matthew 27:50-54: When Jesus breathes His last, the curtain of the temple, which separates the Temple’s Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, is torn vertically in half. There is an earthquake & rocks are split. (Okay, so far so good.) But then we read that the tombs break open & holy people are raised to life & appear to many people.

Most commentaries are too timid to discuss this mind-boggling scene. It raises lots of questions for me: Did this really occur as described? Who are these saints? Were they recognizable? How many were there? What were they doing & where were they going? Does God get royalties from the multitude of zombie TV show spin-offs?

As of now, I think this passage could be read literally or metaphorically. Either interpretation gives us the same conclusion: Jesus’ death on the cross immediately changes the usual cycle of Life/Death to a new cycle of Life/Death/Life. The earthen graves couldn’t hold us anymore - we are truly free.

I would submit that when we face puzzling passages like this one, we need to place it in a category: Is it a “nice to know” tidbit or is it a “deal-breaker” for our faithwalk? If it is a question of great significance to us, then we owe it to ourselves to take concrete steps like researching the verse further, discussing it with friends in faith, or “put a pin in it” to reconsider at a later time to allow us to continue on our faith journey.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my wife texted me to pick up “cheese” on my way home. Me: (Praying) “May the good Lord help me & guide me through all the aisles of cheese at Price Chopper. Amen.”

PS: Scholars suggest that the Transfiguration may have occurred on one of these 2 mountains:

Mount Tabor – The traditional favorite. However, it is 55 miles away from Caesarea Philippi, the previous known locale for Jesus.

Mount Hermon – The newcomer. It was only a 14-mile hike for Jesus & His Disciples & it was very isolated.

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If you have a question or comment about today’s GPS or Insights blog, you can send it to GPS@cor.org. We read them all, but because of the number of responses we receive, cannot guarantee replies.

You might also like:

Jesus knew “the law”—yet said “I say to you”

Early Christians let the Bible guide adapting the Bible

Same historical event, different understandings

God’s message expressed by human writers

Prayer Tip: Making Sense of the Bible

Or download this week's printable GPS.

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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.

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