Wednesday, November 28, 2007

sabbath shenanigans


"it is not lawful to heal on the sabbath, right?"
"well...yes, it is not lawful to work a healing unless it is a situation of life and death."
"so what is with this jesus?"
"what do you mean, my son?"
"well, this morning at synogogue, he cast out a demon thereby healing a man. and immediately after synagogue i followed him to peter's house and peter's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever...and he healed her."
"you mean he took a knife wholly made of iron and a piece of thornbush and a braid of hair..."
"no i mean he just spoke, and helped her up...and the fever was gone...no reading of exodus 3...no knife, no nothing."
"he helped her up? So was it life and death? Was it work for him to help her up?"
"well...umm...i'm not sure, but he healed her...and then at sundown a bunch of people showed up with their sick so that he could heal them too."
"who did you say this man was?"
"his name is jesus...i wonder if he could be the messiah?"
"take me to him..."

imagine this conversation on sabbath evening after witnessing at least two miracles of healing on the sabbath by the one called yeshua. (with many more happening immediately after sundown.)

was he breaking sabbath law to heal? did he even care?

healing, rule breaking, sabbath keeping and plenty of other "ings"...this sunday at the upper room.

we will be at fude at 4 o'clock.

peace to you,
scott

Sunday, November 18, 2007

possession is nine tenths of the law


possession.
the blue bomber offense has possesion.
an unclean spirit has possession.
we will be looking at both of these next sunday at our place.
the upper room will not meet at fude this week.
we will meet in our home. (email me for the address if you don't know where we live.)
bring snacks to watch the bomber game.
bring thoughts on a different kind of possession found in Mark 1:21-28.
this should be interesting.
4-6 - the upper room
6-whenever - grey cup party

peace to you,

scott

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

the kingdom is near

the worship industry

four fisherman follow forthwith


lo! and behold!
the now infamous four fisherman
their tale once again told

tending their nets
one bright, crisp, early morn
business as usual
in a boat since near the day they were born.

but change hung thick in the air
this is the calling of the first pair

the son of man came to call
“i will make you fishers of men
if you will leave this all.”

at once they dropped their nets
and followed this rabbi true
two brothers were they
named simon and andrew

the first pair to become
disciples of the chosen one

a little further on
they came to the second pair
james and his brother john

preparing their nets
when the son of man came
they left all with their father
and became disciples the same

some say this calling--be dream, be myth
but ne’retheless, those four fishermen followed forthwith


this week we are looking at the calling of the first disciples...mark 1:16-20


how does their calling match our own? how is it different? what does it look like to follow jesus today? what does it mean to be a disciple?


all these questions...and i'm sure many more,


sunday at 4:00 in the upper room,


peace to you,


scott

Monday, November 05, 2007

jesus' first words


the first words of jesus recorded in the book of mark are "the time has come. the kingdom of god is near. repent and believe the good news!"

all that humankind had been looking forward to for generations was about to come to pass. the kingdom of god established in our midst.

what does this kingdom look like?
where is this kingdom now?
what is our response to the kingdom?

all these questions will be asked (and some of them possibly answered) on sunday

until then,

peace to you,

scott