Week 18 Questions and Answers
Sometimes I hate myself for the questions I write into the lessons. More to the point I obligated myself to answer them honestly (when my sloth doesn’t keep me from doing the writing I am supposed to do.) I’ll open with the statement I close with though. Obedience to God is why I do what I do and let the chips fall where they may.
"where is the light?" by alixroth is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Question 1 Where does your light come from?
My faith in Jesus that He was who He claimed to be, that the scriptures give an accurate retelling of what He did for me, and that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. I often have to remind myself of the evidentiary reasons why that is true or why I believe that is true. That’s mostly why I like Thomas and his part in the Bible. Thomas wanted proof, hard, factual proof of Jesus’ resurrection. He got it. I envy Thomas that proof because we will not receive it. We have to move forward in life on faith alone. That’s hard to do much of the time.
Question 2 Why did God light your flame?
That is a great question. I ask it sometimes when I doubt the path I’m walking. I wonder if God gets tired of the same question on a regular basis? “Really? Again? I just answered this one just last week!” We saw in the Book of Job during Lent God is not above sarcasm to get His point across. Again, I envy Job and his actual conversation with God Almighty. I at once would love to have a conversation with Him and perhaps should not wish for such a thing given what He is likely to tell me where He actually to speak to me. What a terrifying prospect to have an earthly conversation with God and get the candid, unadulterated truth about what He thinks about how I’ve lived my life to this point. The fact that I typed those words and had that thought ought to motivate me to change how I live. I wonder if it will? I am a lazy human being by nature. It likely will have no more effect on me beyond my decisions to keep these words in the post or not. That’s a little sad.
Question 3 What does the third reading mean to you?
Third Reading
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13 (NASB)
I think the important part of that single scripture is the “…through Him…” portion. Through God, not through Man, meaning not through myself or anyone else on this planet. Okay, through God, but how do I do that? There are no coincidences. While writing the devotion material for Week 18 that just got posted to Substack, my Bible software was still open to the last search I did to find the Joshua passage included in that devotion:
14 “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14-15 (NASB)
However, the search didn’t turn up this scripture because my search terms weren’t right. What I got was far more appropriate for the answer to this question. How do I do things “through God?”
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Psalm 23:1-6 (NASB)
“The Lord is my Shepherd.” I follow Jesus. I do the best I can to do what God tells me to do. Obedience to what He reveals to me through my study of His Word in Holy Scripture as contained in the King James Version of the Bible. That is how I do it “through Him.”
Question 4 In light of the third reading, what does the fourth reading motivate you to do and why?
Fourth Reading
8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint.
10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:8-11 (NASB)
I am doing it. Where I to follow my earthly desire, I would be searching for a former United Methodist Church that now was a member of the Global Methodist Church. This denomination is the one created by the Wesleyan Covenant Society as the new home for the Traditionalist Methodists ahead of the split that will come once the Separation Through Grace process is adopted at General Conference. I am not leaving East Cobb United Methodist Church. I am not leaving my Sunday school class. God has entrusted me with this task to write the material I write and lead the people He has put in that class. It is where He wants me, so I remain.
Please note for those in the class who read this; I do not desire to leave East Cobb because of the class. Not at all. I dearly love the Fellowship Class and look forward to that time each week. My issue is with the earthly leadership of the United Methodist Church, the schism leadership’s abject failure has caused, and what I perceive as their earthly desire to curry worldly opinion over godly opinion of their beliefs. Many disagree with my opinion, and that’s fine. We can still be friends, and I try to keep this opinion to myself during class, though I fail sometimes. I still believe what I believe, that colors the material I write, and it will not change.
Obedience to God is why I do what I do and let the chips fall where they may. I’m rooted in His word, and that gives me the boldness to stand on the hilltop holding the lantern high. God will take care of the rest.