Finding rest

Since his comments were so helpful last week, I point again to Jeff Myer’s comments on this week’s lesson, “Watch Your Words” from Matthew 12:22-37. The Israelites were to rest and recuperate on the Sabbath, but in observing it, they became legalistic. That is, they obeyed a set of do’s and don’ts, in which they elevated only themselves. Their legalistic thinking and behavior robbed them of God’s very purpose to find rest. How is our own wrong thinking and behavior today robbing us of fellowship with God? Study 1 John 2:3-6, and keep in mind that the apostle is writing to Christians, not unbelievers.

Start by asking members how or where they find rest in our hectic culture today? Here is one set of suggestions to help start your discussion. Try using this photo, too.

Regarding last week’s Skype conference-call poll, 15 of us indicated an interest in participating in a 30-minute call on the Saturdays that I post my slides (usually every other week with some exceptions). Eight of us are okay using the free PC-to-PC call service offered by Skype. For the seven preferring to use a regular phone, I’m open to suggestion on how to pull that off. It can be done thru Skype for a fee, or it can be accomplished using a traditional conference call service, which also costs money to arrange. Anybody want to sponsor such a conference call?

For those willing to use the Skype service, we should plan our first call on Saturday, October 13. For the 6 of you that don’t have Skype installed, you need to sign up at http://www.skype.com/. If you have Skype working, send me an email at: ronnieward [at] yahoo.com, and give me a couple of options for call times on Saturday (10/13/07). We’ll dialogue off-line to get on each other’s Skype contact list, and to finalize a call time that Saturday that works best for the 8 of us.