Jay Mijares gave us a lesson on Sunday called “A Seat at the Table''. Taken from Luke 14:1-11, this is about the Sabbath Meal. A group of Pharisees invited Jesus to a meal in order to see if he would heal a sick man on the Sabbath. The Pharisee law stated it was wrong to do any work on the Sabbath, but their own law tripped them up. When Jesus asked them “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”, they could not answer.

When he asked if they wouldn’t pull a child from a well on the Sabbath, again, they could not answer. Whichever way they might answer, their law would be shown to be either wrong or pointless. Jesus was teaching them to love their neighbors more than their laws.

But Jesus had more to say to them. As they had gathered for the meal, he saw them jockeying for the honored positions at the host’s table. He explained that if you take a higher place at the table, and then someone of higher rank appears, the host will have to move you to a lower spot and you will be humiliated.

Such displays of pride only distance us from God. Instead, (Luke 14:10), “when you are invited take the lowest place so that your host will say… ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of the other guests.” Humility is more important than our personal feelings.

We learn three lessons from the Sabbath Meal:

The Pharisees were blind to their own sickness. Their spiritual illness made them crave a high status while disregarding other people’s value.

They pushed Jesus away instead of drawing near to him. They tried to discredit his truths to protect their own flawed rules.

Self-exaltation brings one low while humility raises one up.

Jay left us with three questions to consider:

Do you fear humility?

Is your life focused on being better than everyone else?

Who will you choose to dine with?

We have a merciful Savior who is ready to embrace us and say, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Let us feast on His Word and dine with him daily.

John Mulligan’s lesson on Sunday was The Problem of Worry, Part 3: What happens when you choose to pray. This was taken from Phil. 4:6-13. John reminded us that being concerned about an issue is normal, but when we obsess and overreact we cross over into worry. When we do that, we become self-absorbed and cannot live a Christian life of helping others.

The first line in this reading is “Do not be anxious about anything.” Don’t be anxious, but present your requests to God in prayer. Prayer is a great privilege of believing. Now, of course, God knows our troubles, but He wants to help because He is a loving God. He wants us to talk to Him and pray to Him, rather than make bad choices on our own.

When we ask God for help, we are seeking clarity, guidance and strength. James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” We need clarity to see the whole issue correctly. We ask for guidance to show us the right path. We ask for strength to do the right thing, especially when it’s difficult to do.

Phil. 4:6 continues “...by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Let us not bypass the thanksgiving part. As you ask for what you need, do so with the spirit of thankfulness, and thank God for the many blessings you already have.

Verse 7 then tells us, “and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This isn’t to say He will solve your problem, but He will ease your mind and grant you peace about it. God is working on the problem; let Him do His job.

All blessings flow through His glorious love. Remember, (Phil, 4:10-13), “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Sunday’s lesson from John Mulligan was Part 2 of The Problem of Worry. This was taken from I Kings 19:1-18, where the prophet Elijah flees to the wilderness to escape Queen Jezebel’s threats. John told us about three things we need to do when we are worried.

First, we need to understand the problem we’re worrying about. Is it something we need to face or to run away from (fight or flight?) There’s nothing wrong with a reasonable fear but we mustn’t overreact. Elijah was so panicked, he left his servant behind, on his own. Our worries shouldn’t make us selfish or ignore others’ needs.

Second, we have to treat our fear - that is, prepare ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually to deal with the problem. Fear is a physiological response. We need to take care of the basics. We have to eat, drink water, and rest -- things that we often neglect in anxious times. When Elijah ran to the wilderness, he collapsed with exhaustion and slept. Then an angel touched him, telling him to eat and drink. This was repeated and he then had the strength to continue his journey. Elijah had an angel; we have friends and family. We mustn’t isolate ourselves from them when we need help.

Thirdly, we must pray. Turn the problem over to God and refuse to let the anxiety control you. When Elijah first prayed to God in desperation, his prayer was to die. He wanted to give up and he essentially asked God for an assisted suicide.

God didn’t rebuke Elijah for that prayer. God told him to go to Damascus. He gave him specific instructions on what to do (I Kings 19:15-18) and said there would be “…seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal…”

God will speak to us through our prayers if we’ll listen. The answer will be in His Word. He will get us safely through the storm to the other side. His presence is with us always.

Remember the words to “Because He Lives”:

Because He lives I can face tomorrow

Because He lives *all fear is gone*

Because I know He holds the future

And life is worth the living just because He lives.

Michael Rankin’s lesson on Sunday was called “Lazarus Stinks!” (difficult lessons from a man who came back from the dead). The story is taken from John 11 where Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead after four days. There’s one easy lesson, that Jesus saves us, but there are other lessons here that are more difficult to accept.

Lesson 1: God doesn’t always respond like we think he should. This can make us angry or disappointed. God simply thinks differently than we do.

Lesson 2: God’s timetable isn’t ours. When Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus about their brother's illness, they did not expect him to wait for 48 hours before he started traveling. But remember, what seems urgent to us is not always urgent to God. To God, "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day" (2 Peter 3:8).

Lesson #3: God's perspective is greater than our individual situation. What mattered to Jesus most in this circumstance was that he had an opportunity to glorify the Father. The health needs of Lazarus, and the emotional concerns of his family, were secondary to the plans of God. We can rarely see where we stand in the bigger picture of God's glory.

Hard lesson #4: What we want is not always what God is offering. Mary and Martha did not want Lazarus to die. Job did not want to lose his property, his family, or his good health. Paul did not want to suffer his "thorn in the flesh." But that was what God allowed in the moment. Why? Because "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Hard lesson #5: Our suffering does not mean that God does not love us. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:5) Jesus wept; he was heartbroken. But he had to let Lazarus die in order to glorify his Father in Heaven.

God loved Job, even as he lost everything.

God loved David, even as he lost his newborn son.

God loved Paul, even as he struggled with his health.

God loved his only begotten Son, even as he died on the cross.

God loves us even when He does not remove our suffering.

Our lessons:

God is not a gift giver, here to give us what we ask for. He gives us what we need - His grace.

We exist to serve God, not the other way around. Fear God and keep His commandments.

God always loves us and is always here, even on our darkest days. “Never will I leave you.”

God has better things planned for us - just maybe not today. Let’s trust in His plan, not ours.

Sunday’s lesson from Jay Mijares was “On the Road to Jericho”, a continuation about the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). This is basically a simple message, often made more complex with allegories and over-analysis. The story is simply about showing love.

Some details about this traveler’s route: It’s about 20 miles from Jerusalem to Jericho, a downhill trek with a 3500’ difference in altitude, making it more treacherous than you might think. He probably had to go slower than he’d like and the footing could have been precarious, making him more susceptible to attack. So when the man was attacked and left for dead, he surely gave up hope. But when a priest came by, the man (a Jew, by the way) must have felt relief - until the priest passed him by. And when a Levite (a temple assistant) also passed him by, his hope surely died.

Then a Samaritan came by. Now, Samaritans were considered half-breeds, mixed race, mixed religions, maybe even demon-possessed. One saying was "to eat a Samaritan’s bread is like eating swine's flesh”, they were so despised. So when this critically injured, helpless man saw a Samaritan coming over to him, he probably thought he was going to be killed.

Instead, the Samaritan did everything in his power to ease the man’s pain (using his own supplies) and took him to safety, letting him ride on the Samaritan’s donkey while the Samaritan walked. The Samaritan then cared for him at an inn and paid the innkeeper to continue caring for the injured man, promising to come back and repay the innkeeper for his expenses.

The Good Samaritan didn’t see race or religion; he didn’t see a Jew, but a human being in dire need. He was empathetic and compassionate; he *felt* the injured man’s pain.

What lessons can we learn from this journey to Jericho?

> When we embark on a journey, we have to be responsible and prepared.

> We all have a tendency to behave more like the priest and the Levite.

> Salvation can come from an unexpected neighbor.

Jay left us with some questions for our own “road to Jericho”:

Are you properly prepared for the road ahead? Remember, this is the road that will lead us to eternal life with our Creator.

Is your faith just a religious routine (done by rote) or is it an internal struggle? Do you fall short but then correct your course?

Will you spare the time?

God loved us long before we were born. We are all worth God’s love. Our charge is to remember to extend God’s love and mercy to all.

On Sunday, Jay Mijares gave us a lesson called “What Shall I Do?”, based on the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). We should know that prior to this event, Jesus had been irritating some of the traditional religious leaders, challenging their interpretations of Mosaic law. While some bible versions say a “lawyer” asked Jesus “What can I do?”, the better translation might be teacher, or expert in religious law.

Jay pointed out that this parable isn’t really about the Samaritan, it’s about how to get eternal life. The question posed to Jesus, “What can *I do*?” is fundamentally wrong. Eternal life is a blessing given to us, as our inheritance. An inheritance is not earned by works.

Our love for God is an active love. That lawyer realized his faith had only paid lip service to God’s Word. Read the last two verses, Luke 10:36-37: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” The literal translation is closer to ‘Go and keep on doing it.’ The point is to live God’s Word consistently, showing mercy to all your neighbors (even the ones you’re not fond of) all the time.

The lessons learned from the lawyer:

He asked the wrong question and with the wrong motivation.

How we love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to how much we love our neighbor.

How we love our neighbor reveals how we really feel about God.

He wanted to choose who his neighbor was.

How do we apply those lessons in our own lives? Jay asked us to consider these questions:

Is your love for God just lip service?

What is written in your own personal phylactery? (What messages do you keep uppermost in your hearts and minds?)

Do you choose who your neighbors are?

Am I being a Godly neighbor?

As Jay said, God will keep knocking on our door until we respond correctly and continually. Let’s do our best to meet that continual challenge.

Our lesson by John Mulligan on Sunday was about “The Problem of Worry: How to react the right way to fearful situations.” The main message is taken from Matthew 6:25-34, that final notable verse being, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (And isn’t that the truth?)

The message to not worry is repeated through Scripture and, given our complex lives today, we need those reminders. We all have certain responsibilities that we need to manage, but the challenge is not to worry about them. For example, you might worry about having enough money to retire. You need to plan for that, certainly, but worrying about it won’t add a single cent to your IRA.

John talked about the psychological aspects of fear and pointed out that fear is the product of the thoughts we create -- fear itself is often not real. This fear of an imagined danger can result in anxiety and panic. A healthy fear is fine - a healthy fear of car crashes can make you a more careful driver. But an obsessive fear of that will send your mind into a tailspin, resulting in panic and bad decisions. The presence of Jesus in our lives will change the nature of our worries.

What do we do when we’re caught in worry’s net? If you’re preoccupied with lesser concerns, STOP and do something more important. Prayer will bring your focus back to what’s important. If you’re consumed by an imagined outcome, take real steps to control your body and mind -- breathe deeply, move, take a walk. Do your part about your concerns, but do not obsess about them. Jesus knows our struggles, and he will provide for the important things.

If you’re tempted to do wrong, turn to prayer and helpful people. When you need help, turn to counselors, therapists, and trusted friends. They are in your life for a reason. However, if you feel paralyzed by your emotions, that’s Satan pulling you down, wrapping you up in things you can’t control. That’s when we must cast all our cares upon our God: Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Growing up God's way is our challenge as believers in Christ. Stunted or stagnated growth is unacceptable to God and should be to ourselves. Today, we will look at four areas of Christian growth.

We’re all familiar with the trials that Job endured, but we often overlook how Job was able to endure the trials. Job 1:1-5 tells us a lot about Job and how a Godly father in an ancient land was able to have faith in the face of total loss.

Growth used to be measured by parents using a yardstick or tape measure. Growth now can also be measured by moving from grade to grade, or by promotion or graduation. In Luke, we find the growth of Jesus being measured and find four areas by which growth in young people can best be measured.