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Everyday Contemplative: A Lenten Online Experience
What does it mean to be contemplative? Many of us carry around stereotypical pictures of contemplative Read More
Beth Ludlum | Read 1 Timothy 1:12-17
“It’s not about you.”
It was just an exasperated retort by my then-boyfriend, but it turned out to be one of the more liberating and clarifying statements of my life.
It’s interesting how Paul retells his story in today’s scripture. We often think about his Damascus road experience as a...
Think of moments when you realized that life isn’t all about you. How is God’s grace propelling you to serve God and others? How can you share the freedom, mercy, and love you’ve found in Jesus Christ?
Jeremiah’s warning of coming judgment continues. The children of Israel have become foolish, have ignored God, and have become good mainly at doing evil. God is going to respond to this situation. The psalmist describes the state of all who are foolish: They deny God and follow their own corrupt desires, including oppressing the poor. The author of First Timothy, traditionally Paul, says that this was also his former way of life. He has been foolish and ignorant, a persecutor of the followers of Christ. In fact, he had been the worst of all sinners; yet Christ has shown him mercy, not judgment. Jesus tells two parables to reveal God’s heart. Rather than neglecting the ignorant, the foolish, and the lost, God searches to find each one of us.
Read Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28. How do your actions show others that you know God?
Read Psalm 14. When have you, like the psalmist, felt that no one knows God? How did you have faith that God would restore God’s people?
Read 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Recall a time when you felt unworthy of Christ’s full acceptance. How has that experience made you more grateful for Christ’s mercy?
Read Luke 15:1-10. In a world full of death and violence, how do you rejoice when God finds one lost person?
Respond by posting a prayer.
