Receiving October 25, 2008, worship scriptures

Scriptures for October 25, 2008
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

Part I - Receiving the Word as spirit and life for yourself
Recall how many ways you have learned to talk and write. How we express ourselves is important from birth on. There never comes a time when we can't learn to express ourselves in better ways--ways that benefit us and others.
Now recall how many ways you have learned to receive. Did parents (and other relatives), teachers, and friends say as much to you about receiving? How we receive is important from birth on. There never comes a time when we can't learn to receive in better ways--ways that benefit us and others. But receptivity (what it is, and how we do it well) doesn't seem to get much attention.
You can change that. You can give receptivity the attention it needs. You can choose to come as a receiver to the Word that is spirit and life. At http://charistis.blogspot.com/2008/03/receiving-word-as-spirit-and-life.html there are some "starter" suggestions for how to do this.

Part II - Reflections on this week's scriptures (one place for you to compare notes)
Prayer for Receptivity
Let receptivity continue to become all You, God, want it to be in me.
I want to receive Your Word as the spirit and life it is.
Let this happen again, now. And let it happen more fully, more freely, than it has before.

Deuteronomy 34:1-12
"And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days." (vs. 8a)
If each of the following (an Israelite contemporary of Moses) were to have written a page or two about Moses, what might that page or two have contained?

• A child
• A teenager
• Young parents
• A middle-age Israelite
• An Israelite about the same age as Moses was when he died.

Ponder what Moses had been to the children of Israel at various times. What were their responses to him at various times; what kind of leader did he become to them?

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
"And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands." (vs. 17)
This Psalm is identified as "A Prayer of Moses the man of God."
At what time(s) and in what ways can you imagine God responding to this prayer of Moses (before or after Moses expressed the prayer)?

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
"But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts." (vs. 4)
Consider the following profile of leadership that is in these verses:

• Our coming to you was not in vain
• We were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict
• Our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit
• We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel
• We did not please men, but God
• We did not use flattering words, nor a cloak for covetousness
• We did not seek glory from men
• We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children we longed for you affectionately
• We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives
• You had become dear to us

How might the members of the Thessalonica church--from youngest to oldest--have described Paul?

Matthew 22:34-46
"Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him..." (vs. 35)
"While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them... 'If David then calls Him "Lord," how is He his Son?'" (vs. 45)
Piece by piece, question by question, a leader is constructed in the minds and hearts of the followers. Piece by piece, question by question a leader is resisted or accepted by the people. Consider how the peoples' questions, and how Jesus' questions served this dynamic.