Week 6: Luke 10

This week in class we were going through Luke 10 and discussing the parable of the good Samaritan. As is often the case with parables, we decided to put ourselves in the story. The only question was, which role should we put ourselves into? We often hope we are the Samaritan, feel we are the man injured on the wayside, fear we are the Priest, Levite, or even one of the thieves but how often do we envision ourselves as the donkey that the Samaritan helps the injured man onto? It was interesting to think of the Samaritan as Christ and realize that sometimes He puts other people's burdens on our shoulders without much warning and asks us to bear some of their weight. We have the option to be stubborn and try to resist or we can continue on tackling the mountain before us as gracefully as possible. We may stumble occasionally but the Savior is still walking alongside that donkey and ensuring that nothing goes wrong on the journey.

Week 5: Matthew 9

This week in class we read and discussed more of Christ's miracles. When discussing the story of Jairus found in Matthew 9 I was struck by one of the lessons Christ was teaching me. It does no good to try to rush the Savior and get him to comply to our time table. Jairus tried to hurry Christ along and was devastated when Christ was too slow and his daughter died. However, Jairus did not curse God he remained faithful and when he really needed Christ, He came and raised the girl from the dead. Many things in this life are out of our control but as long as we rely on Christ, remain faithful to him, and trust in His timing, I know he will be there for us.

Week 4: Matthew 5

I've noticed that these blog posts have been about scriptures that don't fall in any sort of chronological order and that may seem strange to some. I am basing what I talk about in these posts on whatever I thought about repeatedly this week and that may come from my New Testament class, my personal readings, Sunday school classes, or just discussions I've had with friends. I wrote about the Sermon on the Mount already in a previous post but this week it was discussed in both Sunday school and my New Testament class. When I read the Sermon on the Mount in my personal study I read the beatitudes and moved on without too much thought. However, in both my class discussions it was pointed out that the beatitudes are much more than a list of traits we should try to have. It is more a guideline on how to live with specific direction on the repentance process. It starts with the guilt and mourning that we feel when we sin and progresses to making peace and then eventually arriving at being persecuted for righteousness' sake. What I liked about this was in verse 12 when it says "Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." When I read it there as an exclamation point after "rejoice." We know that what we are teaching is true when we have the right enemies and if I reach the point where I am being persecuted for righteousness' sake I will know that no matter how hard it is in the moment, I will be blessed. Often times it's easy to be quiet about what I believe and let people just assume whatever they want but this scripture encourages me to stand up and put myself at risk of persecution with the promise that with that comes great blessings in the life to come.

Week 3: Matthew 13

As I was reading in Matthew 13 this week I was struck by verse 25. It is in the parable of the wheat and the tares and the verse reads: "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way." When I heard this parable as a child I always pictured someone not weeding their garden and so eventually the weeds took over but when I read this verse this week I realized the tares are more deliberate than that. The man's enemy intentionally came to the land and planted tares in the field with the intent to do harm. Later, in verse 39, we are told that the enemy in this parable is the devil and he is doing everything in his power to make sure we are not successful. It takes more than just weeding to make sure tares don't appear, we have to be constantly keeping watch to ensure tares don't get planted. I know in my own life I often get distracted and make it far to easy for Satan to sneak in and plant tares but if we try just a little harder we can limit his influence in our lives.

Week 2: Luke 2

My whole life I have sung the song "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" and have had many many Sunday school lessons on what that entailed. This week in my New Testament class we discussed again what it meant to emulate Christ. In Luke 2:52 it reads: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." This is a well known verse that I have always taken to mean something along the lines of "And Jesus grew up." That is an interpretation that I am confident I can handle without too much failure. However, my professor explained that this means he was growing intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially which is a bit more challenging to emulate with perfection. Everybody grows up and that isn't much of an accomplishment but consistently growing in each of these areas is something that each of us could and should do better at. In order to be more like our Savior we need to do more than just read our scriptures and say our prayers. Christ improved in every aspect of His life as he grew up and in order to be like him we need to strive to achieve the same level of balance that he did.

Week 1: Matthew 6

The primary reason for this blog is to fulfill an assignment in which I share my insights from my scripture study with others. This isn't something I find particularly easy to do as I am typically a very private individual. This hesitation increased this week as I studied the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 6 where we are counselled to worship in private rather than to make a spectacle of oneself. As I read chapter 6 I grew even more wary of sharing my spiritual insights on the Internet because I didn't want to come off as being hypocritical and vain like the people spoken of in this chapter. However, as I finished up the chapter I read in verse 33 "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.." and I realized as long as these insights are authentic and attempting to build up others' testimonies then sharing the gospel on the Internet becomes a form of missionary work rather than a form of boasting. This chapter taught me that sharing the gospel for the right reasons is completely different than showing off my spirituality and I need to be better at making that effort to share my beliefs in an appropriate way.