Sunday, May 27, 2012

 

 

We spent the weekend at Paul and Lori’s.  We dragged our new ‘baby house’ there to give it a test run for the weekend.  Plus there was Josh’s 17th birthday party and their garden to plant.  It was really nice to get away for the weekend.

         

 

This week we tackled lesson 11, the definition of acceptance, and Deanna opened up about some of her reservations about acceptance, feeling loved, being judged, feeling unloved and more.  It was a really great afternoon.  And after all that we tackled a large platter of bbq ribs.  :)

Here are the few notes I took this week:

-  read Romans 14 and discussed

-  Paul shared how he sees the word “righteous” now… “it is how God sees me, not anything I do or how I view myself”

-  We discussed the idea of pleasing God.  Lori had said that we cannot please God, and Jordan raised his eyebrow in question to that statement.  He had a hard time swallowing that we cannot please God.  So we discussed back and forth and I think what we came up with was that without Christ, we cannot please God.  (If somebody has more memory about how this discussion went, please chime in in the comments section.  Thanks.)

-  Paul shared (I think to do with the above discussion) that, “I don’t do things to gain God’s love, I do things because I love God.”

-  Wes said we needed to continue to read into chapter 15 because it pertained and wrapped up what was being taught in chapter 14.

Lesson 11 questions:

1.  What issues caused division amongst the believers in Rome?

• Johanna – “1 Eating/not eating certain foods, What was clean/unclean, which days are holy, etc.”
• Nicole – “1. ditto Johanna”
• Lori – “judging others”
• Josh – “difference of opinion”
• Jordan – “eating”
• Jordan – “petty arguments”
• Paul – “Holy days”
• Paul – “disputable matters”
• Wes – “wrestling with Jewish law”
• Lori – “are you doing it right?  are you doing it like me?”

2.  How did Paul counsel the Roman believers to deal with these issues?

• Johanna – “2 Respect each others boundaries, Don't deliberately do things that go against what your fellow believers believe.”
• Wes – (in his best New York gangster voice) – “forget about it!”
• Pam – “meet people where they are in their journey with God.  If they say that today is holy, then take the time to celebrate the holy day with them.”

3.  What is the key point Paul made in this passage?

• Pam – “accept one another for where each is on their journey with God”
• Jordan – “don not judge others or do things to make them stumble”
• Johanna – “3 If someone believes that Certain things are holy or unholy we should respect that and not cause a fight over it, in the interest of keeping the church together”

AND it was about this time that we followed a rabbit trail in our discussions and did not get back to the questions but yet when we read the last few questions out loud we saw that we had answered them in our own way throughout our rabbit trail. 

I don’t have much for notes at this part of the discussions but we did start the rabbit trail with the question – what does acceptance mean?  Does it mean that I approve of all a person chooses?  Can I accept a person but not approve of their choices?  What does acceptance look like?

Wes came up with this statement – “When an issue/choice/topic destroys the relationship between people, acceptance has left and judgement has taken its place.”  So from that we can see that acceptance preserves the relationship.  We can accept a person for who they are, and have relationship with that person, but it does not mean we agree to all their choices, opinions or actions.

From here we had a very revealing discussion that seemed to revolve mostly around Deanna but was very informative to everyone there. 

This morning Vana posted a poem, I am sure that was inspired by our conversations yesterday. (http://sundreone.blogspot.ca/2012/05/safe.html)

Safe

So many people
Have entered my life
Some having consoled me
With some, came strife

But each person
That I have met
Taught me something
On that, you can bet

They have taught me
Compassion, peace
Tolerance and restraint
Giving me a new lease

I may not agree with
All the things that are said
Each person will state
Their pleasures or dread

The best I can do
At any given spell
Is to listen openly
At what they may tell.

If it is discussed with love
Acceptance and grace
Then there is nothing
That anyone can't face.

A community is safe
Where one is not judged
No matter what the situation
An inkblot or smudge

People that have entered
As I look on my past
Teaching me lessons
That I hope will last.

 

And then this morning I listened to the latest podcast from The God Journey.  It fit right in with our latest lesson and discussions yesterday.  It is called “With You, God Is Pleased!”  Here is a description from their website:

“Both the cruelty of the world and the conformity demands of religion teach us to live inside a shell of our own self protection and only present to others the illusion we think they want to see. Shame and fear combine to make us feel lost and isolated in the world, unable to be who God simply made us to be. Wayne and Brad find themselves talking about how God is not waiting for us to crawl out of our brokenness before initiating relationship with us, but that the Incarnation itself testifies to his desire to crawl into our shell with us, and as he wins us into his affection, to invite us out of it without fearing how others might respond. He has always been pleased with his creation and seeking to win it back into his wholeness.”

I encourage you to listen to it.  (http://thegodjourney.com/2012/05/25/with-you-god-is-pleased/#comments)

Here are a couple of things I wrote down while listening:

• what will the power of acceptance do in a person’s life?
• Yesterday Deanna had shared that in our community we talk a lot about love and being happy and it irritates her.  I don’t remember where we went with that discussion but in this podcast Wayne shares an experience about being in Russia, in a room full of believers, and they are all talking in Russian and he cannot understand and feels left out.  As I was listening to Wayne share this experience I thought of Deanna’s statement yesterday about how all this “love” talk irritated her and wondered if it was like Wayne in that room… she is part of the community but doesn’t feel like she belongs, like she is left out and doesn’t understand, and does not feel like she has experienced this love we are talking about all the time.
• In the podcast, this thought was shared – that our interactions with others either leave us like we they have been “life giving” or leave us with the feeling we have been shut down.  I think this tied in with what Wes said about acceptance or judgement.

And that is all I have for you at the moment.  Loved our discussions yesterday.  I am appreciative of Vana’s role right now, she is able to ask questions and “poke” my kids in a way that would not be well received from me.  And I have seen Deanna open up with Vana that has been great to see.  Thanks Vana!

Time to take on the day.  I am off to town to take mom for her Mg infusion today.  TTYL