JOY Week 7 - a little delayed :)

Hello Kitchen Class Family-

Jackie here!!

Just a quick note to say that Beth had this week's blog post ready well before she left for Ethiopia and she enlisted me to post this on Sabbath.  I know, this is not Sabbath -- I finally realized I'm an author and not an administrator which only allows me to create my own blogs on our site.  Luckily, however, it does let me view hers so I figured out how to copy and paste her lesson though it's not as pretty as she usually makes it:(  

Note that if you were able to make it to class this past Sabbath - this is what I was able to print out and distribute in class but there's a video at the bottom that you'll enjoy as well!  My apologies for the delay while I learn this blogging trick!

Blessings :)

Sabbath School Study Week 7

Well we are half way through the book of Philippians. I thought it would be a good time for a quick review. Some reflection about where we have come.

To start I would like for you to write a brief paragraph or two on what one thing has really stood out for you in this study, something you have learned, you know, one of those ah ha! moments. Also write down anything that has changed in your life in the process of this study. Has joy been a place? Are you becoming familiar with joy?

If you feel comfortable I think it would be awesome to post your reflections on the blog for others to see. Be bold, be brave, share!

I also wanted to post all of the Ingredients for Joy so far. I thought it would be good for all of us to spend some time this week remembering.

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INGREDIENT # 1 - An acceptance of the gift of "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"
INGREDIENT # 2 - Prayer and Thanksgiving (with JOY) for others.
INGREDIENT # 3 - Know what is most important!
INGREDIENT #4 - Be an “I got your back” person and find an “I got your back” Person.
INGREDIENT # 5 - Christ First! 
INGREDIENT # 6 - Be “ANY+” centric
INGREDIENT # 7 - Be one (UNITY with others)
INGREDIENT # 8 - Don’t strive for greatness, strive for Humility
INGREDIENT # 9 - Be willing to get Messy
INGREDIENT # 10 - Let God be your reward! 
INGREDIENT # 11 - Keep moving forward in our walk with Christ. 
INGREDIENT #12 - Keep your focus on what God is wanting to accomplish in your life. 
INGREDIENT # 13 - SHINE! Be a Star for God! Be a HERO! 
INGREDIENT #14 - Show Genuine Concern for One Another 
INGREDIENT # 15 - Honor people who are working hard for the Lord.

So this is our ingredient list so far.

What themes do you see?

Which is your favorite?

Which is your least favorite?

Now let’s read our passage for today:

Philippians 3:1

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

Here Paul is also wanting to review with the Philippians. He wants to repeat what he has said, and say it again. There is a reason here though. He knows that sometimes repetition helps us grasp it. Sometimes we miss it the first time, and the third time. The great news is that repetition is something that the

Bible is famous for. Themes repeat, words repeat, Jesus says over and over who he is and what he has done for you. He starts in Genesis and continues to the end of Revelation.

Paul then starts to tell them again, things he has told them before...

Philippians 3:2-6
2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless

This is a complicated passage. Frankly, every scripture that talks about circumcision I want to skip over. It makes me uncomfortable. I'm not sure if it is the graphic image, or the memory of the screams of young women who were circumcised in Ethiopia when I was a girl, or maybe it is just that I haven't taken the time to understand the passages, so they seem irrelevant. This passage I found so much more understandable in the Message.

2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances— knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.

What is Paul warning the Philippians about?

He knows what he is talking about because it WAS him! He is warning them against the attitudes that drove him to persecute so many.

Get a piece of paper make two columns.
At the top of the first column write Good and at the top of the second column write Bad. Now under each column I want you to divide up this passage. 
What are the characteristics that go in the first column and what goes in the second column?

Here is the interesting thing. Would you say the people in the first column are trying to do good or evil?

Would you say that the people in the second column are trying to do good or evil?

Go back to the top of this lesson.

Take the Ingredients and count how many between you and God ____.

Now count how many are about how you treat others._____.

Now look back to the first column. What do you see?

Now look in the second column. What is missing?

This crazy maybe confusing scripture at first glance gives us a great huge incredibly important principal that frankly should always be a measuring stick for our beliefs and actions.

You can have it all right, theology, you can look right, speak right, worship right, know right, understand the law right, but if you don't serve others and praise God while you are doing it, well then you have nothing!

WAIT that sounds like.... Oh yea a memory verse.

If I speak in the tongues [a]  of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, [b]  but do not have love, I gain nothing.

INGREDIENT #16 - Keep our focus on Christ and Others

This ingredient could be similar to saying we are going to put a spice mix in some delicious cookies.

The spice mix is an ingredient made up of logs of other ingredients. If you look back at our list of ingredients there are lots of the ingredients that could fit under this... In fact most or all right?

ACTION: Perhaps to experience joy we need a new pair of glasses. Glasses to look at our world through, glasses to better see with. These glasses are glasses that only see first Christ and second others. So this week.... all week... let us only see Jesus and others. Stop looking at self, and see those around you. When you start to get angry with the kids, or the spouse, stop and 1. See Jesus (maybe say a prayer, maybe ask him to show you how he sees them, and then 2. REALLY see them. Feel empathy, see them... really see them. 3. Serve them and praise God while you are doing it.

Perhaps the lesson here is that even if we are "doing good" if we aren't serving others and praising God, our "doing good" can go down a path that we may never have intended it to go. Maybe our "doing good ends up hurting others instead of helping others. So many times we get caught up in the struggle of what we should and shouldn't do, perhaps we just need to look through the glasses of Jesus and others and it will all be clearer.