asavage

October 30
[media presentation below] GospelThink Thursday, October 30 LUKE 13:31-35 Determined to Follow God Prayerthoughts a. The Pharisees may have been actually concerned about Jesus. Am I truly concerned about the friends who are close to me? b. Most probably the Pharisees merely wanted to frighten Jesus and have him submit to what they wanted. Do I selfishly want others to do what I want to do, and direct others to do things the way I want? c. Casting out demons is a sign of doing the will of God. God’s Will in my life right now is to do the very best that I can in the circumstances that I am in. Am I? d. Jesus is determined to go to Jerusalem, even though he knows that it could possibly mean his death. Am I truly determined to do what God wants in my life? f. The reference to Jerusalem is probably referring to the rejection that the religious leaders made of Jesus. As I study my life, what are the times that I have rejected the Lord? I should ask for forgiveness again. g. My prayerthoughts… Today I will read Romans 8:31b-39 and write an im;ortant thought from it.
Some Thoughts on the Liturgy IF YOU UNDERSTAND LOVE FOR CHRIST + Chapter 8 of Romans, from which the first reading is taken is recognized to be the spiritual basis of the Christian life - and perhaps the central idea of that chapter is given to us today: nothing will ever block the love that Jesus Christ has for us + And, the Gospel contains Jesus’s intention according to Luke’s Gospel, namely, to go to Jerusalem at that time, and continue his work - a place where prophets lost their lives, and—Jesus’s thinking—a place for his own passion, death and resurrection + If we study the readings in light of those two thoughts together—the thought of accepting the love of Jesus Christ which he shows to us by his redemption we find some important insights, I believe: - 1 – we have all accepted the love for Jesus in our Baptisms - and at that time, we or our parents and sponsors said some pretty strong words, namely that we completely renounce sin and all evil works all the days of our lives - it is good that we often renew and review those promises which we made - 2 – the understanding of what Jesus has done for us and especially that his love for us will never fail will lead us to do certain things - the reading of Scripture - I think it is important to do that daily, especially the Gospels; - praying at every opportunity - setting aside special times for our prayer - and persevering in that prayer; - and the desire to be the ambassador for Christ as the apostles were - 3 – from the Gospel - Jesus chose the way of redeeming us by his passion, death and resurrection - obviously we are not called to such a high vocation - but we are called to be as thoroughly Christian as we can be in whatever way of life we have chosen + You and I have been given the directive to live our lives with the understanding the our Lord and Savior, Redeemer, will always be with us and will never leave us - it is something we should both be thankful for and try to live.

MEDIA PRESENTATION Song: "Savage Love" -- Jason Derulo featuring Jawsh 685 I STILL WANT THAT

The Gospel

LUKE 13:6-9

Jesus told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”

Gospelthink: There is the possiblity that we can improve our lives. Are there some things in my life right now that I really should change?

“If I woke up without you, I don’t know what I would do. Thought I could be single forever ‘til I met you. I just found out, the only reason that you lovin’ me was to get back at your ex-lover, but before you leave—usually I would never even care. Every night and every day I try to make you stay, but your savage love, I still want that.”

Jason Derulo sings the thoughts of the man in the relationship in the song "Savage Love," namely, "I still want that." When it comes to human relationships, that can be a problem. We want what we want from our point of view. Often the other in the relationship may not be thinking like us at all. And we must adjust. In fact, in order to be happy we must adjust.

Jesus says the same thing in his story. The application of it is that there are some things in our lives that should change. Put in the context of Jason Derulo's song, the man should make the decision to move on in his love life, but he does not want to. And so the gardener, our conscience perhaps, says to us, you have to take the time to get out of this relationship. And if you do not, your life will be hurting.

As one studies the situation from an objective point of view without the emotions that the man has, when another person is using you for love simply because she did not get it some place else, there is a problem. In fact, it is quite easy to solve. Get out of that relationship so that you can improve your life. But the emotions can never be discarded so easily. We still want what we want--a lot.

There is little doubt that there are a number of things that should change in our lives that go beyond what we should be doing with our romantic lives. But what we want tends to dominate our thinking. Perhaps we must spend some time thinking about what happens to the fig tree in Jesus's story if it did not produce some change.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, you tell us that we must change some things in our lives. We discover that in the way we live, but we continually seek the easy life, and what we want. Give us the grace to see what we should do in order to improve our lives. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: There are some things that we should do to improve our lives, but we do not want to.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What does the song "Savage Love" teach young people?
2. In a relationship, what are the biggest adjustments that must be made?
3. Why do people hang on to a relationship when they really should let it go?
4. As you study our world today, what things should change most of all?
5. Can we who are not in a national spotlight do anything about the problems mentioned in number 4?