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Forums > Communities > Opening the Bible
Subject: Weekly Seeds Bible Study: Gifts of Compassion (June 23-28)

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ProudDog
401-500 posts

Posts:498
06/23/2008 6:37 AM  
This week continues last week’s discussion – with a few more instructions from Jesus. Take a look at Gifts of Compassion and Keep hydrated and let’s continue our discussion.
-Kirk Moore
kate huey
26-50 posts

Posts:45
06/27/2008 11:15 AM
There's a thought-provoking question under Weekly Seeds about our response to Jehovah's Witnesses who come to our door and how we are to receive people we don't agree with. Having spent most of my life in neighborhoods where everyone refused to answer the door when they rang, I feel a stubborn need to greet and engage them.

After all, I'm in awe of their dedication and commitment, and the risk of rejection that they accept. I wonder about my own ability to do what they do. (Why are we so understated in our efforts to "evangelize"?) Perhaps I will learn something. But often I get frustrated by the turn of the conversation always to apocalyptic warnings when I know that most of the people behind those locked doors - even in the most affluent of suburbs - need to hear that GOD LOVES THEM. The world is so hungry to hear that good news, once it turns down the noise and turns off the incessant electronic distractions.

I'm reminded again of Swanson's words about the "delight that arrives when human beings treat each other as human beings, with honor and respect, and perhaps a little food..." How could we perhaps employ this ideal in our response to visitors carrying a message we don't wholly agree with?
kate huey
26-50 posts

Posts:45
06/27/2008 11:16 AM
One more thought, and I'm wrestling with my own answer: Is our welcome more about who we are, or who "they" are?
subear
501-infinity posts

Posts:760
06/27/2008 11:52 AM
I think our response (welcome) to anyone and everyone is (almost) always about who WE are; how wide is our "welcome"? How much diversity can we accept into our experience of the Unity of all things (including ideas)? That's the hard part of loving our neighbor as ourselves.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Gjean50
New User
Posts:1
06/27/2008 5:13 PM
I'm preaching on this text Sunday and seeking ideas for my sermon
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Forums > Communities > Opening the Bible > Weekly Seeds Bible Study: Gifts of Compassion (June 23-28)


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