Resources From Each Harderwyk Preacher
I. New For This Week
"God-Given Abilities Self-Assessment" - This is a new addition to our Spiritual Formation Resources page that was also referred to in Celebration this morning. CLICK HERE and you will find instructions for viewing, and then download and print a copies of material intended to help you identify potential Grace-Gifts for serving in the Body of Christ
The Bible Project Video on Agape love - CLICK HERE and enjoy.
Several "One Another Passages from the New Testament - CLICK HERE to view, download or print a copy.
Celebration Sermon Outline - CLICK HERE for this Sunday's Sermon Outline.
II. From The Commentaries On This Passage
From David Cunningham on John 15:9-17 found in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, Volume 2:
“Love in this sense is a theological virtue: an excellence of character that God has by nature and in which we participate by grace. Such love is primarily interested in the good of the other person, rather than one’s own. It does not attempt to possess or dominate the other. Nor is it limited by the scarcities that are imposed by time and place: one can have a few good friends and fewer lovers, but one can have agapē for all.
For Christians, the true archetype of love is found within the inner life of God. According to Jesus’ analogy, the disciples’ relationships to one another should conform to their relationship to Jesus, which in turn finds its ultimate example in the Word’s relationship to the Source. The love among the persons of the Trinity helps us to understand what wondrous love this truly is: concerned about others; not possessive or subordinating, thus allowing genuine space for the other to be; and superabundant, such that it can be offered without reserve. One of the many analogies that Augustine offers for helping us understand the nature of the Trinity is that God is the lover, the beloved, and the love that unites them.
The love that structures the inner life of God gives us a sense of the proper pattern for Christian love. Far from a mere feeling of euphoria, it is a disciplined habit of care and concern that, like all the virtues, can be perfected only over a lifetime. As Jesus observes, this love should be so deeply woven into our lives that we might even find ourselves called to die for it.”
“Thus, when Jesus says “You are my friends if you do what I command you,” he is not simply offering a useful or pleasurable friendship to those who have done his bidding. He is describing the kind of deep friendship that Aristotle calls the best kind. We are called into this kind of relationship with Jesus and, thereby, with God. When Thomas Aquinas offered his Christian synthesis of Aristotle’s ethics, he took up this idea explicitly—suggesting that part of the goal of the Christian life was to become “friends with God.” Through this friendship, we hope to take on God’s characteristics as our own—and to love one another as God loves us.”
III. Ongoing Resources
1) Spiritual Formation Resources Page - CLICK HERE - This is still a work in progress, but be a part as we look to build.
2) Scotty Smith’s Heavenward Daily Prayers - CLICK HERE - to see the daily prayer blog of Scotty Smith. You will see an option to have them delivered to your email inbox each day as well.
3) Simple Lectio Divina Overview - CLICK HERE - for a simple introduction of the spiritual practice of a more personal way of experience the Word through contemplation and reflection.
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