FreshBread

Today’s Reading is Matthew 5:33-37

33 “You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’[b] 34 But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. 35 And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. 36 Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. 37 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

In Jesus day the Pharisees where really big on taking oaths. Oaths were made at the drop of a hat without. However, the Pharisees always made allowance for mental reservations they might have. If the wanted to break a Vow they would argue that God himself was not involved so they did not have to keep the Vow/Oath.

So what kind of oaths/vows have you taken. We think of things right away like marriage vows, but how about things like…..vows when you join a church, or commit to a loan. A few weeks ago we studied the Nazirite vow, and we have vows we take for a number o things in life.

So Jesus comes along and challenges the Pharisees whole vow system. He says forget the vows. If you have to make a vow there is something wrong. Your word should be your word. When a Vow is made there seems to be a problem!

Let me hit on a problem in the Christian community for a moment. A problem that every church faces. The structure of the church is set up in a way that people move as consumers to find the church which meets their needs. Who has the best music, best youth group, or where can I be feed best. People are looking for a church like a store in the mall! BUT…what about our word. When we join a church (join with a body of believers) do we not give our word that we want to grow with them, be accountable to them, serve with them and reach a community with them. However I see “believers” all over this country leave a church body they have given their word too, “cause God is not in it anymore?” It seems like Jesus was trying to challenge the Pharisees with that out!

The main vehicle for these things at FreshStart is the Life Group! I will be the first to admit that Life Groups are in the infancy stage at FreshStart and have a long way to go. When we join a life group we give our word to “do life” with people. Sometimes things get hard (schedules are crazy, kids are going somewhere, we don’t feel feed, the list could go on) but I am suggesting that the best thing for us as a community is to finish well, stay the course and allow God to work in and through the people in your group. God works in his time and his way…NOT YOURS OR MINE. Let’s encourage each other, let’s stay the course,Let’s pray for the leaders as they meet this Sunday Night. God IS DOING GREAT THINGS in and through life groups and people are growing and experiencing God! We have a long way to go but let’s stick to our word!

Have a great day! As always I love your thoughts and comments. Send them to Scott@freshstartcc.com

Good Morning:
The last few days we have been looking at and discussing Jesus’ teaching on Divorce in Matthew 5. I have received many E-mails. One of these I received from a Freshstart reader in Wisconson. She told me I could share her story. It is her prayer that it will help someone, Finish the Race! Here is her story: Good Morning: We’ve been looking at Jesus teaching on Divorce from Matthew 5 the past few days. I received this E-mail from a FreshBread reader in Wisconsin. I have asked her if I can share it with everyone. She mentioned that she was willing to let it be used by God in other people’s lives. It is a reminder to me that God calls us to finish well! So here is here story: Hey Scott, I would love to add a few things to the Marriage ~ Adultry ~ Divorce issue here! My Thoughts are the very same as this other person ~ IF GOD IS NOT THE CENTER OF YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AN ACTUALLY EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE ~ You will do WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD ~ if you have been hurt – you will look in other places for Love or Attention! In My Own experience ~ I ended up with another man ~ then had his child ~ finally I asked for a Divorce from my husband an gave many odd reasons for it all ~ then the TRUTH COME OUT SO TO SPEAK ~ not to say it was easy ~ but We have a Daughter who has been raised by MY HUSBAND as The Father wanted nothing to do with her ~ HIS COMMENT when told I was pregnant ~ was THATS LIFE ~ so it is ~ but I was raised to be RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU ACTIONS! It was hard for many years ~ We told her when she was 5 years old ~ that she had a different Father ~ then The Grandparents asked to see her ~ which We come to an understanding that the MORE PEOPLE TO LOVE HER WAS NOT A BAD THING! She has had 3 sets of Grandparents ~ in the later teens she had a real problem with blaming herself for her Father {Natural} killing himself ~she was only 2 years old when he did that! So we worked thru that ~ an have tried to tell her We all go down different roads ~ an the choices we make ~ definitely affect us one way or another! My Husband and I will be married 33 years come Friday ~ she is now 20 years old ~ also to add unto all of this problem was My Drinking ~ Us quitting jobs trying to run from our problems, One Son getting into Drugs an almost dieing another Son got a young girl pregnant ~ who is was married to with 3 children but now is in the process of a Divorce ~ The List goes on ~ BUT GOD HAS PROVIDED THE WAY OUT OF ALL THIS MESS! WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE HAVE ~ OTHERWISE I MIGHT NOT BE HERE TO TELL ALL OF THIS! About 3 years ago ~ We were Baptized together ~ it was An Awesome Day with the presence of the Lord ~ very much took the place of RENEWING OURVOWS ~ IT GAVE US A WHOLE NEW LIFE! WHAT WOULD OF WE BEEN LIKE IF WE WOULD NOT HUNG ON ~ GOD PROVIDED THE WAY! PRAISE THE LORD! So anyone out there going thru this problem or anything else ~ GIVE IT UP TO THE LORD AN LET HIM HEAL YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND or WIFE! It can happen! God Bless Everyone Luv In Christ… check out this Video! To look at the video hit here
Question to Ponder: Is there some anger that you are carrying in your heart? Admit it, Talk to God about it, Act loving toward that person or people! –

Good Morning Friends,

Today’s Reading is Matthew 5:31-32

31 “You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce. 32 But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.

On Tuesday I asked why you though God might allow divorce in the time of Moses and then later in the Old Testament ( Malachi 2:16) God tells us he hates divorce. Then we hit the new Testament and Jesus gives us this instruction and even tells us that God only allowed because of the hardness of our hearts. So does God allow sin for a time?

If you do much Hebrew reading or research you understand that they belief in the Hebrew community about Truth is much different then our understanding. We (the Western/Greek Mind) sees truth as static and final. You might hear, “This is true, it never changes, this is the way that it is”. A Hebrew thinking person seeing truth as unfolding. There is an understand that it takes on time to embrace truth. In this same way they see that God has unfolded truth over time to his people. Another example would be found in marriage. We see in the garden that Adam married Eve, but it took hundreds of years to read in the scripture, the husband of one wife, and God even allowed men to have many wives. These were men he was using. The truth was unfolded over time.
The second part of these verses today are very hard for us to read. God now teaches not only does he hate divorce, but the truth is to get divorced cause you are just tired of someone, fallen out of love, found something better, don’t want to try; Jesus says for any reason other then unfaithfulness causes a person to commit Adultery. What is so hard about this teaching is that many of us find ourselves in this position? WHAT DO WE DO? I believe when we recognize our sin in lite of God’s word we must seek forgiveness and receive his grace. God loves each of us deeply and desires that we trust him. In each of our lives we must admit there are many decisions we have made without trusting him first, this is sin and we must admit it so we can move on in his forgiveness and grace.

Take some time today and thank God for his love for you. You are special to him. Sin does not have to cause us to walk around in GUILT…the good news is Jesus died for that the price has been paid….So enjoy God’s grace and Forgiveness, admit sin, hold your head up high and move on following him.

You are part of the community of the redeemed and guess what we are going to celebrate that this weekend at FreshStart as we gather around the Lord’s Table. Don’t miss it! It will be WONDERFUL! Talk to you tomorrow.