Luke 17!!!!!

Hey guys! Day 2 of the leadership team doing their devos with us! Exciting times... For the leadership team, only one of you replied to my email, so please do not ignore it when I say "please email back...". So thanks Moses for replying and for the rest of you, get on with it! For the praise team, let's continue to keep up with our devos and also start to keep the leadership team accountable as well. I'll have all their numbers soon so you'll be able to text them your "reminders".

I learned a couple of things from Luke 17. Firstly, it's sad how the story of Jesus healing ten and only one showing gratitude, this story can be mirrored to what happens today as well. Sure, there aren't lepers walking around our neighbourhoods, but we are all sinners and we ask day after day, week after week, to be forgiven from our sins and cleansed. It's easy to overlook God's work for there aren't visible effects to this type of cleansing. But, if we take God's grace for granted, aren't we just like those nine lepers? Let's not do that but recognize God, and like we talked about earlier, God needs to hear these things.

Kind of scary how Jesus talks about his second coming. He talked to the peole back then as if it was really far away for then, but the thing is, it could happen any second for us! It's very possible, for the world that Jesus described is like ours. People like in Noah's day...forgot about God and are too busy with the worldly pleasures and rewards.

Yesterday, Sam asked how we would worship if we knew that God was there watching us. How would you behave now, knowing that God is still beside you now, and that he could as well condemn the world today?

Something to think about.

Have a great week! Good luck on your exams.

Roh

v. 17 "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

We often forget to thank God when good things happen in our lives; we remember to thank our parents and friends, but forget that one person who made things possible. I'm sure we can all think of examples when we had neglected to praise God, but if I were to give an example, it would be the time when my grandpa was sick. Once he was healed, I remember my family sending so many flowers to the surgeon and almost praising him for making my grandpa well again. Something we had forgotten was that God works through everyone and blesses them with skills. Ultimately, we should have remembered to thank God. Anyway, hopefully, we can learn from this chapter and remember God always.

v.33 "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."
This verse reminded me of that verse in chapter 14 about those who show off will be humbled. This part of the chapter talks about sacrificing your life to God, and living according to His will. Trying to keep our lives is like being selfish and wanting things for ourselves- like money, good looks, good jobs. I think it's really difficult to let go of our control over our lives and live by God's control; but I guess that's what this relationship is all about- working and getting to know God more to be able to sacrifice our worldly lives and live by His Word.

Have a great Monday everyone/

Hey guysssss
how was your day
hehehehe
Praise team and Leadership doing devo hehehe how cute

Luke 17
I got to learn alot of stuff from v11-19, This is where Jesus healed the leprosy people. What a miracle ehhh. Jesus is amazing also i learn that Jesus does everything
for those who have faith in him. And the 10 people with leprosy were healed because they had faith in Jesus or if they didnt Jesus wouldnt have healed them. I also liked the fact that
how One of them came to Jesus after they were healed to thank him. I thought all of them would come back. But I think we would of done the same thing if Jesus healed us from leprosy we would of gone to someone else instead of goin to Jesus and thanking him.
My prayer is that we all will have faith in him and come back like that one person to say thank you.

-Steven Hong
I lOVE MEN
hehehehe
SEXYYYYYYYYYYY

WUZZZUPP...

v4.If he sins against seven times in a day and seven times comes back to you and says, i repent, forgive him.

In this verse, God is telling us to forgive others. Why, because God has always forgiven us. No matter what kind of sin we do, God has always forgiven us. If we cannot forgive others, then God will not forgive you. It is always to forgive others.

v6. "If you have little faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry seed, but uprooted and planted in the sea and it will obey you.

in this verse it is saying that if you have little faith, it is saying you also have big faith. There is only 2 answers of having faith, either having no faith or having faith. From yesturdays devotion on Luke 16, i found a connection from verse 10, it says "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be disonest with much. They both have a connection because they both talk about faith. Trust can be another word for faith. It is telling you that having little faith brings you big faith. God tells us this because he wants us to have faith in others. If we do not have faith in others how can we have faith in God. And also having faith is one of the best ways having a relationship with God. Because it is telling you that you are a believer.

v17. "were not all ten cleansed? where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreign?

In this verse, it is a sign of thanks. We should be thankful for everything, no matter waht happens. Just like in this verse, out of ten who were ill and healed,only one came return and praised the Lord. This is a sign of thnx to God. He is thanking God, for giving my health back. We should be thankful because God has given us so many things we cannot even get. ex) our loving family, friends, life, etc. Why shouldnt we be thankful.

My key message for todays devotion, forgive others, have faith in God, and always be thankful.

AMEN...............

ahaha rohan "reminders" aka "8==============D do your devos!"

The first part of this chapter made lots of sense to me. Not only is sinning bad, but making someone sin is just as bad. "but woe to that person through whom they come." I think a lot of the time we only think about the sins WE have committed. But when we do things to put others in the position to sin, its bad as well. FOR instance if i tell Rohan that i found keys to a car and what should i do with it, and he tells me to steal it and sell it, hes committed a sin too.

E-Sek OUT!

sexy baby

YOOOOOOO mondays suck. This site is SICK,

"Sin, Faith, Duty"

Firstly Jesus says "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come" this is a very powerful and intresting line that Jesus speaks. He says that sins are always there, for sure, but woe to that person through whom they come, which I think he is saying that shame or woe to the person that is bringing the sin among others. "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a milestone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin" he says "little ones" which sounds like he is talking about children or kids? Also which is a bit weird is he says that the person who does bring the sin, it is better for him to be thrown into the sea with a milestone around his neck. If anyone were to be in the water with a stone around there neck, that is for sure death. But what confuses me is when we sin, do we not cause others to sin? If one person swears, he or she may influence another to do the same, doesn't that mean that we are bringing sin into someone elses life? Jesus also mentions duty, I remember reading about an article in anthro that women feel unsatisfied in their work place because when they accomplish a set task they are given, males will usually not say "good work" or stuff like that so they feel incompetitent, just a side note but Jesus is making the comparison that a servant is not supposed to be rewarded or praised for the work that they are obliged to do, rather they are just doing there job, likewise we should live that out in our lives, we are just doing everything for GOD, and just doing our duty, not for praise or recognition.

After reading this, I will try to stop bringing sin into other peoples lives, rather keep it to myself, so I will not have a negative effect on others, I will live my life for GOD as a duty and not for praise


"Ten Healed Leprosy"

So in this verse, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem when he sees 10 men with leprosy, they ask Jesus to heal them and they are healed, as they are healed only one person out of the nine came back and thanked Jesus. His reaction seemed a little pissed, that not all of them had came back, if someone were to heal me, the least I could do is to say thank you, its rude not to. But then Jesus says to the one who did come back, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well" My thoughts are this is kind of a blessing that Jesus is giving to him, but its confusing me why he says "your faith" because really, he didn't have faith, he just had manners, to come back and and say thank you. I don't really get it.

I will try to be like this man and have faith in Jesus, and when he does work in my life, I will thank him for all he has done, not what I do.

"The Coming Of The Kingdom Of GOD"

OH man, the first verse is killer! Jesus says to the Phrarisees "The kingdom of GOD does not come with your careful observation nor will people say, here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of GOD is within you" At first, I thought that you couldn't find the kingdom of GOD if you look for it, you know how theres thing that you don't look for, but you find, but when you do look for it, it is nowhere to be seen, that reminds me of the lion the witch and the wardrobe, the professor at the end says, you can only enter the wardrobe when you least expect it. Something like that, but it turns out the kingdom of GOD is not able to be seen because it is inside you. This could mean two things, either its your heart, or the holy spirit is what I am guessing. Most likely the holy spirit, haha, this confuses me a bit. Then Jesus says "The time is coming when you will long to see the son of man , but you will not see it. I guess this means that we will really want to see Jesus, and he will be infront of us, but we will be too blind to see him. This thing reminds me of homeless people because of the Sheep and Goat story, that Jesus will say to the sheep you fed me when I was cold, you gave me something to eat when I was hungry....Then the sheep say "LORD when did we ever see you cold or hungry......." Then Jesus says when you helped my brother, you helped me. I think I chopped that up really well but you guys get it right? We will be looking for Jesus and Jesus will come, but we will not see him" The next few verses turn funky. Jesus makes reference to Noah and Lot, about how he destroyed the earth and sodom, but then he says "On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them" really intresting how he makes that reference, I thought about that and people usually go up on the roofs when there is a flood, this is connected to Noah's Ark, also he makes another reference to Sodom and Lot's wife, who turned back and turned into stone. Also something that really spoke out to me was "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it" Pretty sick! I don't think this necessarily means to live our life recklessley but to a point, we should not value our lives to the point where we love life more then GOD. What was also intresting was when he kept saying these examples where two people would be doing something, but the other would be left dead. I don't really get the reference he is making.

wow GO SEAN! ill start reading that before bed...

Verse 3 - 4. I would like to say our team is pretty much like a family now, so i wouldn't complain if we were to fight amongst each other, aha. It means we seem more like a family, and becoming more aaunthentic with each other. that was a side note. God says you MUST forgive, everytime the person asks which basically means forgive them all the time. Don't hold grudges, just forgive EVEN when they don't ask for it. It's hard but, when you hold a grudge, what do you get out of it? maybe some temporary relief, because you tell yourself i'm aginst that person, that p[erson is wrong and i'm right. But eventually you're going to have ot get over it.
I was kind of surprised when they asked, show us how to increase your faith. How can you show something you can't see? All faith takes is a step of believing. i really liked it when Jesus said" Your faith has healed you." When we put our faith in God and fully trust that he can provide, he WILL do it. these lepers knew Jesus could heal, tahst why they WERE healed. If you don't ask and believe, how can it come true?

yo, don't think you guys have to do a massive devo like sean did everyday
just by reading the bible and putting a short post, saying what you've learned, on the site everyday shows great dedication
quality over quantity guys =]

Hey peeps! This whole forum thing is really nice- no wonder the praise team is so close- i can tell by all the freindly and casual conversation
lets hope we get closer (well i'm sure the guys have already done that with their gt and perverted texts msgs)

Luke 17
What really stood out to me in this chapter was the beginning. The beginning of how we should rebuke our brothers who sin and also forgive them if they repent. I find that I tend to forget to do both. Instead of rebuking I scold and instead of forgiving...lets say I don't have a tendency for that one. So this passage for me helped refresh my memory that part of being a sister in Christ is helping your other sisters and brothers in Christ grow by means of letting them know whats wrong and also being understanding in a forgiving way. It's hard to do if you have prejudices and past feelings of that person in the way but I find that bitter judgement and incorrect anger is something that Satan uses to his advantage.

Goal: Rebuke in an understanding way not in a way of superiority
and forgive in a kind way that shows that you give that person your love

forgot
thanx Roh for organizing the devotions for the leadership team
and Isaac- i like your taste in pictures, especially ones of sexy men

later days

Hey guys!
Ohmygosh I had like. the worst day in the world today. I had a french oral exam, lab exam and an english commentary and i bombed EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. apparently i cant speak
french for my life. mann.. ohh well.

Oh yes, and PRAISE TEAM: Sorry I couldn't make it on Sunday. haha it is to my knowledge that Roh didn't tell you guys what happened - and I hope you guys didnt think I just bailed! haha I actually got into a very very minor car crash on the 401 on my way to church. My mother seems to have forgotten all of the rules of driving including: 'steer TOWARDS your skid' hahaha.. We crashed into a snowbank. PHEW! luckily, not a car. But my faith in humanity was restored on Sunday. Within like two minutes we had 3 guys stop their cars, and a snowplow driver to help the two helpless asian women drivers that we are. Funnily enough there was one of each colour. Hahaha we had a brown man, a hairy white man and a HUGEEE black guy. No asians though. tsk tsk.
that shows you something. hahah but they were so unbelivably nice to us! We have the slightest suspicion that we got scammed by our tow truck driver though. But ohhwell.
anyways thats my story! I heard you guys ROCKEDDDDD i wish i could've been there

LUKE 17: At the end of the chapter, Jesus talks about the coming of Jesus - and I'm not gonna lie, it scared me a littl- A LOT.
Jesus reminds us of all of the worlds/nations that have been destroyed as a result of their sin - in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. But, God saves the righteous while he destroys the sinners. And Jesus warns us that the same thing will happen when jesus returns. Now apparenly that won't be till a while becuase it can only happen when everyone has at least HEARD the word of God. And who knows how many more native tribes live in the depths of the Amazon forest who have never heard of Jesus? (Isaac and Hannah, insert inappropriate Native joke here.) ahha but shouldnt we be living always being mindful of the coming of Jesus? Even though God is righteous and loving and forgiving, we still have the responsibility to live righteously so that we dont get smited under the wrath of angry God. We should have FEAR of God as well as love. And not fear as in like paranoia fear, but the fear that stems from our recognition of his great power over us, and mindfulness of his detestment of sin). I think that we need to remind ourselves of this more often, because sometimes we try to block out all of the things in Christianity that are scary or require us to acutally DO something. A lot of the times we only focus on the 'God will forgive us' aspect and then we go and live life recklessly.
So yup! I think that it'l be nice if we can remind ourselves of this more often - sometimes I pretend that Jesus is like.physically beside me and watching me.. haha i know its kinda creepy but it helps me remember that I should repent fromsin and live righteously.
That's my two cents, folks!
Have a good day, i have to go and cram some MATH MATH MATH!

-Cathy

What up my peeps?
How are you guys doing on this fine Monday? i did my devotions this morning but have not been able to post it till tonight... I hope that your weeks have started well! Here are my devotions for today!
What I read: Luke 4
What I learned: oh man, there was so much I learned in this passage today, it was quite the awe inspiring. One of the major things that I had always known about the book of Luke was it was written for the minorities, for the Gentiles, for the slaves, for the poor, the weak, the widow, etc. And quickly right away we see Luke’s focus in chapter four. When Jesus goes off to the temple, He makes mention how a prophet is not welcome in his own land. He makes mention of Elijah, and how was in his own home town and how Elijah was only sent to two people to heal them, both of them being Gentile and not a Jew. It is interesting to see why Jesus would make reference to Elijah, I would say it is for two reasons. The first is because it is making a foreshadow of what is to come for the future, that the gospel will be once and for all for the Jew and to the Gentile. Secondly, it was to show the heart of Luke, that the book was written for the minorities, for the poor, the sick, the widow, and the fatherless.
What I am going to do about what I learned: I am going to continue to remember to help out those who are in need, especially those who are poor, the sick, and the fatherless. You know the reason I went into ministry was to help those who were uncool, to help those who were not popular to know that in the church they are popular. What would our church look like if all those who were not popular could come to church and find security and love at our church? Would definitely be the place to be.

I also read....
Job 19
What I learned: Job is responding to one of his friends who has repeatedly told him that he has done something wrong, even though out of all of his friends he was probably the most holy. He continues to try to defend himself and try to show his friends how he has not done anything wrong. It has come to the point where he is getting tired of having them tell him the same thing over and over again about him doing something wrong he says things like... 2 "How long will you torment me and crush me with words? Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.” I find it so interesting how his own friends are accusing him instead of doing what they should have continued to do when they first met him which was to love and to just listen, rather they instead try to find a solution to the problems that have occurred, and if you have read the rest of the book you would know that God gives him no reason for all that has occurred.
What I am going to do: it is interesting how people may react when someone close to them has something bad happen to them. For me, I got to learn to just listen and be there for the person instead of trying to offer up some sort of solution, or try to give my ideas of what had happened, unless it is asked for.

Luke 17

v.1 "There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves!"

At first glance, I thought this was addressed to the Pharisees, but on second glance, I realized Jesus was speaking to the disciples. He warns them to be careful not to be the tempters and it challenges me to think about things that I do that might tempt others to fall into sin...Especially when Jesus warns so gravely against it, because you're the one spurring others on to the ways of evil. It reminded me of the times when I let myself slip and participate in gossiping. With something as "petty" as that, I think even just participating let's others think it's okay and typically encourages others to join in with you = sin spurrer! DUN DUN DUN. That, I certainly do not want to be.

v.4 "Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive."

This reminded me of the Parable of the Lost Son. God would do that for us slash I'm sure He's done that for each and every individual, because it's like we're chronic sinners, aghh. Anyways, this could certainly be a great test to a Christian. I, thankfully, don't have any situations presently in my life where I could see this in action, but it makes me wonder if I naturally would have the patience to understand and forgive, even if it were seven times a DAY! I guess it's things like this that should set apart us Christians from non-believers.

v.17 Jesus said, "Didn't I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?"

This section on the healed lepurs made me wonder if we're not sometimes like the nine that didn't even bother to say thank you. I'm sure there are instances in my life where God helped me out of a pickle, and I it was like I expected it of Him, so I didn't take the time to offer up my thanksgiving. And to hear it in the context of this parable, feeling angry at the stupid nine healed lepurs who didn't have the courtesy to say thank you? I certainly don't wanna be one of them..thanksgiving, thanksgiving, thanksgiving. All the time!

- H