Hope@Home – June 12, 2020

Haley HankinsonUncategorized

DAILY DEVOTIONAL:

Let's watch this devotional from one of our interns, Mila Espinosa, together today!

UNITED PRAYER:

Prayer for Righteousness & Peace
Lord, let our lives shine as examples of peace and unity in a time of uncertainty, solely because we place our hope in You. We pray for hearts across our island and our nation to turn to you in the midst of the brokenness that we cannot fix apart from your Spirit. We pray against the sin and lawlessness in the land and ask that You would bring reconciliation through your Son, who came once and for all to bring justice and settle all of our debts. Holy Spirit, move in a way only You can do and work everything out according to Your will.

FAMILY RESOURCES:

You are a theologian
Theology isn’t just for pastors and Biblical scholars. You don’t have to have a degree or go to seminary to learn it either. You can argue that every believer in Jesus has the duty of holding a firm foundation in theology. R.C. Sproul in his book Knowing Scripture puts it this way, “No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.”
Merriam Webster’s definition of theology is simply “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience. Especially the study of God and God's relation to the world.” You are a theologian. Every time you spend time reading the Bible, listening to sermons, or any other way in which you learn about God, you are shaping your view of the reality of God and therefore the way we see the rest of the world. To again quote R.C. Sproul in his book Everyone's a Theologian he states, “The purpose of theology is not to tickle our intellects but to instruct us in the ways of God, so that we can grow up into maturity and fullness of obedience to Him. That is why we engage in theology.” It’s okay to not understand every single “-ology” word or have every answer, but we are always called to seek and to grow in maturity.
The writer of Hebrews emphasizes this importance in chapters 5-6, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity”.
This week, we encourage you as you carry on with your studies, to delve into the riches of everything God has to offer through a theological perspective and watch how that shapes you towards maturity and the “solid food” of doctrine. See the ways the Holy Spirit works through a studious heart. We have a God who loves to reveal Himself. The more we seek the more He will uncover. We will never know everything about God in this life and so we must continue to diligently pursue Him and His Word and He will continue to reveal His nature and the truth of His Word to us.

FAST & PRAY VERSES:

Take some time today to meditate and pray over these scriptures.

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” Isaiah 1:17

“He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” Micah 6:8

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”“ Luke 10:25-37