Spiritual Sounding Board – This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
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Luke 10: 25 – 42
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 fell into the hands of 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, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the inn-keeper. ‘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 hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat a the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Isaiah 41: 13
For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
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May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you from the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
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Feel free to join the discussion.
You can share your church struggles and concerns.
Let’s also use it as a time to encourage one another spiritually.
What have you found spiritually encouraging lately?
Do you have any special Bible verses to share, any YouTube songs that you have found uplifting?
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photo credit – Kathi – Coffee and knitting; two of my favorite things!
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Thank you, Kathi. I prefer my crochet hooks, but that coffee looked so good, I had to have a cup. God is good in ALL things.
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Brenda – I’ve tried crochet but can never seem to keep the tension right. I’ve watched tutorials on Tunisian crochet and that looks interesting. It seems to be a mix of knitting and crochet.
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Beautiful service this morning Kathi. Thank-you for putting this together as the Spirit moves you. Love how the Samaritan, considered the low life of the three within those cultural norms at that time, went far above and beyond in helping that lowly wounded man. It is truly a perfect picture of how we should live as Christ believers and followers. Appreciate the LORD’S reminder here of true humility and what it looks like in His Kingdom.
God Bless you Kathi. Your picture is stunning with all of those neutral hues blended together and would make a stunning picture for the wall in a rustic home environment. You are a very talented young lady!
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Thank you, Katy. Today had two of my favorite stories – love your neighbor and love God, as well as Mary sitting with the disciples at the feet of Jesus.
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I appreciate today’s reading so much. Today’s message at the local church was on church membership and discipline (in love). I don’t personally know of anything that is happening with anyone that would ever take the church to the Matthew 18 process and hope there isn’t anything. But telling people that they would look more Christian and be able to have feedback from others in the body with membership is nuts. I just don’t think I would join another church again and it has come up a few times over this portion of the year. I like being in a local body where it might start feeling like family, but I think I feel more family here than I do with people that I physically see each week who have been in the church for 50 or more years and have their set group of friends. I hope this is making sense.
Everyone is our neighbor whether they are church members or a few believers that sit around the kitchen table to worship Christ. Our unbelieving neighbors need our love and to see Christ in us that they may be won over to Him for His Glory. I just don’t see where Church membership makes any difference to any of this.
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@Brenda R,
I will NEVER join a church again that has church membership covenants and Matthew 18. It’s all about authoritarian control. The Scripture verses on the page seem oh so nice. Instead it’s a crowbar used by the leaders to insinuate themselves into members’ lives about anything and it infantilizes grown adults. There’s a real caste system in today’s churches, many infected with NeoCalvinism. There is an elite ruling class (pastors/elders) and everybody else. No, no, no.
I saw Matthew 18 wielded against people for any reason: choosing peoples’ friends for them, criticizing what they fed their children, what they wore to church, potluck dishes, dissent. False accusations by leadership against anyone who criticized their authoritarian control.
This is that 9Marxist (9Marks/Mark Dever & other assorted groups) stuff.
How many pages of a membership covenant did Jesus make people sign to follow Him? Correct answer: 0 pages.
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Well, this is embarrassing. When I first saw the picture I was like, “That looks really cozy, but how are you supposed to eat soup with chopsticks? I guess you’re supposed to pick the solid food out with the chopsticks and then drink the broth.”
😉
On a more serious note, the Good Samaritan is one of my favorite scriptures. Notice the Good Samaritan stops to help the wounded man. He does NOT prance around trying to find the robbers so that he can hand out gospel tracts to them. The Good Samaritan shows us how Jesus treats those who are hurting, and how He wants us to treat others. The story of the Good Samaritan is also a scripture that I often pray for my children; my hope and prayer is that they will grow up to have that kind of courage, strength, mercy, and compassion.
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And the Samaritan was an outsider. He wasn’t one of the “covenant community.” In our day, we’d say he wasn’t a Christian. Interesting.
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That’s funny – chopsticks and soup 🙂 Kathi – – I am so ready to start knitting again. So, so ready!
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I’ve always loved that story, because I get where both Mary and Martha are coming from. And I really feel for Martha – houseful of people with no help. I love that Jesus says what Mary does is better, though.
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Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World is a really good book. Finding balance isn’t always easy.
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Wary Witness – Have you ever had pho? Mmmmm…. Delicious soup that you eat with chopsticks.
Imagine a woman sitting with the disciples and learning from the teacher! I love the image.
Julie Anne – The urge to knit never leaves, does it?
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Brenda says “Today’s message at the local church was on church membership and discipline (in love).” As to the “discipline (in love)” part, what a classic example of Orwellian doublespeak! As to the whole concept of “church” membership, I say that we can join ourselves to an authority-based religious organization, or we can join ourselves to Jesus. We cannot do both. I will not go so far as to say that every organized gathering of believers is suspect, but certainly, wherever there is an emphasis on building numbers, buildings positive public perceptions, there is a tacit, but undeniable, rejection of Jesus.
Most of these authority-based “church” organizations offer human relationship in the form of “family,” or whatever–and they demand 10% of your income in return. How can joining one of these organizations be any different than joining oneself to a mistress, or a prostitute? Not everyone who joins such a religious organization thereby falls into sin, but there will almost inevitably be great pressure to confer a loyalty to the organization that is idolatrous. Inasmuch as this particular form of idolatry works to transfer to the organization a loyalty and commitment that belongs to only Jesus, one could say that these organizations promote an idolatry that is also a most insidious form of spiritual adultery.
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See also ‘servant leader’! It’s fine with it’s bschool goobledyspeak, but that’s not right for church. Any time people need to add a softening qualifier to the plain words, you know they’re trying to put one over on you. Servant leader. Lovingly discipline. I’ve seen a million ones about the way women are supposed to mind the men. Bah. Just speak plainly, because they’re drawing more attention to what they actually think, not less.
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