Faith

Sunday Reflection – June 11, 2023

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Jesus honouring faith

Matthew 9 9 As Jesus was leaving, he saw a tax collector named Matthew sitting at the place for paying taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and went with him.

10  Later, Jesus and his disciples were having dinner at Matthew’s house. Many tax collectors and other sinners were also there. 11 Some Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?”

12 Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 13  Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others.’ I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.”

18 While Jesus was still speaking, an official came and knelt in front of him. The man said, “My daughter has just now died! Please come and place your hand on her. Then she will live again.”

19 Jesus and his disciples got up and went with the man.

20 A woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and barely touched his clothes. 21 She had said to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

22 Jesus turned. He saw the woman and said, “Don’t worry! You are now healed because of your faith.” At that moment she was healed.

23 When Jesus went into the home of the official and saw the musicians and the crowd of mourners, 24 he said, “Get out of here! The little girl isn’t dead. She is just asleep.” Everyone started laughing at Jesus. 25 But after the crowd had been sent out of the house, Jesus went to the girl’s bedside. He took her by the hand and helped her up.

26 News about this spread all over that part of the country.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Jesus helps (June 11th)

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Read Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 with your family.

Helping people is a big part of the work Jesus did while he was living on earth. Our story today has three people who were helped by Jesus.

The first was Matthew the tax collector. He worked with the Roman government even though he was a Hebrew, so no one liked him. It didn’t matter to Jesus what he did for a job, just that Matthew was open to hearing about the world of God and living with love for everyone.

The second was a woman who had been bleeding for a very long time. The community would have avoided her and she would have been both tired and lonely. Jesus healed her and told her everything would be different from that moment on.

The third was a little girl who was probably too sick to ask for anything except her parents. Her father loved her so much he went in faith to find Jesus. Unlike Matthew or the woman that was bleeding, this father was a respected member of the temple, the very people who said Jesus was a bad person. The father didn’t believe that and so he turned on his friends because of his love for his daughter.

All three people were very different, but Jesus gave them the acceptance and healing they needed. It didn’t matter to Jesus where they came from, just that they needed his help.

Sunday Reflection – October 2, 2022

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Increasing Faith

Luke 17 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7 “Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner’? 8 Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’? 9 You won’t thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you? 10 In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’”

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Growing our faith (October 2nd)

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Read Luke 17:5-10 with your family.

Sometimes when we read the stories in the Bible some words jump out at us and that is all we focus on. The word “slave” is one of those. Most of us only know the slavery that happened in the USA 150 years ago, a slavery based in racism. That is not the type of slavery Jesus and his followers would have known. In order to take that big word out so we don’t get distracted, our video uses the word ‘servant’.

But Jesus was not really talking about people paid, but people unpaid who were expected to do what they were asked. The disciples Jesus called were not paid to spread the world of God, they were just told to do it.

In this story these disciples ask for more faith, as though it was a gift like food or water that Jesus could give. But that is not how faith works. Some of the people with the biggest faith in God think they have don’t have as much faith as they should. Some people who think their faith is huge really don’t have much faith in God at all.

Jesus tried to tell them even the smaller imaginable bit of faith was enough to make extraordinary things happen.

Faith is a choice. No one can give us more faith, not even God. We have to choose to have faith. And when we make that choice, it is always going to be enough.

Kids Korner: God brings people to faith (August 8th)

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Our Story

About our story

Read John 6:36-50 with your family. The people listening to Jesus had a hard time understanding what Jesus was trying to teach them. They looked at each other and said something like “we know his mom and dad, so why is he saying he came down from heaven and knows God personally?”

Sometimes it’s really hard for adults to hear the message of the story instead of the asking questions that are about their own self interests. Jesus understood that and kept trying to help them understand that his message was bigger than the daily needs of the people who wanted Jesus to feed them more bread and fish.

In the middle of this whole conversation, Jesus said something really important: That God brings people to faith. We can’t do that ourselves. We can’t get our parents to believe or friends to believe, only God can do that. What we CAN do however, is talk about God caring for everyone, just like Jesus did. Then maybe if our friends and family want to hear more, they will be open to the lessons of Jesus wanting to make sure all people were part of God’s world, where there would always be enough to eat for everyone.