Dealing with Offense part 2

¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

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Often when we read this passage, we focus on the people and their intent to trick Jesus (otherwise, why didn't they bring the man? It takes two...). And it's true. The only reason they brought this woman was because they wanted to see what Jesus would do. But I want to look at this passage from a slightly different angle.

Leviticus 20:10 says this:

¹⁰ " 'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

These men had the law on their side. Forget the fact that they were probably waiting outside her house so they could capture her, they were in the right. The law clearly says she should die. And no one would have given Jesus a hard time for agreeing with the law. But instead Jesus says "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." And at that, the men dropped their stones and walked away.

We've all been in situations where someone has hurt us, and according to the law we have the right to get them back. We say things like: "It's okay for me to hate them, you don't know what they did to me." or we talk to our friends and say: "Just thought you'd like to know, so and so did this to me." And you take those rocks in your hands and begin to throw them at the person, because it's your right to do so.

But Jesus had a different take on this. Have you ever sinned? Have you ever cut someone off in the hallway at school? Have you ever gotten carried away and done something you regretted? If you have, and you've been offered forgiveness, it is your responsibility to do the same to others. When someone hurts you, you have a choice to make. I can take the stone in my hand and throw it at them, or I can drop it and walk away. But as you're thinking about your choice, remember that God took the rock that had your name on it, and instead he threw it at Jesus.

-Jeff-

3 Tools for Reading the Bible Online

Recently I've had a couple students ask me about getting their hands on a Bible reading plan. This is obviously very exciting because it means they're interested in getting into the word for themselves! You know God is moving when students actually want to study!

I thought it would be good to post a few different resources so you guys can get a little variety. Here's what I use:

1) Bibleyear.com. if you've ever wanted to read the Bible thru in a year, this is the place for you. What I did was selected the plan I liked (chronological, New Living Translation) set the start date for the closest date, and then I bookmarked the page that came up. I also printed a copy to stick in my Bible. Then when I sat down at my computer in the am, I'd click the bookmark and click the date and voila! All my daily reading is right there on the screen. I have loved it for the last year or so. Next time I'll do a plan where you read both the OT and NT at the same time (the reading got a little lean at times in the OT, and now I'm reading whole books of the NT in one day.)

2) Youversion.com. I downloaded their blackberry app and it's the best free Bible reading program that I've found for my phone. As cool as that is though, their webpage takes Bible reading to a whole new level by making it community oriented. Users can post comments, audio or video about certain scriptures. It's nice to be able to read what others are thinking. It's a great concept and it's easy to get lost for a long time reading the Bible and what others have to say about it.

3) Reality Student Ministries Online Devotions. We're trying out something new in our ministry, online devotions. It's like God's word for today, but written by me and our youth staff. We've had fun with it in the first week, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

So those are a few ideas. What plan do you use?

-Jeff-