Week Prior to Sunday, November 8

First of all, bowling. http://www.amf.com/starlanesnc/centerHomepage.htm is the place (AMF Star Lanes on Kenilworth, near the intersection of Kenilworth and Tunnel Roads), and Saturday 6:30 is the time. Expect an hour to 1 1/2 hours. 

Food. Come full, come empty and buy their food, come semi-empty and fill up there. (It isn't the healthiest, usually, nor the cheapest; see their food menu by clicking here. 

Sunday: Here's the passage I'd like everyone to study.

To Enter God's Kingdom, Mark 10

 ¹⁷As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?"  ^18-19Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother."
 ²⁰He said, "Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!"
 ²¹Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me."
 ²²The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
 ^23-25Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom."
 ²⁶That set the disciples back on their heels. "Then who has any chance at all?" they asked.
 ²⁷Jesus was blunt: "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it."
 ²⁸Peter tried another angle: "We left everything and followed you."
 ^29-31Jesus said, "Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out. They'll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first."


Read it three more times, please. First time, imagine you have a video camera, and you are wanting to get the best angle, best sound, best expressions on people's faces. So as you read the first time, think of yourself scooting around the crowd, filming it. You are not taking anyone's side, just trying to film it objectively.



Second time, imagine you are the young man. How are you feeling at the beginning, and at the end of the story, as the young man? What would you be thinking about as you listened to this Jesus tell you in verse 21: "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me"?

Third time, you are Jesus. Practice speaking your part out loud so that the first part of verse 21 feels and sounds true as you speak your part: Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him!

After three times of reading, here is the fun and the hard part. Get a sheet of paper that you will bring on Sunday. Draw a line up and down the middle of it. On the left side, at the top, put "Needs"; on the other, right side, put at the top, "Wants."


Do an inventory of your room, like while sitting on your bed, and within 10 feet of your bed, list the things in your you see in your room, in one of the two categories. Which are needs and which are wants? 

Hard, isn't it? 
Come Sunday ready to talk about what you learned, and maybe didn't want to learn.


Thanks!
Marc