{"id":34,"date":"2013-05-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/11\/sunday-17-november-2012-god-is-faithful\/"},"modified":"2013-05-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-17-november-2012-god-is-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/11\/sunday-17-november-2012-god-is-faithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 17 November 2012 &#8211; God is faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left;\"><font size=\"4\"><strong>The Word This Week:<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<ul style=\"\">\n<li style=\"\"><a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#hebrew_reading\">1 Samuel 1:4-20<\/a> and <a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#psalm_reading\">1 Samuel 2:1-10<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#hebrew_oth_reading\">Daniel 12:1-3<\/a> and <a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#psalm_oth_reading\">Psalm 16<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#epistle_reading\">Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=229#gospel_reading\">Mark 13:1-8<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font size=\"4\"><strong><span>Thoughts on The Word:<\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><br \/><span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><strong>Mark 13:1-8     <\/p>\n<p><span><\/span>As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, \u201cLook, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!\u201d Then Jesus asked him, \u201cDo you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.\u201d <br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, \u201cTell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?\u201d Then Jesus began to say to them, \u201cBeware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, \u2018I am he!\u2019 and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there  will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is  but the beginning of the birthpangs. <\/strong><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span>This week&#8217;s Gospel gives us a warning and also gives us comfort.\u00a0 Firstly we should never be so caught up in the beauty or grandeur of our surroundings that we forget that they are all temporary.\u00a0 Everything on this planet will one day pass away &#8211; all of the great architecture, all of the great art and literature, it is all temporary.\u00a0 While we can enjoy these things, and use them &#8211; our focus should always be on the Kingdom.\u00a0 <\/span>We see linked to this warning the danger of false prophets and messiahs who promise much but can deliver nothing. <\/p>\n<p><span>Our message of hope as funny as it may sound comes from the second part of our reading where Jesus explains to us that <\/span><span><\/span>we will hear of wars, famines and earthquakes.\u00a0 Where you may ask is the hope in this? The hope is found in the words of our saviour &#8211; he tells us not to be alarmed at these things, indeed he tells us that these things <em>must<\/em> happen.\u00a0 This is important, It gives us a message that even through these sorts of calamity God will remain faithful.\u00a0 Why must these things happen?\u00a0 Well God knows the answer to that question &#8211; I postulate that these things must happen because God is giving us time. Time to grow the Kingdom, time to preach the Good News to all nations (Mark 13:10).\u00a0 The thing is when you give humanity time, given its fallen sinful nature, with the influence of Satan to stir things along, evil will happen.\u00a0 I have faith that the Lord will only allow these things to go on for as long as it takes to save as many people as can be saved &#8211; indeed we are told that he cuts short the days of suffering(Mark 13: 19-20).<\/p>\n<p><span>The key throughout all of this is that we have a faithful God &#8211; He will not desert us, we are the only ones who can take our salvation away from us through rejecting Him for the &#8216;good&#8217; things of this world, the temporary things that will all pass away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This week I pray that your focus will be on the Kingdom of God, and <\/span>that you will not be alarmed as we hear of yet more war.\u00a0 I also hope that you join me in praying for those in the Israel and Gaza during this time, as well as all those around the world facing war and famine.\u00a0 Let us pray that these conflicts and suffering will be short and that the Peace of God might reign. <\/p>\n<p><span>God bless you this week,<\/span><br \/><span>Daryl. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span><\/span><br \/><span><\/span><br \/><span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Word This Week: 1 Samuel 1:4-20 and 1 Samuel 2:1-10\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Daniel 12:1-3 and Psalm 16\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Mark 13:1-8 Thoughts on The Word: Mark 13:1-8 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, \u201cLook, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!\u201d Then Jesus asked him, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/11\/sunday-17-november-2012-god-is-faithful\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunday 17 November 2012 &#8211; God is faithful&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}