Each week, we offer daily Scripture readings and thoughts in our Grow • Pray • Study (GPS) Guide. 

Come back on Mondays for the weekly GPS, and spend time in study and prayer daily! 

You matter to God. 

St. Paul’s UMC GPS:
GROW † PRAY † STUDY

for the week

February 24-29, 2020

Where Do You Sit?

Destination:  To gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a deeply committed follower of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  To be able to recognize your experiences of God and to discover God in new and different ways.

Memory verse:  I encourage you to read this Scripture every day and by the end of the week have it memorized or to the point of where you can paraphrase the verse(s).  Try writing it down on post-it notes and place them in areas where you will see it daily, for example the bathroom mirror or the dashboard of your car.

¹³ Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”

Luke 14:13-14 CEB

Daily Prayer:

Merciful God, we find it hard to see in ourselves the trappings our society so admires and serves—power, wealth, and access, that we forget mutual love.
We fail to see our allegiance to these dangerous gods—rushing for places of honor, scorning the humble and lowly, supporting systems that survive on
greed and abuse. Forgive us when we are fearful that there is not enough.
Remind us that you are enough. Teach us your generosity. Teach us your world-changing humility. Teach us your expansive love. Transform us and heal our lives. Amen.

Monday, Feb 24, 2020 read Luke 14:1, 7-14. When you read this passage what is it that stays on your mind the most? Now ask yourself what is it about that part of the Scripture passage that stays with you? Ask God what you are supposed to learn from that particular piece of the passage.

Tuesday, Feb 25, 2020 read Luke 14:1-24. The setting is the Sabbath at a leading Pharisee’s house. This passage refers to Sabbath practices, protocols at meals and who receives an invitation to the banquet. The question that is on the mind of those present is ‘Will I be invited to the banquet?’ In usual Jesus fashion, He turns upside down. The question Jesus challenges us with is, ‘Whom do you invite to the banquet?’ This is a lesson in hospitality for us who embrace and embody the message of Jesus to practice hospitality on the least and the lost.

Wednesday, Feb 26, 2020 read Luke 14:1-6. The message of healing “dropsy” is known to us as generalized edema (swelling of the body due to excess fluid in the tissues). Dropsy in this context becomes a metaphor for greed. Dropsy/edema creates an insatiable thirst even though the body retains too much fluid. People who have an insatiable need for money, prestige, power-the kind of people Jesus was breaking bread with on this Sabbath. The person with dropsy needed a healing of the body's insatiable need for water even though their body wasn’t processing it. The powerful at this Sabbath dinner needed a healing of wanting more even though they already had enough. What are you thinking as you realize the power of this metaphor?

Thursday, Feb 27, 2020 read Luke 14:7-14. Sharing food was a barometer of social relations. Who eats with who? Where is the best place to sit for status? These are questions of a high-stakes game of social status. We all like to think that we aren't concerned with social status, but most of us are concerned. Would you trade your social status with a lower level? Why or why not? Ask God to help you understand what it means to be a person of power and position. Ask God to help you understand how you can use your position to glorify and honor Jesus.

Friday, Feb 28, 2020 read Luke 14:15-24. This is an example of a wealthy person with advanced status who learned and put into practice what Jesus was instructing in verses 7 through 14. One way that we can put verses 7 through 14 into practice is to help at the Soup Kitchen or bring in canned goods for the Food Basket.

Saturday, Feb 29, 2020 read Luke 14: 21-23. Outside the city walls lived the truly despised and impure. On the roads and lanes of town you would find the dwellings of those whose place was at the bottom of the social rung. Take a drive in Idaho Falls today through the neighborhoods where the houses or apartments look run down. Pray to know how God can use you to help the people living there.

Resources: Bible by God