Dear all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope and pray that this letter finds you\nwell this week. Can you remember back to\nwhen you were at school? If so, can you\nremember a particularly good teacher who inspired you and gave you a hunger and\nthirst for the subject you were being taught? \nHaving a good and inspiring teacher, helps you to learn and to stay\nfocussed. It is a lot easier learning\nabout a subject when the teacher presents concepts in fresh and exciting\nways. This week we explore, Matthew 11:\n16-19 and 25 to 30; Jesus after leaving the disciples, continues his teaching\nand preaching tour around the towns of Galilee. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first portion of the reading today\nwe find Jesus speaking to the crowd about John the Baptist. The people were concerned about John the\nBaptist and his lifestyle that involved him living basically off the land. This led to the criticism that he was\npossessed by a demon, whereas because Jesus ate and drank and mixed with\nvarieties of people, he was accused of being both self-indulgent and a poor\njudge of character. So the people where\nnot happy with either lifestyle, their expectations were very difficult to\nplease. But Jesus corrects the record by\ntelling people that both he and John will be proved wise by their deeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the second portion of the reading,\nJesus is gives thanks to God because God has chosen to hide the truths about\nlife from the wise and learned, but instead chose to reveal these truths to\nlittle children. In other words, God has\nchosen to reveal them to people who are not considered wise or sophisticated;\ninfants were considered to fall into this category. In that culture, children were considered to\nbe on the margins, dependent and vulnerable, so that made them weak and a low\npriority for society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final part of the reading concerns the\nobject of a yoke. A yoke was a piece of\nwood designed to be used by humans or animals and worn over the neck and\nshoulders to make the task of carrying or pulling heavy loads easier. Jesus explains that he has a yoke in which\npeople can bear which is both light and bearable. Jesus instructs that not only is His yoke\nlight but people can learn from Him because he is gentle and humble in\nheart. In so doing anyone that takes on\nHis yoke will find rest for their souls. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So now you\u2019ve remembered that great\nteacher from your past with fondness and appreciation, think about Jesus as a\ngood teacher waiting to help and instruct you. \nHe has an easy yoke in which you can share all your problems with him\nand He will teach you in a gentle way about the concepts of truth, wisdom and\nmany more. What an offer, are you taking\nJesus up today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the Lord Jesus; who is a humble and\ngentle teacher bless you and help you take the strain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every blessing in His precious Service,\nAndrew. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well this week. Can you remember back to when you were at school? If so, can you remember a particularly good teacher who inspired you and gave you a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}