For our youth group, we have these things called PRAISE habits--each letter stands for a different daily habit that saints possess--
Prayer
Reconciliation
Adoration
Involvement (in the church/community)
Scripture study
Evangelism
These are the habits we are striving to build up in our youth.
For Scripture study, we follow a basic "recipe" to come up with a schedule for the kids to read (we often supplement the "student choice" with a "recommended" reading to help those who don't have any clue where to start in the Bible)... here's the recipe:
Sunday--Student choice
Monday--Student choice
Tuesday--Upcoming Sunday's 1st Reading
Wednesday--Upcoming Sunday's Psalm Reading
Thursday--Upcoming Sunday's 2nd Reading
Friday--Upcoming Sunday's Gospel reading
Saturday--Student choice
It might seem odd to you that we have the Sunday Gospel showing up on Friday instead of on Sunday...but since we have youth group on Friday nights, we want students coming prepared, having read the upcoming mass readings so that we can discuss them at youth group.
We also ask students not to skip over verses that may be skipped over in the actual mass readings. They are skipped over during mass so that they don't take up more time than needed, but we really want students to just read the whole passage. Example, the Psalm for this Sunday is: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23. Obviously there are a lot of things skipped there because it is going to be sung by the congregation...we just ask students to read from the first reference through the last reference--here, Psalm 118:1-23. This gives them more practice with the scripture and gives important contextual information to help them understand since it will not be followed by a homily during their daily scripture time!
I have decided to read through the book of Ephesians, so I will just read a chapter or a portion of a chapter from there each day and then do a reflection on it. Sometimes the chapters are so dense, that we break them up into smaller "bites" for our students.
Here's this week's "bite-sized" recommended reading schedule:
Saturday (today): Ephesians 1:1-6
Sunday (April 8): Ephesians 1:7-10
Monday (April 9): Ephesians 1:11-14
Tuesday (April 10): Reading 1: Acts 4:32-35
Wednesday (April 11): Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2-24
Thursday (April 12): Reading 2: 1 John 5:1-6 *NOTE: this is 1st John, NOT the Gospel of John*
Friday (April 13): John 20:19-31
Saturday (April 14): Ephesians 1:15-23
Now that we all understand what's happening here, let's move on to Ephesians 1:1-6
I will use the PRIMA (Pray Read attentively Imagine Meditate Apply) method that we have been learning about in youth group and then make any additional comments at the end. I will also use the Our Father as a guide for my opening prayer, as the students are learning to use it as a guide to pray for their own intentions.
Pray: Begin with a prayer that your time with the Bible will draw you closer to God:
Father God, we thank you so much for your word which brings us life and direction. Lord, I offer up this time to you and pray for your will to be done in me as I read your Holy Word. Help me to understand what I read and guide to to better understanding through the teachings and traditions of the Church. Forgive me, Lord, for not being faithful in studying your Word daily or for times when I have misinterpreted your Word. Help me to forgive those who have misguided me in the past; let me not dwell on false teachings. Give me strength to be faithful to studying your Word daily even when tempted to put it off because of the busyness of the day. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN
Read attentively, trusting that God will give you what you need to learn or grow. Note anything that seems particularly important, interesting, or hard to understand.
The Scripture:
Ephesians 1:1-6
"[1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the holy ones who are [in Ephesus] faithful in Christ Jesus: [2] grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, [4] as he chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love [5] he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of His will, [6] for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved."
I have underlined or bolded things that I want to know more about or that I want to look closer at. I do this in my own Bible using a pencil or a highlighter.
My initial thoughts on these things:
"to the holy ones...Jesus" --> anytime it says "to the holy ones" or "to those faithful to Christ" or anything that in any way hints towards "followers of Christ", I automatically know that the author meant that this letter was for ME also, since I am a follower of Christ...so now I have to look at the passage with a different view--as if it were being written TO ME, for my own instruction.
"blessed us with every spiritual blessing" ---> I underlined this because it is a promise of God--it is saying that we HAVE something...no strings attached...it's a promise, so I underline it because I need to remember that I HAVE been blessed with every spiritual blessing--which means I need to make use of those gifts!
"he chose us in him" --> as an English teacher, I understand the purpose of the commas following this phrase....it means that if you omit the words between THIS comma and the NEXT comma, then the sentence would be complete, but the author wanted to make some comment about the first group of words--it's like an "aside"... SO...if I cut that out, the sentence would read: "He chose us in him ... to be holy and without blemish" this is really important to get because the Bible has a bunch of these and they can be easy to get lost in if you don't pay attention to those commas!!!
This point...that God has chose us in Him TO be holy and without blemish is HUGE. that word, "TO" means "for the purpose of".... the words after a "for the purpose of" word tell us WHY the first part happened.... SO it's telling me here that God chose me (because remember, this is a letter TO ME) for the purpose of being Holy---that means that being HOLY needs to be a purpose for my life. I need to choose to be holy and do whatever it takes to BE HOLY. Being Holy is one of the purposes God has for my life=it is God's will that I strive to be Holy.
"before the foundation of the world" ---> I underlined this because it is powerful to me! It is saying here that GOD CHOSE ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. That means before my parents were create and before all those mistakes I made and before everything that led to my birth ever happened.... WOW. I am NOT an accident--no matter what the circumstances surrounding my birth were, I am not an accident. God, in his infinite wisdom, looked out into the future, before he even created the world, and said "I need...CANDICE" or "I need <insert your name here!>". AND THEN He arranged for things to happen just perfectly so that I would be created at exactly the intended time and place and to exactly the intended people. I was created intentionally, with a purpose...and what is that purpose?? TO BE HOLY. (see, we are building on our understanding as we go!)
"he destined us for adoption...Christ"---> this is another one of those comma things again...to better understand, cut out the stuff in between the commas-->this stuff IS important, but it can be understood easier if we take it out and then put it back in later.... so it would read: "he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ ... for the praise of the glory of his grace..." to simplify this even more, I'm going to also take away "to himself through Jesus Christ" because that is information that we know but that also makes the sentence really complicated.
"he destined us for adoption ... for the praise of the glory of his grace"
Remember that the stuff we took out is important, but sometimes we need to break it down to understand it better.
"for" is another one of those "for the purpose of" words....it tells us WHY he did that...so it tells us WHY God destined us for adoption ---> for the purpose of bringing PRAISE of (you could say "to" here also) the glory of His grace ....for the purpose of bringing PRAISE to God.
So, here it is laying out another purpose for which God has created us and adopted us --> to bring praise to His name.
Imagine what was going on when the passage was first written. What is its cultural and historical context? Try to put yourself into the story. What was the author trying to get across? What might be a real-life example of this in today’s world?
What are we missing here? Why is the author even writing this? This is where we look back at the introduction or the notes to let them tell us (because we have no clue!) The introduction talks about the idea that this letter (Ephesians is a letter) may have been intended for more than just those Christians living in Ephesus and that it was probably more like a general letter to all believers that was intended to remind them that God created them for a purpose--to be Holy and to bring praise to His name, as a start! It doesn't say much about what may have been going on at the time, but I can imagine that people were probably trying to understand why God created them, much like we do today!
Meditate on what you have read. How does this fit in the context of the rest of the Bible’s teaching? With the church’s teaching? What do you think God is teaching you?
As I meditate on this, I can't help but think about a lot of things--the call to Holiness that we all have through our Baptism...the right to life--obviously if all of us were planned before the foundation of the world, then every unborn child has a life filled with purpose also! The biggest message that I come away with is this: I was not an accident--God created me intentionally for a purpose--to be Holy and to bring praise and glory to His name...in essence, to know Him and to make Him known.
Apply what you have read to your life. God may be calling you to address a particular issue or relationship. Or you may find words of comfort and support you need at this particular time. How does this apply to your life?
This applies to my life because it is about my life...about why I have a life at all. I find it incredibly comforting to know that God chose ME...not just anyone...but ME (even though He knows me!) to be created when and how He did...it wasn't just chance. I can't wait to figure out exactly HOW he wants me to live out holiness and bring Him praise in my life.
I know this is a long post...I wanted you guys to understand my thought process on how I read and understand scripture. Maybe it will be helpful to you as you read scripture. Let me know what techniques you have too!
To know Him and to make Him known,
Candice
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