Freedom is Not the Same as having a Lot of Choices, Luke 9:51-62

Guest priest the Reverend Paul Briggs walks us through Luke 9:51-62. He reminds us that grace undergirds our ultimate choices and that grace is intended to draw us to Christ.

Image: Herschel Bonham, Route A, Box 118, an 11-year-old boy cultivating peas. He belongs to a cotton club in school. Father says he can pick 200 pounds of cotton a day. Location: Lawton, Oklahoma / Lewis W. Hine, by Lewis W. Hine, 1917. No known restrictions. image location: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018678613/

Grace to Give, 2 Corinthians 8.1-15

St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians about the initial commitment to give to the saints in Jerusalem and how it seems to have waned due to the various controversies that had happened in their church since they first heard about the need in Jerusalem. St. Paul carefully encourages them to embrace their opportunity to give as an expression of the grace of God not only working in them, but also working through them to affect and help many others. The whole of our Christian life is one of commitment to Christ, and likewise, we should see every opportunity as God’s grace in Christ for us and working through us to bless those the Lord brings to us.

Image: St. Roch giving alms, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose. Found at The Victorian Web, originally from the online journal article Unwilling Moderns: The Nazarene Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Image found at: https://victorianweb.org/painting/german/schnorr/paintings/3.html

www.gracegastonia.com/sermon-blog/2021/6/27/grace-to-give-2-corinthians-81-15