Affirm
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.
Psalm 126:5-6
TEXT
Mark 9:42-50
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
“And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (RSV)
READ
“We cannot be saved by discipline, but our salvation cannot be effective unless disciplined. There is really no clash between grace and discipline. Paul puts them together in these words: ‘The grace of God has appeared to save all men, and it schools us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions and to live a life of self-mastery, of integrity, and of piety in this present world’ (Titus 2.12, Moffatt).
‘The grace of God schools us…’ It schools us; and it schools us to do two things: ‘to renounce,’ and ‘to live a life;’ to let go and to take on; to renounce and to realize.”
-E. Stanley Jones
Declare
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18