Bible Study

 Hi everyone,

This Sunday we are reminded how we are all like sheep without a shepherd.  We are easily tempted to live without hope and as if there is no God in our world.  

But remember, God promises to gather and lead the flock until it comes to fruitfulness and fearlessness.  When we gather on Sunday, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word, the Meal, and the peace of Jesus Christ gathers us into unity.

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Mount of Olives ​​Pastor Tim Perlick

​​480-729-0115

Bible Study for July 21, 2024​

Opening Prayer:

Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 How do you look at the people around you? Where do you see signs of people looking for healing and teaching about the spiritual dimension of life?

Last week’s readings on John the Baptist were an aside to the main story of Jesus sending out the disciples. When they returned, Jesus greeted them with an invitation to a well-deserved rest, a retreat in the wilderness. Rest, however, was to elude the disciples: crowds had already gathered, raced to their retreat spot ahead of them, and were waiting on their arrival. Jesus’ response was exemplary. He did not see people who were interfering with his plans for a retreat with his disciples, nor did he send them away out of an interest in protecting his personal time with the disciples. Instead, he saw them as people who were hungry for healing and teaching about God: “sheep without a shepherd.” 

Ephesians 2:11-22 The church is called to model a unity in Christ that is God’s plan for all things in heaven and earth. How does our church reflect this unity?

Pious Jews regarded their separation from Gentile nations as the appropriate, God-ordained response to God’s selection of Israel to be God’s special possession. Refusal to blend in with the Gentiles was an expression of loyalty and gratitude to God. The Pauline mission emphasized the end of this separation. Just as God was one, humanity must become one again under the one God. Two dimensions of reconciliation are affected by Jesus. Both Jew and Gentile were alienated from God, and both were alienated from each other. The alienation that had kept them apart by prescribing separation was now abolished, since the promise toward which it had pointed had now come in Jesus. The author’s language distances hearers from their pagan past and helps Christians claim a new identity. It helps them respond wholly to God’s call for repentance and a change of heart, rooting out the old ways and valuing new ways of relating and valuing in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Shepherd God, you call us into a rhythm of work and rest that our lives may be the better for it.

So shape our leisure and our labor, that the world will recognize us as Jesus' disciples and our ministry as what you would have us do. Amen.

"God has led you to the desert, and spoken to your Heart."

Mount of Olives Lutheran Church

3546 E. Thomas Rd

Phoenix, AZ 85018

602-956-1620 office