Cost of Living - Week 01 Launch

Welcome
Welcome to Week 1 of the Cost of Living Reading Plan!  This reading plan is designed to partner with Compassion Christian Church’s sermon series of the same name, which you can find information about right here.  In the summer of 2023, a national survey asked people to list their top sources of stress and 75% of people listed money as their #1.  Money never seems to be far from our minds or absent from the conversations we have with our spouses and friends.  This isn’t unique to modern Americans, it has been a common experience for people since civilization has existed.  Jesus was aware of this reality, so he devoted time to talking about how our hearts and minds interact with money.  Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived, and much of his teaching was centered around made up stories called parables.  John Macarthur defines a parable as an ingeniously simple word picture illuminating a profound spiritual lesson.  In Jesus’ parables we can find a hint of how he understood the way our thinking can focus on money: about a third of the forty parables Jesus told have something to do with earthly riches, treasures, coins, or currency of one kind or another.  To support our series on money, this reading plan will look at those 14 parables.

Before We Start
For an overview of Jesus’ use of parables, watch this video from The Bible Project:
 
Why Jesus Told Parables

Looking Ahead
Here is a list of this week's verses:

Monday, January 8th - Matthew 13:1-23
Tuesday, January 9th - Luke 7:36-50
Wednesday, January 10th - Luke 12:13-21
Thursday, January 11th - Matthew 13:44-46
Friday, January 12th - Matthew 18:21-35
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