Friday 25 July 2014

Back on the right track - again

Joel 2:25-26 reminds us:

I will restore to you the years

that the swarming locust has eaten...
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you.

There will be times in our lives when we slip, when we think we've listened to God guiding us, but we get it wrong...

When that happens let's not make the mistake of allowing the enemy to convince us that we’ve suddenly become second class Christians. God’s grace is sufficient!

You see the devil will spin a tale something like this:

        Your life is planned out for you by God, who acts like some kind of cosmic travel agent. So as long as you turn up in the right place at the right time and stick to His itinerary then you’re fine… But the moment you miss one of the connections God has sent you to the plan is ruined. Yes if you ask Him, God will draw up another one for you, but it will always be a bit second best, it can you can never really recover, not properly…

Don’t ever believe that; don’t believe the lie that God doesn’t have the wisdom or the resolve to, immediately you ask Him, pick you up, dust you down and set you on the best, the perfect, path for you. God can and does graciously restore us, when we let Him…

Tuesday 22 July 2014

A Paternity Test

Reading: John 8: 31 - 47
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: A Paternity Test?  
  1. Verse 48 starts with a barrage of abuse from the Pharisees. Why the rudeness and what exactly do the Pharisees mean by what they say?
  2. Verse 49 is written to carry serious force (truly, truly or amen amen), discuss the condition to having eternal life.
  3. Verse 56: how did Abraham see Jesus coming (Gen 14 perhaps?)?
  4. Verse 58: what is Jesus claiming, what does I AM mean and when was it first used of God to describe Himself?
  5. In the sermon we suggested a paternity test - how might you test your spiritual paternity?

Monday 14 July 2014

Why would you need saving?

Reading: John 8: 31 - 47
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Do you need to be free?  


  1. Chat through what verse 31 means, consider what the flipside of this is? This is a big deal why?
  2. What does it mean to you to be free in Christ? how does that match up to Jesus teaching, here and elsewhere, on freedom and slavery?
  3. The Pharisees are really out of their depth in this passage. Why are they getting wound up, and how come they can't answer Jesus' questions of them?
  4. What are you as an individual taking away from this passage to help you in your Christian life?
  5. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus' tells us that we either choose Him and eternal life or Satan and eternal existence in the 'outer darkness'. What do you make of that?





Monday 7 July 2014

Not Just A Light

Reading: John 8:12 - 30
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Not Just A Light  

  1. Discuss verse 12, what does it mean? What is the impact of this verse on us today, and how should we apply it?
  2. Compare verse 13 - 18 with John 5:31. What is different about the two situations?
  3. Consider how taking Jesus words out of context can have devastating consequences.
  4. What were the Pharisees getting at in verse 19?
  5. Take a look at the remainder of the passage what was Jesus trying to get the Pharisees to understand?