What a great discussion we had Sunday night! Rusty didn't even get to a third of the questions he prepared as we started with a bang and then the group ran with it for the rest of the time.
If you missed it, we (of course) missed you, but you also missed what was one of the best discussions yet. We pretty much solved all of our church's problems, and since Alan sits in on staff meetings every week, we are going to get him to strong-arm the rest of the staff to implement all of our solutions. Because the truth is, the stuff we want to do is right and anyone who disagrees with us is obviously out of sync with God's will for their life. (If you take offense to anything in the previous two sentences, please leave this blog and go read THIS.)
Dr. Compton is preaching a sermon series about what a Christian's life should look like if the Holy Spirit is working in them, this past week, we read a lot in Acts, where we are seeing the Holy Spirit really getting to work, and on Sunday night, our small group also touched on the Spirit as well. (A coincidence?)
We talked about how we can get church just like we want it, it can be attractive and bring people in the doors in large numbers, but that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is involved.
In his book, The Forgotten God, Francis Chan says the same thing:
"I bet you'd agree that a group of talented, charismatic leaders can draw a crowd. Find the right creative team, musicians, and speakers, and you can grow any church. It doesn't even have to be a Christian church. I can probably 'pull off' a fairly adequate church on my own as well. But who wants or needs that? I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit."The point is, that while we can set up a service, or even an entire church that makes us feel good. If the Holy Spirit isn't involved, we are wasting everyone's time. The Holy Spirit's presence and involvement is what makes any effort we put forth valuable.
In The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, there is a prayer to the Holy Spirit that contains the following excerpt:
"Vain are all divine purposes of loveFor those of you who don't speak the King's English, the writer of that prayer is saying, "Without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can't even realize the redemption that Jesus extends to us."
and the redemption wrought by Jesus
except thou work within,
regenerating by thy power
giving me eyes to see Jesus,
showing me the realities of the unseen world."
Wow.
How catastrophic it is for us to neglect to seek after the Spirit with our worship instead of our own comforts and desires like song preferences and sermon topics! If we get distracted by those things, we are holy missing the point! (You like what I did there, don't you? Get it "wholly" & "holy"? They are homonyms. I'll be here all week.)
Questions from Sunday
Below are the questions that Rusty came up with for our discussion on Sunday night. While we only covered a couple of them, they all are very useful for reflecting on what we read last week.
Acts 14-20 details some of the missionary journeys of Paul. Throughout your reading this week, how did God speak to you, and what did He point out to you that stuck with you?
Acts 14
What do you feel it was about being rejected that caused Paul and Barnabas to spend considerable time speaking boldly?
How do you think that Paul knew that the crippled man had the faith to be healed?
How do you feel the crowd could be so easily changed from worshiping Paul to stoning him?
Acts 15
The early church was making it difficult for the Gentiles who were turning to God by forcing them to obey the Jewish Law...can you think of ways the modern church makes it difficult to turn to God?
Paul and Barnabas had an argument that caused them to part company. Does the Bible say either of them was right? What do you think was the real cause of their disagreement? Do you think Paul was right to part ways with Barnabas?
Acts 16
Why do you think a demon would want to promote the gospel (vs 17)?
Acts 17
Since Paul received mostly rejection in the synagogues, why was it his custom to always go there first?
Acts 18-19
What do you think prompted Paul to ask the disciples (vs 2) if they had received the Holy Spirit?
What is the difference in baptism by John and baptism by Jesus?
What do you feel was the motivation of Demetrius in opposing Paul?
Acts 20
Why do you think Paul sent the disciples on ahead of him?
Schedule for February 14-20
Also, I know most of you have a copy of the reading schedule, but here is the schedule for this week:
Sunday - Lev. 23:3; Ps. 24; Acts 21
Monday - Lev. 25:17-19; Ps. 25; Acts 22
Tuesday - Lev. 27:30; Acts 23
Wednesday - Num. 2:34; Acts 24
Thursday - Acts 25
Friday - Num. 6:24-26; Ps. 22:8-11; Acts 26
Sunday - Ps. 23; Acts 27
Have a good week. Feel free to comment, as some of you have promised you'll do. See you on Sunday.
I opened my mouth to share something last Sun, but then promptly closed it. Since I was one of those who promised Scott I'd comment, I've reconsidered. I'm actually sharing something second-hand, not an original thought. From my favorite female leader (I think Chris S is a fan also), Beth Moore. She shares something on worship I think bears repetitioin. Ref. when Paul and Silas are in prison and their chains are set free as they are worshipping. Two verses before they start singing "Amazing Grace" it says they were "severely flogged." So, not only were they imprisoned and away from friends and family, but suffering in pain from being beaten (severely beaten - probably almost to death?). BMoore offers that they did not FEEL like worshipping, but made a conscious choice to do so. She then points out how often we remove oursevles from true worship because we don't feel like it. I don't know about you, but for me its most often petty reasons - I'm still sleepy, frustrated about my clothes, distracted by what activity to do with the children next hour or what we're having for lunch, something negative I heard, something negative I thought, the style of worship...and if I'm not making that very deliberate decision to worship, I won't. And its worse at home by myself - its much easier to get distracted by other things I need to do than to worship. And so I have allowed Satan to rob me of (sometimes both) corporate and personal worship.
ReplyDeleteAs we were discussing worship and the things we, both individually and as a church, do to distract or discourage, someone (Melissa J maybe?) mentioned it all came back to our spirit. Agreed. And our choice...to worship, to obey, cheerfully and "holy" (homonym stolen from Scott).