Amazing Grace Video (Aug 22)

This week we watched the crtically acclaimed “Amazing Grace” which highlighted the life and times of William Wilberforce, a political activist and born again Christian in the late 18th century, who dedicated his life to abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. It is a poignant film that emphasizes what it means to radically follow Christ in living out your faith in a broken world. The fellowship was given a handout as a follow up to the film to think about how the verse in James 2:14-18 applies to a certain scene in the movie. The scene is when Wilberforce was challenged that he could be live for God and be a politician at the same time. See below and feel free to post any comments you may have had after watching the film. I would challenge those who haven’t yet watched it, to go pick it up. It may start out slow.. but be patient – it has a great ending

*** The promised handout WILL be posted very soon once I figure out how to do that***

Outreach Night (Aug 8, 2008)

Genesis split up into two groups: The Bamburgh Area Garbage Clean-Up and the L’Arche Daybreak Visiting Group.

The Bamburgh Area Garbage Clean-Up group did exactly that.  They went into the park and picked up trash.  Why?  The purpose of this group was to go into a more natural urban setting and care for the creation and beauty that was placed in front of us to be taken care of.  At the end of the night, this group learned a lesson of humbleness that was not expected to be encountered.  While picking up garbage, a lot of different looks of curiosity and suspicion were given by pedestrians walking by.  Other passerbys asked about the group, and they were able to tell them that they were park of TCCC.

The L’Arche Daybreak group visited a faith-based community worship service.  This community has a focus on families living among people with intellectual disabilities.  It was an eye-opening experience for the group as they got to worship together.  For more information on this organization please visit: http://www.larche.ca/en/communities/daybreak

Bible Study: Outside the Comfort Zone (Aug 1, 2008)

This was the last Bible study for the 2007-2008 Genesis year, ‘term’, wrapping up our Renewed thinking, Reformed living theme. There was TONS of good discussion but unfortunately not all of it was recorded down, I will do my best off my memory.

Just a quick note, for this Bible study we traced comfort zone to its’ origin which mainly applies to missions, not that the modern sense of the word is wrong; this is just the approach that we took.

The passage of study that we chose is found in Matthew 10:24-39:

24“A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!

 26“So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

 32“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

 34“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
   ” ‘a man against his father,
      a daughter against her mother,
   a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
    36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

 37“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The main discussion questions were:

1. How does verse 25 relate to this entire passage? Beelzebub is the prince of the demons.

 

 

 

 

2. ‘Do not be afraid’ is mentioned three times, what are they referring to and what do they mean?

 

 

 

 

 

3. What does it mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus (verse 38)?

In short verse 39“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” summerizes this entire passage. Being outside of your comfort zone means to be willing to sacrifice our safety, our hopes, and all that missions entails for Christ. Verse specifically talks about giving up of one’s life or even your fear of giving up your life for the sake of the Gospel (martyrdom) and being an apostle and follower of Christ does not mean you need to die for Christ literally (it seems like a far stretch, but it may happen) – to be fully devoted to Christ would mean to be able to give up everything. Life is the most precious gift given to us and so if we are willing to even give up our lives for Christ, that means that every other gift we have been given, our friends, our family, our career, education, money, etc. would go too. And that is what missions is … to be willing to give up everything to do His work. 

To summarize what we have learned … being outside of your comfort zone and even getting out of your comfort zone involves:

• imitating Christ and being obedient to God
• being bold
• fearing God above all else
• surrendering and understanding that He will be there no matter the circumstance
• and to be completely selfless, willing to sacrifice no matter what the cost

Bible Study: Heart of Outreach (July 4, 2008)

Hello all you readers on the interweb, first I want to apologize for the lack of updates, we are REALLY REALLY SORRY SORRY!! We are going to try and update this retroactively… so as a result some posts are going to be more or less detailed than others, please please just bare with us!

Working on our theme for the year “Renewed mind and Reformed living” we started moving into the reformed living part for the summer by looking at the heart of outreach. The passage of study for that week was found in Phillipians 2: 1-11

 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 6Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 7but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
 8And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!
 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above every name,
 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.

We continued with our inductive style approach of Bible studies in which we each first looked at the passage ourselves and made notes of what jumped out at us and any questions we had. Then we brought those notes and questions back to the big group and discussed them. Questions discussed during the night included:

Why does Paul state these ‘prerequisites’ before commanding us to have the same attitude in our service to God? (v. 1)

 - note that  he states “if”  in the beginning à he’s saying that any act of service or external righteousness must flow from our internal relationship with God (v. 1 “united with Christ, comfort from His love, fellowship with the Spirit..”)

What does it take to be in the right place to serve God? (v. 3-8)
- what does it mean to be made nothing?
    àhumility, emptying ourselves, acknowledging that we are nothing until we allow ourselves to be instruments of God
- example of Jesus, who is the son of God already, made himself nothing; he chose NOT to be on his throne in order to become a servant

Why do we need to be “united” in mind, love, spirit and purpose? (v. 2)
-  see Romans 12:4 – 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others
- we need to be aligned in our purpose in order to serve effectively, supporting each other in his/her calling or work

The main point we were trying to drive home that night was that before we can even begin to start outreaching, we need to first humble ourselves and what better model of humility than Jesus Christ?

Application questions:

1.  How can you considers others better than yourselves and still keep an accurate view of who you are in God?

2. In what practical ways can you “look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others”?

3. Read John 12:24-25.

 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

How does Philippians 2:5-11 parallel with this passage?  Are there things in your life that you need to let go of in order to advance God’s kingdom wholeheartedly?