Where do you go when you are disoriented

 Psalm 4 reminds us that times of confusion or disorientation are likely to take us to places of fear and closing off. Can you think of times that you closed yourself off from God and others out of fear for what might happen next?

Be Afraid, be very afraid

 Many Christians deem certain actions or beliefs as necessary and then use fear to scare others into obeying those actions. When Christ appears to His disciples, He tells them NOT to be afraid (John 20:19-31). He even reassures the group by offering to let them touch His wounds. How do you dispel fear from those you encounter? Do you show them a God who reassures them?

NOW He's gone too far!

 

Jesus's ministry demonstrated radical rule-breaking, specifically to help those abused by the systems and rulers of the day. When Jesus actually broke death, by raising a young girl and his own friend, Lazarus, Jesus had good too far. The religious leaders could not explain the miracles, but decided that Jesus must not be allowed to continue to bring this kind of healing (John 11). What kinds of healing do you oppose?

Where did you say Jesus was?

 Mark 16:1-8 relates the story of three women who tried to attend to the body of Jesus, but were surprised to find He was not in the tomb where they last saw him. Jesus had risen from the dead and had left the tomb. Like the people of His day, we often assume that we know where Jesus is, but He never seems to be where we expect Him to be. Where do you think Jesus is right now? Could you be wrong?

Jesus is Coming! What Does that mean to you?

 

Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem was met with great joy and with great fear. The religious leaders of the day understood that Jesus was dangerous to their power structures and might bring unwanted attention from the Roman government (John 12:12-16). How do you comfort others, when your great joy and triumph comes at their expense? 

Do we know what is right?

Jeremiah 31 speaks of a time when everyone will know who God is and What God wants us to do. Similarly, in Romans 2 Paul describes a kind of natural law which calls our conscience. The shared shame of humanity is that all of us have 'sinned' by not doing what we believe is the right, regardless of how we define 'right.' The good news of the gospel is that we don't have live with that shame.
 

BigGuy gets 'snaked'

Numbers 21 relates the story of God's people being plagued with a snake infestation that resulted in many sicknesses and deaths. The remedy was to simply look at a replica of the problem, a snake. Looking at the bronze image brought immediate relief and healing. Maybe the Church needs to look at Jesus and what He taught so that healing can come. How can you look to Jesus for the love that you need to give today?