“…when people bring their lives, their inner lives and outer lives, into the light of Jesus the Messiah, things began to come clear.”
Following Jesus is like slowing turning up the light in a dark room. You began to see the furniture and how to walk around; you realize what it is you had been tripping over. You know where the doors and windows are now.
You began to make sense of where you are and what’s around you.
“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise…. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – CSL
desires
longings
dreams
What are two or three desires, longings, dreams that you have? Maybe for a long time.
How have they had an effect on you? How have they helped to make you who you are?
What one or two do you wish had a greater impact on you?
people
events
experiences
places
Whether we like it or not, we are all a bit like playdough or silly-putty. We are being shaped by life, by what happens to us, and the way we react to those events. Do you agree? Disagree?
What people, events, experiences, places have made the most difference in your life?
In what major and important ways have they made you who you are?
Spend some time to think this out.
Mary recognizes the risen Jesus as he simply says her name. This tells us a great deal about our prayer and our growth into mature discipleship.
To sustain life in the Spirit under pressure, we need to retain the ability to say to God, ‘Tell me who I am? Because I’m not going to settle with what everybody else is telling me–I’m not even going to settle with what I am telling me. I need to hear it from God, the God who tells me. Because then I know that I exist, I live, I flourish, simply because of his speaking. ‘I have called you by name; says God, ‘you are mine (Isaiah 43:1). And on that divine speaking of our name rests our whole being.
Something in our prayer is about quarrying down to that level where we can hear that God is creating me and you, now in this minute–breathing our names into the world, making us alive.
Sometimes life is like having a box full of puzzle pieces and no picture on the box. Sometimes you wonder if all the pieces belong to the same picture.
Sometimes life is like walking into a dark room and bumping into the furniture and tripping over the rug. Maybe you can shine a flashlight into a small area and see some things if you are lucky.
Then someone turns the light on. Someone gives you the box top with the puzzle picture on it.
Following Jesus is beginning to see the big picture, beginning to see where everything should be.
Jesus was always around the table eating a meal with others. Often, with people who weren’t accepted in the community.
He often used a story about a banquet or party to talk about what the Kingdom of Heaven was like.
After his resurrection, he cooked breakfast for Peter and his friends, and he ate a meal with disciples on the road to Emmaus (the painting above is a modern picture of that scene).
Before his crucifixion, Jesus planned and held a special meal with the disciples, which we celebrate every Sunday in the Lord’s Supper.
At that meal he said that he would not celebrate it again until together with everyone in the “new kingdom”.
Jesus is planning a big party.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in fields of green grass
and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
He gives me new strength.
He guides me in the right paths,
as he has promised.
Even if I go through the deepest darkness,
I will not be afraid, Lord,
for you are with me.
Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me.
You prepare a banquet for me,
where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honored guest
and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
and your house will be my home as long as I live.
“If God has said to us, ‘Don’t be afraid, I have overcome the world; what exactly is there to be afraid of?
“It’s a big idea to wrap your head around, but the fundamental fearlessness that ought to come if we really heard the gospel of the resurrection will begin to affect and dissolve so many other of our fears.
“It’s this absolute sense of rootedness in what God has done which pervades the letters of Paul. It’s the confidence that we have, that a place has been cleared for us, a place to stand, a place where we belong with Jesus in the presence of God the Father.”
The few days before Jesus was arrested, executed, and before he rose from the grave, two people seemed to see clearly.
Mark 12:28-34
The scribes and priests had found 613 laws and worked them out in painful detail. While they were majoring in minor details, how to exactly keep the laws and perform the rituals, one scribe saw in Jesus something deeper. So he asked the question.
Jesus’s answer: “There is one God; love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as you do yourself.” Jesus saw the man had wisely understood, and was close to the kingdom of God.
Mark 14:3-9
The authorities are seeking to trap and kill Jesus; Judas is planning to betray him; the disciples will soon run away. While they are at dinner, a woman brings a costly alabaster bottle, breaks it open, and using not just a few drops, but using the whole bottle, anoints Jesus with sweet smelling perfume. She acts from her heart to comfort and minister to Jesus, doing more than she can explain or maybe understand.
She has on impulse offered an uncalculating, extravagant, beautiful kindness because she sees something in Jesus. And Jesus accepts it.
Can you see some of yourself in either, or both, of these people?
Small congregations that met in houses
Letters read aloud to gathering
A Roman town with Greek culture
Some conflict with society and culture
Knew other congregations and Christians in other places
Joined in Paul’s work and supported him
Women who were co-workers with Paul
Paul counted them as dear friends
There was some disagreement
Paul expected them to grow spiritually
Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
7 But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Canvas DGroup Journey 