Church is so much more than a building. It’s a community of people living life together, working out their faith together, and striving to impact the world for Christ. We ate together, prayed together, studied the scriptures together, and then we had fun. Last night we WERE the church.
We read through John 6:1-24. We talked about hearing God’s voice, knowing when He was speaking to you, or discerning when He was asking you to get in an intentional conversation with someone. In the passage Jesus tests Philip to prompt him to move towards faith and trust. We also see the people wanting to make Jesus king by force, even though His role was to be a servant and die for our sins. Out of this we asked two main questions:
How has God been testing you and for what purpose?
What are you trying to make Jesus that He isn’t?
So what have you felt God testing you in this week? Have you noticed that the more you draw near to Him, the more you are able to recognize His voice? Carly shared a good illustration. When you hardly ever talk to someone and they call you on the phone, you have to ask them who it is. If you talk to someone a lot, you know them immediately. This is the same way with God. The more we talk to Him, the more we hear His voice and know what He wants from us. Thoughts?
I have to agree that we were the church, and I loved it! I think its great that we can just study God's word and be real with each other. Sometimes Bible Study makes me feel really vulnerable because I share things that can make me uncomfortable (in a good way), like stepping out of my comfort zone and letting down my pride. And I am so glad that's how it is, because it shows me that what we are doing is not fake, not for a show, not extremely planned out like some groups, and I love it.
ReplyDeleteGod has been testing me with my time management. Today I don't have to work until 4pm. I COULD have slept until then...and trust me, I wanted to... but instead I chose to wake up at 12:30ish, so that I had a couple hours to wake up, take a shower, eat, and then spend some alone time with God. I just pray that I can be disciplined enough to do that even when I work at 11 am! God is sooo deserving of our time, yet I find myself making excuses sometimes, like, "Oh I am too tired" or "I worked all day, I just wanna zone out and watch TV" but those excuses SUCK!!! Spending time with God is MUCH more fulfilling than spending time doing worldly things; One of my favorite quotes is by Corey Russell from IHOP, which is, "God is not boring, YOU are boring!"
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Thanks for being honest Nikole! I like the quote by Corey Russell. How do you guys connect the most with God? For me, its getting into the word with no distractions and through nature. I really feel close to God when I am out in His creation. I feel like there are less distractions and I can hear His voice better.
ReplyDeleteMy prayer requests was to take captive my thoughts. It is so hard. I mean, seriously, do you know how many thoughts you think even in just a minute. I keep thinking about what we talked about and checking myself. Am I practicing the presence of God? Am I listening to His voice? It has been good and hard all at the same time.
I know what you mean about getting out in nature. I definitely connect with God in an extremely real way when I just drive out somewhere without many people or buildings and just look at God's creation. Also when I just sit down and have worship music going that helps me focus a lot. I like to worship him with music before I read my Bible or pray, and during, because it just kinda gets me in the right mood for it.
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