Daily Discipleship Guide for 25-MAR-2010

Please read Matthew 21:33-46 once and then read the passage again.

What does this passage reveal about God? 

What does this passage reveal about humanity?

What does this passage reveal about the relationship of God and humanity?

Please close with the following prayer.

Almighty God,

We confess that we are often swept up in the tide of our generation.  We have failed in our calling to be your holy people,a people set apart for your divine purpose.  We live more in apathy born of fatalism than in passion born of hope.  We are moved more by private ambition than by social justice.  We dream more of privilege and benefits than of service and sacrifice.  We try to speak in your name without relinquishing our glories, without nourishing our souls, without relying wholly on your grace.  Help us to make room in our hearts and lives for you.  Forgive us, revive us, and reshape us in your image.  Amen.

Daily Discipleship Guide for 24-MAR-2010

King David lived with keen awareness of the generosity of God. 

Psalm 65 is one of David’s many writings that speak of the helpfulness of God.  Read the entire Psalm two or three times, and then write down every way in which God lavishly opens God’s hands to David and the people of Israel.

 

How has God done the same for you?

Please close by writing a prayer of thanksgiving to God for God’s

goodness and graciousness to you.

WOODCUTTING THIS SATURDAY

When:   Saturday, March 27, at 8:30 am - noonish

Where:  Adjacent to the unpaved parking lot (where all the wood is)

What:    Signal Crest UMC will be cutting wood for it's wood ministry.  The wood ministry supplies cut logs for families on Signal Mountain whose only source of heat is burning wood.  Please come help on Saturday morning - come when you can, leave when you have to.  THANKS!

Daily Discipleship Guide for 23-MAR-2010

Our motivation for good stewardship should always be rooted in gratitude, coupled with the earnest desire to be found faithful.  Yet the Bible also appeals to the incentive of rewards.  Summarize what you learn about God and his rewards in the following passages.

Matthew 19:28-29

I Corinthians 3:8-14

Hebrews 11:24-26

Galatians 6:7-9

What do you think these rewards are?

Should the “rewards” be our motivation?  Why or why not?

Please close this session by reading or singing the first and last verses of the hymn, “Take My Life, and Let It Be.”

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my will, and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart, it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee. 

*Study taken from Ortberg

Daily Discipleship Guide for 22-MAR-2010

Read II Corinthians 8:1-7 and answer the following questions.

How do you feel about how the church teaches about money?

What values and themes guide the church’s efforts to encourage giving and tithing?

How faithful is the church with its money?

How has someone else’s generosity touched you and shaped your practices of giving?

From whom did you learn generosity?  Who continues to influence you toward greater generosity?

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had giving money?

What made the experience delightful, memorable, and meaningful?  How do you feel about giving to the church’s ministry?


Please close this session by reading or singing the first verse of the hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise,
the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.
In Christ, your head, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven; anticipate your heaven below, and own that love is heaven.

*Study taken from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.

Daily Discipleship Guide for 21-MAR-2010

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 (from The Message)

Now, friends, I want to report on the surprising and generous ways in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province.  Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit.  The trial exposed their true colors:  They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor.  The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts.  I was there and saw it for myself.  They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.

This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard.  What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us.  The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives.  That's what prompted us to ask Titus to bring the relief offering to your attention, so that what was so well begun could be finished up.  You do so well in so many things—you trust God, you're articulate, you're insightful, you're passionate, you love us—now, do your best in this, too.

Daily Discipleship Guide for 19-MAR-2010

In Luke 14:8-11 (please read) Jesus disrupts the trusted teaching on table manners by reversing where people sit at the party.  What kind of topsy-turvy etiquette is this?  "For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  His lesson confuses people who thought they knew proper etiquette.

Following Jesus makes us not follow proper norms.  Jesus teaches us a new etiquette.  Etiquette exists to make us feel comfortable, to be able to feel a sense of control in knowing what to do in certain situations.

Are you willing to sacrifice your need for feeling comfortable and in control to follow Jesus?

Daily Discipleship Guide for 18-MAR-2010

God reaches beyond propriety to limitless self-giving.  This is most exhibited in Jesus' life among the socially unwelcome, the disgraced, the one on the margin of society.


Lent is a time to ponder and receive the new life that God wants to give.  Jesus' stories about parties and banquets are both about a generous God who transforms life.


What is keeping you from being transformed?


What resistances do you have to God's transforming power in your life?


Imagine in Lent that personal disgrace may be transformed!  Our God is a God who continually stands ready to welcome the most socially unwelcome thoughts, habits, people, and actions.  When we accept his welcome, our lives are transformed!