We will have had
different speakers at our sites today.
Below are some general questions, as well as a summary and specific
questions from the 9:30am talks in Bracknell.
Questions
1. What Old Testament
character do you relate to most, and why?
2. What talks
did you hear on Sunday, and which Old Testament characters were spoken about? [It may help to look up some of the key Bible
verses they used]
3. What is the most
important thing you felt God say to you?
4. What can you
do this week to help you put that into practice?
Wendy Jackson on Jonah
Wendy spoke on
the different stages in Jonah’s ministry:
1. Jonah the celebrity
prophet. He had successfully prophesied
the return of land to Israel (2 Kings 14 v 25).
2. Jonah the runaway
prophet. He did not want to prophesy to
his enemies in Nineveh (Jonah 1 v 3).
3. Jonah the repentant
prophet. In the belly of the big fish,
he repented and was willing to go to Nineveh (Jonah 2 v 1,9).
4. Jonah the
obedient prophet. He went and prophesied
to Nineveh, and the people repented (Jonah 3 v 3, 10).
5. Jonah the
cranky prophet. God dealt with Nineveh graciously,
but Jonah was not happy (Jonah 4 v 2).
Wendy shared
how she was concerned that one of her daughter’s school friends was leading her
astray. Like Jonah she wanted to run
away from this enemy, and for her daughter to have nothing more to do with her. However, she came to see that Jesus wanted
her to show grace, love and kindness to this girl. She did this, and God worked powerfully.
Question: Who would we see as our enemy, but
Jesus wants to us show them love and grace?
Sam Jackson on the writer of Ecclesiastes
Sam spoke on
the question “What is the meaning of life?”.
We live in a “post-modern”
world that is “post-truth” or “post-meaning”.
The question people ask in the 21st century is not “What is the meaning
of life?” but “Why should I bother with such deep questions?”
The writer of Ecclesiastes
says that everything in life is meaningless (1 v 1).
Some people
think they have not yet found the meaning of life, and so defer thinking about
it until they have a job, a partner, or reached a future goal. People can also distract themselves with acquiring
things. However, all this is meaningless
and can eventually lead to cynicism and even despair.
Sam shared how
he had struggled to hold on to his faith and identity in Christ during his university
course on ‘politics, philosophy and religion’.
Ecclesiastes says that even the quest to find meaning itself can be wearisome
(12 v 12), but the way to find meaning is simply to cling to God and keep his
commandments (12 v 13). We find meaning
and identity in God.
This side of
the cross, we know God through relationship with Jesus Christ. The meaning of life is to love God. We need to make Jesus the centre of our life
and he will give us meaning and purpose day by day.
Question: What are you doing to strengthen your
relationship with Jesus each day?
Marcus Gore on Job
Job was the
greatest man in the East at the time, righteous and wealthy. God allows Satan to test Job, to see if his
worship of God is superficial, and whether Job will still worship God when
things are really hard.
Job receives news
that he has suffered huge financial losses (his sheep and cattle are stolen), his
children have been killed in a building collapse, and his servants murdered in
an enemy raid.
Job surprisingly
responds with worship and praise ‘At this, Job got up and tore his robe and
shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came
from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”’ 1 v 20.
What would we
do if things like this happened to us? It
may be best to start with the small things that annoy us – like being held up
at a red light or caught out in the rain.
The challenge for us is to worship and praise God whatever adverse circumstances
we face.
Question: Are you facing some tough situation
and need to choose to worship and praise God?
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