Monthly Archives: January 2023

“Offended”

Sunday Lesson Notes from January 22, 2023

“Offended”

  • Have you ever been offended by something someone said or did to you?
  • How did you respond? How should you have responded?
  • Some people respond in the following ways: Acceptance, forgiveness, move on from the relationship, ignore it, get revenge, hold a grudge
  • Would you consider responding in the following ways instead?
    • Pray for the offender
    • Hold off on reacting
    • Acknowledge your own thoughts, feelings and emotions
    • Discuss one on one with the offending party
    • Forgive the offender
    • Read James 1:19 for a good scriptural reminder
  • Listen to the following song, “Skandalon” by Michael Card, view on You Tube:
  • Skandalon- transliteration for the Greek word meaning a trigger for a trap, the stick for the bait of a trap, a snare, a stumbling block
  • Read Isaiah 8: 13-25
    • Jesus is a stumbling block for many according to biblical teachings
    • Don’t be afraid to look bad as you ask and seek out the answers to find out who Jesus is and what he wants us to learn
    • Sometimes we can feel bad if we fall or fail, but as long as we keep persevering we will make it in the end
    • We need to remember to consider each other when we communicate our thoughts and feelings to each other. We should have grace and mercy even if someone may be communicating something that may not be accurate and help them along to see more clearly
    • We need each other to make it to the end because life is full of stumbling blocks and only focusing on Jesus and by encouraging each other,  will we make it to the end
  • Read 1 Kings 17: 8-16
    • What do you learn from the interaction between Elijah and the Widow?
      • They both had great faith and humility: Elijah trusted that God would do what he promised, allow him to be fed by a widow in the midst of a famine; the Widow, a woman and non-jew who was starving and in a dire situation, trusted Elijah and fed him with her last provisions. She could have shunned him, turned him away or taken offense at her low position. 
      • When things are hard in our life, we should still trust that God is present and will come to our assistance. We show our trust in God by obeying and doing what he says even if everything looks bleak.
  • Read 2 Kings 5: 1-15
    • What can you learn from the various individuals in this passage?
      • Naaman- he was a successful commander of the army of Aram, a neighboring, pagan nation that took a young Israelite woman captive; he had to have humility and trust in his wife and her slave girl to get the help he needed to be healed of his condition; he had to be willing to obey and perform a lowly task of washing in the river to be cleaned, if he did not, he would not have been healed; He had the attitude of a transaction to get healed, he had no relationship with God who was doing the healing
  • The King of Israel- he was losing faith and tearing up his clothes instead of remembering Elisha was right there and could help him
  • The Servant Girl- what big faith and so full of compassion; she was captured and was still willing to share about Elisha so that her capturer would be healed
  • Naaman’s wife- she must have had a good relationship with her servant girl who was willing to share her knowledge and heal Naaman; she had faith enough to tell her husband what the servant girl said to her
  • Naaman’s servant- full of wisdom and humility, willing to trust and to stand up to Naaman so that Naaman could get the help that he needed
  • Remember, the work of God is to believe in the One He sent
  • God does not want a transactional relationship with us, he wants us to enjoy spending time with him and getting to know his character
  • The more we abide in Jesus’s words the more  we will be able to respond to events in our lives the way Jesus did
  • Read Luke 4: 16 ad 22-30
    • Why were these Jews so offended by what Jesus shared in this passage about Naaman and the Widow?
      • Jesus hit a raw nerve. He reminded the Jews in the synagogue that day that they were just like the Jews of the time of Naaman and the widow and  that they currently had a prophet among them, himself, who they still refused to listen to
  • The Jews in Jesus’ day had a preconceived notion about what should be going on and who Jesus was. They thought a savior was coming to rescue them from Roman oppression but missed that Jesus was present and there to rescue them, not from Roman oppression but  from the sin of unbelief and disobedience to God. The presence of  Jesus was a constant reminder to them of their lack of faith in God and their unwillingness to obey. 

The Word of God

Sunday Lesson Notes January 1, 2023

Read John Chapter 1: 1-5

  • What is so important about God’s words?
    • God used his word to create everything in the beginning, Genesis Ch 1
    • God used his word to communicate that he wanted something to be formed, formative speech, he formed the universe with his words
  • Why are words so important?
    • We use words to communicate to others our thoughts, feelings, ideas, emotions etc. things in our mind and heart
    • Our words can lead others to action when we say our words to someone else
    • Jesus came to earth to communicate to us the thoughts, feelings and ideas from God. He is the embodiment of God’s word.
    • God’s speech caused Jesus to come to the earth and teach us about God
  • Why is it important to know Jesus?
    • Jesus is the word-mind and thoughts of God
    • Jesus does what God wants him to do
    • Jesus does what he sees God doing, ie feeding the five thousand like God fed the Israelites in the desert
  • Why does John use the terminology “the Word”?
    • These are God’s words, the final say
    • The Word is Jesus, identical to God, but not interchangeable with God
    • Jesus in relation to God is like the voice of person you talk to on the phone- ie, the electronic sound waves are the person’s voice through which you can identify that unique person, but the voice is not the “actual person”
    • Jesus is the speech of God, he became human so that he can represent God to us and we can understand God  better as a result. God is the source for Jesus. 

  • Read John Chapter 1: 9-14
    • Humans were created in the image of God. God breathe his breath into us and we became living beings created in his image
    • Jesus in the same way became the embodiment of God as a human here on earth. He was referred to as the light because light allows us to see in the darkness. 
    • The truth is made clear when a light shines on a situation. Jesus brought the light into the world and made things clear for us. Jesus is the complete revelation of God.
    • Jesus made his dwelling among us, just like God dwelled among the Israelites in the desert. He wanted to make us all part of his community and showed us how to live the way God wants us to live.
    • Anyone has access to God’s community if we believe in Jesus. When we are distracted by the worries of the world etc, we ignore the word of God
    • By reading the words of God in the bible, we can know the mind of God
    • When we practice paying attention to who we are, then move on to paying attention to our relationship with God, then we can really learn how to focus our attention to God himself
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