Dear Friends,
Do you ever feel like you’re just existing? You are just trudging through life? This is a common experience. We can because of many things miss being aware of the life God wants for us. Misguided ideas about what matters, distractions and disappointments can all dull our hearts and dim our eyes to the glory of life. We begin to imagine some fantasy life and in turn, miss the life we have. The resurrection life of Jesus is available and in the life of those who believe. This life stirs and yearns to break out of the tombs of drudgery and despair and walk joyfully gratefully on the earth.
Sometimes sickness or loss can wake us up to the grandeur of life itself. Too often we drift back into shadows and lives of looking at the ground.
This Sunday the message is on you experiencing the risen life of Christ right now.
God wants this for you. He planned it for you.
The Glory of God is to Be Fully Alive (Saint Irenaeus)
I so want you to experience the promise of Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
I can’t wait to share this with you.
Joe
STEPS TO PREPARE
PRAY FOR THE SERVICES AND FOR YOURSELF
AND ME AND THE OTHER TEACHERS.
PRAYERFULLY READ THE SCRIPTURES
AND CONSIDER THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS.
MAKE PLANS TO ATTEND A PREACHING SERVICE AND A SMALL GROUP.
INVITE SOMEONE TO COME WITH YOU.
PREPARING FOR SUNDAY: SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
Please prayerfully consider the following questions and scriptures.
Describe a place or experience where you felt most alive.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
What does it mean to really live?
What would need to happen in your life for you to” really live”.
In what ways does He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you?
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
When Jesus offers eternal life when does it start?
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
John 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
What is the essence of how Jesus describes eternal life?
John 17:2-3 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Can anyone know that they have eternal life?
1 John 5:11-13 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
