Category: Small groups

Lightly Salted Part 4

Quote

“People are often unreasonable and self-centred. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa

Challenge

Discuss as a group a few examples of how we can be the “light” and “salt” in our everyday lives. Choose one of these examples to apply for the week.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

Thank you for allowing us to be Your followers. Thank you for adopting us to be Your children. Help us to show forth Your love to the world. We and everyone around us need your love. Where there is darkness, loneliness or agony in the heart of our neighbour, allow us to shine light and bring joy. Where there is a loss of motivation remind us always that our labour in You is never in vain and that in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Lord You are our Light, our joy and our peace. Forever and ever Amen.

Lightly Salted Part 3

Old Testament Passage

3 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold … then a herald cried aloud: “To you it is commanded, O peoples … ⁵ that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, … you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; ⁶ and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” …

⁸ Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and [said] … ¹² There are certain Jews … Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up.”

¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. So they brought these men before the king. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? 

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷ If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury …. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. ²⁰ And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. ^…

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”

They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”

²⁵ “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like theSon of God.”

²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here.” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. ²⁷ And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.

Daniel 3:1-27

Questions

1. Describe some of the challenges or obstacles you may experience by being the “Light of the World”?
2. What do you think got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego through these challenges?

Lightly Salted Part 2

Story

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A US soldier brought back from Germany a little phosphorescent match case that illuminates in the darkness. One evening, in a company of friends, he took it out to show them. He turned out all the lights, but the obstinate little match case would not shine. The soldier concluded that he had been swindled. The next day, while examining his purchase more closely, he read on one side, “If you wish me to shine, keep me in the sunlight.” He followed the directions, put it out where the sun’s rays could be absorbed and then in a dark room found it had a brilliant glow.

We cannot be lights for Christ in this world unless we live in His presence day by day … Only then can we be what Christ intended us to be: lights shining in the darkness.

Eastern Orthodoxy: A Way of Life by Anthony M. Coniaris

Question

How can we obtain this light from Christ and live in His Presence day by day?

Evangelism: Bringing Others to Christ

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father

Thank You for showing me what true love was when You granted me the greatest gift of salvation. Forgive me, Lord, if I have ever been ashamed to speak of You, or have not acted like You would in particular situations, especially zones that I have shyed away from because they are out of my comfort zone.

Help me, Lord, to remember that I am created in Your image, so that others can see You in me, and You may be glorified in all that I say and do.

Help me to love You just as You love me, and create in me the desire to share Your love through not only my words, but also my actions. Amen.

Evangelism: Bringing Others to Christ

Challenge

For someone you may not be on good terms with, remember Christ and your role as a vessel of His light the next time you see this person. Spread love even when it seems most difficult.*

Evangelism: Bringing Others to Christ

Focus Quote

“He says, When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it certainly will not be to bring the kingdom of God to Israel, but rather it will be to furnish you the power to bear witness concerning me.”

Bede

Evangelism: Bringing Others to Christ

New Testament Passage

⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:6-8

Discussion Questions

1. A witness is anyone who watched an event take place, so anyone, including ourselves, can be witnesses of Christ. What practical steps can we take to witness Christ in our day to day lives?
2. Evangelism is not about bringing others to Christ, but rather bringing Christ to others. God instructs the disciples to start their ministry in Jerusalem, the place they were at that time. Ministry starts where we are, here and now. However, an important element of ministry is to venture outside of our comfort zones. What is our comfort zone? How far outside of our comfort zone are we willing to go for Christ?

Old Testament Passage

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Isaiah 6:1-8

Discussion Questions

1. “…I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). How does hypocrisy act as a barrier when trying to spread the word of God?
2. What are some daily practical methods that we can use to evangelise?