Parables of Jesus Study Guide #4 (Parable of the Unjust Judge)

Begin with the song "Great is the Lord"

Share  your Highs and Lows for the week or since your last meeting

Read  the Lesson (Luke 18: 1-8)

Talk  and discuss among the following questions:

1) What image / person / situation stood out to you in the story and why? What did it make you feel or understand about God?

2)  When a rotten person does the right thing, how do you feel?  Have you ever been the "rotten person" from another's perspective?  If so, have you tried to do right by them?

3)  Have you ever gone to God over and over again with the same request?  How did you feel doing that?  Did you receive the answer you were hoping for? If so, discuss what that felt like.  If not, discuss how you made peace with it (if you indeed have done so).

4)  How would you describe "God's justice?"  

5)  Where do you see "injustice" in our world?  What can you do about it?

Pray  with and for each other (you can use the Lord's Prayer or sing the Doxology)

Bless each other by making the sign of the cross on each other's forehead and saying "The Lord Bless You and Keep You!"

Parables of Jesus Study Guide #3 (Parable of Two Builders and Two Foundations)

Begin with the song "How Firm a Foundation"

Share  your Highs and Lows for the week or since your last meeting

Read  the Lesson (Luke 6: 46-49)

Talk  and discuss among the following questions:

1) What image / person / situation stood out to you in the story and why? What did it make you feel or understand about God?

2)  You're not literally building a house, so what might Jesus be talking about here for our lives of faith?

3)  Consider and reflect upon a specific "floodwater" that has broken against your life.  Was the response more like "standing firm" or more like "crumbling" or perhaps a little of both?  What contributed to your or others reaction?

4)  What might it mean to "lay a foundation upon solid rock?"

5)  What faith practices can help us to build on "solid rock?"  

Pray  with and for each other (you can use the Lord's Prayer or sing the Doxology)

Bless each other by making the sign of the cross on each other's forehead and saying "The Lord Bless You and Keep You!"

Parables of Jesus Study Guide #2 (Parables of the Lost)

Begin with the song "Amazing Grace"

Share  your Highs and Lows for the week or since your last meeting

Read  the Lesson (Luke 15: 1-10)

Talk  and discuss among the following questions:

1) What image / person / situation stood out to you in the story and why? What did it make you feel or understand about God?

2)  In what ways have your felt that God pursued you in your life? How did you know that Jesus was pursuing you?

3)  Why does Jesus compare us to sheep? How do you feel about that? Why might it be a good analogy for people of faith?

4)  Do the actions of the shepherd, leaving the 99 to find the one, or the woman, when upon finding her coin, gathers her friends and neighbors for party, seem a bit ridiculous to you?  What might this say about God and his love for us in Christ?

5)  When did you last experience and feel joy?  Do you have enough joy in your life? If people of faith were the most joyous people of all, how might that effect others in our world? 

Pray  with and for each other (you can use the Lord's Prayer or sing the Doxology)

Bless each other by making the sign of the cross on each other's forehead and saying "The Lord Bless You and Keep You!"

Parables of Jesus Study Guide #1 (Parable of the Sower / Soils)

Begin with the song "Lord, Let My Heart Be Good Soil"

Share  your Highs and Lows for the week or since your last meeting

Read  the Lesson (Matthew 13: 1-23)

Talk  and discuss among the following questions:

1) What image / person / situation stood out to you in the story and why? What did it make you feel or understand about God?

2) What is required to keep soil healthy? What can keep your relationship with Christ healthy?

3)  Think about the seeds that fall among the weeds.  What are the "weeds" in your life? What can you do to help remove the weeds?

4)  Look again at the different soils.  Consider your own relationship with Christ.  Being transparent with God, what kind of soil do you feel like today? Over the last year?

5)  What is one small thing (or big thing) that you can do today/this week/this month/this year to get healthier soil in your life?  What commitment are you willing to take today?

Pray  with and for each other (you can use the Lord's Prayer or sing the Doxology)

Bless each other by making the sign of the cross on each other's forehead and saying "The Lord Bless You and Keep You!"

Summer LIFT Small Group Study (The Parables of Jesus)

You are invited to join us this summer for a a time of fellowship and learning in our LIFT small group ministry.

LIFT stands for Living in Faith Together and we are looking to offer this time during the summer as a way to connect and stay connected to your Bethel friends and even with some new people as well.

If you have not already done so, you can sign up online. 

We hope you will take time to participate!

Blessings and Peace,
Pastor Dave

2018 LIFT Lenten Series (Week 3: March 12-18)

Throughout our sessions of LIFT, we will be using our Faith 5 model of discipleship:  Share, Read, Talk, Pray, and Bless.

Share Highs and Lows for the week, day, month (whatever you choose)

Read our weekly scripture

  Jeremiah 31: 31-34

 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,^* says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. 

Talk about the scripture and the discussion questions below

1) What about the scripture or reading captured your imagination this week? 

2) What is the "new" thing that needs to happen in your life of faith today? This week? 

3) Remember a time when God did not abandon you and you felt God's presence?

Pray for and with each other (or share the Lord's Prayer together)

Bless each other with a sign of the cross saying "God loves you and so do I"

2018 LIFT Lenten Series (Week 2: March 5-11)

Throughout our sessions of LIFT, we will be using our Faith 5 model of discipleship:  Share, Read, Talk, Pray, and Bless.

Share Highs and Lows for the week, day, month (whatever you choose)

Read our weekly scripture

  John 3:16-17

  For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him will 
  not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, the son did not come into the world to condemn 
  the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Talk about the scripture and the discussion questions below

1) What about the scripture or reading captured your imagination this week? 

2) John 3:16 is one of the most famous scriptures.  What does it mean to you? Have your ever tried to memorize it? Could you?

3) John 3:17 is not as famous but perhaps should be.  Talk about this reading and what it says about God.  Can you try to memorize it as well?

Pray for and with each other (or share the Lord's Prayer together)

Bless each other with a sign of the cross saying "God loves you and so do I"