Month: November 2018

My wife and I visited Armstrong State Park in Northern California a few years ago to see some redwoods.  Some were over 300 feet tall!  As tall as they are, we were surprised to hear that they actually have very shallow roots.  Here’s a picture of a fallen tree which shows how shallow they can be:

We learned that these trees achieve stability by intertwining their roots which is why you will often see redwoods clumped together like this:

This reminded me of today’s verse which is from Ecclesiastes 4:12:

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Just as the redwoods gain their stability from other trees’ roots, God designed us to be stronger and more stable when we intertwine our lives with others.  Family and friends provide encouragement, love, and support when the “winds” of life threaten to knock us down.

And just like redwoods take a long time to grow to their full potential, we too require a long time to become mature and complete.  During our maturing process, we often encounter stressful or even traumatic events…..deaths of loved ones, business challenges, difficult relationships, and serious illness among others.  And even when there are no traumatic events many of us feel the stress of being pushed to our limits by the simple demands of everyday life.

In order for us continue maturing as Christians, as family men, in friendships, and as supporters of the community, we must first survive through these challenges and not get knocked over.

When we prioritize the deepening of relationships and make a consistent, intentional effort to both give to and receive support from others, we add strands to our cord to help us avoid being broken.  This takes a long and intentional effort over many years in some cases.  But just as a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, strengthening a relationship may start with something as simple as reaching out to someone to have coffee or lunch.

Here are some questions for discussion:

1. Do you agree that we can only be at our best and achieve maximum growth when we intertwine our lives with other?
2. What are some examples of challenges a person may encounter if they haven’t made the effort to intertwine their lives with others?
3. Can you give an example of a relationship that has been a source of strength to you and how that has helped you grow?
4. In what ways can we better intertwine our roots with God on a daily basis?
5. Which people in your life would you most like to become more “intertwined” with and why?
6. Life can often get so busy that we forget to prioritize relationships but what strategies can we employ to do a better job in this area?

Thanksgiving is next Thursday, so today’s verse includes thanks as the theme. 

Philippians 4:6-7 says:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We previously have discussed the idea that we need to “pray like we mean it” or God will ignore what we ask for.  Along the same lines, today’s passage says we need to present our requests to God with thanksgiving.

Pause here for just a minute and picture what true thankfulness looks like.  Picture the joy in the eyes of the thanks-giver.  Genuine gratefulness is a very attractive thing.  Also picture the receiver of the thanks – softened heart, warm smile, etc.  It makes it a lot easier for us to keep giving if our gifts are received with Thanksgiving.

So when Paul encourages the church at Philippi to pray with Thanksgiving, he is really instructing them on how God wants them to pray and how they are most likely to have their prayers answered.

So as you talk to God this week before Thanksgiving, Pray like you mean it AND Be Thankful like you mean it!

Questions:

• Have you ever given a gift that wasn’t received with thankfulness? If so, how likely were you to be generous to that person or group in the future?
• Does God NEED our thanks? If not, why would Paul tell us it is important to God?
• What is something you need to express thanks for that you have not yet?
• Do you think God thinks it is too petty for us to express thanks for simple things like food, shelter, and clean water?

[Read John 4:1-29 before reading today’s lesson.]

Thanks to Rob Dillon for the inspiration for this week’s lesson which is focused on embracing people who are different than us.

As a society, we’ve developed a super-polarized mindset, especially in politics.  Whereas before it was ok to have an opinion and to respect the opinions of others, it seems increasingly like we’ve moved to a mentality of “I’m right and you’re wrong”.  And in some cases, “I’m right and you’re really dumb……and I believe you should suffer because you don’t share my opinion”.

As with every other weighty problem of the world, the Bible offers us a simple answer to this dilemma.  We don’t have a specific verse today but, as mentioned above, please read John 4:1-29 for background on today’s lesson.

This story describes how Jesus approached a Samaritan woman at a well in a town called Sychar and spoke with her at length.  In the Jewish culture of the time, it was not ok to engage with Samaritans in any way.  Because the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with the foreigners and adopted their worship of idols, Samaritans were considered “half-breeds” and were universally despised by the Jews.

To the Jews, the Samaritans were dirty, low, and detestable but Jesus genuinely engaged this woman to try to help.  Jesus was modeling good behavior for us and this story shows that we should embrace even those who are very different from us.

Sounds easy, right?  So try this experiment: if you are strongly aligned politically one way or the other, picture yourself sitting down with someone on the other side of a particular issue and trying to understand their position.  And don’t pick an easy issue; pick one that gets your blood boiling.  Can you envision yourself saying, “Hmmmm, tell me more?” right after they proclaim that ridiculous talking point that isn’t grounded in fact but everybody on their side keeps repeating it as if it’s true?

That is probably not going to happen very often but we still have a genuine responsibility as Christians to try to make a positive difference.  So where do we begin?  Here are some questions for discussion:

• Compare Jesus’ approach to the way extremists treat those they disagree with.
• It has been argued that political extremists are actually worshiping the “religion” of their political beliefs. Do you agree or disagree?
• What Bible verses or stories also provide lessons on embracing people with whom we differ, be it religious, political or in general?
• The world bombards us with political messages constantly. Once we know this, how can we plan ahead to make sure we don’t let these messages distract us from the true message of Jesus?
• Do you believe that one person can change the world around them by genuinely loving all people – even those they strongly disagree with?
• Have you picked up any new insights today that we haven’t discussed yet?

• In what areas of your life are you more like Mary and in what areas are you more like Martha?
• If Jesus walked in to our house, most of us would ignore everything else and focus completely on Him, so why is it difficult to carve out time for Him every day?
• What are some idols (anything that you put in front of Jesus)  in your everyday life?
• Do you feel that the World expects something from us vs. what God expects from us? (self-help books tell us how to be efficient,  to-do lists, etc.). How can we deal with the onslaught of advice from Humans vs Godly advice ( How can the forget clutter of projects and spend time him).