Posts with the tag “season-1”

Deconstruction - how you take your faith apart matters (deconstruction, tools of deconstruction, inspiration, interpretation, what can we really know, epistemology)INTROThe following is a guide to hel...  Read More

So is this really a question of truth, or is it a question of what you can know and what you can’t know? Or is it a question of what is possible to know, or is it something else? The philosophical ana...  Read More

This is a fair question. If the biblical narrative is not as simple as we have perhaps been led to believe, how can we really know what is happening in the Bible at all? This is one of the reasons we ...  Read More

So why can’t we just say that we believe what the Bible says and that we live our lives according to it? Wouldn’t that simply make things a bit easier? Yes, of course, it would.But unfortunately, that...  Read More

I was in a songwriting seminar with Rich Mullins, and he made an interesting comment. He asked if any of us had been in a talent show or had seen one where someone said: “God woke me up and gave me th...  Read More

Yesterday I mentioned some tools that I had used when I was 15 to deconstruct the room we had been given to remodel. What tools do we use when we deconstruct our faith down to its elemental pieces? Do...  Read More

When I was in high school, I got the best job opportunity. It was the opportunity to work maintenance at the school. Doesn’t that sound good to you? Then you are not a 15-year-old boy with a driver’s ...  Read More

INTRODUCTIONThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENHow woul...  Read More

Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. —Psalm 40:4Have you ever felt like going to church was a little like going to scho...  Read More

Trust is hard. It is difficult for us to trust one another, to trust institutions, to trust our spouses even. When I do premarital counseling with a couple we talk about intention and how they need to...  Read More

Let me be CLEAR, we should think about God, and we should even seek to think correctly about God. But we are super complex beings. We have big brains, and we have deep spiritual thoughts and experienc...  Read More

Here is a question or two to ponder; does our understanding of God limit God? Is God beholden to the words that we say about God? I guess another way to ask the question is to ask if we create God in ...  Read More

Great question. I have felt like in this series and in this discussion we sort of have to figure out why and how we ask the questions first before we jump into the scriptures. You see, it is too easy ...  Read More

Do you follow the Bible? I think we all want to. There was a journalist by the name of A.J. Jacobs, who wrote a book called; “The Year of Living Biblically.” and I got a chance to hear him speak after...  Read More

INTROThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENWhen you were a...  Read More

As we finish this first week of dipping our toes into the deconstruction pool, I want you to understand a bottom line that I think is important: “I can choose to trust God with a childlike trust regar...  Read More

Orthodoxy, in its simplest definition, is right thinking. And we were taught to think rightly, or correctly, or whatever. From my first memory of church, we were taught to think about God correctly. W...  Read More

Thus far, we haven’t encountered much scripture. I hope that is okay. Through the Elemental series, we have to set the background for what we are attempting to take on. The growth that is needed is no...  Read More

Church should be the safest place to take risks. Let me say that again. Church should be the safest place to take risks. The Church should hold a place of value in our lives because we can ask questio...  Read More

If you have ever had a moment when you question your faith, or feel some doubt, then you know that the people around you get pretty nervous and anxious about what you are going through. People don't l...  Read More

Have you ever had something that triggered a response you were not expecting? Something that brings you back to either you didn’t want to go or somewhere you have never been before and are not sure yo...  Read More

Deconstruction is a big word with a significant meaning when having to do with faith. You have probably encountered it in the last couple of years, as it has been a big topic in the world of belief. I...  Read More

INTRODUCTIONThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENCan you ...  Read More

Jonah 1:7-177 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful stor...  Read More

Hebrews 12:5-115 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline,  and don’t give up when he corrects you.6...  Read More

Hosea 1: 22 When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate...  Read More

1 John 3:1616 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. What are other types of real love? What does love loo...  Read More

Galatians 2:2020 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave him...  Read More

John 15:1313 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.This is the kind of text that we have come to love. We love the idea that this is the kind of love that we have from...  Read More

INTRODUCTIONThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENHave you...  Read More

1 Corinthians 3:11-1511 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, ...  Read More

John 14:66 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Here is an uncomfortable truth. And this text has been used often to show the exclus...  Read More

Exodus 7:19-2419 Then the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and raise your hand over the waters of Egypt—all its rivers, canals, ponds, and all the reservoirs. Turn all the water to bl...  Read More

Exodus 7:14-1814 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn, and he still refuses to let the people go. 15 So go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the river. Stand on the ban...  Read More

John 2:9-119 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10 “A host alwa...  Read More

John 2:1-82 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supp...  Read More

INTRODUCTIONThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENAs we ex...  Read More

Leviticus 9:23-2423 Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community. 24 Fire blazed...  Read More

Isaiah 6:1-76 It was in the year King Uzziah died  that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having...  Read More

Matthew 9:20-2620 Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, ...  Read More