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AUGUST 2, 2020

10:15am I Facebook Live

Believe

Question of the Week

Think of a time someone really believed in you and the difference it made in your life.

The Big Idea:

Our faith is guides and is defined by how we live our lives. This faith starts with experiencing God’s faith in us.

Take away:

Understand faith as something that we develop, and is developed in us.

Relevant Verses:

“But the aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.”  1 Timothy 1:5

 

“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;  it is not from works, so that no one can boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

 

“Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”   John 14:6

 

Hebrews 11

 

Resources:

Nicene Creed; Breathing the Creed

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AUGUST 2, 2020

10:15am I Facebook Live

Holy Curiosity, Pluto, and the Art of Becoming

Question of the Week

What experience are you going through that has made you start to look at things differently than you did before?

Relevant Verses: Luke 2:52; Mark 12:30

 

The Big Idea:

Becoming is the process of looking more like Jesus. Though our individual stories of becoming will all be different, there are a few grounding principles to help us approach and understand what it means to become.

Take away:

Becoming is an active process that requires us to engage in community and to lean into holy curiosity.

 

How does this fit into our culture (Belong, Believe, Become)?

Focusing on “Becoming” as part of the three-part charge. Exploring some foundational principles of what it looks like to become.

What comes next?

Using an understanding of how belong, believe, become impacts each of us individually and corporately in a way that encourages us to engage differently moving forward.

 

For Further Reflection & Action:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

How People Grow by Cloud and Townsend

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AUGUST 2, 2020

10:15am I Facebook Live

Witnesses

In her book Waging Peace, former combat medic (and friend) Diana Oestreich writes about how the experience of combat changed her whole life. Her view of God, war, other people…everything. She grew up in a family of patriotic, church-going soldiers and signed up for the Guard herself at 17. But it wasn’t until she was called up and dropped into Iraq that she started to really understand things. She started to see that reality didn’t match the rhetoric, that the easy propaganda didn’t represent the complexity of the world as it was outside of the rural-Minnesota bubble she grew up in.

 

The experience changed her, caused her to reevaluate what she believed.

 

The same thing is happening to the Jesus-followers in Acts. They thought they knew what they were getting into, but they didn’t really know until they went out in obedience to the direction of Jesus.

 

And that changed everything.

 

It changed everything for the early followers of Jesus, the Church that was formed in the stories that we’ve studied in Acts over these two summers, and well after the book closes.

 

And it changes everything for us. Because while the book of Acts ends with chapter 27, the story of the Church hasn’t.

 

So what does this mean for Grace Church? Let’s dig in this week and find out.

 

Grace and peace, y’all,

 

J. Ray and the teaching team

Question of the Week

What is your most consistent spiritual discipline?

Teaching: Find the passage ACTS

 

The Big Idea:

The Church was formed by its response to the call and direction to be Jesus’ witnesses.

Context:

For two consecutive summers, Grace Church has studied the book of Acts. We’ve asked Acts questions and let the book ask us questions back. It’s been quite a ride, and many things have changed significantly at Grace since we first started the study.

 

Questions for personal or group reflection and study:

Reflect on our study of Acts. What are the most significant things you’ve learned? What are the questions you still have?

Communion/Reflection/Offering 

 

Benediction

Grace Church, we’ve been baptized with both water and Spirit to be witnesses of the Good News of Jesus Christ here in the Northwest Arkansas, the United State and the whole wide world. Let us go now and learn what it means to live in the truth that the Kingdom of God is here through repentance, faith, obedience and above all love. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

 

For the Kids and their Families

The book of Acts is normally known for telling the exciting stories of the early church, and many believers often pine for the close community and boldness of the believers at that time.

 

What an interesting situation we are in now, when we are not able to meet in the physical sanctuary, which has come to mean “church” to many of us! As you’re guiding your children in worship, prayer, and outreach outside of the physical building at 2828, have a talk:

What does it mean for our family, right now, to be the church?  

 

  • Get some roll paper and trace around the hands and feet of your family members.  Talk about what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ in a hurting world.  Outline your tracings with colorful markers, and then add verbs that put actions on those acts.

 

Ideas: reaching out to others; sending cards, letters, texts, drawings to older folks who are isolated; sharing food with the hungry; collecting coins to purchase towels for the upcoming 7hills towel drive; singing songs of worship; being thankful; gathering with other believers; praying for the sick; seeking justice and fairness, etc.

 

Hang your banner by your dinner table, or fly it as a flag.  

 

 

 

For Further Reflection & Action:

What is the job description of the Christian? 

Waging Peace: One Soldier’s Story of Putting Love First

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