7th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the 7th Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 7: 55-60
   
2. Psalms 97: 1-2, 6-7, 9
   
3. Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20
   
4. John 17: 20-26
   

• Consolation in time of need
  
• All of us feel that good things come to those who do good.  In fact, we also believe the opposite, that if bad things are coming your way, you must be doing something wrong.  Yet the Christian martyrs tell us otherwise.
• Has there ever been a time in your life when your work seemed to be an utter failure, yet you knew that God was with you?
• How do you define failure?
• How do you define success?
• Do you think that God ever "sets us up" for failure?
• Is God obliged to share His grand plan with us?
  

• God of great and small
• Our God is not confined to any one place, time, circumstance or people.  It's a relief to know that He's that interested, but a challenge to use to never regard someone or some situation as "beneath us".
• When you see a situation that needs remedying, how do you decide whether to get involved, or just "leave well enough alone"?
• Where does prayer factor into that decision?
• If you had more courage, what would you do with it?
  

• Living Water
  
• Maybe water figures so prominently in Scripture because the Chosen were desert people.  God calls us to the waters of rebirth, the Living Water, baptism.
• In your ongoing celebration of your baptism, what have you given up lately so that you can receive something else from God?  Maybe that death was loss of control, or coming to forgive someone who's wronged you, maybe that new life was finding greater trust, greater peace.
• Was that an event or a process?
• How did you get started on that journey?
• What kept you going?
  

• School of love
  
• Loving others is the most important thing that we can do, yet there is no certificate or degree program in loving.
• Are you better at loving than you used to be?
• How?
• How did that change come about in your life?
• What's next?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation

1. Where is God refining me with adversity?
2. Where is God calling me to use courage that I already have?
3. Where/what/how is God resurrecting me this Easter season?
4. Where can I love more powerfully?

Shalom and a blessed Easter to you!