- Isaiah 6: 1-2a, 3-8
- Psalms 138: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
- 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
- Luke 5: 1-11
- Finding your calling
- True humility helps us to know when to ask God for help, versus a) thinking that we can go it alone (presumption) or b) waiting endlessly for resources/gifts/graces that we either don't need or already have (despair).
- In times past when you started something new, how did you know that it was time to step into that new role/ministry/position?
- Did you see that transition as a call from God?
- Do you think that opening would have been there forever?
- How did you tell when it was time to take action?
- Forsake not the work of your hands
- God is always at work in our lives. He's very invested in each of us. He never gives up hope on us, He's always ready to receive us back and to move forward.
- Have you ever felt despair because of something that you said or did that you just thought that there was no way to recover from that mistake?
- What sort of "recovery" were you looking for? Did you want the whole thing to go away? Were you hoping for some sort of healing to take place between you and God, you & others, you & yourself?
- Were you maybe hoping that everyone else involved in that fiasco would just forget it ever happened?
- Do you think that God was able to make any use of that experience in you?
- Christ within me
- There's this scene in The Shack where Mack (the protagonist) decides to walk on water back across the lake. He & Jesus had just walked across the water to get to that side of the lake. It was time to get back to the other side, so he figured he'd get started. Only trouble was, he floated like a rock.
- How do you know when you are working with Jesus, rather than against Him?
- How do you make sure that you don't get caught in that awkward position of trying to do something on your own?
- Are you getting any better at that?
- Missing the point
- Poor Peter always seems to get the wrong message. I remember an episode of The Chosen where Jesus gives Peter and his friends a miraculous catch of fish, and Peter immediately sees the vast potential in Jesus - to make them all rich with one huge catch of fish after another. Reminds me of his response to seeing the glorified Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
- How do you come to understand what God is trying to teach you in your life experiences?
- Do you ever get more than one life lesson from an experience, perhaps over some period of time?
- How do you come to those deeper insights into your life?
- Do you ever think that you've got it all figured out?
- Would you really want that if you could have it?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- Where might God be calling me to leave behind something that is not doing me any good?
- Do I trust God to bring joy from everything in my life?
- Who might I be missing the boat of God's call in my life?
- Where might God be calling me deepen my understanding of His work in my life?
I like Peter.
He has the unabashed quality that I long for.
That capacity to say what's on his mind -
Without any editing, endless rewrites and revisions.
Just get it out there, totally unvarnished.
I suppose that his father was pretty proud of him.
Peter worked hard at his craft.
The villagers probably knew him well.
He doubtless fed many with the fish he caught.
If you had asked him, he would proudly tell you -
That he was closest to God out on the lake.
Suspended on the water from a thread of moonlight.
Sending ripples across the surface with his nets.
One with nature, one with his boat, his crew.
At peace, knowing that God was good,
The lake was full of fish,
And all was well with the world.
And suddenly, Jesus turns everything upside-down.
That last catch of fish changed everything.
Peter realized that those fish crowded his nets to bursting
At Jesus' command that day.
And he realized that all the earth, skies and seas
Served God's will and purpose.
Just as God was calling Peter.
And he must have looked mournfully at that lake one last time.
Knowing that he would never see it the old way again.
Knowing that all of his time out on that water
Had been preparing him for this moment, this place.
To leave everything, and take it all at the same time.
But transformed, transubstantiated
Into a new man.
A man intentionally seeking his destiny.
A man on a mission bigger than all creation.
A man on a mission that would redeem all creation.
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