I. Intro
A. "I hope reading this book will convince you of something: that by surrendering yourself totally to God's purposes, He will bring you the most pleasure in this life and the next. I hope it affirms your desire for "more God"-- even if you are surrounded by people who feel they have "enough God." (21)
B. "We are going to look at how the Bible calls us to live our lives. It is important that we not measure our spiritual health by the people around us, who are pretty much like us. To begin this journey, we'll first address our inaccurate view of God and, consequently, of ourselves.... The core problem isn't the fact that we're lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He's great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers." (22)
We all agreed this message made us squirm a bit! We talked about how, in our human nature, we are nearly obsessed with "measuring" everything we do- are we giving enough? are we doing enough? And most often, we are asking that as a means to get out of giving or doing more! (This is not your nicey-nice fluff Bible Study!)
II. Awe Factor: Check out crazylovebook.com for the Awe Factor video.
When is the last time you even thought about how BIG God's creation is? When we praise God for all that He has made, our praise is limited by what we understand... Allow this video to help you praise God in a new, bigger way!
III. Psalm 19:1-4, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun."
A. How quickly do we forget these truths?
B. How unimpressed are we, as we go about our daily lives?
C. How can aliven/awaken our memory to God's greatness and Jesus' grace?
IV. What is God like? His attributes, characteristics? (See pgs 30-34).
A. Holy
B. Eternal
C. All-knowing
D. All-powerful
E. Fair/just
We read Isaiah 6 and recognized God's characteristics as described in Isaiah's prophecy. We discussed how "easy" it is to remain focused on the characteristics that comfort and care for us- and how we naturally want to focus less on His characteristics that challenge us. It is intimidating to think that God is all knowing- but what a comfort to know that He loves us still! What better friend than one that knows you well and loves you despite it all! It is scary to think (Isaiah 6:9-end) that God is NOT tolerant of sin - that he even HATES it (Proverbs 8:13).... But what kind of parent would He be without discipline?
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