Introduction and Ice Breaker
Can you think of a situation you were in where your life felt threatened or at risk?
Themes to Consider
God - Immanuel - God with us
God - El Roi - the God who sees
God raises kings and removes them - Daniel 2
In spiritual allegiance there is no neutral ground
Christians are called to fight for things that matter to God even when doing so makes us unpopular or puts us at risk.
The idea of persecution runs through the whole of scriptures and I guess could be summed up as the mistreatment of a person or people group because of their beliefs or practices.
Persecution
Expect it
Ground yourself in joy
Entrust your life into the hands of a loving father (1 Peter 2:23)
Go to God in confession and tears.
Go to God in praise
Discussion Questions
How do people in your world view Christians and Christianity?
Do you notice any resistance or opposition to your faith being lived out? What does it look like in your every day life?
How do you respond in times of opposition and trial?
Guided Prayer
Spend some time re-declaring your primary allegiance to Jesus
Prayer - Black Liturgies / Show us the mysteries of joy that we could enter it without becoming numb to the stories that made us. Grant us that lament which tells the truth of our traumas without allowing them to swallow us whole and gain control where they are not welcome.
Supplemental Content
Our inability to understand the rationality of an opposing viewpoint is more often a failure of imagination on our part than a failure of rationality on theirs.
Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.
In spiritual allegiance there is no neutral ground
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. —Matthew 12: 30
Justice and righteousness are inseparable. Ps 89 these two things partner up to form the basis of Gods kingdom authority.
We cannot see his kingdom come without seeing righteousness restored.
We cannot see righteousness restored without justice.
We cannot see justice with reconciliation and restitution.
Tarana Burke asked about the pain and trauma that initiated a movement of speaking out against abuse of woman sexually and the fight to be heard and believed: ”I am grounded in joy, I am not grounded in the trauma anymore.”
As I have reflected on this week and all the weeks prior in this strange and significant year, I see God's continued invitation to reckon with all the things I clutch tightly in my hands, the little corners where I refuse him, the little idols and comforts — all these things that are not rooted in Christ and His Kingdom will pass away. If I am found in Him, then I must be willing to let it all burn except for Christ. And as I have reckoned, repented, re-postured, re-oriented to Christ, this I know: God is not calling us to despair. To grieve and to lament perhaps, but never to despair and always to hope. For my hope, our hope is in His unshakeable kingdom, in His goodness and in His love. He is calling us to joy, to peace, to peace, to faithfulness, to self-control, to hope and to love. In this surrender, I find acceptance and I find rest. I find joy and true life.
