March 8: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: ‭Jonah 3:10 - 4:11

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relentedand did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Jonah - When We Hate God's Instructions

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Two mentions of Jonah outside of these 4 chapters that make up the book with his name.

  • In the Gospels, Jesus seems to be frustrated that people keep demanding more and more external phenomena from Him while not experiencing a real change of heart and mind. 

    • He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 

      – Matthew 12:39-41

  • In 2 Kings 14 - Jonah, son of Amittai, was a court prophet to Jereboam II. While other prophets of Yahweh in his time, Amos and Hosea, criticized the royal administration for its injustice and unfaithfulness…

    • Jonah had supported Jeroboam’s aggressive military policy to extend the nation’s power and influence.

    • Tim Keller gives a helpful comment on this story and it begins to shine some light on how Jonah ends up running from God…. 

      • The original readers of the book of Jonah would have remembered him as intensely patriotic, a highly partisan nationalist. And they would have been amazed that God would send a man like that to preach to the very people he most feared and hated.

        – Timothy Keller

• So from these two mentions outside of the book of Jonah we learn some crucial things about the story…

  • Jesus saw this as an essential sign of God’s plan bringing salvation to the world, for breaking healing and redemption to a broken world.

  • We learn a little something about why Jonah was so reluctant to follow through with what God asks of him. 

  • Parallels in the story: 

    • In 1:1 - God’s words comes to Jonah – In 3:1 - God’s Word comes to Jonah

    • In 1:2 - the message is conveyed – In 3:2 - the message is conveyed

    • In 1:3 - the response of Jonah – In 3:3 - the response of Jonah 

    • In 1:4 - a warning is given – In 3:4 - a warning is given 

    • In 1:5 - the response of non-believers – In 3:5 - the response of the non-believers

    • In 1:6 - response of the leader – In 3:6 - the response of the leader 

    • In 1:7 unbelievers respond better than Jonah  – In 3:7 - unbelievers respond better than Jonah 

    • In 2:1-10 How God taught Jonah grace through the fish – In 4:1-10 How God taught Jonah grace through the plant 

• Few things that bear on all of us…

  • Why we do not want to do what God says

  • How we return to God when we’ve gone our own way

  • Why our anger new tells the whole story

  • And from all that a few things we learn about how God works…

    • The Conflict of Identity: Jonah’s primary significance was found in being a Hebrew and a nationalist rather than a servant of God. This caused him to flee to Tarshish because he feared God might actually forgive the "wicked" Ninevites.

    • The Storm of Disobedience: The sermon posits that every sin has a "mighty storm" attached to it. For Jonah, the storm was mercy—a visible picture of the chaos that comes from trying to manage the world without God.

    • The Death and Resurrection Pattern: Jonah’s journey "down" (to Joppa, to the ship, to the sea, to the fish) represents the end of self. Jesus later calls this the "Sign of Jonah," pointing to His own death and resurrection.

    • The Cliffhanger of Grace: The story ends with God asking Jonah if he should not love the great city. The sermon suggests the story ends abruptly to force us to answer: Will we be angry at God’s mercy toward others, or will we walk in the grace we’ve been given?

• You may sincerely believe that Jesus died for your sins, and yet your significance and security can be far more grounded in your career and financial worth than in the love of God through Christ.

• Shallow Christian identities explain why professing Christians can be racists and greedy materialists, addicted to beauty and pleasure, or filled with anxiety and prone to overwork. All this comes because it is not Christ’s love but the world’s power, approval, comfort, and control that are the real roots of our self-identity.

  – Timothy Keller

• Sin: 

  It [has qualities like] an addicting drug. At first it may feel wonderful, but every time it gets harder to not do it again. Here’s just one example. When you indulge yourself in bitter thoughts, it feels so satisfying to fantasize about payback. But slowly and surely it will enlarge your capacity for self-pity, erode your ability to trust and enjoy relationships, and generally drain the happiness out of your daily life. Sin always hardens the conscience, locks you in the prison of your own defensiveness and rationalizations, and eats you up slowly from the inside. All sin has a mighty storm attached to it.

  – Timothy Keller

THINGS WE LEARN ABOUT GOD

• God is not just the God of your nation, and group , and people, and politics. God really loves and cares about your enemy. (Be very careful if you imagine God is always cheering on American missles and drone strikes)

• God can meet us where we are even when we run away. (But running away always costs dearly) 

• God redeems through the sacrificial love of death and resurrection. This we see most fully in Jesus. 

• Jonah wanted Ninevah to pay for all their evil and wrong. God wanted to warn them and offer them mercy. 

• This fight between justice and mercy is raging in Jonah - God keeps finding shocking ways to be merciful 

• And ultimately God would say I will be just and the Justifier by going to the cross.

Application Questions

• Where is your "Tarshish"? Jonah ran to Tarshish because God’s command conflicted with his personal politics and national identity. Is there an area of your life (career, political conviction, or personal comfort) that you prioritize over God’s direction?

• Are you "praying your anger"? The sermon notes that Jonah was "rage-filled" but at least he prayed his complaint. When you feel resentful toward God’s timing or His mercy toward people you dislike, do you hide that away, or are you honest with Him about your bitterness?

• How do you view your "enemies"? If God moved powerfully in the life of someone you consider a "villain" or a rival, would you be glad for them, or would you be like Jonah—jealous, resentful, and bitter? How does the "Sign of Jonah" (the Gospel) challenge your view of who deserves mercy?

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March 1: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: ‭1 Kings 19:1–I9

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael,and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Elijah - The Still Small Voice

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Now the cultural moment that Elijah is living through is important to mention. Ahab was King in Israel and this is mid 800s BC. Ahab was in a string of not ideal Kings.

  • There’s a little refrain in the book of 1 and 2 Kings where it will say and so and so did more evil than all the previous Kings before them. 

• There was a progression of moving away from Yahweh, and Ahab accelerated that again. He had a political marriage to a woman from the kingdom of Tyre and Sidon, and she has her own reputation that has spilled the pages of Scripture. 

• Ahab was married to Jezebel, and Ahab and Jezebel were on an intentional strategic path towards pluralism in Israel - that’s a nice way to say it. 

  • They had killed prophets of Yahweh and brought in prophets of Ba’al. 

  • And there were many Ba’als but the major one worshipped here was thought to be a god of the storm, a god of the rains. 

• And so Elijah the Tishbite shows up and says, OK well the real God says there isn’t gonna be any rain, there isn’t gonna even be any dew.

  • Like Yahweh had challenged the gods of the Empire in Egypt in the Exodus, he challenges the Ba’al of the storm with a drought. 

• And in a very real way Elijah is hanging on to faith in Yahweh in Isreal at a time when there is very real chance of it dying out.

• Without the turning point of Elijah’s life and ministry - the way of Yahweh and His covenant in Israel was in real threat of dying out.

ELIJAH TALKS AND LISTENS TO GOD 

• A prophetic life, a life that reveals what God is really like is a life that has learned to talk and listen to God.

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS LACK

• Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 

  So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 

  – 1 Kings 17:2–6

• If this was the end of Elijah’s story it would make a great sermon. But God told Elijah to proclaim a drought, but then provided for him with Ravens and a Brook. 

• But just a little while later. The Brook dried up. 

• God is interested in us learning to trust God. And often God will give us something as a gift, but then there is a risk that that thing God has given us becomes what we actually put our confidence in.

• Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.”

  – 1 Kings 17:7

• And Elijah prays his lack. And however he names it, it isn’t in the scene. What we get instead is God’s response.

• Elijah prays his lack. But God knows his need.

• What do you do with your Lack?

• Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

  1 Kings 17:8–9

• It seems harsh that the brook that God provided dries up

• But Jezebel was from Tyre and Sidon. God sends Elijah to the territory of his enemy. If he keeps providing for him with the magical Brook we never get this story, and (SPOILER) its going to be a story of resurrection.

• But Elijah goes to the widow. He asks her for some water and bread. He has to humbly ask for the thing God has been providing. 

• And she says I have no bread, I am going to make a meal for my son and I and then we are going to die.

• Elijah receives more direction from God in his lack…

  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’ ” 

  1 Kings 17:13–14

• the woman’s young son dies.

• And she asks the question many of us ask in tragedy? Is this my fault? Has God been against me the whole time? Did you just come to hurt me?

• And then Elijah asks for her son and takes him away to or pray, and he prays basically the same question
  
  

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS QUESTIONS

• When life is really difficult and tragic for us, where we go with our questions matters.

• Are you able to take your questions to God? 

• Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 

  The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” 

  – 1 Kings 17:21–23

• When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 

  “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” 

  So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” 

  But the people said nothing. 

  – 1 Kings 18:17–21

• In confidence do you still turn to God?

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS CONFIDENCE

•  He prays in stages for the rain.

• Rain came. 

• But look what happens instead….

  Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 

  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

  – 1 Kings 19 v 1–4

• He doesn’t want to go on.

• He thinks he is a failure. 

• He wants God to end his life.

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS DEPRESSION

• He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. 

  – 1 Kings 19:4–5

• And we see the incredible wisdom of God here. 

• Elijah goes to the same place Moses went to look for God. To ask to see His Glory.

• And there Elijah prays his desperation

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS DESPERATION

• He makes Elijah food and lets him rest.

• God knows what we need.

• Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. 

  And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

  He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

  The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” 

  – 1 Kings 19:8–11

GOD COMES AS A WHISPER. A STILL SMALL VOICE.

• Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 

  Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

  He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

  – 1 Kings 19 v 11–14.

• Elijah asks the same question, but now the Lord is speaking.

• Elijah is told that God has had a plan, he is not alone. He is gong to receive help. He is given a friend, someone to walk with. Elisha.

• As Elijah learns to pray. Elijah Walks in Wisdom.

Pray your lack

Pray your questions

Pray your confidence

Pray your depression, your anxiety, your illness

Pray your desperation

Pray and walk in wisdom

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February 22: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭Daniel 5

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”

So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

“Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled.But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.

“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

“This is the inscription that was written:

mene, mene, tekel, parsin

“Here is what these words mean:

Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Medetook over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Fasted Life

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• The goal of the series is to look at the voices of the prophets and their impact as those who critique from the inside. 

• We look at the prophet as a “watchman,” whose job is to call for honesty and to stop the Israelites from relying on anything other than God 

• Richard Rohr says,

  “In this way, they introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed insider critic, a devil’s advocate who is tasked to call out and expose their own shadow side! Few cultures, if any, develop such a counterintuitive role.”

  – The Tears of Things

• Their work is sometimes labeled “Creating holy disorder” for confronting injustice and exposing abuses of power. 

• Rohr:

  “Prophets, then, are full truth-tellers, not fortune-tellers. They pull back the veil to radically reframe our preferred storyline of history. “

• We need this in the church because:

  • The Christian religion has sought to achieve its own innocence rather than act in solidarity with suffering and sinners.

• “TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting”

  – Daniel 5:27

• King - has a moment of being measured

  • Will you honor the truth you have been taught about God and the true story of the world?  

  • He says no…I’ll worship what I want, in fact,  I’ll use the very things that were intended to affirm God’s sovereignty and drink from them while praising the idols that I have chosen instead of God to satisfy me. 

• But Daniel is also being measured in this moment

  • After 65 years of captivity and indoctrination - what would he do? He could be killed in this process if he tells the king the wrong thing.

  • He honors the God of his origin. He holds to the true story of the world. He calls out the king for neglecting to heed the warning of the past. 

• Memory is an engagement with fidelity from a God who takes endless initiatives in life-transforming, life-guaranteeing actions of generosity.

• “It is inescapable if one's past tense is burdened by self-invention and one's future tense is limited to self-sufficiency. It takes no imagination to see that technological consumerism, unable to host past miracles or future promises, has given us a present tense of greed powered by anxiety and issuing in shameless brutality against our neighbor.” 

  – Bruggeman

• For it is only when the past is brimming with miracle and the future is inundated with fidelity that the present can be recharacterized as a place of neighborliness in which

  • Scarcity can be displaced by generosity

  • Anxiety can be displaced by confidence

  • Greed can be displaced by sharing

  • Brutality can be displaced by compassion and forgiveness

• The recovery of the true story of the world includes the daring, pervasive conviction that God's fidelity outlasts every circumstance.

• Daniel was able to hold onto the truth for 65 years in a hostile pluralistic environment. 

  • Honor the past (the king didn’t honor the lessons his grandfather learnt) Daniel held to the faith and devotion of his heritage

• Trust God for the future - his fidelity will outlast every circumstance!!!!

• Be courageous in our moment - order your life around that reality. God is faithful and will continue to be.

• Daniel did this through forming daily life habits that immersed him in the truth. They connected him with God. 

  Here’s a practical outline for building these habits by Alice Bohn. 

• A Well-Ordered Life: Practical Steps – Daniel’s prophetic clarity was the result of a life oriented toward God. We are all "ordered" toward something—the question is whether it's anxiety, money, etc, or our Creator.

• The Purpose of Ordering

  • We reorder our lives to plug into God, our ultimate Source, and join His work in renewing all things.

• How to Start

  • Establish habits that seek Jesus’ presence. Lent serves as a communal opportunity to audit these routines with the support of the Church.

  • The First Step: Fasting

    • Fasting reminds us of our dependence on God and creates margin for other spiritual practices. Beyond food, consider fasting from social media, late bedtimes, or digital noise.

  • Pillars of an Ordered Life

    • Prayer: Use "in-between" moments like commuting, brushing teeth, or Emmanuel Prayer at bedtime.

    • Scripture: Try a verse a day, audio Bibles during chores, or family devotions.

    • Worship: Practice "Worship Walks," gratitude lists, or daily singing.

    • Confession: Schedule weekly friend calls, spouse check-ins, or pastoral confession/counseling.

    • Service: Integrate rhythms like trash pickup, meal trains, or plugging into TGC service opportunities.

    • Obedience: Be intentional; a well-ordered life requires a plan. Tithe. 

  • We reorder our lives to live in the Presence of God. If this is daunting, start by asking God for help this Lenten season.

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