Kicking Stuart #2

Last night was our 2nd "Kicking Stuart". We all pitched in and bought a Castillo's Party Platter and watched the Packers get beat by the Bears on ESPN. I think, not positive, there might have been some pictures taken last night... I will try to get a hold of them and put them up here.
We are all going to be reading through the 4th chapter of Blue Like Jazz for the next 2 weeks. Our Monday night group meetings will resume on January 5th, 2009.
Merry Christmas to everyone and have great New Year.

What is God's promise?

So, Monday was an interesting day for many of us. Between car accidents, hailstorms, crazy schedules, only 2 out of the group reading the 3rd chapter (some people had realistic reasons ...lol... uh ...mine was semi-valid), it made for an eventful study. Luckily, the study questions I write out each week are always designed to be easily interacted with, by people of whom may not read the assigned chapter. A little perk for occasional visitors.

One of the overall points that Donald made in this chapter, we found to be, was the sometimes misrepresentation we receive, or in some cases give, of what a Christ centered life will "gain" us. We seem to market this Jesus idea and add incentives to it. Many times, these add-on incentives are in the form of "fixes" or solutions to the troubles we experience in the world. There are promises made to prospective followers of Jesus that have nothing to do with the message that Jesus brought. These empty promises usually have detrimental effects on the recipients and form a very false sense of hope for their future as well as the outcome of the current problems these solutions are "supposed" to address.

Here are some questions we went over in the discussion.

Questions for CH 3

1. What makes it difficult for you to believe God could do something magical in your life?
   
   
2. From the Bible, what magical things did Jesus do for people?
   
   
3. What kinds of things have been marketed to you as solutions to your problems? Have they truly “fixed” the problems? Have they really brought you closer to God?
   
   
4. What do you think of the following phrase, “When you start following Christ, everything will be ok”.
   
   
5. Miller talks about “God selling something he wanted”. What was it that drew you to God? What did you think God could do for you?
   
   
6. Think about key people in your life that have influenced (bad or good) your concept of God and who have brought you to the point of wanting to follow him. How did they market Jesus to you? Did they make any promises?
   
   
7. What does God promise to those that follow him?
   

Find out more: Blue Like Jazz

Humanity is broken

This chapter (CH 2) centered around the event of Don watching news coverage of genocide in the Congo and how it brought him to the realization of humanity being in a state of "brokenness". Not so much in the "brokenness we usually associate with a Christ-following life (one in which our pride or our strong-willed nature is broken by our connection with Jesus) but an actual mechanical or mental brokenness...one where we literally need God to fix us. He continued to address issues like thinking of others before yourself, self-addiction, and he continued deeper into the idea that each one of us innately needs and desires to return to this "fixed" state; through the process of renewed relationship and connection with God, which, initially was our condition, at the beginning, before the fall of the world.
Romans 3:21-24

Here are some questions that we used as we discussed these topics:

1. (Page 13) “I believe that the biggest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil, but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.”
   -How does religion interfere with your being able to engage God with your heart?
   
   
2. How hard is it for you to think about other people more than yourself?
   
   
3. What do you feel like you are losing by thinking about people more than yourself?
   
   
4. (Page 23) “I know now, from experience, that the path to joy winds through this dark valley. I think every well-adjusted human being has dealt with his or her own depravity…I think Jesus feels strongly about communicating the idea of our brokenness, and I think it is worth reflection.”
   -How does the realization of our own brokenness lead us through the dark valley to joy?
   
   
5. Don said he realized the broken state of humanity by what he saw on TV. Do you have an experience about your realization of human brokenness?
   
   
6. Who do we blame for the problems we see all around us? What do you think our role is in these problems?
   

God... as a father

So, we all made it through the first chapter. During last night's gathering, we had great discussion about the differing assumptions of what God looks like. God's look are presented in many different lights in our world, in churches, classes, on TV and radio, and even in ideas passed down through the generations. God says he is a father; but what does that mean? What if my earthly father resembles nothing good or I don't get a long with my dad? What if I have a lot of hurt associated with my dad? We all have an opinion of what a father is. Sometimes, depending on our paternal experience, we form a picture of God based on what believe a father to be from our experience, when in fact, God should be the model for earthly fathers.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Ephesians 5:1-2


I wanted to post this section from the book that we talked about briefly last night:

"Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as “Father” at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake. Why would God want to call Himself Father when so many fathers abandon their children?As a child, the title Father God offered an ambiguous haze with which to interact. I understood what a father did as well as I understood the task of a shepherd. All the vocabulary about God seemed to come from an ancient history, before video games, Palm Pilots, and the Internet. If you would have asked me, I suppose I would have told you there was a God, but I could not have formulated a specific definition based on my personal experience. Perhaps it was because my Sunday school classes did much to help us memorize commandments and little to teach us who God was and how to relate to Him, or perhaps it was because they did and I wasn’t listening. Nevertheless, my impersonal God served me fine as I had no need of the real thing. I needed no deity to reach out of heaven and wipe my nose, so none of it actually mattered. If God was on a dirt road walking toward me, He was on the other side of a hill, and I hadn’t begun to look for Him anyway."

-Blue like jazz

Questions
CH-1

• What were some of your earliest perceptions of God?
  
• If you were in a car, driving to meet with God (literally in person), what would be going through your mind? Would you be worried about how he will receive you? Are you excited about meeting him in person? What do you think he looks like?
• Share a story about you getting into trouble as a kid.
• At the beginning of the chapter Donald talks about his father. How would you describe your father?
• In what ways does this influence your view of God as a father figure?
  

World AIDS Day 2008

Today, Dec. 1st, is World AIDS Day. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of this world wide 'Stop AIDS' campaign. If you are interested in finding out about campaign events in the United States, the US listings start on the bottom of page 6 of the calendar.

Here is a writeup from WAC about who they are:
"The WAC was established to support and promote a global campaign on HIV and AIDS. The campaign strengthens and connects together many of the AIDS-related advocacy and campaigns happening in our countries and regions – each are supported by a multitude of groups who are demanding that their governments and other key stakeholders deliver on previous promises and commitments on HIV and AIDS. The civil society-led WAC campaign targets politicians and policy-makers countries most affected by HIV as well as donor governments, international agencies such as those of the United Nations, as well as civil society. It supports people and organisations to work together more closely, unite and soundly advocate at the national and international levels, so the campaign can deepen the partnership for a stronger response to AIDS."

www.worldaidscampaign.org