Wednesday Equipping for Small Group

• Answers for the Workbook
• Transformational Conversation Handouts
• Supplementary Materials (Optional)
• Small Group Leaders Huddle Time
• Coaching by Area Leaders
• Announcements/Updates

Sunday Messages

Small Group Meetings (During the week)

• Answers for the Workbook
• No video this time
• Leaders will provide answers
• Leaders will facilitate discussions
• Leaders co-lead with the Holy Spirit
• Transformational Conversation

Last time, we have talked about being a living sacrifice on God’s altar, a precious fragrance in the nostrils of God. Now, what we need to see is the very thing that ignites the worship: fire! The very picture of a living sacrifice is the ignition of the body to glorify God no  matter where it is.

“Last time, we have talked about being a living sacrifice on God’s altar, a precious fragrance in the nostrils of God. Now, what we need to see is the very thing that ignites the worship: fire! The very picture of a living sacrifice is the ignition of the body to glorify God no  matter where it is.” – Acts 4:13 NLT

Like Peter and John and all the rest of the apostles in their time, deep relationship with Jesus will make you burning ablaze for His glory. God is in the business of fire – igniting people to burn; and when something is brightly aflame- the world will just be amazed by it and ask – “wow, who is this? Who makes them burn?” Good thing about this is the simple fact that God uses unqualified simpletons to shake the world; He qualifies the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary, and thus revealing His glory. And when God wants to use someone, He wants to use that person greatly so greater glory will be revealed. Peter and John were not the Albert Einsteins of their time, neither were they the Micheal Jackson nor the Bill Gates of their generation. They were merely small-fry local fishermen. But these local fish-boys had a relationship with Jesus – and that spells all the difference. A tiny spark can cause a forest fire. So let’s stop making excuses because the power to change and impact lives lies not on the bio-data we present to the world, but to God who presents Himself as powerful and great.

Do you believe that our God is very powerful? Then, be ready for fire – and amaze the world around you. That fire is intended to make God famous.

August 7, 2011 / 7:30 AM / Ikthus North

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Encountering Israel in the Old Testament times, one cannot do away with the sacrificial system in the big frame of their religious picture. Every time someone, or the people, sins – one needs to kill a sheep or pigeons to offer to God for the appeasement of His intended wrath. The animal is killed and placed on the altar to be burned; the smoke created by such is thought of as perfume in the nostrils of God. Propitiation is simply satisfying God by killing a scapegoat, substituting the death of an innocent beast instead of the sinner. In the end, God is pleased – and so, life continues in the Israeli camp.

Of course, we as Christians know that the sacrificial system is once and for all a picture of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross. Jesus, in a larger scope, became the scapegoat for the supposedly punishment of the people of God. Whoever is in Jesus has the atonement that God requires, abolishing the need for killing cows and birds on the altar of the religious system. But there’s one ‘sacrifice’ that we are into as Christians. The apostle Paul, after clearing the doctrinal air in his epistle to the Roman church, points to the new sacrifice that so pleases God. “In view of God’s mercies (through what Jesus Christ did at Calvary),” the apostle says in Romans 12, “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God…” Paul was ‘beseeching’ or ‘urging’ the Christians to be living sacrifices. This is the picture of an R:12 Christian: the living sacrifice. The picture painted by the apostle here is not the Old Testament sacrificial system of a dead meat on top of a microwaved altar. The apostle wrote an adjective prior to the word sacrifice: it’s living. In simple terms, it is you and me who are alive, reading this. While you are alive, make your life a sacrifice on the altar of everyday living (redundant word: life).

What exactly is the point of dead and living sacrifice here in the life of a true Christian? It’s this: Christ died for us to live; He lived for us to die to self. This is sacrifice. It is, in a sense, letting the very life of Christ to be reenacted inside of us and be lived out to the world around us. If we do so, imagine the Father closing His eyes everyday, inhaling the air and smiling His heart out. God is sniffing sweet, sweet perfume.

July 24, 2011 / 10:0 AM / Ikthus North

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Remember the last time you tasted with savory munch a Banana-Cue with matching soda pop? Or the time when you last ate with all your joys intact – fishballs or kwek-kwek and sago-gulaman? Or who would ever forget the taste of the sidewalk menu consisting of pancakes and buko juice? (Now we have buy-one-take-one burgers on a plague!) Or the simple hotdogs-on-a-stick with marshmallows and spaghetti and sponge cake and – yes! – party foods! More to walking down the memory lane of taste are the experiences we had when we ate those viands. The Banana-Cue and Halo-halo with a close friend on a typical summer afternoon or kwek-kwek with a special someone. Or spaghetti on special occasions. We eat; and we love it dearly. But more to the eating is the simple thought of friendship: we eat with our friends (Thanks to the power of editing, I could’ve written this statement: ‘we eat our friends’). Friendship means food and fun, and more food. Or is it?

What is the implication of this in our daily lives as Children of the living God?  Does this mean that we go on to eating fishballs and halo-halo inside the church? No (but good idea, by the way). But we treasure relationships so much that we even go back to our childhood or past gourmets as springboard to making new ones. We ask people about their food preference as a means to get to know them and connect to them. We value hotdogs and marshmallows not because we are so greedy with food but because we know it is a good ground to build rapport and friendships among the unchurched. Although this is quite subtle: we value food because we value friendships. We value friendships because we value people. We value people because they have souls, and these souls are lost. We value souls because they are intended for God.

As a Christian however, I have to ask – where is Jesus in all of these? I don’t know. No doctrinal statement specific for Angel’s Burgers and St. Andrew’s Soda Pops (I just have to write about food! haha, not about greed or unclean or clean food).  But there is also a subtle clue that, while skimming the Bible for answers – we can see Jesus too, on a food trip. He goes to the house of sinners and dines with them. He even gave us a glimpse of heaven: that someday, there will be a party there – a grand heavenly banquet!

Week 4 (July 27- August 2)

Aim: To do a fun activity together and foster deeper relationship.

Activity: This week is actually free time. You, as a group, can decide what fun activity you can do together. It does not have to be expensive. Here are some suggestions: watch a movie, or play bowling/billiard/darts, or hang out in one of your house or eat out, or just take a walk around the lagoon, etc. As long as it is fun and done together, it will be meaningful.

Week 3 (July 20 -26)

Aim: to have fun and eat out.

Direction: Agree to meet at a group member’s house, or at some place convenient for all. Think of your favorite childhood food (pancit, barbeque, etc). Bring that as contribution. Share the meal together!

Suggested activity together: As a mixer, give everyone in the group a copy of the following open-ended statements:

One of my secret ambitions is: __
My favorite movie of all time is: __
My dream vacation spot is: __
My favorite food or restaurant is: __
In ten years, I’d like to be: __
My most valued material possession is: __
My favorite subject in school was:

Instruct group members to secretly complete five of the sentences, write their names on the handouts, and turn them in to the group leader. The leader then reads through the responses and invites the group to guess who wrote each sheet.

July 17, 2011 / 10:0 AM / Ikthus North

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What’s the What in Bacolod Right Now?

That was Tuesday when it happened. In between 4:30-5:30 in the afternoon – July 12, 2011 – the entire university schedule (WNU) was put into pause and students were into soft-boiled panic-mode. The news of an earthquake swelled faster than the tremors of hope as the headlines were billboarded in the wrinkled faces of the people. The commotion brought sudden shift in the moods of students: some who were enjoying the classes turned sour and got into mischief-run; some who were bored got excited – “Yes! No classes!” Although there was no stampede, neither it resulted to exaggerated hypertensive reactions (some were flying “I Don’t Care” statements in their gazes) – it was another scene pumped with the question: What If. What if the earthquake did land straight on our school? What if it cracked open hell’s Pandora ’s Box? What if it ended lives right on that very moment? Praise God for no such thing happened. But if it did happen, will we still say “praise God!”?

Scan the newspaper for the week and see incidents happening right here in our city. Allow me to pin some headlines here (courtesy of Sunstar and Visayan Dailystar): “75-year-old rapist gets 15 years POLICE PROBE RAPE OF CAREGIVER.”; “Coke must keep promise for boycott to end: Confed.”; “Teenager injured in stabbing”; “Comnet to launch Bingo Millions in Negros on July 18”; “Woman dies, thousands evacuate due to quakes” (Himamaylan); (and here’s my fave) “Hunting of ‘tuko’ illegal: councilor”. (Sometimes, I’m thinking ‘why the hunting is illegal?’ Is it because the hunting of tuko will lead to extinction or is it an act without a value added tax? Nevermind.) Although it would really matter here and there if a teenager was stabbed or Tokay Geckos (tuko) will be extinct, what matters most is the question: where is God in all of these events? Is God still the God of this city? Seems our lenses would focus on the invisible headlines now rather than the one in front of us.

Yes. Amidst all the commotions happening around us, and the bowl of bad news floating our daily grind of cereal meals – there is still the God who claims that he is good, and will always be God. Chris Tomlin’s song reminds us – “You’re the God of this City. You’re the King of these people. You’re the Lord of this nation…” How will we experience this God in this flawed city? Three quick ways: First – God manifests Himself in everyday – simple or extraordinary – events like a public brawl, an earthquake, or just a jeepney passing by or a some-kind-of-lizard manifestation (don’t want to be too redundant, haha). Next, God intently listens to the prayers of His people. Let us pray for Bacolod. Then lastly, God is made manifest through His people who are salt and light in this city. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden…it gives light to everyone…”(Mat 5:13-16)

Somehow, for us who are called to represent God in this city, we enjoy Him even in the midst of ravaging commotions. And enthusiastically share that enjoyment to others – until the city will hear another headline commotion: people singing that God is God of this city, and they too will be earthquaked by it.

Tomlin ends his song with these words- “For greater things have yet to come. And greater things are still to be done in this City…”