Will Witherington uses Romans 8:19-21 to help us understand The Plan for God's Mission.
2021 Session 5: Where Will Jesus Lead Me
This evening we were introduced to a new speaker Patrick Lewis. He reads from the Gospel of Mark 4:35-41.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Patrick Lewis explains:
Jesus is Lord over storms within us
Jesus is Lord over storms around us
Jesus leads us through storms to rescue others from the storm
When he leads us somewhere that is unfamiliar or scary, we start questioning Jesus and asking him, “don’t you care?”, and if you did you wouldn’t let me be here. This is a lack of faith, and we need to cling to him in the storms. Patrick explains that by having faith in Jesus means losing control and having an unpredictable irresistible force in our life. We need to know that we can run to Jesus with our storms, and he can end them. Jesus says in Mark 5:19, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you”. He’s explaining that he came here for you and he wants to rescue others through you, so follow him. When the ultimate storm does come, we can be confident and know that we’ll spend eternity with him.
2019 Session 5: Relationship with God
This morning we welcomed our other speaker, Tony Dentman, and he talked with us about relationships on a very real and open level. He opened up with a reading from Genesis:
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[d] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
From this passage, Tony gave us a list of essentials to perfect love, he used scripture throughout Genesis to explain the acronym he created to gain “perfect love'“. He used relationships between a man and woman as an example of what our relationship with Christ ought to look like. Both relationships have progressional steps to more commitment and to greater intimacy. Just like a marriage on the Earth, you cannot half commit yourself to God, it must be a 100% commitment to live for Him. The ultimate description of a welcoming into relationship is Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus proposed to us with his arms open and all we have to do is say “yes”.