25/08/2024

“IN IT TOGETHER, FOR EVERYONE’S SAKE”

Please use the questions below as a guide for your devotions this week, and/or for your group meeting if you belong to a small group. You might not get through all the questions – that is Ok – but I pray that they will help you grow in your faith and in your understanding of the Bible. 

If you would like me to visit your group, then please let me know – contact Lesley on 0445333430 or admin@plettmethodist.co.za to set up a visit. If you are not part of a group, and would like to join one, then contact Don on 0834129877 and don@prism-ic.co.za 

Theme: “In it together, for everyone’s sake!”  

Start 

  • Have some fun! Think about bees and beehives! What kind of bee are you… (Worker Bee, Queen Bee, pupa in the hive waiting to be fed)?  

Getting into the Word

1st Reading for the week:  Acts 2: 42-47

  • What verse stands out for you? 
  • Do you think that verse 42 is a fair description of how your church congregation meets? Why or why not? 
  • Why do you think this early church group had a “deep sense of awe” (verse 43)? What was going on? 
  • What do verses 44-47 tell you about the worship experience of this early congregation? Is it possible for this experience, and expression, of worship and community to happen in your church today? Why or why not? 

2nd Reading for the week:  Isaiah 40: 3-5, 28-31

  • What is the “voice of someone shouting” (vs 3) calling for the people to do (see vs 3-5)? 
  • What do you think vs 31 means? Do you need a new strength from the Lord? 

3rd Reading for the week:  Ephesians 6: 10-13,18

  • Is it possible to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (verse 10)? In fact, what does this verse mean for you, in the reality of your life experience? 
  • Paul writes that the struggles of this life are not just about “earthly fights” but very much about a spiritual battle (verse 12). What do you think in terms of how life is lived today? How does your answer here, perhaps change the way you might understand the meaning of the words “stand firm” in verse 11?
  • What does it mean to “pray in the Spirit” (verse 18)? 

Focus for the week ahead:

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) (Prayer for Peace)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. 

God bless,

Tim.