Only Human Part One

You get caught in a lie, and you shrug your shoulders and say "I'm only human".

You continue to return to bad habits and poor choices; "I'm only human".

You say and do things to people you love- people who love you. "I'm only human".

How would God hear this excuse? "God, my inability to make wise choices and control myself are your fault. You made me human, and that's why I make things bad sometimes."

This series is about understanding that God created human beings in His image, and in so doing stated "It's VERY GOOD!" (Emphasis His!). What we are is what God made. What goes wrong is not from Him or part of the design- it's a twist, a perversion and a stain on His image and handiwork. Not to be confused with a humanistic celebration of people as the highest order, this series and the discussions are intended to elevate humanity to its proper place- worth of Jesus coming to save, redeem and return to what God set out to do in the beginning of beginnings.

Thaw

• What's something that retains its worth no matter the condition it is in?

Leader note: You may not be able to think of anything except for a person. The example of a $10 bill works up to a point, but sooner or later even it isn't worth what it was made to be worth. people seem to be the only ultimate answer. Parents will see this if you use their own children!

• What has stuck with you the most from the message on Sunday?
• What was something you heard that you felt creates a paradigm shift if embraced?

Read

• Genesis 1:26-31
• Thoughts?
• What's the text trying to teach?

Leader note: You jay point out that it's in the plurality of humans, together, that God is displayed. Not just one, but in multiple people honoring living in shalom that best represents the character and image of God.\

• Is the core of a human being sinner or glory? Explain your answer.

Leader note: Jonathan taught that the Bible begins in Genesis 1, not in Genesis 3. In other words, sin comes as an invader after the fact, tainting and corrupting what God intended. Many religious folks start in Genesis 3 by the way they insist that humanity has no worth. It's an important thing to realize that God sees something in us worth saving, versus us having no intrinsic value at all, now that we've sinned. Though its serious and needs dealt with in Gods loving justice, Sin is not more powerful than God's glory.

• What shifts in your relationships if the core of people is goodness and the image of God, versus that they are sinners who's only value is whether or not they believe the right things about God?
• What changes in your view of God when you recognize that God sees people as very good, not very bad?

Read

• Matthew 6:9-13
• Thoughts?
• Why is Jesus teaching us to pray that God's will be done?

Leader note: because right now, it's not. Things are "all under his control". There are things in existence and being exercised that He doesn't want. Thus, Jesus teaches "The Way" to His followers, and prays that God's will would be done on earth, as it is already being don in heaven. This is the definition of the Kingdom. The King-Dome, or the dome under which God's Kingship is full recognized. The Sphere of His effective will and reign. It's more heart than it is a place.

• If what God wanted originally for Humanity was very good, and Jesus is teaching us in this prayer as in many other places that His followers are people who implement His will, how would you describe what Jesus came to do?

Leader note: Jesus came to REdeem, REstore, REnew and REsurrect people. These "re" words point to taking us back to our origins. Jesus and the salvation He offers is about nothing less than making us fully human. Only human has it's weight and significance back! Jesus came to save humanity, not yank us off the earth and making us something else!

Read

• Revelation 21:1-5b
• How is this picture of a renewed earth, and God coming down to us, different than what you thought the Bible taught?
• How does this affect what Christianity should look like?

Leader note: The word in Greek translated "new" is not "neos" as in having never existed before, but "kainos", as in refreshed or distinct from the old. "An updated version" in our modern language.

Read

• Matthew 13:44-46
• Thoughts?
• Why do people focus on what it cost Him?
• What changes for people when they focus on the joy that seems to overshadow the cost for the man in the parable?
• How does religion make it about the cost, the discipline, the misery?

Apply

• What are the areas of faith that seem like something to dread?
• What are the areas of faith that seem to have everything to do with the cost, and the avoidance of sin, but not on the pursuit of the beauty of life that God intends?
• How can this group help you exhibit more disciplines in your life and relationship and decisions, with the mutual understanding that the goal is to see Heaven on Earth, not religion in force?
• What's something your group can start doing that implements Gods dream for the world?

Leader note: Let the group be creative. Should you discuss a 2010 Haiti or Kenya trip? Can you get plugged in with Pam McKerring and serve at the Durham Rescue Mission? Can you serve together on Sunday mornings to make sure kids get loved in a way that shapes them for the rest of their lives? Can you work on forgiving people that have hurt on or more of the members in the past? Can you work on focusing on beauty more than despair and hold each other to such a perception? Be creative, across the board. Find a way to recognize, as a group (and not just during group time) how to live out Gods dream. Develop a strategy, and do it. Don't let it terminate in mere talking, but pray and then go bring God's Kingdom, on Earth as it is in Heaven.