Better Living Through Stealing-Naaman

Heres a riddle, or perhaps just an annoying question:

What if it's possible that someone "far" from God but pointed toward him is closer to God than someone who is "close" to God but pointed away from him?

Attitude is as important, and perhaps even more so, to God than anything else we hold toward him.

This week is a discussion about the steps we take in a complex, messy area called faith. It's not clean and neat. It's not formulaic. And more than anything, it's God wooing each of us to himself from our very real circumstances and genuine desires. As such, faith and growth can often be something that doesn't write out well as a program or in bullet point fashion. Naaman is a great example of this, and you might suspect a member or two in your group (or people in your day-to-day life) are too.

Thaw

• What most impacted from the message Sunday?
• What specific people did you think of ?
• Did it give you a sense of peace as you think about your own "walk" or in how you think of God's view of our devotion?

Read

• 2 Kings 5
• Thoughts?
• What main point from the message Sunday do you tie to this passage?
• What wasn't covered that you feel is a lingering question?

Read

• Mark 12:28-34
• Thoughts?
• This scribe wasn't a Christian. He didn't worship Jesus. He didn't get baptized. He isn't recorded as following him from there. He isn't present at the crucifixion. He isn't mentioned at the resurrection or in the Upper Room with the others right before the Resurrected Jesus appears to them. He isn't mentioned having preached, written, prayed or sang anything that moved Jesus or His church forward. Yet Jesus affirms him as doing well and heading in the right direction. How is this similar or different that how you perceive Jesus and his discussions with people about being "one of his followers"?
• Why is it important to encourage people where they actually are?
• Why is it often harmful to encourage people from where you think they ought to be?
• Why do many of us prefer to have people in a well understood "box" where identity (especially faith issue) is concerned?
• Why are some people threatened by not knowing where other people stand, or by knowing that they stand in a very different place?

Leader note: At this point, someone may have brought up that a person could be perceived to be in danger of hell, thus the overstepping of people's readiness or acceptance to hear important truths about their life. In this case, they may feel an obligation and pressure to, without regard for "where a person is", bring them into a better understanding, into account for error and into an opportunity to decide swiftly. Discuss the Mark 12 passage as it relates to this issue, and how Jesus doesn't seem worried about the scribe, as he sees him pointed in the right direction. Then discuss what directs people toward God if they are not at all. Threat of punishment? Or the long term observation of a better life lived by those that care for them? We live in a world where people don't care much for what's "true". But they are deeply interested in what's "real". Sharing the gospel in our culture with people is more about orthopraxy than orthodoxy.

Discuss

• Is God understanding of our circumstances (immediate external, emotional, psychological, cultural, etc.) as we come to faith? What informs our answer?

Leader note: Part two of the above question should allow you, the leader, to challenge members' views of God as they've been formed by our own parents for us, by how we view our parents style of parenting us, our previous church experiences, our take on the Bible, our philosophy, stuff we've heard and didn't critique, etc...

• How do we best mimic God's attitude toward people and their growth?
• What influence can we have over people's growth and how does that affect our attitude each day?

Apply

• Who are the people in your life that need to know that, even though they may not be ready for sainthood, are pointed in the right direction?
• Who in your life is teaching you the lesson of Naaman and you didn't realize it?
• Who in this group is more Naaman than they realized, and are blessed to find out that perhpas God isn't the rigid referee they'd feared?
• What step needs to be taken toward God (hint, the answer is not ever "none")?