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Be careful when you say "I could never" or "I would never." God might just call you to do the very thing you are sure would never show up on the radar of your life.
1. Tell about a time you were minding your own business, going through your normal Lower Story life, and God showed up, revealed himself, or spoke to you in some surprising way.
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2. God is dramatically active in his people’s deliverance – He is engaged, He cares (Exodus 3:1 – 10, The Story, p 45-46). Looking specifically at verses 7-10, what do you learn about God in the following areas:
What did God see, hear and feel?
- He saw the misery of His people - He saw how the Egyptians are oppressing them - He heard them crying ou - He felt concern about their suffering - He was moved by their cries What did God say He would do? - He would come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians - He would bring them up out of Egypt to the promised land What did God call Moses to do? - To go to Pharaoh and to bring His people the Israelites out of Egypt |
3. How did Moses see himself and his abilities and how did God see him (Exodus 4:10-12, The Story pp 46-47)? Tell about a conversation you had with God that may have sounded something like the one Moses had in this passage.
Moses didn’t perceive himself as being a good spokesperson because he was “slow of speech and tongue”. Moses saw his weaknesses but God say Moses as an instrument to demonstrate His power and strength. If you are moving in obedience to God’s direction in your life, you will experience a time when you feel that you are being called out of your comfort zone to do something that you do not feel adequate to do. If you do not feel a specific direction in your life, know that we are all called to give testimony and to be a witness of God working in our life to those He has put in our paths. Rest assured He will direct you and He will “help you to speak and teach you what to say”.
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4. While God saw Moses as the perfect person to face Pharaoh and speak the word of the Lord to the leader of Egypt, Moses saw himself as a political fugitive and a poor communicator who had no business facing the king. Give examples of how God can see us one way and we can see ourselves very differently. What can we do to increase our ability to see ourselves from God’s perspective?
I know He sees us all as a witness to what He has done in our lives and He has called us to share our experiences (our testimony) with others. In fact, He entrusted everyday ordinary people to start His church. He didn’t call the perceived righteous and religious people. He called those who would best demonstrate His power working in them. Our best defense in increasing our ability to see ourselves from God’s perspective is to read His word and see how God used people to accomplish his plan and to find out what He has called each of us to do. His word is also full of encouragement and promises of equipping us. He never asks us to do anything that He doesn’t equip us to do. But this always takes entrusting ourselves to Him and turning any fears that we may have into humbled requests to allow His Spirit to do a working in our lives.
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5. Randy suggested that the best thing we can do is to say yes to God, even when we do not feel adequate for the task ahead. Tell about a time when you dared to say yes and followed God, even when you were afraid. How did Gos show up and lead you?
[What does saying “yes” to God look like? What do you think He is asking all of us to say “yes” to? How do we position ourselves to be able to hear Him asking us to begin with? What is our “burning bush”?]
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6. God always was, is and will be; He calls Himself “I AM,” the self-existent one (Exodus 3:14, The Story, p 46). How can embracing the reality that the God we worship is the eternal “I AM” help you face the challenging moments of a normal day?
IWhen we try to address challenging circumstances, situations and people from a Lower Story perspective only….we will be misdirected. We will look for a solution, an answer and/or vindication in a Lower Story timeframe with Lower Story results. But if we can ever truly grasp that we were made for eternity, for life with Him always and that our choices here on earth impact the time we spend with Him beyond this lifetime; our choices to respond with an Upper Story perspective may seem odd and impractical to other Lower Story dwellers….but we will experience a freedom and a joy that we will not understand until we move in obedience.
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7. What is one area of your life where you tend to focus more on your limitations than God’s ability to work through you? How can your group members pray for you and encourage you as you seek God’s leading in this area?
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8. How is Passover (Exodus 12:1-24; The Story, pp51-52) an ancient sign pointing to the death of Jesus on the cross as the final Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world?
The first Passover occurred when the 10th plague was released on the firstborn son’s in Egypt. Jews were instructed to slay a lamb and "take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses" (Exodus 12:7) on that night. Then God promised, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (v. 13). This plague resulted in convincing Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and freed them from their bondage to slavery. God instructed His people to celebrate Passover every year in remembrance of this as it was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross. His shed bled on our behalf would ransom us from the penalty of death due to our sins. God would see His blood and “pass over” us instead of require us to pay our own penalty. Christ’s death and shed bled would also free us from the bondage of sin. [We live in bondage to our sin nature. We are free from that when we give our lives to Christ. We then have the power of the Spirit transforming our lives to be able to live for Him as a new creation. Non-believers may think Christians are not free to do as they want because they have a list of “rules” that they are to live by. This is legalism and is not freedom. We experience freedom when we want to be obedient out of love for Him not because of a list of “dos and don’ts”.]
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9. Read movement 2 of The Story (see Definitions). How does God unfold His story in this second movement and how does this connect with your story?
We
begin to see God’s plan unfold to build Abrahams descendents into a
nation as the Israelites grow in size and are even collectively referred
to as the “Israelites”. God’s
plan seems to be building momentum and from a Lower Story perspective it
would make sense to continue growing in this positive direction. But
God saw that as His people were growing into a community of people,
they were foreigners in a country not their own (just as we are
foreigners in this world) and they were dependent on this foreign
country and were adopting its pagan ways (just like we do we went adopt
the worlds perspectives and practices). God’s plan seems to be interrupted when the Israelites are taken captive as slaves. Through Moses, we see His plan unfold to rescue the Israelites from the bondage they lived in Egypt. We
see this as a foreshadowing of Christ when the Israelites were first
spared by marking their doorframes with the shed blood of a lamb. They were then led out of Egypt by a deliverer, Moses, and freed from this bondage of slavery.
This
event connects with our story, because we were also spared death by
Christ’s shed bled on our behalf and we are freed from the bondage of
sin by removing our dependence on our sin nature and giving us the power
through the Holy Spirit to live in obedience through our faith and love
in Christ.
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