All about Honor

(John 12:1-11)

This week at home group we read through a pretty famous Gospel account; Mary anointing Jesus' feet with oil and wiping it away with her hair. When read for the first time, this is a pretty strange story. Judas (the Betrayer) utilizes this moment not to learn from Mary, but rather to condemn her. 

Little did he know that Jesus was on Mary's side. But why? Because her intentions were to honor Jesus. Maybe she just purely loved Jesus enough to do this. Perhaps it was because he just raised her brother from the dead. Or better yet, she may have realized the significance of His soon coming death and the humanity saving substance that would be shed in only six short days.

“How do we honor Jesus?”

When should we honor Jesus?”
 “Why do we honor Jesus?” 

 All of these are questions that we should ponder as a result of Mary’s example in this story.

Below are a few follow-up things that you can do to increase your understanding and application of this reading:

1.     Read through John 12:1-11 one more time and point out all of the people who are showing Jesus honor and how they are doing so.

2. Do you think that the people in this story knew what was going to happen to Jesus in the following week?

3. Write out a couple times in your life where you have undoubtedly and unashamedly honored Jesus. Why did you honor Jesus during that time? Is that a regular occurrence in your life?

4. Share with the rest of us some ways that you show honor to God. This way we are able to learn from one another by the exchanging of ideas.

One for All and All for One

(John 11:45-57)

We crave conflict.

Girls look for the "bad guys" and guys never see to go for the "good girl".  Any good movie or stage performance demands an antagonistic situation. It is easier for us to look for the wrong in something rather than to find anything good. People (Christians included) crave conflict.

While conflict doesn't necessarily have to be bad, most of the time, we see conflict playing out in not so great ways. It has caused church splits and divides, many heated "debates" (a.k.a., arguments), and disunity within the Church all around the world. But we read in John 11:45-57 that Jesus died so that we could all be brought together. Jesus did it for all of us so we all could be one with Him.

So this begs the question, how do we come together and build unity within the global Church and within our local assembly?

Action Steps for this week:

1. Spend 30 minutes this week reflecting and praying about the question above. (How do we come together and build unity within the global Church and within our local assembly?)

2. Write a comment below on what ideas or solutions your reflection and prayer brought about. 

3. Read through a newspaper taking note of any articles focusing on people being united or working together. Then re-read through that newspaper taking note of all of the articles focusing on conflict. Then answer the following questions:

• How many news articles were about people being united?
• How many news articles were about people being in conflict?
• Which stories held your attention the most? Why?
• Which stories encouraged you the most? Why?
• Choose one story of conflict and re-write it to be a story of unity. How would our world change if we saw more unity?

4.  It is through encouragement that the Church is built up in unity so this week go out of your way to be an encouragement to one of your church family this week.

This week at Transit, we went through John 11:1-44. In this portion of Scripture, we see the seventh and final miracle in John’s Gospel, the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. Throughout the whole book of John we read that Jesus gives life to people, and this time there is no different.

However, there is a double meaning in this particular passage, one that is a little unexpected. Instead of the normal natural verses supernatural misunderstanding, Jesus reverses the situation here. Usually the people talking with Jesus are too focused on the natural and He is trying to help them see supernaturally. But here, Jesus is speaking in a very natural sense and the people are looking too deeply.  Jesus continually wants people to see that He is in control of everything both natural and supernatural. Unfortunately our finite minds aren’t able to truly grasp the power of God and the implications  of it in our lives.

For you and I, it is important to note that Jesus gives us life, not only in the supernatural afterlife but also in the natural here-and-now life. John 10:10 talks about how Jesus offers us real, true, and abundant life. He isn’t just talking about an afterlife filled with great riches and mansions, He is talking about a life on earth overflowing with all of the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) in abundance.

 Here are some things to think about this week...
1. Are you living the life that God promises in John 10:10 or do you feel like there is part of you that          needs to be called out from the grave?

2.  What causes you to feel spiritually dead?

3. What are things that you can do to push those things that make you feel spiritually dead out of your life? And when are you going to put that into effect?

4. What causes you to feel spiritually alive?

5. What are ways that you can make those things that make you have spiritual life into a habit? And when are you going to put that into effect?

In the comment box we would love to hear what you think about the following question: What does a person who is spiritually alive look like? What are their relationships like? And how can Transit or any individual church cater its programs to help foster that kind of person?