Making Our Joy Complete
Deuteronomy 18:9-15 - New International Version (NIV)
9 When you enter the land the Lord
your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the
nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices
their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery,
interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or
who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone
who does these things is detestable to the Lord;
because of these same detestable practices the Lord
your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must
be blameless before the Lord your
God.
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice
sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord
your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to
him.
What are the
Israelites not to do when they “enter the land the Lord your God is giving
you” (verse 9)?
How many should
be found who “sacrifices the son or daughter in the fire, who practices
divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts
spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead” (verses 10
and 11)?
In your
opinion, why would the practice of these things be “detestable to the Lord” (verse
12)?
How must the
Israelites be before God (verse 13)?
In your
opinion, why are the Israelites to be different from those nations they “will
dispossess” (verse 14)?
Who will the
Lord God raise up “from your fellow
Israelites” (verse 15)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
Mark 3:7-12 - New
International Version (NIV)
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd
from Galilee followed. 8 When
they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea,
Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat
ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing
forward to touch him. 11 Whenever
the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are
the Son of God.” 12 But
he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Where did
Jesus withdraw to with His disciples (verse 7)?
When did
people come to Jesus (verse 8)?
Why did Jesus
tell His disciples “to have a small boat ready for him” (verse 9)?
In your
opinion, why were those with diseases “pushing forward to touch him” (verse
10)?
What did
impure spirits cry out when they saw Jesus (verse 11)?
What “strict
orders” did Jesus give to the impure spirits (verse 12)?
In your opinion, how would someone who recieved
the truth about Jesus from an impure spirit in Mark 3:7-12 been similar to
someone who received information about the world or the future from any of the
methods that are banned in Deuteronomy 18:9-15?
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a
female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a
great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She
followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most
High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept
this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and
said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of
her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the
authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and
said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by
advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the
magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After
they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer
was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received
these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the
stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to
God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly
there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were
shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the
prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm
yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before
Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of
the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that
hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then
immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The
jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled
with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
How did the female
slave predict the future (verse 16)?
In your opinion, was
she accurate in her predictions (verse 16)?
What did she shout when she followed Paul around (verse
17)?
In your opinion, was she accurate (verse 17)?
When did the spirit leave her (verse 18)?
Why did her owners drag Paul and Silas “into the
marketplace” (verse 19)?
Who joined the attack against Paul and Silas (verse 22)?
What did the jailer do with Paul and Silas (verse 24)?
What were Paul and Silas doing at midnight (verse 24)?
Why was the jailer going to kill himself (verse 27)?
In your opinion, why did the jailer ask Paul and Silas “what
must I do to be saved” (verse 30)?
When were the jailer and all his household baptized (verse
33)?
What filled the jailer (verse 34)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, why were the people who heard the female
slave shouting apparently not saved, but the jailer and his family were saved?
In your opinion, how does the disruption caused by the
female slave possessed by the impure spirit who was shouting a truth in Acts
16:16-34 help us understand why the practices listed in Deuteronomy 18:9-15
were considered to be detestable and were banned?
In your
opinion, why would Paul in Acts 16:16-34 not have followed the example of Jesus
in Mark 3:7-12 and silenced the impure spirit?
1
John 1:1-4 –
New International Version (NIV)
1 That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at
and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have
seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was
with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We
proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. 4 We write
this to make our joy complete.
Why is John’s
message about the Word of life valid (verse 1)?
What did John
see and testify to (verse 2)?
What “was
with the Father and has appeared to us” (verse 2)?
Why does John
proclaim “what we have seen and heard” (verse 3)?
Where is
John’s fellowship (verse 3)?
Why does John
write this (verse 4)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your
opinion, how would the message someone received through one of the banned
practices of Deuteronomy 18:9-15 be different, even if the content of the
message was the same, from what John is proclaiming in 1 John 1:1-4?
In your
opinion, how are the messages of Paul ans Silas, who were singing in the jail
at midnight in Acts 16:16-34, and the message of John, who was proclaiming what
he saw with his own eyes according the 1 John 1:1-4, similar?
In your
opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Mark, Acts and 1 John teach
us about listening to and fellowshiping with Jesus?
In your
opinion, how can we make our joy
complete today?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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