Choices and Consequences
Ezekiel 25:1-7 - New International
Version (NIV)
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son
of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against
them. 3 Say to them, ‘Hear the
word of the Sovereign Lord. This is
what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you said
“Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of
Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into
exile, 4 therefore I am going to
give you to the people of the East as a possession. They will set up their
camps and pitch their tents among you; they will eat your fruit and drink
your milk. 5 I will turn
Rabbah into a pasture for camels and Ammon into a resting place for
sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 6 For this is what
the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have
clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of
your heart against the land of Israel, 7 therefore
I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the
nations. I will wipe you out from among the nations and exterminate you from
the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”
What does the Lord tell Ezekiel to do to
the Ammonites (verses 1 and 2)?
Whose word is he to tell them to “hear” (verse
3)?
What three things had the Ammonites said “Aha”
about (verse 4)?
1)
2)
3)
Who were the Ammonites to be given to (verse 4)?
When will the Ammonites know that “I am the
Lord” (verse 5)?
What was in the Ammonites hearts “against
the land of Israel” (verse 6)?
What will happen to the Ammonites (verse 7)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
John
7:1-9 - New
International Version (NIV)
1 After this,
Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because
the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But
when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’
brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your
disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who
wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these
things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own
brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for
you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it
hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You
go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my
time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said
this, he stayed in Galilee.
Where did Jesus move around (verse 1)?
Why did He not want to “go about” in Judea (verse
1)?
What festival was near (verse 2)?
Who told Jesus to “leave Galilee and go up to
Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do” (verse 3)?
How did they say that a person who wants to be a “public
figure” should not act (verse 4)?
What did they think Jesus should show the world (verse
4)?
Who did not believe in Jesus (verse 5)?
In your opinion, what did Jesus mean by “my time
is not yet here; for you any time will do” (verse 6)?
Why does the world hate Jesus (verse 7)?
What does Jesus say “has not yet fully come” (verse
8)?
Where did Jesus stay (verse 9)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, what
does this passage show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the
world?
In
your opinion, how do Jesus comments about the world hating Him in John 7:1-9 help
us understand the reason the Ammonites (relatives of the Israelites) celebrated
the punishment that the Lord was bringing on Israel in Ezekiel 25:1-7?
1 John 2:28-3:10 – New International Version (NIV)
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he
appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who
does what is right has been born of him.
3 1See what great love the Father has
lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what
we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know
him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of
God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that
when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify
themselves, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is
lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he
might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No
one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has
either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The
one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The
one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been
sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of
God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them;
they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This
is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the
devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is
anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
What
does John say the “dear children” must do to have confidence before
Christ when He comes (verse 28)?
What
does everyone who does what is right have in common (verse 29)?
How
are we called “children of God” (verse 1)?
Why
does the world not know the “children of God” (verse 1)?
What
has not “yet been made known” (verse 2)?
Who purifies themselves (verse 3)?
What is sin (verse 4)?
Why did Jesus appear (verse
5)?
How are those who live
in Jesus transformed (verse 6)?
In your opinion, why
does John issue the warning “do not let anyone lead you astray” (verse
7)?
Who is in the one who
does what is sinful of (verse 8)?
What remains in the one
“who is born of God” (verse 9)?
Who is the one “who
does not love their brother and sister” of (verse 10)?
In your opinion, what
is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what
does the division of people into those who are children of God and those who
are of the devil in 1 John 2:28-3:10 help us understand about the people of
Ammon in Ezekiel 25:1-7?
In
your opinion, how is the contrast between the world’s hatred of Jesus in John
7:1-9 and the love of the Father for His children in 1 John 2:28-3:10 enable us
to better understand who we are as siblings of Christ in the eyes of the world? In the family of God?
Revelation 9:13-21 – New International
Version (NIV)
13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming
from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It
said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who
are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four
angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year
were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The
number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard
their number.
17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their
breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the
horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire,
smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was
killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out
of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their
mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with
which they inflict injury.
20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did
not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping
demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that
cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of
their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their
thefts.
Where did
the voice come from when the sixth angel sounded his trumpet (verse 13)?
Who
did the voice want released (verse 14)?
In
your opinion, what does it mean that they “had been kept ready for this very
hour and day and month and year” (verse 15)?
What
were they to do (verse 15)?
How
did John know the number of the mounted troops (verse 16)?
In
your words, how would you describe the horses and riders (verse 17)?
What
killed “a third of mankind” (verse 18)?
Where
was the power of the horses (verse 19)?
What
did the “rest of mankind who were not killed by the plagues still” not
do (verses 20 and 21)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage
show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the world?
In your opinion, how is the punishment
of Ammon prophesied in Ezekiel 25:1-7 and the prophecy of the events that occur
after the sixth angel blows his trumpet in Revelation 9:13.21 similar?
In John 7:1-9 Jesus said that the world
hates Him because He testifies that “its works are evil”; in your
opinion are the sounding of the trumpet and horrors that follow in Revelation
9:13-21 a part of this testimony of Jesus?
In your opinion, how do the acts of the
people in Revelation 9:13-21 demonstrate which of the choices that John
outlines in 1 John 2:28-3:10 they have chosen?
In
your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach
us how Christians fit in to the choose God versus choose the world equation? (This can be a more complicated answer than a
quick reading of the question will prompt)?
In
your opinion, how can the Christian family, which is hated by the world, invite
people who have chosen the world to choose Jesus?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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