Seek the Lord
Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 - New International
Version (NIV)
14 The great day of
the Lord is near—
near and coming quickly.
The cry on the day of the Lord is
bitter;
the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry.
15 That day will be a day of wrath—
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of trouble and ruin,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness—
16 a day of trumpet and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the corner towers.
17 “I will bring such
distress on all people
that they will grope about like those who are blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their entrails like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them
on the day of the Lord’s
wrath.”
In the fire of his jealousy
the whole earth will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end
of all who live on the earth.
2 Gather together, gather yourselves together,
you shameful nation,
2 before the decree takes effect
and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the Lord’s fierce
anger
comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s
wrath
comes upon you.
3 Seek the Lord,
all you humble of the land,
you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s
anger.
Where
is “the great day of the Lord” (verse 14)?
What will that day be (verses 15 and 16)?
Why will people “grope about like those who
are blind” (verse 17)?
What will happen to the earth (verse 18)?
Who is commanded to “gather yourselves
together” (verse 2:1)?
When are they to gather (verse 2)?
Who is to “seek the Lord” (verse 3)?
How might someone be sheltered “on the day
of the Lord’s anger” (verse 3)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
John
14:1-7 - New
International Version (NIV)
1 “Do not let
your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in
me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not
so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for
you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I
am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going,
so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father
as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
What are Jesus’s disciples not to let “be troubled”
(verse 1)?
Who do they believe in (verse 1)?
Who are they also to believe in (verse 1)?
What does Jesus’s Father’s house have (verse 2)?
Who is Jesus going to prepare “a place for” (verse
2)?
Where will Jesus take them (verse 3)?
What do the disciples know (verse 4)?
Who said “Lord, we don’t know” (verse 5)?
What is Jesus (verse 6)?
What is the only way to the Father (verse 6)?
Who do the disciples know “from now on” (verse
7)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In
your opinion, is this message from Jesus to the disciples also for us?
In your opinion, what
does this passage show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?
In
your opinion, what is the difference between the outcome of the instruction in
Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 to “Seek righteousness, seek humility” and the outcome of the instruction
of Jesus in John 14:1-7 to “do not let your hearts be troubled””?
1 John 2:15-23 – New International Version (NIV)
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone
loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For
everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the
world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but
whoever does the will of God lives forever.
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard
that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have
come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They
went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had
belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that
none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of
you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you
do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes
from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies
that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father
and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father;
whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
Why
does John say not to love “the world or anything in the world” (verse 15)?
Where
does “everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life” come from (verse 16)?
What
passes away (verse 17)?
Who
“lives forever” (verse 17)?
What
time is it (verse 18)?
How do we know what time it is (verse 18)?
What showed that the
antichrists “did not really belong to us” (verse 19)?
Who has “has an
anointing from the Holy One” (verse 20)?
Where does “no lie” come
from (verse 21)?
“Who is the liar” (verse 22)?
What does and
antichrist do (verse 22)?
Who has the Father
(verse 23)?
In your opinion, what
is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, how
are both Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 and 1 John 2:12-23 explanations of the difference
between choosing to be humble before God or choosing the world?
In
your opinion, how is the instruction of Jesus in John 14:1-7 to “do not let
your hearts be troubled” related to the instruction from John in 1 John
2:15-23 to “do not love the world or anything in the world”?
Revelation 19:17-21 – New International
Version (NIV)
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice
to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for
the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh
of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh
of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and
their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the
horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured,
and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its
behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the
mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were
thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The
rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on
the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
Where was the angel standing (verse 17)?
Who
did the angel cry out to (verse 17)?
Why
were the birds to gather (verse 17)?
Whose
flesh was to be eaten (verse 18)?
Why
did the “beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” gather (verse
19)?
What
happened to the beast and the false prophet (verse 20)?
How
had the false prophet “deluded those who had received the mark of the beast
and worshiped its image” (verse 20)?
What
happened to the beast and the false prophet (verse 20)?
How
were the rest killed (verse 21)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage
show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?
In your opinion, how can the One who
goes to prepare a place in John 14:1-7 also be the One who kills with the Sword
coming from His mouth in Revelation 19:17-21?
In your opinion, how does Revelation
19:17-21 expand the way we might understand John’s statement in 1 John 2:15-23
that “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of
God lives forever”?
In
your opinion, what do these passages from Zephaniah, John, 2 John and Revelation
teach us the about the choice between loving the world or trusting in and loving
God?
In your
opinion, how is obedience to the command to “seek the Lord”
transformational?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
