Adult Teching Resources Februry 28, 2016 Trnsfigurtion Sundy Who Needs King? Pslm 99 Seson of Lent (Februry 10-Mrch 26) Who Needs Rescuer? Pslm 91 (RCL 91:1-2, 9-16) Who Needs Light? Pslm 27 Who Needs God? Pslm 63 (RCL 63:1-8) www.bptiststody.org Subscribe to Bptists Tody to ccess the core Bible content for this lesson. www.nurturingfith.net Find links nd videos relted to this lesson. 1 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Who Needs God? Pslm 63 FIT Teching Guide by Rick Jordn This dult teching outline is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Crtlege, printed in Bptists Tody. You cn subscribe to either the digitl or print edition of Bptists Tody to ccess the lessons. Plese lso ensure tht ech person in your clss hs copy of Bptists Tody so they cn prepre before the lesson. Before the Lesson: Hve blnk pper nd pens to be used for the Trnsformtionl Exercise. Fellowship Question Use one of the following to brek the ice, to begin discussion, nd led into the study: How much drkness do you need to fll sleep? Hve you been in desert? Where nd when? Informtion Lst week, we tlked bout our journey of fith how there were dys of fith nd dys of fer, dys of drkness nd dys of light. We could hve dded dys of fests nd dys of fmine or dys of resting by still wters nd dys of wndering in desert. Generlly speking, we would cll times of drkness or times of wndering in desert bd times. We re nxious to get bck to the light. If we drive through the desert, we re likely to do so with windows up s we enjoy the comfort of ir-conditioning. We like comfort. Mybe drk dys re good for us. Mybe we need desert dys. [Hve clss member red Pslm 63:1.] We use the word hunger to refer to physicl desire for food. But we lso use it symboliclly. Cn you think of other wys someone might hunger? (An thlete hungers for win. A lonely person hungers for close reltionship. A writer hungers for work to be published, etc.) How might the word hunger be used in reference to one s spiritul life? In the Betitudes, Jesus refers to this hunger. [Hve clss member red Mtthew 5:6.] Wht do you think tht mens to hunger nd thirst for righteousness? (to hve deep desire for justice; to wnt ll things to be right, s God wnts them to be, etc.) Our pslmist thirsts nd hungers for God in dry nd wery lnd where there is no wter. 2 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Informtion continued We could tke this literlly the pslmist is sitting in dessert writing song. But I feel he is writing metphoriclly. This world, where things re not right, mkes us long for world tht is right. We wnt lnd tht is productive, fruitful, green nd moist. We wnt wells tht re deep nd full. We wnt spirits tht re fresh, growing, nd fruitful. This ws the hope of the prophets. [Hve clss member red Isih 12:3 nd Isih 55:1.] This ws the life Jesus would offer. [Hve clss member red John 7:37-38.] When our spiritul hunger nd thirst re met, we hve the joy of the pslmist. [Hve clss member red Pslm 63:2-5.] There is gret joy when we feel deeply connected with God. But even the times of dryness cn be gift nd time for spiritul growth. How hve you experienced this? One writer quotes the gret mystic of Spin, Teres of Avil (1515-1582). Listen to the two resons she offers to explin the dryness we my experience in our spiritul lives: [Red this quote:] If the wters suddenly stop flowing, we re likely to pnic. How hve I filed? Why is God so fr wy? Where hve I displesed him? This dryness cn be due to our own negligence, our own infidelities This is why the exmintion of conscience [is] n essentil prt of even mture spiritulity But there cn be nother explntion for the dryness of the well Teres sys, Wht then will he do here who finds tht for mny dys he experiences nothing but ridity, dislike, distste nd so little desire to go nd drw wter?...let him render (God) gret prise for hving plced such confidence in him Let him help (the Lord) to ber the Cross nd consider how He lived with it His whole life long: let him not wish to hve his kingdom on erth or ever cese from pryer: nd so let him resolve, even if this ridity should persist his whole life long, never to let Christ fll beneth the Cross. [Thoms H. Green. When the Well Runs Dry: Pryer Beyond Its Beginnings. Notre Dme, Indin: Ave Mri Press. 1979. p. 82f.] Wht re the two resons Teres offers for spiritul dryness? She ctully sys the dryness is something we could even prise God for! Why? Even beginner cn sense tht there is something wrong when he professes to follow crucified Lord nd yet is discourged by few dys of dryness. How cn my Lord hng on cross nd I be content with life of sweetness nd light? (Ibid. 84) Jesus fced such dry, desert dys. [Hve clss member red Hebrews 5:7-9.] 3 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Informtion continued How does tht Scripture relte to your spiritul growth? [Hve clss member red Pslm 63:5-8.] We move from n imge of wilderness or desert to tht of drkness. Most of the time, drkness is used s negtive imge in the Bible. (Think vlley of the shdow of deth in Pslm 23 or The light shines in the drkness, nd the drkness hs not overcome it in John 1:5) However, wht re the imges of drkness in this song? (bedtime, wtching the night, shdow of wings) If this pslm is written by Dvid, we might recll tht s shepherd boy he probbly spent mny night keeping wtch over his sheep by night just outside of Bethlehem. From this experience, he wrote some of his most beutiful poems. [Hve clss members red Pslm 19:1-4; Pslm 8:3-4; Pslm 148:3-5.] The drk cn be beutiful. However, s with the dry desert, sometimes the drkness is unwelcome. And, s with the times of spiritul dryness, sometimes spiritully drk dys re times for reflection nd submission nd growth. [Red or summrize the following quote:] I believe tht it is bsolutely no ccident tht the Pslmist wrote: I lie wke thinking of you, meditting on you through the night... becuse the drkness is eqully prt of life s is light! There re mny kinds of drkness including the ctul drkness when the sun s light is shining on the other side of the world; but there is lso the drkness of the soul, or the mind, or the hert; nd ech brings its own struggle nd chllenge. When I look into the personl nd privte snctury of my hert, soul nd mind, I recognize the blekness tht sometimes resides there s it rises questions, doubts nd fers bout my spiritul, physicl or mentl relity. Yet is only in those drk moments, those times of not knowing, tht I relly begin to know nd perhps even understnd more bout my God nd so I meditte on my God in the night wtches. (Jon Stott. http://www.thetimelesspslms.net/w_resources/ lent3c_2013.htm ) Trnsformtionl Exercise [Distribute blnk pper nd pens.] How hs drkness been good thing in your spiritul journey? How hs spiritul hunger ffected your spiritul growth? This week, we will do similr type of spiritul journey grph tht we did lst week. However in this grph, we will drw brs. The first br will represent drk events or experiences in your life nd how much they ffected you. Fill tht br with lines. Beside tht 4 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Trnsformtionl Exercise continued one, drw br to represent your spiritul growth, in retrospect. As you look bck on those drk dys, how ws your fith ffected? Did your fith grow, sty the sme, diminish? The gol of this exercise is to consider whether your difficult dys hve nurtured spiritul growth or not. Mybe some drk dys did, but others did not. [If there is time nd trust mong group members, sk them to shre their grph nd interprettion with clss member.] Wht did you get from this exercise? [Close in pryer something like this: God, it is good to know tht we re not lone. Even Jesus hd dys tht he wndered in the wilderness. Even Jesus hd dys when his spirit needed renewing. Remind us tht you re with us in the drkest times of our lives, even when ll we cn see re shdows. Amen. ] Comments or Questions for Rick Jordn? You my send comments to the lesson pln uthor t rjordn@cbfnc.org. Rick is lso vilble to led workshops nd conferences on Christin Eduction, with prticulr emphsis on how best to use the FIT Fith model. 5 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Digging Deeper by Tony Crtlege Digging Deeper is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Crtlege, printed in Bptists Tody. Wtch for the shovel icon in the The Bible Lesson, nd then reference tht item in this Digging Deeper resource. You cn subscribe to either the digitl or print edition of Bptists Tody to ccess the lessons. Plese lso ensure tht ech person in your clss hs copy of Bptists Tody so they cn prepre before the lesson. A frequent theme The theme of this pslm should sound fmilir, for it shres the confident trust of Pslms 27 nd 91, lectionry texts for the two previous weeks. Although it my seem repetitive, threefold dose of trust in God cn build on erlier lessons nd be good for our spiritul helth. A God-shped hole Bck in the 17th century, Blise Pscl ws prone to think deeply bout mny things. A child prodigy, he grew to become mthemticin, physicist, inventor, nd philosopher. He died in 1662, nd in 1670 collection of his thoughts on philosophy nd theology ws published s Pensées (the French word for thoughts ). His writing suggests tht Pscl believed ll humns to hve nturl thirst for God: Wht else does this crving, nd this helplessness, proclim but tht there ws once in mn true hppiness, of which ll tht now remins is the empty print nd trce? This he tries in vin to fill with everything round him, seeking in things tht re not there the help he cnnot find in those tht re, though none cn help, since this infinite byss cn be filled only with n infinite nd immutble object; in other words by God himself. Pensées VII (425). In more recent yers, vriety of spekers nd uthors hve tken up Pscl s theme by referring to God-shped hole within every person tht cn only be stisfied by the divine presence. O God, you re my God You my be fmilir with Nthn Sewell s musicl version of Pslm 63, O God You Are My God. A version of it cn be found t https://www.youtube. com/wtch?v=xj9z8vfn8wk. Chngeble nmes The Elohistic Pslter, which stretches from 42-83 nd is distinguished by the use of Elohim s the nme for God. Editors of the book of Pslms sometimes chnged the nme of God to serve their purposes. We know this becuse some pslms pper twice in the pslter, employing Yhweh in wht is probbly the older form (Pslm 14 nd 40:13-17), nd Elohim when they pper in the Elohistic pslter (Pslm 53 nd 70). Drem visions Not ll who sought visions in drems found them. Though it is uncler whether King Sul sought word from God by sleeping in the temple, 1 Sm. 28:6 sys God refused to spek to him: When Sul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not nswer him, not by drems, or by Urim, or by prophets. Swer by whom? In the biblicl context, swering does not refer to foul lnguge or promising to tell the truth, but to the mking of n oth. For the Hebrews, n oth consisted of promise to do something, reinforced by self-imprection or curse ginst oneself if 6 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
Digging Deeper continued he or she did not keep the promise with n ppel to the power who could crry out the curse. People in the ncient world generlly swore by the gods, nd Deuteronomy instructed the Hebrews to swer by God lone (Deut. 6:13), nd Jeremih criticized those who swore by Bl (Jer. 12:16). In some cses, however, people were known to swer by the king, or by both the king nd God together (Deut. 6:13, Jer. 12:16, 1 Kgs. 8:31). In Ps. 63:11, the pronominl suffix is indefinite. Grmmticlly, those who swer by him could refer to God, or to the king. Scholrs rgue different positions, but it seems more likely tht mening is strengthened if the referent is to God, the one who hs power to enforce curses s well s to deliver. 7 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016
The Hrdest Question by Tony Crtlege The Hrdest Question is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Crtlege, printed in Bptists Tody. You cn subscribe to either the digitl or print edition of Bptists Tody to ccess the lessons. Plese lso ensure tht ech person in your clss hs copy of Bptists Tody so they cn prepre before the lesson. Why does this theme sound fmilir? The pslmist s theme of sold-out trust in God whose presence is better thn life my seem distnt to us, but we find similr pssges in the New Testment. Pul ws no poet, but consider these texts: I hve been crucified with Christ; 20 nd it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by fith in the Son of God, who loved me nd gve himself for me. (Gl. 2:20) For to me, living is Christ nd dying is gin. If I m to live in the flesh, tht mens fruitful lbor for me; nd I do not know which I prefer. I m hrd pressed between the two: my desire is to deprt nd be with Christ, for tht is fr better (Phil. 1:21-23) Not tht I hve lredy obtined this or hve lredy reched the gol; but I press on to mke it my own, becuse Christ Jesus hs mde me his own. Beloved, I do not consider tht I hve mde it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting wht lies behind nd strining forwrd to wht lies hed, I press on towrd the gol for the prize of the hevenly cll of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who re mture be of the sme mind; nd if you think differently bout nything, this too God will revel to you. Only let us hold fst to wht we hve ttined. Brothers nd sisters, join in imitting me, nd observe those who live ccording to the exmple you hve in us. For mny live s enemies of the cross of Christ; I hve often told you of them, nd now I tell you even with ters. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; nd their glory is in their shme; their minds re set on erthly things. But our citizenship is in heven, nd it is from there tht we re expecting Svior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil. 3:12-20) Pul, like the pslmist, hd experienced good dys nd bd dys. He hd done wrong, nd he hd done good. After Pul met Christ on the rod to Dmscus not unlike the Juden wilderness ttributed to Pslm 63 Pul determined tht his dys of equivoction were over. Following Jesus, spreding the gospel, crrying light into drk plces, nd being fithful no mtter wht becme Pul s first priority. As we give thought to these two writers of scripture, distnt in time but ttuned in spirit, wht might they suggest for our own priorities of life? 8 Nurturing Fith Februry 28, 2016