[Organization Name]

Sunday: 4/1/12

Palm Sunday!

Read Mark 15:21-47

These passages emphasized different parts of the journey that Jesus took to the cross. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He went the distance. He took that burden off of us when he died for us. He knew what it meant to sacrifice himself for those he loved. Too much of the time we live selfishly and we don't think about those around us. But Jesus lived completely opposite. He loved people, he lived and died for people. For us. For you.

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How have you sacrificed your life for someone else?

Wednesday: 2/29/12

The Greatest is Love: Love in Action

When we think of love in action, we don't often think of sacrifice. God asks us to put aside ourselves and sacrifice our time and energy to love those around us. But sometimes it's hard to know how to do that. We have the Bible though, which gives us a great illustration of how to do it.

Read Romans 12:9-21

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q:What does it look like to put love in action in YOUR life?

Sunday: 2/26/12

Covered in Dust: Judgement

As humans, we are plagued with our flesh. Our flesh encourages our insecurities, our failures, our flaws and doesn't give grace to us in anyway. When we choose to listen to our flesh, we put down other people and judge them for what they wear, how they talk and who they hang out with. There is no rhyme or reason to it, we just judge.

Read Luke 7:36-50

The woman was judged by the pharisees, and Jesus praised her. She was an example of humility at the feet of Jesus.

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How can you stop yourself from judging people around you?

Wednesday: 2/22/12

The Greatest is Love: Love One Another

Read John 13

Feet. I'm not gonna lie, feet are not my favorite thing to talk about. I really honestly don't like feet all that much. I think they are gross and yucky and shouldn't be touched. Back in Bible times, their feet were much, much worse because they acted as their wheels. Instead of driving in cars, people walked everywhere. This meant that everyone's feet were covered in dust. Not only dust but animal poop and tons of other things.

Jesus humbled himself on his knees and cleaned the gross, nasty feet of his disciples. He told us in this passage that we are to go and clean one another's feet for no one person is higher seated than the next in the Kingdom of God. Now this doesn't mean to literally wash everyone's feet. It means to humble yourself before other people and serve. It could be something as small as unloading the dishwasher for your sister when it's her turn. Or buying food for a friend when they have none.But it's not all abou the act of serving, it is also the heart behind it. When we serve one another we need to do it because Christ did it for us, not to make ourselves look good.

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How are you going to serve others this week?

Sunday: 2/12/12

Covered in Dust

The Lord's prayer was the first real prayer that I ever heard. When we look at the Lord's prayer, there are all the different elements of prayer in it. When we reflect on this passage in scripture we see that prayer is not simply asking for things. There are so many elements to prayer. The first part is praising God. The prayer is not only praising, but asking for his will to be done. There is no desire for our will, or our desires, but simply Christ's. It then goes on to requests. It says, give us this day our daily bread. It talks about only giving us enough for the day. This is a reminder to go to God every day. We don't need to worry about the future because he has us living moment by moment and he wants us to fully rely on him. The next part refers to forgiveness. It is referring to forgiveness that God has given us, but also us forgiving those that have wronged us. Then the last part is asking for protection.

Read Matthew 6:5-15

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How can you add each of these elements into your prayers?

Wednesday: 2/8/12

The Greatest is Love: God is Love

On Wednesday, Bre talked about how God is love. We are to show the world around us what God's love looks like. As Christians, we are called to love those around us. Loving those around us is not something we can do on our own. It is only something that we can accomplish through Christ. That is how God shines through us. Part of that is loving people unconditionally, but another part is obeying God's commands.

Read 1 John 5:1-5

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How can you do better in obeying God's commands this week?

Sunday: 1/29/12

Salt and Light

Read 1 John 1:5-10

Sunday Bre talked about how Jesus tells us we are to be salt and light in this world.  For the Grow page this week we want to continue on this theme of light.   

God is light.  And in him is no darkness at all.  light vs. darkness.   Darkness is the complete absense of light.  So we are to walk in the light.  The things that are of God:  seeking what is right, holy, true, and perfect.  Live a life of love and forgive those who hurt you.  These are attributes of the light.  When we live only for our selves and our own selfish desires we choose to live in the shadows: we straddle the darkness and it pulls us away from what is good and of God.  It pulls us from the light.

GROW

Read what John says about light in 1 John.

Read 1 John 1:5-10…TO WIN THE PRIZE

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Q: How can you do a better job of walking in the light this week?

Sunday: 1/22/12

The Beatitudes

Matt spoke about the beatitudes this past Sunday. The blessed are people who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted because of righteousness. The passage in Luke  puts the beatitudes in easy to understand language. The part that gets me is the way that it gives the blessings and woes. Jesus tells us blatantly what we should and should not do. It is a call to strive to be more like Christ.

GROW

Read Luke 6:20-26…TO WIN THE PRIZE

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt or Bre on Wednesday or Sunday.

Wednesday: 1/18/12

A Picture of Grace

Last week, Matt talked about Ephesians 2:8-9 which says

For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith - and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.

We learned that we are saved by grace.

This week we talked about what a picture of grace looks like. The parable of the prodigal son is the perfect picture of grace.

Read Luke 15:11-32

The father showed his youngest son grace by forgiving him for leaving. He chose to show him God's love and grace. When we think of grace, we don't really understand the concept of it. God's grace is a free gift that he lavishes on us. He wants us to know how important we are to him. Grace is unmerited mercy. Grace is a promise of being enough.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Just like the father who showed his son grace, God shows us grace when we mess up. We are forgiven when we mess up because God gives us grace. How awesome is it that we have a God whose power is made PERFECT in our weakness?! It's SUPER AWESOME!!! I can hardly believe it. But that is our God.

GROW

Read Luke 7:36-50…TO WIN THE PRIZE

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt on Wednesday or Sunday.

Wednesday: 1/4/12

I.D. PLEASE

Who am I?

That is a question that all of us struggle with at some point in our lives. But especially as we're growing older and figuring out who we want to be. What are some things that make you who you are? Is it the people around you? Your friends and family? Is it the things that you do that define you? Does what people say affect you and how you look at yourself? 

Who does God say I am?

He says you are his child.

How great is the 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.

1 John 3:1-2

He says you are his friend.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not kow his master's business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15

He says you are born of God.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

We are God's children. We have the love of God in us and it surrounds us all the time. All of these things that God has said about us is truth. So much of the time, the world tells us lies about ourselves that we choose to believe. But you have to know that those are the lies the enemy wants you to believe as truth. God tells us the truth about who we are and who he has created us to be. We have to live in those truths that we are his creation. We have to live with new perspective on life. We have to live transformed like it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

How are YOU living as a new creation? What does God say about you? How are you going to remember that when you are surrounded by lies? LIVE IN GOD'S TRUTH!

GROW

Read Galatians 2:20-21…TO WIN THE PRIZE

Answer the following question about the “Going Deeper” passage and win the prize of the week. Bring your answer to Matt on Wednesday or Sunday.

-Jesus used the bread and the wine to represent his most precious gift to mankind.