"Becoming Myself: The One Who Loves You"
Hear 0 Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 11:29-31.
1) Texts: Hosea 2:14-15; 11:1-4, 8-9; Luke 19:1-10
2) On Sunday the words ‘sacred love’ were used several times. Describe what Sacred Love means to you1. How does Hosea describe sacred love? Where is it evidenced in the story of Zacchaeus?
3) How do you feel about the way Hosea describes God with such intimate language? Sacred means holy, where does the description of God’s love for Israel feel holy/unholy? Healthy/unhealthy? Below are listed some of the words found in the Hosea text, how would you define these statements?
- “My heart recoils with me”
- “How can I give up Ephraim (Israel)?” Where/when have you lost hope in someone?
4) Hosea uses the image of an unfaithful wife to describe Yahweh’s relationship with Israel. Jesus in Matthew (5:32; 19:9) said divorce was wrong except on the grounds of adultery, yet God remains faithful to an adulterous people; how do you reconcile God’s actions with Christ’s instructions?
5) Scott McKnight quotes these words from Lewis Smedes; “Yahweh is the sort who sticks with what he is stuck with.”2 Unwrap what that means to you. Describe a time in your life when you felt you needed to stick with what you were stuck with.
6) Lloyd Ogilvie (Chaplain to US Congress) said that in the book of Hosea we read of ‘God’s loneliness’. Further, he stated that God’s loneliness is evidenced today in the church where we keep God at a distance. What do you think the church does to keep God at a distance? How do you think that effects the leadership of the church (pastor, elders, teachers, deacons, etc.)?
7) McKnight states that Sacred Love effects us in:
- Transforming our speech
- Converting our acts
- Inspiring our worship
We saw how Jesus’ love for Zacchaeus converted his actions; how are you changed in your speech, acts and worship because of the sacred love of the Father?
8) Zacchaeus was described as one who changed from a wolf to a sheep to a shepherd. Describe what each of those descriptions means to you and where you currently most identify.
9) What is the one thing that you are challenged to do differently this week because of the Sacred Love of the Father?
Week of September 30,2007
The Village Church, Rancho Santa Fe
The Rev. Jan Farley
1 Webster’s Dictionary describes sacred as: Dedicated to/or set apart for the worship of deity. Entitled to veneration or religious respect by association with divinity or divine things; holy.
2 McKnight, Scott: The Jesus Creed; quoting from The Making and Keeping of Commitments, pg. 9
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