Play Ball - Stepping up to the plate

Think of at least three examples from the Bible of people who stepped up to the plate (other than the ones we gave on Sunday).

What happened as a result of their stepping up? What would have happened if they HADN’T stepped up?

Was there a time in your life when God has called you to step up to the plate and you did? What was the result? Did it make you want to step up again?

Can you think of a time in your life where you felt God calling you to step up to the plate, but you chose not to? What was the result? Were you sorry you hadn’t stepped up?

Where do you feel God is calling you to step up at this point in your life? What is it that is keeping you from doing that? What’s it going to take to step up?

In the story of the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him through the roof to see Jesus, it was the friends who really stepped up to the plate to help their friend. Do you have a friend who needs you to step up to the plate to help them find Jesus?

Play Ball - Spring Training

In your Spiritual Spring Training, what Spiritual Discipline needs your most immediate attention? Prayer? Fasting? Tithing? Bible Study? Meditation? Solitude? Other?

All Scripture is inspired by God…. That’s how the New Living Translation of the Bible translates 2 Timothy 3:16a. The New International Version translates it like this: All Scripture is God-breathed…. What does this mean to you? What is the connection between God and this book we call The Holy Bible?

Sanctifying grace is that aspect of God’s unconditional love that draws us ever closer to God’s holiness. What is it in your life that needs to change to allow you to better realize God’s holiness in you? In other words, what is it that is keeper you from getting closer to God?

If you limit [Jesus] by your experience, your theology, and your hopes and expectations, your will end up with something less than a Savior and more like a carpenter.

M. Craig Barnes

An Extravagant Mercy (p. 214)

How are you limiting Jesus? What is it in your life that is keeping your from experiencing all that Jesus has to offer? Are you looking for the carpenter to fix things in your life, or are you calling on the Savior to transform your life?

For God so loved YOU that he gave his one and only Son, that when YOU believe in him YOU shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (NIV w/ some minor adjustments)

What’s keeping you from fully accepting this verse? Can you pray to God to remove whatever it is that’s keeping you from making it yours?

Beach Party - The Sun

Are you surprised with Jonah’s response to God’s kindness to the Ninevites? Do you think Jonah had good reason to be upset?

Do you ever feel resentful when something good happens to someone else? When someone else gets a second chance? Where do those feelings come from?

What temporary things are YOU more concerned with than the eternal destinies of other people?

What can you do to keep yourself from becoming uncaring about others, especially those outside the faith?

As you review Jonah’s story, are there areas/relationships in your life in which God is inviting you to move beyond your comfort levels to extend kindness and compassion, to extend a second chance?

Beach Party - The Sand

Read Jonah chapter 2

“From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” (v. 2b NIV)

Have you ever felt like this? When? Who did you call to for help? Did you get the help you sought?

“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”(v. 8 NIV)

What is meant by this?

Have you ever felt that God allowed you some short-term challenges in your life in order to get your attention, in order to bring to back to Him? What were they? Did the challenges bring you closer or further from God?

Read Matthew 12:38-41. Consider Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish. How is Jonah similar to Jesus? How are they different?

Has God given you a second chance? When? What did you do with it? How many second chances have you had? Again, what did you do with them?