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Our weekly devotional content ties back to the worship themes and scriptures from the previous Sunday. Dig deeper into what the Word and the message mean to you, and explore how you can deepen your walk with Christ through these resources.
In addition to the devotional resources, the "5 Minutes with God" sections are like spiritual snacks; small, quick, easy connections you can make as you go about your busy life.
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Weekly Devotion
2-1-26
Introduction: The world’s idea of love is filled with caveats and contracts. I will do this for you and love you as long as you do this for me and love me. When the other person fails on their half of the bargain, the contract is ripped up and the flow of love both ways stops. The Christian church is unique in that this is not how God loves us or calls us to love each other. God models true unconditional love for the world in Christ and then gives us the blueprint in the Beatitudes to carry it out with one another.
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Discussion Questions
Opening Discovery
1. When you are in a place of trauma or worry or loss, what brings you comfort?
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2. Each beatitude is a condition tied to a promise. Look again at each: which combination of condition and promise speaks most to you?
3. How does each promise relate to its condition? Are they like opposites? Or something else.
4. What is the difference between reading the passage as an imperative, “do this and be blessed,” or as an indicative, “this has happen, and blessing is given nonetheless.”
What insight does that give you?
5. For each of the beatitudes—
What does each look like in the world today? An experience for yourself or others
“poor in spirit.”
“those who mourn”
“the meek”
“those hunger and thirst for righteousness”
“the merciful”
“the pure in heart”
“peacemakers”
“persecuted for righteousness sake”
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6. Have you experienced any of these beatitudes, both as a condition and an experience of God? e.g. You mourned and you were comforted. Is there another beatitude that describes your experience? What happened?
7. The beatitudes describe something of how God comes along side to comfort and love, when we are in an “unlovely” situation. How might the beatitudes describe how we are to relate to another human being in an unlovely situation? What would it look like for you to be the one to carry out the promise side of the beatitude? For a list—see question 5.
Weekly Devotion
1-25-26
Theme: Appeal for unity in the gospel. Paul calls on the Corinthians to end their dissensions and share the unified outlook of the gospel. Discord arises when we forget that we belong not to human leaders or institutions but to Christ. Indeed, the unifying word of the cross of Christ is the center of the gospel and the power of God’s salvation.
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind
and the same purpose. 11 For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters 12What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.16 I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send
me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ
might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Background:
Here are some of the issues that the church in Corinth faced: deep divisions and factionalism around leaders, incest and sexual license, allowing divisions of culture enter into the church such as the Lord’s Supper became a drunken party, and Spiritual gifts were joined to the culture’s fascination with superiority.
Opening Discovery
1) Do you have a story of being on a team or a group where you had to overcome initial divisions or differences before you became unified? What happened?
2) What contributed to finding common ground?
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3) Based on what Paul wrote here, what seems to be the problem in Corinth?
4) What personal stories do you have that could relate to this problem?
5) How does Paul address the problem?
6) Paul makes an appeal at the beginning, what is the nature of that appeal? How would you put it into your own words?
7) What does it mean for Paul to say: Has Christ been divided? What’s divided?
8) What does it mean to you when Paul says: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Why would the cross seem foolishness to someone?
9) The most humiliating act, the one that took away all power or status, was to be crucified. So what does it mean for Paul to associate power with this powerless experience of crucifixion?
10) What is the message about the cross that saves? What difference does that make?
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11) What is about Christ that knits us together today?
12) What is it that divides the church today?
13) What is one lesson you take away from this reading today? How is Paul speaking to you?
