Intersection A Sunday Morning Community at The Church of the Good Shepherd February 23, 2014
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Inersection Intersection A Sunday Morning Community at The Church of the Good Shepherd February 23, 2014
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Transcript of Intersection A Sunday Morning Community at The Church of the Good Shepherd February 23, 2014
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IntersectionA Sunday Morning Community at The Church of
the Good Shepherd
February 23, 2014
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For those new to our community . . .
Intersection explores the crossroads of faith, culture, and life after Sunday morning. A safe harbor to discuss pragmatic decisions, doubts, and dilemmas, we are an authentic community looking to form friendships with people in any phase of life or depth of faith in Christ.
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Things to know . . .www.cgsonline.org
Every Friday 6:30 – 7:30 AM in Commons
Contact [email protected] Studying Romans
8 week shepherding group leader training
modules with Bruce Clark
Senior Minister Search Committee has been initiated
Help RFU at UNC and Table feed the hungry in Chapel Hill –
collection table in the narthex
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Pray for our people
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Recently in Intersection . ..
• Faith and science• Difficult questions in
science• Perseverance amidst
the hard realities of life (Psalm 44)
Do you continue to see the
“Intersections” here between our faith and
the culture of the northwest side of the
research triangle?
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“I am not in control of my life”^
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Mikaela Shiffrin
http://screen.yahoo.com/mikaela-shiffrin-practice-makes-perfect-050000739.htmlWhat is so appealing to us about her profile?
This was entitled “Raising an Olympian” and sponsored by PNG “proud sponsor of Moms”. What does that suggest?
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Gifting, Uncontrollable Variables, God?
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17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 . . .
What tone do you see in this passage? Why?
For those with more “life experience” . . . What strikes you about this passage that might not have impacted you the same way at the
age of 20, 30, or 40?
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10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will revere him.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 . . .
Why is the “I am in control of my life” idea so spiritually dangerous?
But shouldn’t we strive, make the best use of our gifts, do something?
Thinking “I am Lord” has a deadening effect on our conversations with God . . . Control breeds self-
sufficiency, which can shut down our capacity to see God at work in our lives.
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11 I have seen something else under the sun:The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 . . .
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“I’m not sure there is a comparable god in my suburb, where every child has the potential to attend Harvard, and every five year-old soccer player has a parent who believes there exists a spot on the Olympic team for little Julia.
In a world that I will into being, there’s not much need for mystery, for the Sacred, for that which is outside my control. If I want a better marriage, I attend the church’s small group on marriage. If I want to protect my kids from bad music, I play in the minivan the Christian radio station that brands itself “Safe for the whole family”. . . . Immersed in a context that values things done right or not at all, I inevitably conclude, mostly subconsciously, that I can control my life. True spirituality is the opposite of control, though, for in the end death always does the overtaking. You miss that fact and you miss the larger purpose of spiritual formation.”
- David Goetz (Death By Suburb)
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An antidote: making time and space for God is a basic element of the
Christian walk.
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“Silence drastically breaks my rhythm. It’s so much easier to avoid what’s really going on in our souls, shifting our focus for busyness, for noise, for people, for teeny tiny distractions. Truly coming to know God, to hear his voice, is about bringing our souls to silence, bringing our hearts to a place where they can be alone and quiet with him.
Even in the silence and rest of an interlude, there is still rhythm.
Silence in music has its own rhythm. It lasts for a certain amount of bars. Silence is necessary to complete a song or a poem. The silence or pause allows us to differentiate the refrain from the verse, one stanza from the next. Maybe selah is God’s way of using interlude to let us know when he is about to begin a new refrain or write a new couplet. Maybe he wants to give us a chance to breathe so we can really hear his symphony when it begins.
- Amena Brown (Breaking Old Rythyms: Answering the Call of a Creative God)
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Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him . . . (Psalm 37:7)
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.(Psalm 46:10)
Why is solitude and silence so difficult to implement?
Final quote . . . .
