watershed: a community church

• Have you ever wondered if God really loves you?
• If you are confident that God loves you, have you ever wondered why?
• Do you ever struggle with doing things your own way instead of God's way (a.k.a. sin) and wish you had greater power to resist and overcome it?
• Have you ever longed to experience God's forgiveness and love on a more profound level?
• Do you desire to deepen your love for people and want to discover how to give and receive love more freely?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, the book of 1 John has words to speak to you. These were the very issues and questions facing the followers of Jesus that John addresses in this letter. They needed to discover more of God's love. They longed for overcoming power to be unleashed in their lives. Their hearts hungered to know God's forgiveness in all its fullness. And these followers of Jesus desired to express and receive genuine love with other people.

In the midst of their worry, fear and doubt, John wrote to bring assurance, hope and confidence. John's readers found direction in his wise God-directed words, and I firmly believe his words offer the same assurance, hope and confidence for us.

We'll begin exploring this letter from John at our gathering this Sunday. I'd like to invite you to please read 1 John 1:1-2:2 in preparation for our discussion together.

• What questions does John address in these verses?
• What questions/issues do his words raise?
• What are the implications of his words for following Jesus today?

For a couple of weeks now we've been wrestling with some big questions - about God, about our world. As a follower of Jesus I am convinced that what I believe about what God is like and how this world works play a crucial role in how I live my life and understand my faith. God is doing something in our world, and he invites you and me to discover our place in the story. But it seems that there are a lot of different ideas floating around out there about what the means.

So this week we're going to wrestle with those ideas...and explore what the Bible has to say about them. A few topics to consider: God, Jesus, salvation, sin, judgment, heaven, hell, who's in, who's out, good news for who?, the gospel, following Jesus, being born again.

 

It's been great to have so many of people coming with thoughts on these topics, and searching the scriptures for direction. I look forward to hearing what you've discovered this week. If you'd like to help us get the conversation going ahead of time, please offer your comments below.