the gospel challenge

An 8-week adventure of discovery

You did it!  You made it through the eight-week Gospel challenge!  I hope this experience has helped you to read the Gospel of John (so far) with fresh eyes and ears.  I also hope your heart has been encouraged as you have experienced different practices and had intentional conversations with a friend.  My encouragement to you is to identify one part of this challenge that you will continue to do beyond this eight-week experience.  What have you enjoyed or what has benefitted you the most that you will continue?
May you experience God’s blessings as you read His Word and spend time with Him!

Week Eight: Deepening Your Faith

1.  Watch the message
What did you hear?
What did you notice?
Jot down a word, a phrase, or insight you want to remember throughout the week.
WATCH ANY MESSAGE FROM THIS SERIES HERE
2. Read the passages at least one time during the week:
In the passage this week Jesus returns to Cana where he provided the first miraculous sign and now demonstrated a second sign by healing an official’s son.
Some things to think about the passage:
  • While the religious leaders in Jerusalem reject Jesus, the servant of a worldly prince, a man in the service of Herod Antipas, comes to believe in Jesus along with his whole household.
  • Jesus’ initial reply to his request, “Will you never believe unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”  He challenges the need to always receive a miracle or see a sign to have faith.  Jesus invites us to a faith beyond the need for a sign.
  • The man persists, pleading to have Jesus come to his home.  Jesus tells the man that he can return home, his son will live without Jesus being physically present.  The man believes him and heads home.  Without Jesus coming with him.  With no outward affirmation that his son would be ok.  Just faith in Jesus and his word.  And so, the man makes the long walk home, about 20 miles – a full days walk.  Imagine what that walk was like up until his servants meet him.  What was going through his mind?  His heart?  Would you have been able to walk away from Jesus believing that what he said was true, just because he said it?

John 4:43-54   NLT

43 At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to Galilee. 44 He himself had said that a prophet is not honored in his own hometown. 45 Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.

Practices to supplement your reading

3.  Explore a Practice
You are encouraged to explore different spiritual practices during this eight-week challenge.  Not all practices benefit everyone, but you are encouraged to use this time to experiment with something new or return to a practice maybe you haven’t done in a while.  You will be provided with a couple different options.  You are encouraged to try one each week.

Gratitude

The purpose of this practice is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to live with a grateful heart, cognizant of God’s work in my life and my abundant resources.
Ways to practice gratitude:
  • End every day by saying thank you to God for a least one thing.  Then tell God what that one thing meant for you.
  • Write a letter of thanks to someone who has touched your life in the past year, the past month, the past week.
  • Are you experiencing a current hardship?  How do you feel about this hardship?  Tell the truth to God.  Where is there evidence of God’s presence in this hardship?  Is there anything you can be thankful for?  If you cannot find God in your hardship, spend some time with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  What does he want to tell you?
  • Notice your tendency to make comparisons that result in feelings of dissatisfaction or entitlement.  Practice abstaining from comparative statements about what you don’t have.  Instead give thanks for what you do have.

Prayer of Recollection

This practice helps us rest in God, allowing him to calm and heal my fragmented and distracted self.
  • Intentionally come into the presence of God.  Spend several moments thanking Jesus that he is present with you.  Then quietly settle into resting with and in him.  When you become distracted, invite Jesus to look at the distraction with you.  What does Jesus want to say to you about the distraction?  Give the distraction to him again and settle into rest.  Continue the process of handing distractions to Jesus as you settle more and more deeply into your restful identity in him.

Truth Telling

This practice helps us to live an authentically truthful life.
  • Take some time to assess your honesty.  Think back over the past week.  Where have you been tempted to stretch the truth, take advantage of a privilege, break  a commitment or gossip?  What do you see about yourself?  Where is it hardest for you to tell the truth?  Write a prayer of confession in your journal.  Or confess your sin to a trusted friend.  Ask him or her to pray for you.
  • What lies do you tend to tell yourself?  What tapes do you play in your head that make you feel worthless, inadequate, and unloved?  Talk to God about what it is like to give space in your head and heart for these lies.  Turn to Psalm 139.  What sort of thoughts does God have about you?  Replace the lies you listen to with the truth of what God says about you.
(Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun)

Talk to a Friend

Take the initiative to call, Zoom, Facetime, or talk with someone about the message and/or your reading of the passage from John this week.  Here are some optional questions/suggestions to get your conversation started:
  • Share a thought or insight from Sunday’s message.
  • What did you notice from the Scripture passage?
  • Share what one part of the Gospel Challenge you will continue to incorporate into your spiritual practice.
join the fb group here

View All Previous Weeks Here

Now may the God of peace - who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—
may he equip you with all you need for doing his will may he produce in you
through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.
all glory to him forever and ever!  Amen.
Hebrews 13:20