QUESTIONS FOR YOUR SMALL GROUP OR FAMILY TO HELP YOU DIG DEEPER INTO THIS MESSAGE:
Read Malachi 2:17-3:3. Why did God say that when Jesus came He would HAVE to come as a Refiner? Who was God talking to? What were they doing wrong?
In 1 Peter 2:9 we read that WE are “a royal priesthood”. What does that mean? How are you and I ‘priests’ today?
In what ways to we “RE-define” evil and call it “GOOD” today? Does ‘the Church’ do this?
When hearing some of the history of America, what were you thinking? What did this make you think of?
When reading from the original application to get into Harvard what stands out to you? Here is the excerpt that Pastor Michael read:‘When any scholar is able to write and speak true Latin in verse and prose he may then apply. He must also decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns, verbs in Greek, Latin and Hebrew he may apply. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly press to consider well the main end of his life and that is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3). And therefore, to lay Christ in the bottom as the foundation of all true knowledge and all true wisdom. And seeing the Lord only gives wisdom, let every student and scholar seriously set himself to prayer and seek it daily. Everyone shall so exercise in reading Scripture twice a day and he shall be ready to give an account of his proficiency therein both in theology and in practical matters. All that profane God’s name shall be dismissed. They that studiously redeem the time and observe all general hours shall diligently attend all devotional lectures. None shall frequent the company of such men of society that are unfit or dissolute in life. Every scholar shall arise in the morning hour immediately after sounding of his bell and open the Scripture for prayer, also the fifth hour at night…’
Here’s a quote from the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, a document that all of the founding fathers of America signed their names to:“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Discuss what these three “unalienable Rights” are and mean. (Genesis 1, John 8:32, John 14:6, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)
Lastly, read 1 Peter 1:6-9. What is the RESULT of God’s refining fire supposed to produce in us?
