All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

For today – Sunday July 25 – I simply want to share a few slides from the PowerPoint I am using in my (last) Sunday morning class. Screenshots on a Mac tend to be a little tricky, so I just took photographs of my computer screen!

God sightings:

This first slide goes with the “check in” question I typically start class with. Today it is, “Where have you seen God at work this week?” I always believe questions like this should be easy to answer, because if we pay any attention at all then we all have a variety of stories to choose from.

So, where have you seen God at work in your life over this past week. And (this is an important element to spiritual growth) who have you shared these stories with? I hope you have an answer – or two.

What Now?

The second slide comes from more than halfway through my lesson. We will have already talked about the scripture from Second Corinthians 5, and I’m guessing the discussion will have been authentic, fun, wide ranging, and challenging. What I will be looking for here is the “So What?” of the scripture, the “Well, what are you going to do about it?” part, the “God is interested in seeing some action in response to our convictions,” follow through.

Or, better expressed, this is the part of the conversation where we begin to discern how God would have us live, in light of what the Spirit is teaching us through the scriptures. This is aways one of my favorite parts of any class.

Frame it in Prayer:

Finally, we always close by sharing prayer concerns. I made a slide from the photo of my grandchildren soaking in the art exhibit in Miami earlier in the week. Like any great art… like our lives… like faith… there is a certain amount of questioning, and imagination, and unravelling that needs to happen before we can move forward. This is where we absolutely must turn to God in prayer.

If you still have time, please don’t miss seeing us at church today – and especially next week, the closing Sunday of Rebekah’s exciting tenure as senior pastor at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church here in North Carolina.

In love, and because love challenges us to live – DEREK