Gift (opening it up)
WORD PICTURE: GIFT (OPENING IT UP)
Scriptural Reference: Psalm 107:35
He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs...
1. Have someone(s) read the scripture from various translations.
2. Showing a wrapped gift, review that Jesus offers this (heaven) to everyone. I get to heaven simply by receiving it -- accepting it. All I have to do is thank Jesus, meaning it, for having given me this gift. Even if I never open it, I still go to heaven because I’ve accepted the gift -- it has gone from the hands of Jesus into mine. But if I OPEN the gift, I learn about God’s will, what He wants for me -- the best ways to live (which will make my life on earth victorious and glorifying to Him.
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
My goal is to get past just receiving the gift -- to also open the gift, explore what’s inside so I can receive the full package. A recent example is what happened when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I knew God wanted me to take the interferon, but I was scared to give myself injections and I was especially scared to inject myself with “the flu” or “a depression” or some other unwanted side effect.
Opening this gift (the Bible), the Lord showed me Mark 16:18, where it says that a believer (like myself) could even drink poison and not be harmed. I decided to stand on that, plus a few other places that support that promise, and one Wednesday I gave myself an injection of interferon for the MS – a moment I had been dreading for fear and side effects. To my surprise, it was a practically painless -- the needle barely even hurt. Better, yet I did not experience one single side effect. Zero! Granted, I started on a low/low dose, but nevertheless, zero side effects. So -- it pays off to see what’s inside the gift! He promises amazing things and DOES them if we ask His help. He changes things , like we saw in our scriptural springboard.
Can you relate -- have you found promises in the Bible that helped you like that? Or that you know about and are hoping will work for you?
Conversation Starters
1. What comes to my mind when I think of the gift as the Bible, the Word of God. I think it’s the gift because it tells us God’s ideas and His viewpoint; it also tells me what He promises (and I know He does not lie). When I started exploring the Bible, two verses JUMPED into my heart:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well...(Matthew 6:33)
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26).
2. Offer the term “HIMPOSSIBLE.” Read “Asa’s Prayer” in 2 Chronicles 14:11 ( Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.") and ask how YOU have come to believe that nothing is impossible for God (or if there is an area that impossible in your life -- an area where you need God’s intervention because HIMPOSSIBLE).
3. Talk about how the Lord wants to quench our spiritual thirst.
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, May 2002