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Showing posts from January, 2024

PARABLE: Unforgiving servant

  {PARABLE} The unforgiving servant_   Matthew 18:21-35     It seems to be true that a critical, unforgiving person tends also to be a guilt-prone person (and vice versa). People who struggle with feelings of guilt are usually critical of others and tend to harbour resentment.   “The extent to which we judge ourselves out of fear and shame, we will also judge others. On the other hand, the more we take in the full extent of God’s grace and forgiveness, the more we are released from our fears and become free to extend grace to others.”   Do you agree with this quote?   Explain why.     [Discussion starter activity] As a group make a list of thoughts, feelings and beliefs which create barriers to fully forgiving another person.     In this parable Jesus teaches us how important it is to respond with gratitude to God’s abundant love and generous mercy, so that we can let go of our fear and self-judgement and freely extend love and me...

PARABLE: The good Samaritan

  {PARABLE} The good Samaritan_   Luke 10:25-37     We know that one of the two great commandments is that we are to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves ’. The question is... what makes a neighbour ? Geographical proximity? Race? Religion? Sharing the same social or economic status?     [Group discussion starter] Do you feel guilty when you see images or video of starving people om TV or in magazines or online? Should you? Explain.     In this study, a religious leader asks Jesus to tell him what it means to love one’s neighbour . With his response, Jesus our traditional definitions and shatters our stereotypes...     [Read Luke 10:25-37]     Put yourself in the place of the “expert in the law” who is questioning Jesus in this story. How might you feel in response to your first two encounters with Jesus?       What kind of answer do you think the lawyer was expecting from Jesus when he asked, “Who is my neighbour ...