Minutes from our first study

Hey gents~ It was GREAT meeting with you guys last Monday night. I was close to tears at the beginning of our time together. It's a joyful experience to see us all in a circle enjoying fellowship time and reading the word together. Great stuff.
Here's just a brief recap of our discussion from John 1. After reading through the text together, Jamie began by asking about God's reason for including John the Baptist in the divine story. It wasn't something many of us had thought of, and it sparked a discussion about Jesus' vocation, the implications of disciples (the Greek word mathaitais), and the state of God's people during the intertestimental period (roughly 400 years between the last accounts in the OT and the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke. For a fairly brief and good summary, check out http://www.gotquestions.org/intertestamental-period.html).
We also looked at verses 10-13 and talked about the meaning of those verses, discussing both ideas of predestination and John's interest in relating his presentation of Jesus to the response of the Jews (God's 'own people', v.11) and the openness of the gospel to Gentiles.
Justin suggested the importance of applying the text to our lives so that we seek after Jesus as the first disciples earnestly sought after him. Once we come to Christ in that way and recognize him as God by means of divine grace and faith, we should bring others to see him and know him as well. (Just as Philip did in 1:46. "Come and see.")
We talked about the wide range of titles John applies to Jesus, including Word (the Greek word logos), Christ, Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man, Rabbi, and perhaps most uniquely, Lamb of God (more on that one this week!).
Paul mentioned the absence of the word 'belief' as a noun in the narrative and suggested we recognize the verbal aspect of believing as we go through the text.
Finally, we paid respects to John the Baptist for his willingness to humbly point to Jesus, even when he had the opportunity to claim glory for himself. Jesus was his own cousin, and John never got bogged down with jealousy and was never confused about his calling and his role.
To follow up on a few hanging questions and comments:
I looked up the reference to "the Prophet" that was stumping many of us. The best thing I've found is a reference in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 that would have led the Jews to believe that a prophet was coming from God who would speak the truth and provide God's word. The Jews in John 1 erred by separating the expected messiah from this "Prophet". Jesus fulfills both rolls.
Also, we talked back and forth a bit about 1:10 and whether or not the world knew or recognized Jesus. I said at one point that some DID in fact recognize him, so that this text should not be read literally. I've thought more about that, and I'm not sure I agree with myself. In reality, did anyone truly know or recognize Jesus' full identity while he was with them pre-crucifixion? Or, did it take the resurrection for people to truly and fully understand? It's a question worth discussion, and I think I'd actually err on the side of agreeing with John that noone truly knew him while he was in the world. Thought?
Thanks for reading this far. This is probably WAY more than you bargained for. If so, let me know, and I'll keep it shorter next time.
Agape~
Bill

missions?

Hey guys. If you haven't read John's post below, please do that first!!!!!

If you have and now have prayed for him and scrolled back up, I got something for ya.

Seth Barnes runs an organization called Adventures in Missions, so in a sense he's the perfect one to make statements as these.

He is calling into question short-term missions.

Just wondering what you guys thought. Please feel free to leave some thoughts in the comments. Don't just leave your thoughts but respond to others as well.

Read the article here.

Need your prayers

This week sucks. I know Seely can relate to this. It's been one of those weeks that I'm constantly questioning my call to professional ministry in the church. I'm running on empty. There is too much to do and I'm trying to do it on my own. Please pray that I will allow myself to stop and let God fill me. I feel lost. I want to quit but I'm not going to. I will preservere.

Justin, I'm sorry and I love you. Please forgive me.

But Without Evil Intent.

Jamie, I relate with you about this issue. What you speak of has wrecked relationships between certain people at my work and has had some sad consequences. I have not been directly involved and continue to keep myself out of the mess, yet sometime I feel like I'm not doing something that I should because I know this is happening. This is especially true if I get an earful from somebody and listen when I should be telling them they don't need to share it with me. It's just as bad listening to it as it is spreading it. I think the problem stems from our intentions when we talk about someone. In the case with Justin, I don't think anyone had evil intentions by these comments. However, sometimes, ambiguous, unknown, or even good intentions could have a negetive outcome when shared at the wrong time, or in the wrong context???

Next Meeting is Feb. 26th

Hello Everyone,

I hope the week will be filled with joy and good spirits. I say this because my week starts out chipper and then goes downhill quickly. The people I work with are great people with serious issues and they feel like its their job to bring you down with them. I for one am not one to be push around, I've worked at my job for more than 5 years now and I am considered senior staff, someday yes I see myself running the company someday, but it has to be a time and there has to be a certain someone that isn't working at my company. This person has some very bad habits (talking behind peoples back). Well that isn't cool, but knowing this made me realize how much we talk about someone behind their backs, whether good or bad. So just get the skeletons out of the closet, Justin wasn't at our first meeting and we told a story about the Maravilla Apartment days, and when Justin thought he had strep throat and it actually was food in the back of his throat, so Justin I wanted to let you know we mentioned you in that story. wheeeeeeeeee its off my chest. But seriously, lets just analyze this a little bit more this week, when you start talking about so and so stop and swallow the thoughts, I need to work on this and I know more in our group does as well. Have a great and fun week.

Meeting #2

The next meeting will be on Feb 26th at Bill, Andrew and AJ's house, 7:15p, with Jamie Lofgren leading us in some discussion about John 1. Feel free to post questions and observations as you wrestle with the text before then.

Welcome

Welcome to our guys small group blog.

If you are a part of the group you should have the ability to post and edit things. Also we can carry on conversations in the comments.

If you are visiting, please feel free to leave comments and join the discussion.

A little about our group. We are a bunch of Christian guys who deeply desire to seek God's face, through community, study, service, friendship and love. Most of us have known eachother for years and even most of us have lived with oneanother at some point.

We are excited to see where this journey of faith takes us.