Shema.
Hear, O Israel.
For centuries, the Word of the God was spoken and heard.
The people of God would listen as their parents and grandparents and leaders and shepherds would recount their creation stories, their deliverance stories, their war stories, their resistance stories. They sat under the stories of God together.
Poems. Songs. History. Everything Israel knew of Scripture was experienced within the context of community. After hearing the Scriptures, they would bring their questions, ideas, confusion and clarity into that same community and wrestle with God and one another for a revelation of truth that would shape them.
The early Jesus followers were no different. With the Holy Spirit as their guide, they were faced with the task of wrestling with the Jewish Scriptures anew in light of the reality that the Messiah had come.
Every year, we explore what it means to be a Spirit-empowered community in our own context and approach to scripture. Week by week, we will engage and respond to a different text (this year from a variety of Paul’s letters to different churches) through the ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina (learn more here.).
Please read through this week's passage of Scripture three times using the following questions and practices to guide you.
Lectio (Read)
Read the passage slowly and carefully.
1) What images or words stand out as you hear/read the text?
Meditatio (Reflect)
Read the passage a second time. Take time to sit in the passage and engage it with your imagination. Pay attention to the details. Repeat the main words or phrases that are sticking out to you.
2) What might the Spirit be inviting you to receive from this text?
Oratio (Respond)
Read the passage a third time. Ask the Holy Spirit for understanding of what he is saying.
3) What might the Spirit be inviting us to do or put into practice as individuals and/or as a community through this text?
After prayerfully engaging with the text, either as a group or individual, please share your insights, questions, visions, or convictions with us! We want to know what you are hearing so that we can get a fuller picture of what Jesus is saying to our community.
Philippians 3:7-14 NIV
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Share with us what Jesus is revealing to you in this passage!
Written Reflection - Reflect on and answer one or all of the three questions above.
Questions - What questions arise for you about the text or what it means?
Creative Expression - Respond to what the text is revealing to you through song, poetry, sculpture, painting, photography or any other creative expression.
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Or email info@spaconline.com or text us at 833-290-7411.
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