Q2 | What is God Like? - Fleming Island UMC

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Q2 | What is God Like?

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March 27, 2024 • Psalm 147:5

Q2. What is God like?

A. God is perfect in power, knowledge, and in His holy love. (Psalm 147:5)

● Discussion Question: You are putting together a team of superheroes. Which of these do you choose: Power Person, Genius Guy, or Moral Man?

● Discussion Question: Look up and read together: Psalm 147:5 and 1 John 4:7–16. Since God is love, what is expected of us?

● Discussion Question: Because God is all-loving, God is merciful. Mercy is when someone does not get what they deserve. How can God execute justice and still be loving and merciful to us?

● Discussion Question: Anselm, in pointing out that God was perfect, went so far as to say that any perfect being (God) must exist, for it is more perfect to exist than not exist. Some have really taken this and run with it and called it the “ontological argument for the existence of God.” Do you think this is a good argument for God?

Discussion Question: If God knows everything, does He know the future? Are we free if He does?

More from Absolute Basics of the Christian Faith

Q1 | Who is God?

March 27, 2024 • 2 Corinthians 13:14

Q1. Who is God? A. God is the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons in one God. (2 Corinthians 13:14) ● Discussion Question: Understanding God as 3-in-1 can be hard. Which way of thinking about God being 3-in-1 made the most sense to you? ● Discussion Question: We heard the analogy of playing 3 notes on a piano that form a chord to help us think about the Trinity. This is a helpful analogy. Can you think of any analogies for the Trinity that you’ve heard that are unhelpful? How are these bad analogies? ● Discussion Question: Look up and read together: 2 Corinthians 13:14 and Titus 3:4–7. How does God work together in our salvation? What does Paul say God, Jesus, and the Spirit are doing? If we pray to the Father in the name of the Son, what is the Holy Spirit up to when we pray? ● Discussion Question: What was the most important idea you learned from this lesson? Is there anything you still don’t understand? ● Application Question: How does a discussion about the Trinity actually impact our lives? How does the fact that God is a Trinity change how we do relationships?

Q3 | What did God Make?

March 27, 2024 • Hebrews 11:3

Q3. What did God make? A. God spoke everything into being, by His own free choice, and it was very good. (Hebrews 11:3) ● Discussion Question: Have different people each look up and read Genesis 1:1–5 and John 1:1–5 The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, which has a word, “ruach,” that means spirit, wind, and/or breath. That is the word in Genesis 1 that we read in verse 2. In John, the Greek word for Spirit is “pneuma,” which means spirit, wind, and breath as well. What do these two passages tell us about what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are doing in the work of creation? ● Discussion Question: God decide to create out of His own free will. That includes time and space. Why do you think God decided to create the universe? ● Discussion Question: When Christians claim that God created everything, atheists are fond of responding with the question of “who created God?” How do we respond to the question of who created God? Did He create Himself? Or did God just always exist? If something has to always exist, which is more likely to be always existent, God or the universe? ● Discussion Question: God has given us a very good gift by giving us creation, and our natural response is gratitude. What are the ways you normally show gratitude to someone who gives you a good gift? Is it just a feeling in our hearts? How do we show that to God? What is the wrong way to show gratitude? Is there a way that we can be well-meaning and desire to show gratitude but do it in the wrong way? ● Discussion Question: If God is best, then does He always necessarily do what’s best? Does this mean God’s decision to create—and all other decisions—aren’t free? ● Discussion Question: What was the most important idea you learned from this lesson? Is there anything you still don’t understand? ● Application Question: You heard about God bringing life simply through speaking. Do we have the ability to bring life, or take life, through our words? How?

Q4 | Why is There Evil?

March 27, 2024 • Romans 5:12

Q4. Why is there evil? A. God gave us free will to obey and we did not. (Romans 5:12) ● Discussion Question: God put humans in the garden and asked them not to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree. We broke one of God’s only and simple commands. By creating the tree, God gave human beings the possibility to screw up by eating the fruit. Why did He even give us the chance by putting the tree there? ● Discussion Question: There has been a lot of evil as the result of free will. Do you think that free will is worth all of the evil? ● Discussion Question: We often think of evil as a philosophical problem (how can a good and all-powerful God co-exist with evil?) or a historical problem (there are evil events, such as the Holocaust or drunken drivers causing fatal wrecks), but how is it also a personal problem? Would you consider yourself as being a mostly good person or better than other people we would consider “evil”? ● Discussion Question: Would you give up your free will if it meant you always did the right thing? Would you take your friend’s free will it meant that from then on he would always do the right thing? What about that cute-girl-you’ve-been-crushing-on’s free will? ● Discussion Question: Look up and read Romans 5:12. What is the result of sin according to this Scripture? ● Discussion Question: In Isaiah 55:9 God says, “my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Is what’s evil to us good to God? ● Discussion Question: What was the most important idea you learned from this lesson? Is there anything you still don’t understand? Application Question: Part of what it means to be made in the image of God is to represent Him here on earth. How can you represent God in your own life?