BREAK·THROUGH  - /'brāk, THroo/

As Paul concludes his sermon to the Athenians, he describes the one true God as a patient father, a just judge, and a victor over death. Without naming Jesus outright, Paul is introducing his audience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news is that the God who made heaven and earth chose to become human in the person of Jesus. God experienced our humanity through Jesus — our good days, our bad days — yet Jesus lived a human life without sin. Jesus referred to God as a loving father and never failed to share God's transformative love with others. He was faithful to obey God every day of his life, all the way to the cross.

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Because God is just, he is a judge who will one day bring full justice to his world. But because he is also a loving and patient father, God took on the penalty for the sin of the world when Jesus died on the cross. Jesus willingly laid down his life to forgive the sins of others, fully entering into the pain and suffering of our sin-stricken human experience. But God's love conquered even death when Jesus rose from the grave, victorious. All who call upon the name of Jesus in faith today have their sins forgiven and are transformed by the love of God. Jesus experienced our humanity so that we could experience God's life and love forever.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍Do you have a relationship with Jesus?
2. If not, would you be willing to say this prayer silently or out loud right now? Lord Jesus, I'm not perfect, but I believe in you. Save me; change me. I give you my life.
3. If you just said that prayer, you have just begun a relationship with the one true God whom Paul was proclaiming in Acts 17. Congratulations! Be sure to tell someone in your church family that you have made the decision to give your life to Jesus.
4. For all followers of Jesus, what can you thank God for today as you reflect on his love for you?

Many times when we talk about salvation, we refer to the day or season in which we first gave our lives to Jesus. While those initial stages of our faith are absolutely important, salvation is not only an event — it's a process. Even though salvation is a gift from God and we do not earn it, we are invited to live our lives in alignment with God's will and empowered by God's spirit until we are with him in heaven one day. In Philippians 2, Paul reminds us of the responsibility we have as Christians to participate with God in the process of our salvation as we make our way to eternity. While God is the source and architect of our salvation, he invites us to join him every day to carefully play our part in his good purposes for us. As God's love continues to transform us each day, we more and more faithfully embody his love to others around us in Jesus' name.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍How have you experienced the ongoing work of salvation as you have grown as a follower of Jesus?
2. Where do you think God is working in your life today?
3. How can you join God where he is working on you?

Standing below the Parthenon, the great temple of the Roman goddess Athena, Paul preached the words we just read. Surrounded by temples to Greek gods and towering idols, Paul proclaimed a God who is bigger than anything human beings could construct. This God who created everything is the very ground of being, the source of all life and goodness and love. And Paul wants his listeners to know that this God who is bigger than our categories is not far away or unreachable. This God is knowable. This God wants a relationship with the people he made. Though he doesn't need us, this God wants us. He wants us to find him and to experience him today.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍When did you first experience God?
2. In what specific area of your life are you struggling right now to believe that God is at work?
3. How have you put God in a box or limited him through your actions, words, or thoughts?

Paul is preaching in Acts 17 to the people of Athens who worshipped many Greek gods. As he looked around, Paul saw that the Athenians were very religious people. They didn't want to inadvertently neglect any deity in their religious practices, so they set up an altar to an "unknown god" to cover all their bases. Paul saw this altar as an object lesson: sometimes we don't even know what it is that we are truly worshipping with our lives.

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Some of us might imagine that we are not very religious, but all of us are worshippers. We all live our lives and give ourselves over to the thing we want most. Whether we are religious or not, we have idols. We may not bend our knees to a statue, but we orient our lives around what we desire and what we love. Even when we try to love God above all else, we so often find ourselves going through the motions of religious activity, just doing our best to cover all the bases. As we enter this new year, we have the opportunity to reorient our lives and our worship. We have the opportunity to know and experience the one true God that Paul is about to proclaim. Will you settle for upgrading your idols this year, for more religious activity, or will you turn to the God who wants to transform your life through his unstoppable love?

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍What are you hoping for in this next year?
2. If you woke up tomorrow and all was right in your world, what would have changed?
3. Do you believe that there is a God who loves you and wants what is best for you right now? Journal your thoughts.

In this section of Exodus, we learn the backstory of Moses. Born to an Israelite family in Egypt, Moses was in danger of being murdered at the hands of the wicked king of Egypt. Ironically, he was rescued from drowning by the king's own daughter! As Moses grew up, he would learn of the harsh enslavement of his own people by the Egyptians who were raising him. One day, Moses lashed out in anger and murdered an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite slave. Running for his life yet again, Moses found himself in a favorable position with a family in a foreign land. Do you see the common thread in this story of God working in Moses' life? Even when Moses' situation seemed hopeless, God was at work for Moses' good.

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Reflection questions:

1. What habits or practices do you have to help you remain aware of God's work in your life?
2. How have you seen God at work for your good in the story of your life?
3. When Moses took matters into his own hands in Exodus 2:11-15, Moses failed to join God where he was already at work. Where have you missed an opportunity to join God's work because you tried to control your situation?
4. When have you experienced God by recognizing an opportunity to join his work?

Moses, one of the heroes of the Bible, was an abandoned baby and a fleeing murderer at different points in his life. Yet God was at work in Moses' life in the background, quietly opening up paths for Moses to partner with God along the way. God desires relationships with all people, even when we make a mess of our lives. That's why he came to Moses in the burning bush. God wanted to turn Moses' life around and use him as an agent of God's love and justice in the world. While Moses was going about his mundane life as a shepherd, God caught his attention and invited him to step into a whole new way of life.

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Reflection Questions:

1. Who was pursuing whom in this passage? What are the implications from this story for our relationship with God?
2. Why does God mention the names in verse 6? What is he referring to?
3. How did Moses respond to God's presence?
4. How would you describe your relationship with God?

Let's take a brief break from the story of Moses. This passage from 1 John is a poetic reflection on the essence of God and what it means to be in relationship with Him. As John searches for one word to capture God's character, he returns again and again to the word love. And to be in relationship with God, Love Himself, is to rely on love — to depend every day on a source of love that is beyond ourselves. John sees our love for one another as downstream of God's love for us. He is our source and our savior. We are so loved that we can fully let go of fear as God forms us to be more like Jesus in this world.

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If you are struggling in your relationship with God, a good place to recenter is simply in the fact that you are beloved by God. The only way that God will ever relate to you is in generous, overpowering, unconditional love. No other relationship in your life will be quite like your relationship with God. But as we grow closer to God, all of our other relationships also become more and more characterized by the transformative love of God.

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Reflection Questions:

1. When do you have the hardest time accepting the fact that God loves you?
2. What do you need to let go of in response to God's love for you today?
3. Reword part of the passage we read today into a prayer of response to God.

God hears the cries of the oppressed throughout the pages of Scripture. As we return to Moses and the burning bush, God identifies a big problem that He intends to remedy. God is a God of justice, and He is also a God who desires relationship and partnership with people. So, God's justice for the enslaved Israelites comes in the form of a human agent, Moses, whom God sends to Pharaoh. Exiled and alone on a hillside, Moses is called by God to take up a new vocation as the liberator of an entire people group. This story reveals to us that God not only initiates a relationship with us, He invites us to partner with Him to carry out His good purposes in the world.

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Reflection Questions:

1. Did God give Moses all the details of his calling here at the burning bush? Why or why not?
2. God's invitation to Moses took the form of a commission in this story. How have you been commissioned by God to join His work in the world today?
3. What injustices in your neighborhood or city can you help to remedy as an agent of God's love and justice in the world?

Taking another break from Moses' story, today we read familiar words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. These are the first two verses of the Lord's Prayer, or the prayer that Jesus instructs his followers to pray every day. As we explore the notion of partnering with God to join him where he is already working, Jesus' words here are essential. How can we discern where God is working in our lives? How can we reliably accept his invitation to join him as partners?

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Jesus knows how to help us experience God every day. He guides us through this prayer, beginning with an acknowledgement of God as our uniquely-honored heavenly Father. The prayer then moves into a bold request in which we ask for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Experiencing God is all about realizing that as we pray for God's will to be done, we become part of the answer to our own prayers. Jesus brought God's kingdom to us, and now we are part of the unfolding of God's will in history. Each of us has gifts, resources, and relationships to steward. As we ask to see more of God's kingdom and God's will actualized in our lives, we become more aware of our role in what God is doing in our midst today.

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Reflection Questions:

1. What do your priorities and thoughts reveal about your will in relation to God's will?
2. What would change about your life if your will was more aligned with God's will?
3. What is something that you are asking God to do in your life right now? What is your part to play in the answering of that prayer?

As we seek to experience God in our daily lives, we must be willing to obey Jesus. In Luke 5, Jesus borrowed Peter's boat for the day to use as a mobile amphitheater for his teaching. Imagine Peter, sitting in the boat and listening to Jesus, perhaps dozing off from staying up too late fishing the night before. When Jesus was ready to call it a day, he invited Peter to cast the nets out for a last-minute catch. Despite catching nothing all night and being totally exhausted, Peter obeyed Jesus. And that's all it took — simple obedience! The next thing he knew, Peter was pulling up nets that were bursting with fish. Jesus is more than just a good teacher. He is God's very life in human form, and he has wisdom that can change everything for us. All we need to do is say yes to Jesus, and God will help us catch onto the miraculous work that he wants to do in our lives.

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Reflection Questions:

1. How have you experienced God through one of your hobbies or routines?
2. What has Jesus been teaching you through experience lately?
3. Reflect on a time when you said yes to Jesus. What happened next?

Did you know that God created the entire universe just by speaking? As Christians, we believe that when God speaks, things happen. His word is powerful. And God is still speaking today! The author of Hebrews reflects on how God spoke in the past through the prophets and through the Scriptures that they penned. When God sent Jesus, however, He spoke not through the lips of prophets but through His own mouth. Jesus is the fullest revelation of God's character and beauty. Like God, when Jesus spoke, nothing remained the same. Jesus spoke and the wind and waves stood still. Jesus spoke and demons fled. Jesus spoke and sins were forgiven. As we look for where God is working in our lives, we also are invited to listen for His voice. Reading our Bibles and praying are the primary ways that we seek to hear God speak, but He can also speak through our circumstances and other people in our lives. What is God saying to you today?

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Reflection Questions:

1. In what ways have you experienced God's voice in the past?
2. How do you think God is speaking to you in this season of your life?
3. What is one way that you connect with God through reading about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Here's the text converted to sentence case with numbered reflection questions:

Moses heard God speak. Moses second-guessed God. God doubled-down. This part of Moses' story highlights his insecurity and uncertainty as it related to God's work in his life. When Moses objected to God's commission, God didn't argue with him. Instead, God promised to be with Moses every step of the way. After Moses raised another concern, God shared his personal name with Moses: Yahweh. The name of God first appears here in the narrative flow of the Bible, and it is spelled out to mean "I am who I am." When God speaks, he doesn't attempt to convince Moses to obey based on Moses' qualifications or abilities. Instead, God anchors Moses' confidence for carrying out his mission in God's own presence and identity. When God speaks to us through scripture, prayer, circumstances, or other people, we may also find ourselves second-guessing him. To experience more of God, we must realize that he is with us and he is able to bring about his purposes if we are willing to take a step of faith in obedience to him.

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Reflection Questions:

1. What circumstances first drew Moses' attention to what God wanted to say to him?
2. What did God reveal about himself to Moses in this passage?
3. What has God spoken to you recently? How did you respond?

If you want to hear God's voice, then build a habit of reading the Bible. In the text we just read, Paul instructs Timothy to remain devoted to reading and studying the Holy Scriptures. Paul describes the Bible as having the ability to make us "wise for salvation through faith in Jesus," which means that Scripture guides us to the wisdom we need as we seek to follow Jesus in faith. Paul goes on to say that the Bible is God-breathed and useful for navigating life. The Bible is trustworthy because it is inspired by a trustworthy God. Our wise and loving Father has shared His Word with us. If we are going to join God where He is working in our lives, then we are going to need His wisdom to carry out the task. When we read the Bible, we listen for God to speak into our lives so that we can respond with wisdom and faith to whatever it is that we face. We can confidently build our lives on the truths that we find in Scripture, and as we do, we will become people who recognize the voice of God leading us to do good works.

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Reflection Questions:

1. What are your reading habits like when it comes to the Bible?
2. How can you develop a better discipline of reading and meditating on Scripture?
3. What is one thing that you have heard from God through reading the Bible? How has that wisdom helped you navigate your life?

Today we once again find Moses objecting to God's call on his life. It is important to note that when we hear God speak, we often will experience a crisis of faith. God's wisdom cuts against the grain of human intuition. For Moses, that meant carrying a staff that could also become a serpent! God's means often appear to us as ineffective or inefficient when it comes to securing ends, yet He chooses to work in upside-down ways. Moses who is ineloquent is sent as God's mouthpiece to Pharoah. Jesus who dies on a cross is sent as God's savior to the world. Wherever God is working, we can be sure that we will be challenged to trust in Him over our own methodologies, strategies, and plans. When we find ourselves in a crisis of faith, we learn what we truly believe and where our allegiances truly lie. The good news is that God wants to partner with us, even in our unbelief. Twice in this short passage God assures Moses that He will help him speak and teach him everything he needs to know. God is willing to do the same for you today.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍At what points did Moses express his crisis of faith in this passage?
2. What do Moses' questions reveal about his view of himself?
3. What does this passage teach you about God?
4. Are you experiencing a crisis of belief? If so, what does trusting God and taking a next step in obedience to Him look like practically?

Too often our faith and our desires do not translate into our actions. We all could tell stories of how we've settled for less than what we knew was best for us at different points in our lives. The words we read today are from Jesus as he speaks to a sleepy Peter on the night he will be betrayed. Jesus invites his disciples to join him in staying up late and praying, yet they fail to partner with him in the task. Jesus, looking at his closest friends and followers, saw that they wanted to be faithful — his disciples were willing to do whatever he asks. Yet they were overcome by the weakness of their flesh. They were straining to obey Jesus, but their eyelids were too heavy.

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Many of us can relate to the disciples here. We have high hopes for our relationship with God. We desire to experience God in our daily lives, and we make commitments to do whatever it takes to obey Jesus. Nevertheless, our flesh is weak, and we struggle to actually live out the faithfulness to Jesus that we long for. Until we receive our new bodies in heaven, we will face challenges to obeying Jesus. Our flesh is more than just our physical limitations — it represents all of the carnal corruptions of what God intended for us to be. It is crucial for us to be aware of our weaknesses and blind spots to the best of our ability so that we can support one another in our pursuit of faithfulness to Jesus. Rather than falling into temptation like the disciples in this story, we seek to draw on power from God's Spirit to walk out obedience to everything that Jesus says to do.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍What is a decision that you are wrestling with currently?
2. How can you tell when the weakness of your flesh begins to take over in your life?
3. What is one way that you can practice resisting your flesh and obeying Jesus today?

Today we fast-forward to the closing scene of the Pentateuch in which our hero Moses addresses all of the liberated Israelites before they enter the Promised Land. Moses is about to die, and wants to leave the people following him with a sense of empowerment. Interestingly, Moses affirms that the Israelites are capable of obeying God by putting the law into practice. He wants them to know that God's word to them is wisdom and life, and that they can take hold of all of it! In a similar way, followers of Jesus have the opportunity to take hold of abundant life and flourishing because of God's grace and power to save us. We have been set free! Like the Israelites whom God had set free from Egypt, we can now put into practice renewed ways of being human in this world. We can forgive one another, love our neighbors, serve those in need, and carry out all of the teachings of Jesus. The question is, when we hear God's voice calling, when we see God's hand working, will we respond to Him faithfully? Will we say yes to Him? The choice is ours. How earnestly do we actually want to experience God today?

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Reflection Questions:

1. In what areas of your life have you been overcomplicating God's will or feeling confused about what He wants you to do?
2. Is there a specific command or part of Scripture that you know you are neglecting to obey?
3. What is one step of obedience to Jesus that you can take today? How will you hold yourself accountable to being faithful to take that step?

Experiencing God requires adjustment. When Jesus began His ministry, He told everyone to repent, or change their way of life. After Moses received all that he needed from his conversation with God, he had to make some big life changes. Moses had to relocate his whole family to Egypt. His brother Aaron was also packing a bag to accompany Moses on his new journey. And when Moses finally got in front of Pharoah, he had to be willing to adjust when his request was flat-out denied. In order for us to join God in what He is doing, we must always make major adjustments. As we have seen in Moses' life, God works in surprising and counterintuitive ways. God loves turning things upside down and flexing His power in ways that nobody would expect. If we are going to respond faithfully to God's voice and join Him where He is working, then we will need to constantly repent, reevaluate, and make adjustments every day.

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Reflection Questions:

1. Looking at the challenges that Moses faced in this passage, what would be the hardest adjustment for you to make?
2. What success or comfort could tempt you to resist God's invitation to go do something else?
3. How will you adjust your expectations, dreams, and practices to be used by God however He chooses?

Many of us will recognize today’s passage as the Great Commission — Jesus’ parting words to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus commissioned his disciples to make more disciples, he laid out a pretty specific blueprint for what that project would entail. First, Jesus frames this commission with the fact that he has been given all authority on heaven and earth. Interestingly, Jesus does not deputize his disciples with authority here — he holds onto all of it! Jesus wants to send his disciples into the world under his authority to make disciples of all the people groups in the world. This detail is important because, as we have already looked at, responding to Jesus faithfully means that we must be willing to make adjustments. After all, we are not the ones in charge! We must commit to making disciples in the way that Jesus instructs us. Thankfully, Jesus double-clicks on what he means by “make disciples” in verses 19 and 20. First, Jesus wants his followers to be baptized. Baptism for Christians is a symbolic statement of total allegiance to Jesus. Second, Jesus wants his followers to obey everything that he commanded them to do. And that’s it! As we seek to fulfill the Great Commission, we must adjust our approaches at every turn to ensure that we are practicing full allegiance to the one who holds all the authority and who has commanded us in the ways we are to live.

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Reflection Questions:

1. Have you been baptized? If not, take a next step to learn more about how you can be baptized at Lakeland Family Church.
2. What commands of Jesus do you find it more challenging to obey?
3. What kind of adjustments are needed in your life right now to help you align yourself with Jesus’ authority and commands?

As Paul writes to the church in Rome in this passage, he employs an interesting use of plural and singular words. Speaking to brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul urges everyone to present their bodies (plural) as a living sacrifice (singular). What Paul is getting at here is that true and proper worship of God requires more than just personal piety or individual self-sacrifice. God wants the church to be united together — a singular sacrifice of many individuals who are willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. This unity in the church does not happen automatically, which is why Paul goes on to say that the church must resist conforming to patterns of the world. What is at stake for us is nothing short of transformation — a new way of living in which our minds are renewed and our community is united in love. Only when we are practicing this kind of worshipful unity, Paul writes, will we be able to discern God’s will for our lives. Since this work is bigger than any one of us, it is worth pondering how our community can make adjustments together to become more united in the love of Jesus today.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍What do you value most? How can you completely trust Jesus with that?
2. What is the greatest threat to unity in your relationships with other Christians in your community group or church? How can you offer yourself as part of the solution to become more unified in God’s love?
3. What transformation do you need in your life right now? How might God be transforming you through the community of people you find yourself in right now?

As we near the end of our tour looking at Moses’ life and experience of God, we see God following through on everything that he said that he would do. When Moses was obedient to join God where he was working, God was faithful to accomplish his purposes through Moses. Though we did not read further in the Exodus story today, everything that God said in verses 6 through 8 was accomplished. Moses experienced God by obeying him step by step, one day at a time. Eventually, all of the enslaved Israelites also experienced God through Moses’ obedience as God worked through Moses. When we look for God’s work in our lives, seek to grow our relationship with him, and partner with him in obedience, God always follows through on his part. He always keeps his promises, always delivers. Jesus is the proof that God is stronger and more loving than anything that stands in his way. And for us to experience God, the only thing we need to do is obey him. As we do, he works in us and through us so that even more people can come to know the love of Jesus. May we be the kind of people who experience God every day and pursue being the good news of Jesus in every place that God takes us!

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Reflection Questions:

1. How has your experience of God changed over time as you have followed Jesus?
2. How does Moses’ story help you better understand your own relationship with God?
3. How do you hope to experience God today? What about tomorrow?

How do you know if you love Jesus? That’s easy. According to Jesus, if you love him, you will do what he asks you to do. You will keep his commandments. And in case that sounds more like rule-keeping than entering into a dynamic relationship, remember that Jesus’ top two commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself! Following Jesus and obeying him is all about loving others. When we join God in his work of redeeming people, of making all things new, we get caught up in love himself. When we love Jesus, we obey him. When we obey Jesus, we experience God working through us. When we experience God working through us, we experience love at the deepest parts of our being. By God’s Spirit, we are being shaped to look more like Jesus as we partner with God to be good news.

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As we embark on this journey of experiencing God together, let us be quick to learn from one another along the way. God is working through each one of us, so we may hear his voice in the wisdom of our elders or in the laughter of our children. We may second-guess God or encounter crises of faith, but he will hold us and be with us every step of the way. Even when we fail and fall short, we experience God through the grace and mercy of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Nothing can keep us from God’s love. We are secure in our relationship with him because of Jesus. It’s time to make the adjustments now. It’s time to repent and get in line with what God wants to do in his world. Let’s be a church that experiences God together so that we can show the world the saving power that belongs only to Jesus Christ the Lord.

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Reflection Questions:

1. ‍‍What does your current obedience reveal about your love for God?
2. How does God’s love for you affect your thoughts, decisions, and actions?
3. What will you do today to practice obeying Jesus by loving God and loving your neighbor?\