Edwjextramj15

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EDWJextra Session 1: Destination heaven ICEBREAKER Search for ‘Paul Simon and Willie Nelson – Homeward Bound’ on YouTube and watch the video. Discuss the sentiments of the lyrics from the perspective that Christians are bound for heaven. KEY THOUGHT Heaven is our true home and final destination. A better understanding of heaven both fuels our faith and energises our lives here on earth. KEY VERSE ‘an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you’ 1 Peter 1:4 DISCUSSION STARTERS • Why may it be considered ‘otherworldly’ to talk and think of heaven? • Discuss the phrase, ‘too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good’. • Discuss how, on May 3, Selwyn links the furniture in a hotel room to the things of this earth. • Why aren’t Christians fully satisfied with life on earth? • Discuss how Wordsworth’s poem, found on May 5, describes our yearning for heaven.

Our True Home MAY/JUN 2015

Every Day with Jesus group resource

MAY 1 – MAY 6 • On May 6, Selwyn quotes Malcolm Muggeridge. How much do you agree with what Malcolm says? ‘The only ultimate disaster that can befall us ... is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens we cannot forget our true homeland.’ THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS ‘Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary … he entered heaven itself’ Hebrews 9:24 PRAYER POINTERS • Pray for understanding and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as we study this topic together. • Thank God for the imperishable, unfading, beautiful inheritance that awaits us in heaven.

Session 2: Homesick for heaven ICEBREAKER Search and watch ‘Mercy Me – Homesick with lyrics’ on YouTube then discuss the tension that exists between this earth and the life we look forward to in heaven. KEY THOUGHT God has put within us longings for Himself that no earthly relationship will ever fully satisfy, and therefore we experience an inconsolable homesickness for heaven. KEY QUOTE ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless,until they rest in you.’ Augustine DISCUSSION STARTERS • Have you ever felt homesick? What symptoms did you feel? • How do people deal with their ‘inconsolable longing’? • Discuss what the psychologists’ quotes on May 9 say about why people try to manage the mysteries of God. • How does C.S. Lewis’ Queen of the Underworld, who Selwyn refers to on May 10, represent modern thinking? • Is there anything wrong with the desire for a perfect society?

MAY 7 – MAY 13

• Refer to May 12 to discuss how sin desensitises the soul. • Our culture idolises self, and urges each of us to discover ourselves. What does Selwyn say on 13 May can happen when people discover who they truly are? THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory’ John 17:24 PRAYER POINTERS • Thank God that your inconsolable longings will one day be fully satisfied by Himself. • Pray that people will turn to Jesus to meet their longings rather than consumerism, hedonism or running after a career.

www.cwr.org.uk/edwjextra


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