The Bible and Water Bible study using the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 1-28).
Introduction Have I ever told you the story about the three water holes? Well, well, well! This month we will be exploring where we meet with Jesus – our own personal ‘wells’. For us to have a living, breathing, developing relationship with Jesus we need to meet with him regularly so that we can take on our own ‘water’. A highly respected marathon coach, Mr Klanchar, says, ‘Make sure you stop at all the water stops. Even if you don’t feel you need it, stop and get some water.’ Often we don’t feel like stopping for water. We feel that we have enough of God inside us to get us through our everyday lives. But how much better would our everyday lives be if we made sure we had constant water stops, taking on more of God each time? Our performance as Christians in the world would surely improve, the effect we would have on those around us would be enhanced and our understanding and knowledge of God would deepen more than we could hope for. Many things get in the way of us spending regular time at our well. Perhaps we are ‘too busy’, or maybe we don’t really appreciate what our well can do for our lives. The problem may even be that our well has closed up and now too much stuff is in the way of what we need. To help us look at this, we will be using the story in the Bible that speaks of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman. Jesus sat with the woman at the well and brought her back to life by simply asking her for water. This simple act was done in a normal day in the midst of Jesus’ journey. This story will enable us to consider where is our well going to be this year, and who is fetching water. Is our well a coffee shop, bus or Tube line, corner shop or classroom? (adapted from Practising Resurrection: Cris Rogers)
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february 2013
celloutlines | overview
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celloutlines | week one These Cell Outlines are written by ALOVE UK. They are available each week from our web site. For more information and other cell resources, visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove/resources
Where is our Well? Welcome/Icebreaker a. (Icebreaker) a. Watch Slow-mo guys video 6ft water balloon www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_OyHUqIIOU b. (The importance of having a ‘well’) Read the story of Tammy Slusser (found at www.wired4sports.org/features/index.dot?inode=3737) Tammy Slusser was an accomplished long-distance runner. She used to run all the time – in fact, on her wedding day after she walked out of the church, Tammy, along with her new husband, ran 10km! Tammy and her husband have calculated that from the time they started college, between them they have run 225,000 miles (the equivalent of nine times around the world!). They’ve competed in a combined 150 marathons. In the latter stages of the 1999 Barbados Marathon, Tammy Slusser, suffering from severe dehydration, frantically searched for just a drop of water. She eventually found an old ice bag lying in the gutter. She ripped it open and sucked down the water. This is an example of ‘hitting the wall’. Every athlete who has pushed themselves to the limit understands the concept. It’s the dreaded time when the body is depleted and it begins to shut down. Medically speaking, it means the human body is lacking glycogen. Glycogen is a solid form of glucose stored in the liver. The body converts glycogen into sugar for energy. So, when you don’t have what you need, you can’t do what you need to do. Brainstorm and discuss with the group other things that we depend on. This could be physical things such as food, warmth etc, or emotional and more materialistic things such as friends, family, our phones, social media etc. How would we cope without them? Would we notice if they were missing? If you hadn’t had that thing for a long time and then suddenly had it, how would you feel?
Word
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Read the Bible passage (John 4 1:1–28) together. Discuss the passage together. You may want to consider… What can we learn from this passage? Jesus shows no prejudices to a woman he culturally shouldn’t be talking to. Jesus’ offer is for everyone! Jesus says that we can worship anywhere – by God’s Spirit. We don’t need to be on a particular mountain etc. Jesus can be our ‘water’. What does this mean? Why did he choose water as a metaphor? How does being at the well change the Samaritan woman? What does she do after her encounter with Jesus? The woman goes to the well because she needs the water to satisfy her. However, she doesn’t enjoy coming to the well day in day out, because she knows that it never truly satisfies her. She says: ‘Give me this water, so I don’t have to keep returning to this well.’ What are the things we need to replace in our lives? Do we turn to things that we think will satisfy us, only for it to make us happy for a short while, meaning we have to return?
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celloutlines | week one (continued...) It’s important to realise that the encounter at the well in John’s Gospel consisted of a number of elements for the Samaritan women. 1. She builds up her knowledge of God through Jesus’ teachings (vv13,14). 2. She has an appreciation of the person she is talking to (vv19,29). 3. She asks for the water (v15). 4. She is changed by the encounter, runs back to her village and tells everyone (vv28,29). b. Let’s return to Tammy Slusser’s story. Tammy was left looking in the gutter for just a few drops of water. Do we ever get like this with our own spiritual lives? Do we skip our water stations / wells because we haven’t got time to stop? If we skip our time with God, it can leave us dry and, after time, desperate. In groups write down some of the reasons we skip spending time with God. Be honest with yourselves here.
Prayer Think about how we can create our own well – ie, a place where we can meet with God daily. What does our well look like? Is it in our bedroom? On the bus or Tube? In a park? In a coffee shop? Use the four key elements of the story of the Samaritans’ well to help think about how you should construct your own well in your own lives. Play the song ‘Water’ by Electralyte as the group spends some time thinking and praying.
Action
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Challenge the young people to figure out where their ‘well’ is and to spend time there this week.
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february 2013
celloutlines | week two These Cell Outlines are written by ALOVE UK. They are available each week from our web site. For more information and other cell resources, visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove/resources
The temptation game Welcome Icebreaker: Hand out sugar-coated doughnuts to the group. Tell them they can eat them – on one condition: they can’t lick their lips until you say so. Many of them will have played this game before; however, they will assume that once they have finished eating their doughnuts they can lick their lips. Hold off allowing them to lick their lips until after you have introduced the week’s theme. Many of them will realise, when you tell them to lick their lips, in fact that they already have.
Introduction This week sees the start of Lent. Go round the group and ask them what they are giving up for Lent. Find out about their past experiences of Lent – what have they given up before? What have they failed at giving up? What did they get from giving up? Has anybody ever had any religious benefit from giving up something for Lent?
Word Read the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). To aid the group’s understanding of the story, ask someone to read the narrator parts, some to be the voice of Jesus, and somebody else the voice of temptation. Comment on what the purpose of Jesus going away into the wilderness is.
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Some answers that you get may include – to be alone, to get guidance from God, to be with God, to prepare for the next part of his ministry, etc. Think back a week. We were encouraging each other to think about creating a ‘well’ for ourselves. What were the reasons behind this? Sound familiar? In essence, Jesus’ time in the desert was his own ‘well’. It was a time for him to get away on his own. A time for him to learn more about God and his will. A time of refreshment (despite having no water!). Let’s delve a little deeper into the story of Jesus. What did Jesus have to give up to go out in the wilderness by himself? Safety? Food? Water? Companionship? Ministry opportunities? Why does Jesus resist the temptations? The things being offered were not in themselves bad. What things have we given up that aren’t in themselves bad, but are necessary for us to give up to live a life of discipleship? Ask the group to share where they have found their ‘well’ to be. How has that gone this week?
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celloutlines | week two (continued...) Lent is about so much more than just giving up chocolate, biscuits, TV etc. The purpose of giving up these things is not about showing our willpower. It’s about being refreshed by God. We need to give these things up because, even though they seem trivial, they form a big part of our lives. If we give them up, and ask God to help us during the season of Lent, God will fill us with something new. The idea of Lent is to make space for the new thing that God wants to fill our lives with.
Prayer Give everybody small bits of card (revision card size). Ask them to draw a line down the middle of the card. On one side of the line, challenge them to think of things to give up. This could be the conventional Lent items like crisps, chocolate, biscuits etc, or could be things such as drinking, swearing, arguing with siblings etc. On the other side of the line, ask them to write things that they can take up which will help them move closer to God – eg, prayer, random acts of kindness, helping parents around the home, reading the Bible, exercise etc. Encourage the group to keep their cards safe, but put them somewhere they will see them regularly thoughout Lent. They may have personal things on there that they want to give up, so try not to pressure anybody into sharing what’s on their cards. However, it would be good to pray about it. Ask God to keep you relying on him and not on the things that we have chosen to give up. Ask him to replace those things with good and godly activities. Ask God to help us use the period of Lent to bring your group closer to him.
Action/Worship
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Challenge the group to go away and find their favorite Bible verse and have it ready to share with the group next week. It would be beneficial for each member of the group to bring their own personal Bible in with them in Week 3.
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celloutlines | week three These Cell Outlines are written by ALOVE UK. They are available each week from our web site. For more information and other cell resources, visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove/resources
Holy Spirit Hippos (don’t give the title of this week away until after you have played Chinese Whisper Pictionary!)
Welcome/Introduction a. Game: In the water, out the water! The young people need to stand shoulder to shoulder in a line, ideally all with their toes behind a line (a piece of rope, or a line already visible or drawn on the floor). Agree which side of the line is ‘in the water’ and which is ‘out the water’. As you call out ‘In the water!’ the competitors must jump to that side of the rope, and vice versa for ‘Out the water!’. The aim of the game is to be the last man standing. Competitors are eliminated if they jump to the wrong side of the line when directed. If it is too difficult to get people out, you can eliminate people based on their being the last person to arrive at the correct side of the line; or have somebody else shouting other instructions that the young people find it difficult to ignore. b. Play a game of Chinese Whispers Pictionary. The first person (you) should draw a hippo on a piece of paper. You should then show the next person your drawing. They then have to write what they think you have drawn, show what they have written to the next person, who then has to draw what the previous person has written etc. This continues until it is back with the leader. Reveal the answer, and then go around the group showing the various stages of the game. c. Hippo factfile: As a group decide whether these facts are true or false: 1. Hippos are vegetarian. – TRUE.
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Whilst hippos are notoriously vicious, they are in fact vegetarian. 2. George Washington’s teeth were made from hippopotamus ivory. – TRUE GW’s teeth were made from a combination of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, human teeth and animal teeth. 3. The name ‘hippopotamus’ means ‘water pig’. – FALSE. ‘Hippo’ actually means ‘horse’ and ‘potamus’ means ‘river’. Whilst they would appear to be more closely related to a pig than a horse, actually their closest relatives are creatures such as dolphins. 4. Hippos can swim. – FALSE. Contrary to popular belief, hippos cannot swim. Hippos get around in water by bouncing (almost moon-walking) on the river bed. Sorry to ruin that BBC advert for you! Challenge the group to come up with the link between hippos and today’s lesson.
Word Just like hippos returning to the water time and time again, we must make sure that we keep returning to our source of water, Jesus Christ. Just like hippos we need to submerge our whole bodies in the water. This week there is no specific passage of the Bible we want you to study. This week is all about going to the bits continued over u
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of the Bible that we find most useful and sharing them with others. Leaders should be ready to share their own verses. As people share their verses, have some different-coloured Post-it Notes available so the group can stick them into their Bibles if they find a verse they particularly like or find useful. Alternatively, they can write in their Bibles (however, I find having something stuck inside helps the page to be found more easily at a later date). It may be a good idea to have a sheet full of encouraging Bible verses available to give out to the group. The idea of this week is to make the Bible feel relevant to the group and to encourage the group to return to God’s word again and again.
Prayer In an act of worship and prayer, draw a picture of a well (or have one ready) and write the Bible verses that you have discussed around it. Perhaps this could be something that could be stuck up on a wall at your corps. This will give a reminder to the youth that they will be refreshed by returning to the well regularly. Play the song ‘Find me in the river’ by Delirious to help you focus your minds during this time.
Action Give each member of the group a name of somebody else in the group. Their task this week is to go and ‘fetch the water’ for that member. During the week, encourage each member of the group to pray for that person and also find a Bible verse that they think will help that person in the following week.
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celloutlines | week three (continued...)
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celloutlines | week four These Cell Outlines are written by ALOVE UK. They are available each week from our web site. For more information and other cell resources, visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove/resources
What happens if our well has dried up or been filled in? Welcome Icebreaker game This requires a little bit of preparation. Items required: 2 T-shirts (one for each team). The T-shirts need to fit somebody on the teams, so I would recommended getting a medium man’s T-shirt. If you don’t have any spare, try a local charity shop, Primark or a supermarket for a cheap option. 2 Plastic storage bags (to keep each T-shirt in) Preparation: Fold the T-shirts neatly and place in storage bags. Pour into each bag about two cups of water and freeze overnight. If this isn’t done where the event is taking place, bring the T-shirts in a cool bag with ice packs to keep them frozen. The Game: Instruct the teams that they’ll be playing an icebreaker game. Then hand out the bagged T-shirts to each team. On ‘Go!’ the teams will have to get their T-shirts thawed out so that one person from their team can put the T-shirt on. Teams will get creative in their attempts to win. They could run the shirts underwater, put them in the microwave and even beat the ice out of them. The first team to come back with one person wearing the T-shirt is the winner. Recap on last week Remind the group that we want to be like hippos – constantly returning to the water. Return to the picture of the well that you created last week and add any verses that have stood out to the group during the week.
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Now is also a chance for each person to exchange Bible verses with the person that they were assigned to last week. If the receiver is comfortable with this, they can put the verse chosen for them up/on/around the well.
Introduction: Word Read together Genesis 26:18. Discuss the reasons why our wells become filled in or stop providing water. Why don’t we keep them open all the time? We fill our lives with so much rubbish and dirt that, over time, the clean water that God provides gets harder and harder to get to. Discuss why it is sometimes difficult to reopen those wells. What stops us from reopening communication with God if we haven’t done it for a while? Read Genesis 26:20–21. Sometimes when we dig our wells, or try to make space for our Christian lives, we come up against resistance. What sort of resistance has our Christian life faced?
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celloutlines | week four (continued...) From the world, other people etc (time, pressure of school/work/family, perception of who we are etc). From ourselves (we feel we have too much sin to come before God, feel we don’t need God at the moment because we can cope OK on own). The Bible tells us that now is the time to commit ourselves to God. Now is the time to re-dig the well and open up communications with him. Ecclesiastes 11:4 – Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. 2 Corinthians 6:11–13 – ‘Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! (The Message). 2 Corinthians 6:1–2 – ‘A s God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.’
Prayer Play the music ‘Storm’ (Lifehouse) or ‘Cold Water’ (Damien Rice). As you sit and listen to the music, recognise the fact that as long as we see God, anything else that clutters up our lives can be overlooked. Ask God to help us to recommit ourselves now, to take away any fears or excuses for us not doing so, and guide us to the truth. Response: You will need some stones (big enough to write on), some water in a bucket and some pens (whiteboard marker / water-soluble pens; practise with them beforehand to make sure they work as suggested). As you think about the things that clutter our lives and get in the way of our wells, write them on the stones with a whiteboard marker / water-soluble pen. Drop the stones into a bucket of water and the things you have written will come off. As you do this ask God to help remove the things that get in the way of us seeing him clearly.
Action
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Once the group have had their pebbles cleansed in the bucket, have cups of water ready for them to drink from. Give them the opportunity to ask for and accept God’s water into their lives. Continue to encourage the youth to make time to take on water each day, constantly being refreshed and renewed.
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