The Joshua House
a missional community of worship following Jesus...

What do you think about…I have an idea on…How about doing…Should we…??  1% or 2% milk?  How much life insurance should we get?  Should I take that job?  Who should I trust in this?  Are the canucks really going make it past the first round in the playoffs? 

Sometimes in life it feels like you answer one question only to get five more to replace it.  Life really is all about questions but even more importantly how we answer them. Being a church community is no different.  We know that living life together as Jesus’ church in our community is going to confront us with a myriad of questions that we will answer one way or another.  To give us a foundation of the direction we want our community to take we’ve come up with four defining values that we will use to guide us in who God is making us to be and where He wants to take us in our journey together.

Mission…Community…Worship…Jesus… 

This Sunday we looked at the first of these which we call:

Missional Journey
As a community journeying with God we hear Him calling us to be a part of His Quiet Revolution (Mission) in the world, putting it to rights through the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ.  As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus is sending us, to always look beyond ourselves to the world we live in and the neighbours he brings across our paths.  We hear Him calling us to love our city and seek its well-being by getting involved in and serving our neighbourhoods, to engage its culture and invariably through quiet, peaceable lives to become a visible counter-cultural foretaste of the coming reign of God.

Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:1-7; Matthew 5:13-16; Luke 10:25-37; John 17:15; John 20:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:11; 1 Timothy 2:2

Gathering this Sunday
This Sunday we’re going to finish off the last chapter of John’s gospel.  Jesus has resurrected from the dead, he’s appearing to his disciples, the gospel must go out, what does he do next?  Eat breakfast with his friends!

We’re just doing dessert/snack plus coffee and tea but we are going to meet @ 5:30pm instead of 6pm because it just keeps the kids out too late.

General Info
Date: Sunday, April 15th
Time: 5:30-7:15pm
Where: Terra Nova Co-op common room

Food
Dessert/Coffee/Tea

 
The Joshua House Goes to the Movies
We’re trying to get a group together to go see the movie Amazing Grace.  We’re currently thinking about a matinee on Saturday, April 21st.  Who can make it?  E-mail or call me to see if enough people can make it.

For those who maybe forgot my announcement on Sunday, we will be meeting this Friday night instead of Sunday night.  Because it will include dinner we are starting @ 5pm instead of 6pm. 

We will be watching and discussing John 19 & 20 which takes us through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  Pretty good topic for Good Friday wouldn’t you say?

After this we only have one more chapter left before we finish the Gospel of John for our study/discussion time. 

General Info
Date: Sunday, April 6th
Time: 5-7:30pm
Where: Terra Nova Co-op common room

Food
Soup (Alan & Glenda)
Salad (Deborah)
Yummy Bread
Dessert (?)/Coffee/Tea

Children
Wayne

Well, I really enjoyed our discussion Sunday night on John 17 & 18.  However much ground we covered there still seemed to be so much more that could have been said or asked.  For that reason I thought I would post some of the questions and thoughts we discussed and some further questions that came to my mind.

Some questions that came to mind are:

John 17

1. v.3 says, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  Is this what we normally think of when we speak of eternal life?  Yes, No, if not, how do we make sense of this?
2. v.4 says, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."  What is the work God has given you to do?  How do we honour God by doing what we were created to do?
3. v.11 - What kind of protection is Jesus talking about?
4. v.14 - What does it mean to not be "of the world?"
5. v.15 - How does this differ from being "taken out of the world?"
6. v.18 - How would you describe what it means to be "sent into the world?"
7. v.20-23 - What is meant by and why such an emphasis on "being one as the Father and I are one?"  Does the famous U2 song, "one" speak on this theme?

John 18

1. v.10-11 - Why did Peter lash out with his sword?  We spoke about how Peter, like some of us, was a very passionate, do first - think later kind of guy.  Moreover, it is quite possible he still didn’t understand the need for Jesus to be killed and couldn’t stand by as these men took away the long awaited King of the new revolution.  Perhaps he still thought Jesus would set up an earthly kingdom by military might.  We don’t know for sure but we see his lack of understanding of what Jesus’ Kingdom is really about.
2. In our lives today, how can our fighting for Jesus sometimes also go wrong?  When is it appropriate to "fight for Jesus" and how should this look? (Look at v.36)
3. v.37 - How confident of the truth are we as the Church today?  (i.e. The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Evolution, Science, Academics, Intellectualism, etc.)  When has our lack of seeking the truth turned into fear?
4. v.38 - "What is truth?"  How would you answer Pilate? 
   
5. Looking at John 17 & 18 together what would you have done if you were Jesus or his disciples in this predicament?  How is it different/same as Jesus and the disciples?  What would your weakness have been?

You might want to use Jesus’ prayer in John 17 for those whom God has intrusted into your care.  You can also use it personally if you substitute ‘Jesus’ where the prayer says ‘I’, and replace ‘they’ and ‘them’ with ‘I’ and ‘me’, and you’ll get the idea.

Share your answers, questions and thoughts by commenting!