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Religion | Rebuilding: Healing from Toxic Religion - Part 4
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REBUILDING
Healing from Toxic Religion – Part 4
Springcreek Church | Senior Pastor Keith Stewart
August 4, 2024
#god #realspringcreekchurch #healingfromtoxicreligion #rebuilding #relationships #toxic
Wounding that occurs in relationship must be healed in relationship. To rebuild one’s life after experiencing toxic religion requires a new and better understanding of God. Let’s face it, a major driver of toxic practice is toxic theology – a faulty understanding of Who God is and what God is like. But knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. You don’t know God just because you know about Him. It takes spending time with Him, listening to Him, and daring to trust Him with your hurts, problems, and failures. Invite him into every aspect of your life.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the following quote, “The greatest need in people’s lives is to understand the true identity of God.” – R.C. Sproul
2. In the parable of the prodigal son, we typically place all the emphasis on the younger son. Even the name of the parable itself (which is not a name given to it by Jesus or the writers of Scripture) emphasizes the younger son. But Jesus told this story (read Luke 15.1-3) to address the objection of the Pharisees to his eating with sinners. When you understand why Jesus told this story to begin with, it’s clear that the older brother is the Pharisees. What similarities do you see between the Pharisees and the older brother? How can you sometimes be like the older brother?
3. C.S. Lewis explained the difference between sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. What do you remember about what he said? Why do you think we scandalize the sins of the flesh? Why was Jesus so bothered by the sins of the spirit that He witnessed in the religious leaders? What implication does this teaching have for us today?
4. Take some time to reflect on what you learned about the following passage:
Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” Jesus says, “and not do what I tell you?” Luke 6.46
Why did Jewish people repeat someone’s name? How does that alter your understanding of this verse? Why are obedience and love interconnected?
5. Experience must be corrected by experience. This is a fundamental truth in our understanding of how God heals us. Of course, the obvious implication is it takes more than facts to change our hearts and minds. We need a deeper experience of the truths we say we believe. This means we must feel them and live them, not just know them in our heads. How have you experienced the love of God? How does your community aid in the experience of the love of God?
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