Reflective Questions for Personal Devotion and Communal Fellowship –
Sermon – Like Father, Like Son, Like You (Is God a Monster)? – John 5:18-29
Have you ever competed for mercy? What does it feel like to ask for mercy from God? What about from other people?
How and when have you encountered the “divided” nature that the church often teaches about God?
How has that divided nature impacted your own faith? What is it like to encounter someone who is divided?
Why is it that justice and mercy are seen as separate— even contradictory?
In your own experience, what does justice feel like? What does mercy feel like?
How do you understand ‘free-will’? Of God, of yourself, or of others? How does love affect free-will?
In what ways do you imagine/hope that God’s judgment of you will liberate you?
Why do you think it is that so much of the established church is so committed to a split view of God’s mercy and God’s justice?
When and how in the past has God’s loving judgment changed you? How about during this season of your life?
Written by Ben Harney
For use by The Sanctuary and Relentless Love communities; to be paired with Pastor
Peter Hiett’s autumn sermon series; and used for solitary devotion or in small
groups/fellowship.