Reflective Questions for Personal Devotion and Communal Fellowship –
Sermon – ‘The Fall: The Doctrine of Original Ignorance’
What are your thoughts and feelings about the ‘doctrine of original sin’?
We were all little children once. How do you remember experiencing and encountering shame as a little child?
Pastor Peter observed that as we age, we build ‘a fortress and a prison’ around our true selves. How and when have you noticed this in your own development?
Reflect on a time when you’ve wanted to hide from others and/or God and reflect on a time when you’ve wanted to be seen by others and/or God as you truly are.
In children we find something that we have forgotten about ourselves. What have you forgotten about yourself?
Jesus Himself references our own original ignorance on the Cross, yet for much of Church tradition, we Christians have fixated on Adam’s (and our own) original sin and guilt. How does this reframing of the human condition affect your view of yourself, others, and God?
Pastor Peter illustrates the two ways that people ‘know.’ One is scientific, one-sided, and sourced in spacetime The other is relational, mutual, and intimate. Can you give an example from your own life where you experienced the differences between the two forms of ‘knowing’?
Where and from whom have you seen examples of the ‘knowing’ love that God has for us?
Has Jesus ever made eye/’I’ contact with you? What was it like?
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.