Claimed by Christs Vision

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Claimed by Christs Vision

• Edited by Andrew Shields
• PowerPoint presentation by Lisa Soignier

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Chapter One

• Be Vulnerable to Grace
• by Linda
  Booth

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Doctrine and Covenants 16310a-b

• Collectively and individually you are loved with
  an everlasting love that delights in each
  faithful step taken. God yearns to draw you
  close so that wounds may be healed, emptiness
  filled, and hope strengthened.

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Doctrine and Covenants 16310a-b

• Do not turn away in pride, fear or guilt from the
  One who seeks only the best for you and your
  loved ones. Come before your Eternal Creator
  with open minds and hearts and discover the
  blessings of the gospel anew. Be vulnerable to
  divine grace.

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Be Vulnerable to Grace

• The human tendency is to intellectually discuss
  Gods love without deeply experiencing Gods
  transforming grace.
• We often ignore what God offers a divine
  relationship.

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Be Vulnerable to Grace

• When some speak of love it often reflects a
  desire for personal pleasure and to get more
  belongings

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be vulnerable to divine grace

• Gods words can deeply penetrate the busyness
  of life and the temptations of a culture that
  encourages self-centeredness rather than
  following Jesus example, expressing Gods love
  unselfishly to all people.

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God yearns for us

• Perhaps an everlasting love is too great to
  understand because it is pervasive.

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Abide in Love - by Ernesto Cardenal

• Gods love is the water we drink, the air we
  breathe, and the light we see. All natural
  phenomena are different material forms of the
  love of GodGods love surrounds us, but we do
  not feel it any more than we feel the pressure of
  the atmosphere.

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Section 16310a

• God yearns to draw you close so that wounds may
  be healed, emptiness filled, and hopes
  strengthened.
• Often Gods love comes in a breathtaking moment
  of awareness.

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God yearns for us

• While God yearns for us, we have a tendency to
  be detached from God, distracted by lifes
  pleasures, and isolated from Gods grace.

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Secrets in the Dark by Frederick Buechner

• In such a world, I suspect that maybe God
  speaks to us most clearly through his silence,
  his absence, so we know him best through our
  missing him, that this is the sound that Gods
  voice makes in a world that has explained him
  away.

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Questions

• 1. How have you felt Gods love?
• 2. Have you experienced a breathtaking moment of
  awareness of Gods presence as you have
  struggled with a loss? There are many kinds of
  loss, not just the death of someone close to you.
• 3. How have you felt Gods silence?

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God calls to us

• Are our lives full and whole without God?

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Return by Henri Nouwen

• Nouwen points out that God rejoices
• God rejoices because one of his children
  who was lost has been found.

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God calls to us

• In our moments of doubt, discouragement,
  turning away, ignoring, and shouting out in
  disbelief, God calls us back into relationship.
• ...everything can rob me of the one and only
  thing I really need, which is You, my God.
• Karl Rahner
• Encounters with Silence

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Psalm 13923-24 (KJV)

• Search me, O God, and know my heart try me and
  know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way
  in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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Examen invites Gods love into our daily lives.

• 1. Recall that you are in the presence of God.
• 2. Spend a moment looking over your day with
  gratitude for this days gifts
• 3. Ask God to send you the Holy Spirit to help
  you look at your actions and attitudes and
  motives with honesty and patience
• 4. Now review your day.
• 5. The final step is our heart to heart talk
  with Jesus.

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Show us our sin

• We do not know how to talk about a sin.
• We need sin for repentance, and repentance to be
  reconciled.

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God calls to us

• Church exists to give God a community that
  will save people from meaningless existence, a
  place where they can confess their sins and
  repent.

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Questions

• 4. Have you been claimed? When have you felt
  lost?
• 5. Can you think of a way that you have become
  aware of routine making holy events boring?
• 6. What do you think about Jesus? What questions
  have your experiences led you to?
• 7. What does sin mean to you?

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God gives grace

• Grace is more than forgiveness it is also
  strength. In repentance we accept more strength
  with forgiveness, freeing us to follow Christ
  into freedom and new life.

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God gives grace

• We are called to live Gods love, to live the
  pattern of Jesus. When Jesus is the center,
  grace comes alive in us. In discipleship we
  reflect the compassion of Jesus.

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In discipleship we reflect the compassion of the
one who calls us Jesus Christ
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God gives grace

• We are called to be Christ to all people,
  incarnation in action

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God gives grace

• Tri City Congregation
• Peace Club
• Wendell
• Betty
• Barbara Brown Taylor

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Questions

• 8. Have you ever felt that you could love
  someone more by responding to Gods love for
  them?
• 9. As you think about mending the rips in the
  world, what comes to mind in your life and
  context?
• 10. Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace.
• What do you think of that idea?