Week 11

LUKE 5:17-19

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

SYNOPSIS

• Jesus was teaching a group of Pharisees
• Four men carried their paralyzed friend on a mat to see Jesus
• They brought the paralyzed man through the roof to avoid the crowds
• Jesus heals the paralytic

TALKING POINTS

• How do the four men get the paralytic there?
• Story takes place early in Jesus' ministry
• What does it mean to put someone in front of Jesus?
• How do I get you in front of Jesus?
• creativity
• conspiracy
• perseverance
• love
• selflessness
• humility 
• At no point do these four mean believe they have the power to heal the paralytic, but they know they can bring him to Jesus
• The power of the Lord is present when others believe (Mark 2)
• Luke is written to the Gentiles

MUFFIN OF THE WEEK

CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE

Ingredients

• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 stick butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line and spray muffin tin. Mix together pecans, flour, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, butter and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each tin 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes.

Week 10

PSALM 139:1-18

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

TALKING POINTS

• Do you love your best friend? Why?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you love yourself?
• Do you know God's love for you?
• How does this Psalm make you feel?
• Perhaps it's easy to think and know that God love you, but do you actually feel it?
• "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." What does that mean? Do you believe it?
• "Fearfully" is exchanged with "Divinely" in other versions of the Bible.
• You are a direct work of God
• You are made in God's image - God is both feared and loved
• Fear comes out of respect
• Why is it hard to love yourself?
• What walls do you keep up that prevent you from loving yourself?
• How do you love yourself?

MUFFIN OF THE WEEK

PUMPKIN NUTELLA

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• nutella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line and spray muffin tins. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients in the dry. Using an ice cream scoop, fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Add a teaspoon of nutella and swirl into muffin batter with a knife. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.