Next Steps--Lesson 7--A Healthy Fear of the LORD

Discussion Questions:

1.  What kinds of things help you get a clear reflection of your identity?  What kinds of things distort your perspective of your identity? 

2.  Why is it important that God uses the same descriptions of our identity in the Old Testament as in the New Testament? 

3.  Which picture of identity do you resonate most with? (Slave; bondslave; friend; child; covenant partner) Why?  Which do you struggle to experience?  Share what makes you struggle with this.  

4.  Why is it important to start with the identity of a slave to our Master?  How have you seen God encourage you in your identity to move towards more intimacy with Him?

5.  Why is submission or surrendering your will a key part of every other role in our identity?  What does submission do to help build community?

6.  Why does God make an example of Moses when he strikes the rock instead of talking to it to bring water forth?  How unfair does it seem for God to punish him by not allowing him into the Promised Land? 

7.  One could argue that Peter’s denials of his knowing Jesus was a treatment of Jesus as unholy in a similar fashion to what Moses did striking the rock.  Why is Peter restored and entrusted with so much?  How is God the same yesterday, today and forever when His treatment of people’s failures differs so much?

8.  What difference does it make that your new identity is that of a saint (a holy one)?  What are some ways you have set your life apart for God?

9.  What about taking the Next Step with God is about knowing there is another chapter to be written for our lives and for His Kingdom?  What reminders can you place in your life to help you remember that God is not finished writing His story (history) yet?

10. What kinds of things help you to worship the LORD in awe and amazement?  How much more likely are you to take a Next Step in faith and service when your motivation is awe, wonder and amazement instead of fear of punishment?  Who would want you to be stuck in fear of punishment rather than reaching a place of wonder, awe and amazement?