Thaddeus J. Williams - REFLECT: A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus

REFLECT

A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus

Thaddeus J. Williams

REFLECT: A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus

Copyright 2018 Thaddeus J. Williams

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

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Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ( ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 9781683592815

Digital ISBN 9781683592822

Cover Design: Frank Gutbrod

CONTENTS

Dear Reader,

Welcome to REFLECT, the personal and small group guide for REFLECT: A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus (Lexham Press, 2018). The goal of this study is to help you become more truly yourself as you worship and mirror Jesus, the Greatest Person in History. Each lesson comes in seven parts:

1.READ. Focuses the study with a passage of Scripture.

2.RECAP. Highlights the big points from each chapter.

3.REFLECT. Poses questions to probe deeper in group discussion and personal reflection.

4.REPENT. Helps you identify and pray through specific ways you are (or are not) reflecting Jesus.

5.REQUEST. Prompts you to ask God to make you more truly yourself as you mirror the Greatest Person in History.

6.RHYTHMS. Offers action steps you can take to form good habits and better reflect Jesus.

7.RESOURCES. Lists top-quality resources for further study.

My prayer for each of you is that, as you behold more of Jesus in this study, you find yourself being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18), taking on more of his gravitas and glow.

In Christi Gloriam ,

Thaddeus J. Williams

Rancho Mission Viejo, CA

May 2018

1. READ

They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

PSALM 115:58

Read How to Meet Your Future Self, pages 116 of REFLECT: A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus and watch video curriculum at www.logos.com/reflect/intro).

2. RECAP

W orship products and you will become as heartless and dumb as products. Worship your romantic partner and you will become his or her clone. Bow at the altar of pornography and you will become as soulless and two-dimensional as the images on your screen. Our deities shape our identities. We are all in the process of becoming like whatever we worship, for better or for worse.

If we want to become most truly ourselves, then what should our lives say is the most important, weighty, and radiant thing in the universe? In C. S. Lewis words, it must be a first thing, not a second thing, a total good, not a partial good. Otherwise we will not only miss out on the real first thing but lose that second thing too. It must also be something unbreakable that wont buckle under the weight of our infinite needs and expectations. And something worth worshiping should also be more like a sun than a spotlight. It should not just beam light on one or two parts of our lives, but illuminate the full scope of our personhood, our intellects, emotions, actions, relationships, and our moral and creative lives.

Who, then, is the most radiant and unbreakable first thing in existence? Jesus is. Not some human projection of Jesus, but the actual Jesus we meet in Scripture, who can enlarge and enlighten our souls like nothing else in the universe can. We become most truly ourselves by mirroring the Greatest Person in History.

3. REFLECT

Ponder these questions for personal study or group discussion:

1.What do you think our culture is most prone to make the end-all-be-all of existence? List five or six of the most common idols of our age. What specific soul-shrinking effects do you think these idols are having on the kind of culture we are becoming?

2.What, other than Jesus, are you personally most prone to make the first thing in your life? Share the top three competitors with Jesus for what your life says is the most important thing in the universe.

3.Making Jesus your first thing may sound a bit abstract. What do you think would mark the daily lifestyle of someone who lives out the truth that Jesus is the most weighty and radiant being in existence? What habits, disciplines, and actions demonstrate a life of real Christ worship?

4.Out of your God-given capacitiesyour capacities to reason, feel, achieve moral greatness, love people well, help those in need, and create beautywhat would you say are your bottom two, the God-given capacities that seem the most dim and underdeveloped in your life?

5.One factor that caused Jonathan Edwards to have such gravitas and glow in his life was his resolution at age nineteen to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him. Have you made a resolution like that? Are you living out that resolution? If not, then why not?

4. REPENT

In the left column below, write down ways that your life reflects the truth that Jesus is more weighty and radiant than anything else in existence. In the right column, list ways that your life does not reflect his glory. We often wear primrose glasses when we introspect, so pray with the Psalmist, Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:2324). Ask yourself honestly: Is Jesus my first thing? Do I look to him as my unbreakable source of purpose and identity? Do my intellect, emotions, actions, relationships, morals, and creativity reflect the truth that he is the most glorious being in existence?

Pray your way down the left column. Thank God for any ways that you are living out the supremacy of Jesus. Recognize that any ways in which you actually worship him are not from your own willpower, but from Gods grace, so he gets the praise and thanks. Then pray down the right column, confessing any idolatry and asking God to transform you into Christs image from one degree of glory to another.

5. RHYTHMS

Becoming more like Jesus isnt just a matter of filling our heads with new information. It includes forming habits that make us more like him in our daily lives. Choose two or more of the following suggestions this week to help you become more truly yourself as you mirror the Greatest Person in History:

1.One way of identifying idols is to pie chart what you think about most. For many of us the biggest piece of the pie does not go to Jesus. Pick one of the gospel accounts of Jesus life and read a chapter or two a day. This will help redirect more of your thought life to its most worthy focus.

2.John Calvin said that our hearts are idol factories. List the top five priorities in your life. Identify your most likely idols, the top three good things in your life you are most likely to mistake for ultimate things at the expense of exalting Jesus. Pray against the idolatry in your heart.