Week Five

Part 4: Ever new

Conversation starter

Are there new things you would love to do this year?

Read Acts 16: 16-34

What would this story be like from the perspective of the jailer’s family being disturbed in the middle of the night? What would they have made of this totally unprecedented situation?

Read Psalm 97

Light dawns for the righteous! The life-giving light from the sky is ancient but new for us each day — and in a similar way the psalms are ancient and yet new to us every day. Each time we read the psalms something new can dawn.

What is your relationship like with the psalms in general? Do you have a favourite psalm? Is there a psalm or a phrase from a psalm that has travelled with you? And when it comes to Psalm 97 what is dawning for you as you read it today? Is there a verse or word that leaps out at you?

Read Samuel 16: 1-13

A truly pivotal moment of young David’s life and where is he? Far away from the action. 

Picture the scene: a young lad on a hillside chasing after sheep, skimming stones, and singing songs. In this reading God is doing something new and needs somebody new and that new person is not where Samuel expects him to be.

When we look to the future how can we nurture leaders who aren’t queueing up for recognition but are already busy tending to the flock?