Who is Your One? · Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. 1

   Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 out loud. James described a 1950s Chevy truck that turned out to have an 800-horsepower Corvette engine under the hood and a rebuilt suspension — not cleaned up, rebuilt. What does verse 17 actually claim has happened, and how is that different from becoming a better version of yourself?

2. 2

   James said an ambassador lives in a foreign land and speaks for the interests of the kingdom that sent him, not the country he is standing in. Read verse 20 again. What does that job description ask of you that simply "being a good person" does not?

3. 3

   "Our identity is not achieved. It is received," James said, and pointed to the wilderness: Satan says "if you are" three times and Jesus answers "it is written" three times. Where do you catch yourself still trying to achieve an identity — through what you do, what you have, or what people think?

4. 4

   Standing in line at airborne school, James asked a soldier how he found forgiveness for his sins. "I just hope my good works outweigh my bad works." James asked how that was going, and the man admitted he had no idea. How would most of the people you know answer that same question?

5. 5

   In court, a grandmother told the man who had killed her grandson: "For sixteen months I've wanted to hate you. But I cannot, because you are my neighbor. You have my address. If you write to me, I will respond." James said his head dropped for the first time in the whole trial. What did she have that made that possible?

6. 6

   James called this being "beggars who have found food and can point people where they can find food too," then asked everyone to write down a name — the one person far from God but close to you. Write it now, and say what one ordinary thing you will do with that person this week.