Wholehearted: Excerpts from Chronicles. Part 4.

Read: 2 Chronicles 5:2-6:11

• What do you notice?
• What stands out to you?
• What observations or questions does this passage raise?

Discuss:

The ark was brought into the temple at the festival of the seventh month (the feast of Tabernacles) – one of the three times a year the Israelites were expected to gather in Jerusalem – presumably to maximise the number of people who were able to make it for the celebration.

• How can we reduce the barriers (or perceived barriers) to invite people into or toward opportunities to meet Jesus?
• What things do we do that make it harder?
• Thinking of the people in your life, what might be a good opportunity to invite them to?

Bringing the ark into the temple seems to be the final piece to complete the project, bringing the symbol of God’s presence into the house designed for His presence.

• The New Testament letters often refer to God’s people/ the church/ us as a temple of the Holy Spirit – what does it look like to invite the Spirit (God’s presence) into our activities and gatherings and make Him welcome?
• What might we do that makes our spaces less inviting or welcoming to the Holy Spirit?
• How can we manage the tension between inviting people who don’t know God and inviting the Spirit and making Him welcome, being conspicuously spiritual but not weird, so that the Spirit has the opportunity to work in them?

Pray: for opportunities to invite people into spaces that connect them with the Spirit of God, and for wisdom to follow these opportunities up well.