Move People on the Scale

In one paragraph

Ted Rabinold, a missionary supported by First Baptist Jackson who has served in Tanzania for over thirty years, brought the message this past Sunday. He walked through the agricultural and discipleship work his team does in Southwest Tanzania, then drew a larger point about what the gospel actually reconciles and what that means for how we understand our own daily work and witness. Ted opened by...

Read together

1. Psalm 92 quoted as an encouraging word to lead into worship: 'It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the most high God... proclaim his unfailing love... and his faithfulness at night'
2. Psalm 16 quoted during worship: 'You make known to me the path of life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence and the pleasure of living with you forever'
3. Colossians 1:19-20 central text of the message: 'For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross'
4. Jude 24-25 spoken as a closing blessing: 'Now to him who is able to keep y'all from falling and to present y'all before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy...'

Talk about it

1. Ted described three relationships that were broken by the fall and bought back through the blood of Christ: our relationship with God, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with creation. Which of those three do you find hardest to think of as something Christ redeemed, and why?
2. Ted talked about a scale from negative ten to positive ten, where the Holy Spirit's job is to move someone from negative one to positive one, but our job is simply to move people along that scale. How does that change the way you think about conversations you have had, or avoided having, with people around you?
3. Ted said that most of us divide the secular and the spiritual on a daily basis, and that the Bible does not support a separate class of pastors and missionaries doing spiritual work while everyone else does physical work. Where in your own daily work or routine do you find it hardest to see what you are doing as service to God?
4. Ted quoted Martin Luther saying that a milkmaid who provides milk and butter to people made in God's image is serving the Lord himself. What would it look like practically for you to approach your own work or role at home with that same understanding when you go back to it this week?
5. Ted closed by describing what Saint Patrick taught new believers, turning everyday actions like making a fire or drawing water into prayers. What is one repeated moment in your daily routine that you could attach a short prayer to, and what would that prayer say?