week Six : Freedom (pages 98-106) Chapter Five : The Sweetest Gift of Grace : Repentance (pages 99-116 Truefaced Experience )
Question 1. (read Truefaced page 111 and remind yourself how trust attracts grace.) Then read Truefaced page 99 the last paragraph , especially.
What a great image for what repentance feels like! Try your hand at defining repentance with a similar word picture:
If we're........
then repentance is........
Question 2. read Truefaced pg 99 again. When we don't know how to deal with our sins, we will try to hide it. That's why The Room of Good Intentions turns into such a masquerade ball ! It's dress-up time ! We know what we've done.....we know what we do. And no amount of sadness, striving, or penance has done anything but compound our sadness. What we really need is a way home. We've been told to confess our sin, but we don't like that answer. We want to do something ! Besides, we've confessed our sin a thousand times before, and what good did it do?
For several chapters, we've looked at alternative ways to deal with our sin, all ultimately ineffective. From those chapters and from the quote above, what are some of those ways ?
Here are three more ways to deal with sin:
* Remorse- Bitter regret or moral anguish arising from repentance for past misdeeds.
* Mortification- A feeling of shame , humiliation, or wounded pride.
* Penance - A voluntary act of humiliating your self in order to express sorrow for sin.
Why are all of these ways ultimately ineffective?
Question 3. Read truefaced pages 101-102 (the part that describes a scenario that many of us know so well when we try to manage our own sin.)
Does this approach to sin management sound familiar to you ? Has there been a time when you tried- really tried- to end a bad habit or stop committing a reoccurring sin, but you failed ? If so, describe it.
Has Truefaced given you a new hope?
Why?
Question 4. Read Truefaced pages 100-101 Willpower is no power, segment.
Why do you think attempts at sin management ultimately fail?
How are you left feeling when sin management fails............again?
Question 5. read again pgs 100-101 about what is our goal.
We believe that the only effective way to deal with sin is repentance. What makes repentance a gift of God's grace instead of an act of my own willpower?
Why is it effective when other strategies are not?
Explain.
Study the passages below to discover the Bible's view of "sin management" and human willpower versus the powerful gift of grace in repentance. Note what you think is important from each passage:
*Isaiah 64:6
*Luke 18:14
*1 John 1:7-2:2
Question 6. Read pg 103 first paragraph.
To repent means to admit to myself , to God, and to selected others what is true about me- the whole truth. You can be shamed into repentance or dragged into a sort of repentance at the end of a guilt trip or an act of self-humiliation. But those are never the tactics of grace. Grace invites you to receive repentance as a gift. In the process, grace-powered repentance actual resolves your sin, and thus sets you on the road to maturity. Here are five things that are true when grace produces repentance. These are five beautiful truths!
Truth 1: Repentance is about trusting -not willing.
Truth 2: Trusting God attracts grace's power to transform us, as we repent.
Truth 3: Trusting God with ourselves allows us to receive unconditional love and feel safe enough to remove our masks in repentance.
Truth 4: The safety we feel inclines us to stop defending ourselves, and it opens our hearts to God instead.
Truth 5: Every act of repentance depends upon an act of redemption.
Select one of these truths and explain why it is a revolutionary way for you to see repentance.
Select one of these truths and explain what makes it such a beautiful gift for you to receive.
Question 7. Meditate on the apostle Paul's words to Titus, describing what happens when we walk off the well-worn path of Pleasing God and start walking down the road of Trusting God.
In the book they have used the translation from the MSG Bible.
Titus 3:3-7
In this Scripture , underline everything God does to resolve our sin issues for us, then circle everything we do to resolve our sin issues for ourselves.
Meditate on these truths for a moment before continuing.
8.By now you know that people in The Room of Good Intentions hold radically different assumptions about how to handle sin than those in The Room of Grace. The environment of the first room actually inhibits repentance, while the second one releases it. Notice three specific inhibitors of repentance. (Truefaced , page 106)
Consider three factors that can interfere with your move to repentance: isolation, pride and wrong motive. According to the authors and your own observation, explain.
Why isolation inhibits your repentance.
How pride inhibits your repentance.
How wrong motives inhibit your repentance.
Now list two things that can lead you to repentance. ( see Romans 2:4 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11)
9.Resolve striving to please God begets a pride that keeps us focused on our own "power" - which is not a power to write home about. In contrast, repentance that comes from God is outfitted with otherworldly power-potency secured by Jesus' death and activated by his resurrection. Repentance is formidable against sin only because of actual power- the power of the Cross. Our words or religious techniques have nothing to do with it. The power in this gift reminds us of the power in the ark of the covenant, a power so mighty that the Hebrews dared not come in contact with it. The same power that resided in the ark is the power in this gift. But now, God invites us to come near his grace - wrapped power. (Truefaced page 107)
What is more likely to inhibit you from opening the gift of repentance: isolation, pride, or wrong motive?
Explain.
Being aware of this weakness is a valuable insight.
Pause to pray about it, inviting Grace to focus her awesome power in disarming your isolation, pride, or motives.
Pray Romans 2:4 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 into the voids of your heart. Anticipate tasting how sweet repentance really is !
10. One day this woman stands near the door, waiting for the next wounded soul to stumble in so she can be one of the first to tell the new story of this gift.....a gift"used quite routinely in the community". When failing strivers stumble into a community of grace, safety, and vulnerable repentance, it radically disrupts their game plan. Suddenly, they are face to face with a real, tangible option of sweet freedom. And the ongoing environment of the community tells them that they have not dreamed up this way of life. As the community treats them as they have never been treated before, their confidence grows that grace can support the full weight of their sin. (Truefaced, page 109)
From the paragraph above, how can living in a community of grace affect someone? Underline several effects.
If you really believed that "grace can support the full weight of [your ] sin, "
what would you do about it?
Repentance Questions
1. Have you experienced a time when repentance failed in The Room of Good Intentions?
Explain.
2. Have you experienced repentance working when it was about trusting, not willpower?
Explain.
3. What does it look like when people try to manage their sin?
4. When did you experience " freedom" as a result of personal repentance?
Question 1. (read Truefaced page 111 and remind yourself how trust attracts grace.) Then read Truefaced page 99 the last paragraph , especially.
What a great image for what repentance feels like! Try your hand at defining repentance with a similar word picture:
If we're........
then repentance is........
Question 2. read Truefaced pg 99 again. When we don't know how to deal with our sins, we will try to hide it. That's why The Room of Good Intentions turns into such a masquerade ball ! It's dress-up time ! We know what we've done.....we know what we do. And no amount of sadness, striving, or penance has done anything but compound our sadness. What we really need is a way home. We've been told to confess our sin, but we don't like that answer. We want to do something ! Besides, we've confessed our sin a thousand times before, and what good did it do?
For several chapters, we've looked at alternative ways to deal with our sin, all ultimately ineffective. From those chapters and from the quote above, what are some of those ways ?
Here are three more ways to deal with sin:
* Remorse- Bitter regret or moral anguish arising from repentance for past misdeeds.
* Mortification- A feeling of shame , humiliation, or wounded pride.
* Penance - A voluntary act of humiliating your self in order to express sorrow for sin.
Why are all of these ways ultimately ineffective?
Question 3. Read truefaced pages 101-102 (the part that describes a scenario that many of us know so well when we try to manage our own sin.)
Does this approach to sin management sound familiar to you ? Has there been a time when you tried- really tried- to end a bad habit or stop committing a reoccurring sin, but you failed ? If so, describe it.
Has Truefaced given you a new hope?
Why?
Question 4. Read Truefaced pages 100-101 Willpower is no power, segment.
Why do you think attempts at sin management ultimately fail?
How are you left feeling when sin management fails............again?
Question 5. read again pgs 100-101 about what is our goal.
We believe that the only effective way to deal with sin is repentance. What makes repentance a gift of God's grace instead of an act of my own willpower?
Why is it effective when other strategies are not?
Explain.
Study the passages below to discover the Bible's view of "sin management" and human willpower versus the powerful gift of grace in repentance. Note what you think is important from each passage:
*Isaiah 64:6
*Luke 18:14
*1 John 1:7-2:2
Question 6. Read pg 103 first paragraph.
To repent means to admit to myself , to God, and to selected others what is true about me- the whole truth. You can be shamed into repentance or dragged into a sort of repentance at the end of a guilt trip or an act of self-humiliation. But those are never the tactics of grace. Grace invites you to receive repentance as a gift. In the process, grace-powered repentance actual resolves your sin, and thus sets you on the road to maturity. Here are five things that are true when grace produces repentance. These are five beautiful truths!
Truth 1: Repentance is about trusting -not willing.
Truth 2: Trusting God attracts grace's power to transform us, as we repent.
Truth 3: Trusting God with ourselves allows us to receive unconditional love and feel safe enough to remove our masks in repentance.
Truth 4: The safety we feel inclines us to stop defending ourselves, and it opens our hearts to God instead.
Truth 5: Every act of repentance depends upon an act of redemption.
Select one of these truths and explain why it is a revolutionary way for you to see repentance.
Select one of these truths and explain what makes it such a beautiful gift for you to receive.
Question 7. Meditate on the apostle Paul's words to Titus, describing what happens when we walk off the well-worn path of Pleasing God and start walking down the road of Trusting God.
In the book they have used the translation from the MSG Bible.
Titus 3:3-7
In this Scripture , underline everything God does to resolve our sin issues for us, then circle everything we do to resolve our sin issues for ourselves.
Meditate on these truths for a moment before continuing.
8.By now you know that people in The Room of Good Intentions hold radically different assumptions about how to handle sin than those in The Room of Grace. The environment of the first room actually inhibits repentance, while the second one releases it. Notice three specific inhibitors of repentance. (Truefaced , page 106)
Consider three factors that can interfere with your move to repentance: isolation, pride and wrong motive. According to the authors and your own observation, explain.
Why isolation inhibits your repentance.
How pride inhibits your repentance.
How wrong motives inhibit your repentance.
Now list two things that can lead you to repentance. ( see Romans 2:4 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11)
9.Resolve striving to please God begets a pride that keeps us focused on our own "power" - which is not a power to write home about. In contrast, repentance that comes from God is outfitted with otherworldly power-potency secured by Jesus' death and activated by his resurrection. Repentance is formidable against sin only because of actual power- the power of the Cross. Our words or religious techniques have nothing to do with it. The power in this gift reminds us of the power in the ark of the covenant, a power so mighty that the Hebrews dared not come in contact with it. The same power that resided in the ark is the power in this gift. But now, God invites us to come near his grace - wrapped power. (Truefaced page 107)
What is more likely to inhibit you from opening the gift of repentance: isolation, pride, or wrong motive?
Explain.
Being aware of this weakness is a valuable insight.
Pause to pray about it, inviting Grace to focus her awesome power in disarming your isolation, pride, or motives.
Pray Romans 2:4 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 into the voids of your heart. Anticipate tasting how sweet repentance really is !
10. One day this woman stands near the door, waiting for the next wounded soul to stumble in so she can be one of the first to tell the new story of this gift.....a gift"used quite routinely in the community". When failing strivers stumble into a community of grace, safety, and vulnerable repentance, it radically disrupts their game plan. Suddenly, they are face to face with a real, tangible option of sweet freedom. And the ongoing environment of the community tells them that they have not dreamed up this way of life. As the community treats them as they have never been treated before, their confidence grows that grace can support the full weight of their sin. (Truefaced, page 109)
From the paragraph above, how can living in a community of grace affect someone? Underline several effects.
If you really believed that "grace can support the full weight of [your ] sin, "
what would you do about it?
Repentance Questions
1. Have you experienced a time when repentance failed in The Room of Good Intentions?
Explain.
2. Have you experienced repentance working when it was about trusting, not willpower?
Explain.
3. What does it look like when people try to manage their sin?
4. When did you experience " freedom" as a result of personal repentance?
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