This week's questions:-

1. Given joy is somewhat experiential - how can we know that the joy we experience is from the spirit?

2. What does it mean that the Joy of the Lord is our strength?

3. What did James mean when he said we should count it all joy when we encounter trials?

1. Is it noteworthy that love is the first on the list?
2. Why does Paul only mention love for others and not love for God in Galatians 5:14 like Jesus does in the parable?
3. God’s love in sending Jesus is easy to recognise. In the Old Testament it’s much harder. How is God’s love expressed before Jesus?

1. Could Paul’s letter to the church be a passive aggressive response to the sins the church could have done? For example, they might have acted with hatred.
2. We’ve looked at the same text for two weeks and haven’t addressed Paul’s interest in the law. What does the law have to do (or not)with the fruit of the Spirit?
3. The vices are obvious, except in us. No one thinks they're in a faction, idolatrous or sexually immoral, yet we know these exist in the church. How do we do better?

1. How do the gifts of the Spirit contribute to our fruitfulness?
2. How is the Trinity involved in our fruitfulness?
3. Was fruit part of the Holy Spirit’s role in the Old Testament?

1. Does the fruit of our lives have to be public? Can’t we do these things in private or is ‘public’ about how it eventually affects others & therefore relational?
2. Can you say more about how and why our fruitfulness is connected to God’s purposes and glory?
3. Matthew 7:20 fits with people seeing God through our fruit, but what does it mean when we see what looks like good fruit from non-believers or bad fruit from believers.

1. Does God always follow judgment with grace throughout the entire Bible? If there is a time without grace, why might that be?
2. Why did Abram feel he had to lie to protect himself. Why couldn't he just trust God to look after him?
3. Historically many churches have chosen to either a focus on the effects of sin or prosperity doctrine. Why does this either/or behaviour happen?

1. Who were the people supposed to be representing God to if their role was to be image-bearers of God?
2. Why did Noah curse Canaan? He was the son of Ham and wasn’t even directly mentioned as being involved, so why? And how do we see the curse working out?
3. What has influenced your re-thinking of the Sunday School version of the stories in Genesis 1-11 to focus on God’s purposes rather than where Cain found a wife?

1. If the flood didn't fix mankind's sinning, what did it achieve? Was God just grumpy but now he's got it out of his system and has promised not to do it again?
2. God promises not to destroy the earth again but isn’t Isaiah 65:17 creating a new earth a different way to say destroy the earth again?
3. Why is Noah first told to take two of every type of animal into the ark but later to take seven of every kind of clean animal? How would he know the difference?