Arlington United Methodist Church

The most important jobs in the Kingdom of God are the least glamorous in the eyes of the world.

Thoughts for the week: What work do you feel called to participate in? What work to you feel called to give to?

The many different Christian denominations came out of legitimate disagreements with one another, but we tend to focus on the disagreements and forget how much we have in common.

Thoughts for the week: How do you get along with Christians who have different beliefs? What is preventing us from working together to make the world a better place?

We live out our discipleship daily by constantly being open to how we can be part of God’s redeeming work in this world.

Thoughts for the week: What opportunities do you have to do God’s work every day? How can you become more aware of those opportunities?

God speaks to us in many ways that can include voices from the sky, but are often less subtle.

Thoughts for the week: Have you ever felt like God was speaking to you? What form did it come in? Did you realize it at the time or after the fact?

God judges us by the extent to which we embraced and lived the reality of the Kingdom in our own time and place. Our internal beliefs and external works mutually influence one another in the way we live our lives. The experience of the afterlife is a reflection of the life we have cultivated in the pure, unmediated presence of a holy, just, and righteous God.

Thoughts for the week: What do the concepts of Heaven and Hell mean to you? Do you find them comforting or disturbing? Why?

The Bible is a collection of writings reflecting people’s experiences and understanding of God in the times and places in which they lived. The Holy Spirit continues to speak through these texts calling us into a lifelong relationship with a living God.

Thoughts for the week: What does the Bible mean to you? How do you experience God through reading and meditating on scripture?

God’s presence is experienced in the midst of the ordinary, everyday circumstances of life, not just the “special” moments.

Our response to things that make us uncomfortable is to push them to the margins. Jesus’ response is to embrace, heal, and invite us to join him.

Thoughts for the week: Are there people or things in your life that you keep at arm’s length because they make you uncomfortable? What would it mean to let Jesus in to heal those things?

Both action and contemplation are equally important parts of the spiritual life, but we must be willing to set action aside for a moment and listen when God is speaking to us.

Thoughts for the week: Do you ever find yourself being busy for the sake of being busy? What is one way you can slow down to become aware of God’s presence?

We have to root our emotional well-being in the opportunity to do the work of the Kingdom of God instead of the results of that work.

Thoughts for the week: What brings you joy? What things do you let affect how you feel? Are those things worthy of having authority in your life?