This Sunday Mark will be exploring Isaiah 6 in a series related to Thy Kingdom Come. Do check out our TKC Page for more information. This week we will be looking at Isaiah’s words in verse 11: “How long, O Lord.”
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FOR REFLECTION & DISCUSSION
Read Isaiah chapter 6:1-13
1. Have you ever had an experience of the presence of God which was life-changing for you? In what sort of circumstances may we expect a strong experience of the presence of God?
2. Isaiah accepted a commission from God to speak to a people who basically weren’t going to respond well to the message God was giving him to speak? To what extent should we expect that to be true as we follow the Great Commission (Matt 28:1802) today.
3. The people Isaiah was commissioned to prophesy to were the Jews, the people of God? They had been blessed during Uzziah’s reign, but what was the sin that had been besetting them for generations? You may need to read other chapters in Isaiah and look through Kings or Chronicles to find some – they are plentiful!
4. What do you think the besetting sins of the church in our country (and other western countries) that have brought us into decline. For help, the letters to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 1-4 will give you lots of clues? Do you agree with Mark that the decline has been largely the church’s fault, or is it because of society’s sins, or “God moving in mysterious ways?”
5. Is further decline of the church in the UK (and in Felixstowe) inevitable and all we can do is “move the deckchairs on the Titanic”? Is it reversible now, or do we have to suffer further loss before anything significant happens (how long, O Lord)? If the answer to the previous question is “reversible now”, how costly is it likely to be and in what ways?