08 | Gladness

08 | Gladness

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Gladness.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 16. What stands out to you?

2. Is the joy of love, the celebration of being fully alive in relationship, worth the pain?

3. How is gladness an outcome of being adept at the other emotions?

4. In what ways do you fight off gladness? In other words, what emotion do you try to avoid?

August 28, 2022 - Gabe Shippam

07 | Loneliness

07 | Loneliness

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Loneliness.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 42. What stands out to you?

2. What leads this writer (what in life brought him to this place) to think he is alone?

3. This psalm is a “maskil” or a psalm of “wisdom” - what is the wisdom that this person is offering?

4. What are the common threads to all the psalms we have been through? What are the solutions to all of our problems, our politics, our pressures, our anger, our loneliness, our enemies, our doubters, and our sins?

August 21, 2022 - Scott Cooley

06 | Shame

06 | Shame

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Shame.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 31. What stands out to you in David’s song?

2. What triggers shame for you? What times, places, or settings do you feel shame come on strong and loud

3. When you feel shame, where do you feel it in your body? (ex: A rush of blood to the head, elevated heart rate, or constriction in your chest or your throat)

4. What is your shame trying to say to you? What does it speak and name to your soul? Does it sound like rejection, accusation, judgment, or something else?

August 14, 2022 - Steve Hart

05 | Anger

05 | Anger

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Anger.

Aug 7, 2022 - Matt Beumer

04 | Guilt

04 | Guilt

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Guilt.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 51. What themes do you recognize in David’s words?

2. When was a time that you felt guilty and needed to be forgiven?

3. What would change in your life if you were able to “acknowledge what God has known the whole time”?

4. What would you say to a friend who tells you they still carry feelings of guilt from something in the past?

July 31, 2022 -Jon Schuler

03 | Sadness

03 | Sadness

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Sadness.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 6. What is the psalmist’s complaint? How does the psalmist experience reorientation?

2. What have been your three greatest losses?

3. When was the last time you sincerely cried for something? Were you ashamed of your tears? What do you believe about tears?

July 24, 2022 - Doug Wieber

02 | Hurt

02 | Hurt

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.

This week we look at Hurt.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 55. What is the psalmist’s complaint? How does the psalmist experience reorientation?

2. How has your past hurt affected your ability to know and be known by others?

3. Have you ever had an experience when admitting your hurt lead to healing? If so, what happened? If not, what do you believe would happen if you were to do this?

July 17, 2022 - Scott Cooley

01 | Fear

01 | Fear

The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life includes our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use, our emotions.

This week we look at Fear. Fear allows us to experience risk. It awakens us to danger and begins the development of wisdom. We see how David experienced fear and through the wild experience of facing the fear that encircled him, he was able to experience the reality of the trustworthiness of God.

Questions for Discussion

1. Read Psalm 56. What is the psalmist’s complaint? How does the psalmist experience reorientation?

2. When fear strikes, how do you deal with it? Do you ever try to force control in these situations? How do you respond to fear?

3. What about trusting another person scares you?

July 10, 2022 - Gabe Shippam