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NOOMA Group | Collection 001 Discussion Guide

Copyright 2010 by Flannel, P.O. Box 3228, Grand Rapids, MI 49501 3228, USA.

Published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49530, USA.

ISBN 978 0 310 32540 6

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise marked, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International

Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights

reserved worldwide.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy or any storage and retrieval system without the

prior permission of Flannel.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, www.yates2.com.

Printed in the United States of America

09 10 11 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Foreword 6

Introduction 8

How to Use This Book 10

Rain | 001 13

Wheres God when life isnt going like we want it to?

Flame | 002 35

Could love be the most misunderstood and misused word in our vocabulary?

Trees | 003 55Do our lives even matter?

Sunday | 004 75

Do we get so wrapped up in religion that we miss out on whats important to God?

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13

Wheres God when life isnt goinglike we want it to?

Rain | 001

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Rain | 001

O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.

May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave.

Psalm 88:1 3

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Things dont always work out the way we want them to, or the way we think they will.Sometimes we dont even see it coming. We get hit with some form of pain out ofnowhere, leaving us feeling desperate and helpless. Thats the way life is. Still, it makes

us wonder how God can let these things happen to us. How God can just stand by andwatch us suffer. Where is God when it really hurts? Maybe God is actually closer to usthan we think. Maybe its when were in these situations, where everything seems to befalling apart, that God gets an opportunity to remind us of how much he really loves us.

In this film, a father took his infant son for a walk around the lake where they werecamping. Eventually, while they were walking, a huge storm hit, soaking the two. Thefather shares how the storms winds and pounding rain scared his son, causing him tocry out for help. The sons fear and anguish is compared with our own cries to God inthe midst of the storms in our lives. Like the son, we often feel cold, wet, alone, scared. . . and like the father in the film, God has a clearer picture . . . knowing what we need,when we need it, how we need it. And like the father, God is there, holding us when wecry, wanting to rescue us, wanting to reassure us that he has everything under control.

If anything strikes you while you watch Rain | 001, write it down . . . or make a note andfinish it later . . . whatever comes to your mind . . . just get it on paper . . . and then whenthe time comes, talk about it . . .

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Talk about Rain | 001

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Do you ever have one of those moments . . . like . . . if you could just freeze it? Its sobeautiful.

1. What beautiful moment from your life would you like to freeze?

I look up and I notice clouds. And then it starts to rain. It always rains, doesnt it?

2. How did your beautiful moment end?

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Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man

who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone

who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built

his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat againstthat house, and it fell with a great crash.

Matthew 7:24 27

So this idea Jesus says, When the rains come. Its not like they might. They do. Itrains . . . in our lives . . . a lot.

3. Is it raining in your life now?

If you take the word cry and you search the Scriptures, you find this word comes upover and over again. Even the book of Psalms, just the book of Psalms, if you startreading through, it speaks over and over and over again of crying, of crying out toGod.

Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

Psalm 5:2

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the

living God.

Psalm 84:2

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And God says these amazing things. He says, When you cry out to me, I listen. Heeven says, I cannot ignore the cry of somebody who is afflicted.

4. Do you believe that God hears you when you cry out to him?

God even says that when you cry, hes close to the brokenhearted. Hes close to thosewho cry out and admit they are scared, lost, soaking wet, and confused.

5. Do you feel close to God when youre scared, lost, and confused?

I mean, Jesus is even straight ahead when He says, Come to me, all you who areweary and heavy-laden. I mean, the essence of salvation is crying out to God andadmitting, I dont have it all together.

6. Have you ever realized you didnt have it all together?

O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. May my prayer come

before you; turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near

the grave.

Psalm 88:1-4

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He

brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.

Psalm 107:13-14

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Its admitting, I am lost. I am hurting. And this sinful nature that I carry around with mehas really screwed things up for me. And God, if you dont show me the way home, ifyou dont fix things, if you dont step in, I am dying here.

7. Is God the only one who can show you the way home?

God says to us, When you come to me, you come to me with all your junk. You cometo me with your problems. Come to me all screwed up, all messed up. Let me takecare of it.

8. Do you have junk in your life thats keeping you from crying out to God?

Jesus even sets out looking for people. He even says this. He says, Im not looking forthe healthy. I came for the sick.

9. Do you think Jesus is looking for you? What would he find?

For Trace, the storm is his reality. He sees nothing else.

10. Have you ever been so blinded by your storms that you cant see anything else?