"The Temple's Not What You Think: It's God Pitching His Tent In Your Backyard"

In this chapter, Bethke speaks of the movement in scripture of God in the temple, God in Jesus, God in us, and finally, no need for a temple because God is our very dwelling place. Throughout time, he says, God has sought to pitch tent with us - to dwell with us. He then asks, "What if we believed that."

Do we think of God wanting to dwell with us?
How might this change the way we live?
How might this change the way we worship?

"People Are Not Who You Think: They're Neighbors To Love, Not Commodities To Use"

Speaking about shame and intimacy, Bethke emphasizes the importance of relationship and community. The law, he says, is given to redirect the value of humans away from being commodities and toward being God's image-bearers. Intimacy, he says, is to be fully known, and at the same time fully loved.

What are some of the ways that people are treated as commodities in our culture?
Are there ways that people are treated as commodities by the church?

​For next time, read chapters 4 & 5

For Lent this year we will be discussing Jefferson Bethke's book, "It's Not What You Think." There will be in in-person discussion on Wednesdays at 7pm, and reflections will be posted here each week, where you can make and read comments. Bethke's book is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble for $8.49.

Here's the description:
New York Times best-selling author of Jesus > Religion challenges the accepted thinking of contemporary Christianity with the world-changing message Jesus actually brought. Jesus was most upset at people for seeing but not seeing. For missing it. For succumbing to the danger and idolatry of forcing God into preconceived ideals. What if there were a better way? What if Jesus came not to help people escape the world but rather to restore it? Best-selling author and spoken word artist Jefferson Bethke says that 'Christians have the greatest story ever told but we aren't telling it.' So in this new book, Bethke tells that story anew, presenting God's truths from the Old and the New Testaments as the challenging and compelling story that it is - a grand narrative with God at the center. And in doing so, Bethke reminds readers of the life-changing message of Jesus that turned the world upside-down, a world that God is putting back together.