Finding God in Los Angeles

Introduction: The members of my Sabbath School have gone on frequent short term mission trips, usually to Mexico. During these trips, they had powerful experiences of the sacred. However, these experiences are much rarer in Los Angeles. This has given the impression that you have to go on mission trips to experience God. I feel that this unbalanced view should be rectified, so I will be sharing some ideas that I have been trying recently with some early success.

• When was the last time you experienced God's presence?
• Do you want have these experiences again?

Discussion
Why do we have trouble experiencing God?

• Focusing on the Created and not the Creator
• Hard heart

What is a hard heart?

• Ephesians 4:17-19 (Unable to understand)
• Mark 3:1-5 (Lack of Compassion)
• John 12:40 (blindness)
• Pharaoh in Egypt

How do we gain a new heart?

• God sometimes breaks through
• Certain religious practices

Religious practices done in groups

• Sacred story (Bible)
• Sacred rituals (Communion)
• Sacred time (Sabbath)
• Sacred music
• Sacred speech (speaking in tongues)
• Sacred silence
• Sacred space
• Sacred journey
• Sacred laws
• Which of these, do we practice in our church? Give examples

Individual practices

• Verbal prayer
• Non-verbal prayer
• Deeds of compassion
• Individual Bible study

Several practices were listed, which ones were incorporated in the mission trip?
How would you incorporate these practices in your daily life?


Conclusion
We have talked about several ideas to help you experience God in your life. Not all of these ideas will work with every person. It is important that we try these ideas to find which work for us.


Bibliography
Marcus Borg. “Opening to God: The Heart of Spirituality” in The God We Never Knew, Harper San Francisco, 1997.