Small Groups (Take 1)

The wait was finally over, and my favourite meetings at CU started last night: small groups. It's a pretty self-explanatory term - we split off into three different groups in order to support one another more thoroughly, and to enjoy a deeper, more application-based look at the Bible. Both of those aims were certainly met in the small group I was a part of last night.


Last year's small groups were fantastic for us freshers to grow close together alongside second- and third-years with slightly more experience of being a Christian on campus. Hopefully the same will be true this year - with a CU which is looking significantly larger than last year's it will be important for us to grow in groups where we can pray for one anothers' individual needs, and discuss personal ways in which we can apply the parts of the Bible we read together.


Not that small group is a forum for discussing people's problems of course, but getting to know a small bunch of Christians well gives you the option of other believers being able to help you out. It's also a chance to hang out and have fun together - we met in a house, ate Pringles, and played PlayStation too.


Last night's study was an introduction to the gospel of Luke. Luke's account of Jesus take a different tack to the other gospels - his scientific approach allows us to look at Jesus' life by examining facts and deducing conclusions. We can be sure of Luke's diligence in bringing us the facts - he tell the brilliantly named and "most excellent" Theophilus that the facts he brings us have been "carefully investigated" - this certainly holds up when comparing his writings to the writing from Jesus' eyewitnesses.


We then looked at Luke 2:22-38.


Jesus certainly caused quite a stir for an 8-day-old! One thing which can cause us to look forward to studying the rest of Luke is considering this: if he causes that much of a stir when he was a newborn, imagine how much of a stir he must've caused as a grown man. We don't have to imagine, of course - God reveals this to us in the rest of the gospel, and I've got a feeling that the rest of what we discover will be more than worthy to be blogged.