Is There A Higher Power

This past Sunday night, we kicked off our reality series, "Gospel Journey Maui." We learned that for the next nine weeks, we are going to tackle some of life's biggest issues. Week 1 has us probing the idea of whether or not there is a higher power. If so, what is he/she/it like? And do they want something from us...their creation. The islands mountains of Maui, Hawaii were our backdrop as we questioned how everything we know, got here. Simply put, we were asking the question...is there a creator behind the creation, if did everything just happen to get here by random chance.

For many of us, we would obviously say that we believe in the God of the Bible as the higher power in control of all that we know here on earth. My follow up question this week to this is "why?" Why do/don't you believe that there is a God? For many of us, this is where we get stumped. We don't really know how to explain why we believe/don't believe in God...we just do.

This week, I would encourage you to think through the why behind what you believe about a higher power. If Col. 1:15-17 is right, and I believe that it is, then their is a God, who became man in Jesus, who created the world an everything in it with the purpose of serving Him. This is quite the statement of truth. I don't know what you believe, but if this is true (and again I believe that it is), then that changes everything about life...so what do you say...is there a higher power?

Use these questions throughout this week to help you dive deeper into this week's topic of a higher power.

1. Greg Stier talks about having a relational, experimental, and rational reason for belieiving in God (or any higher power). Relational would be your personal experience...the 'feeling" you have that God is there. Experimental would be how you tested your relational feelings (reading the Bible, talking with others, etc...). And finally, there is rational...reasons that show proof or evidence that there is a God.

- What are your relational reasons for believing/not believing in God?

- How have you experimented with these reasons?
- What are your rational reasons for believing in what you believe about a higher power?

2. Many of say we believe in the God of the Bible (relational & experimental) but when asked why (rational), we struggle to give an answer. Read 1 Peter 3:15-16. Why is it important to have a reason for why we believe what we believe?

3. Do you have many friends that don't believe the same things that you do? Read verse 15b-16 of that same passage again...what type of attitude should we have when talking about our beliefs? Why is this?

4. Col. 1:15-17 talks about Jesus being the visible image of the invisible God...and also the fact that we were created by God, for God. What is it like to know we were created by God for a purpose? What do you think that purpose might be?