READ: Mark 8:22-45
Crowdbreaker Question:
Describe a person who when they touched you, you felt safe and secure.
What about them helped you to feel that way?
Discussion Questions:
1. In this series we are looking at “Experiencing God through the Senses (Touch, Smell, Sight,Hearing, and Taste).” If you had to choose, which way would you say you leaned and why:Trusting your senses to lead you closer to God, or being wary of how your senses would impact your view of God?
A world class pastor and theologian, Thomas Acquinas, once wrote that “Knowledge begins in the senses… Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.” (Summa Theologica) Can you think of one way you came to know something that you didn’t receive through one or more of your senses?
When you think of touch, is your initial reaction positive or negative? Can you identify what feelings come up with you consider being touched?
If you can, when have you felt the “touch” of God in your soul? What has this felt like? In what way(s) did it draw you closer to Jesus? (If this is a hard one for you, think of a quiet shudder when you hear an old favorite song, or a wave of happiness sweeps over you. These are the ways some have described God’s touch.)
Touch is frequently mentioned throughout the life of Jesus, people wanting to touch him and be touched by him (look up Mark 3, 5, 6, and 10, as examples from just one book!). If God “touches” us today through our experiences, to bring us comfort and healing, how can we be used by God to touch others in similar ways?