Knowing God, Knowing Joy

Next week (Sunday July 12) we will discuss John 16 and 17.

Here are the links to the teacher's manual and the student guide (lesson 24).

We will focus on two questions:

1) What does it mean to know God? (See John 17)
2) Is joy possible in this life and what is joy? (See John 16.16-33)

Follow up to our in-class discussion:
We didn't have time to discuss the idea of knowing God in class. Here are a few thoughts:
-We can know about God without knowing Him.
-But we cannot know God without knowing about Him.
-To know God is to know about him through study and prayer, and to know him by reaching out to his treasure, our neighbors. It is also to know something of his joy (John 16) and of his suffering (John 17).
-The key feature of Christianity is not a series of commandments or even a lifestyle, it is that eternal life comes through a personal relationship with a divine person.