*There's a lot here this week!  We encourage all of you to do Questions 1 & 2, and then pick and choose from the rest as time allows.​​

1. Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 and the C. S. Lewis quote below (Ralph used it Sunday morning in his message).  Discuss how they relate to one another and consider how Abiding in Christ and our engaging with the spiritual practices tie in as well.

   • C. S. Lewis Quote:  "Christ says 'Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'    The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self – all your wishes and precautions – to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.” We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way – centred on money or pleasure or ambition – and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly.  And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As he said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown."

2. Last week Phil encouraged us to find ways to practice Gratitude.  How'd that go?  This week, Ralph said that the way to TRANSCEND this life "under the sun" is to praise God for the meals, conversations, people we enjoy right here in the present, etc.  For when we see these things as gifts of God and praise Him for them, they truly become meaningful and lose their "vanity." What–and–who can you give God great praise for this week?  Let's continue this practice of gratitude.

3.  As we have set up our study of Ecclesiastes the last couple weeks, how has your understanding of Solomon's saying, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity" changed?  What do you think Solomon's point in writing this book is?

4. If the stuff of this world that we hold onto so tightly (material goods, money, people, events, experiences, etc.) seems so concrete and solid, why does Solomon say they are hevel (smoke, vapor, empty)? 

5. How can we say that the things of God's kingdom (love, peace, fellowship, hope, joy, etc.) are REAL and SOLID when you can't ever really take hold of them with your hands?

6. Ralph said he has begun thinking of Ecclesiastes as "The Upside Down Gospel."  He said we can't truly hear the Good News until we hear the Bad News.  What do you think he means by this?  Where do you see the gospel in this book so far?

7. How do Acts 17:24-28 and Colossians 1:16-17 help us understand "life here under the sun" in comparison to eternal life in the kingdom of God?