It's Complicated: DiSCUSSION GUIDE
CHAPTER ONE REFLECTIONS
1. Claire is in a foreign country in a strange airport where people speak a foreign language. How does she feel?
2. Have you ever traveled far from home or gone somewhere unfamiliar to you? How did you feel when you first arrived in your new environment?
3. Read Jeremiah 23:23-24
“Am I not a God near at hand” – God’s Decree – “and not a God far off?
Can anyone hide out in a corner where I can’t see him?”
God’s Decree
“Am I not present everywhere, whether seen or unseen?”
AND Read Matthew 28: 20 “I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
4. Where can you go that God will not be?
5. How does it make you feel to know God will be with you wherever and whenever you go?
CHAPTER TWO REFLECTIONS
1. Do you have any siblings? If not, how about roommates, teammates, club members you spend large amounts of time with or who you are sometimes responsible for?
2. List three things you like about having these people in your life:
3. List three things that bug you about having these people in your life:
4. Read Proverbs 17:17 Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.
AND
Read Genesis 45: 14-15 Then Joseph threw himself on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. He then kissed all his brothers and wept over them.
5. How does God want us to treat our siblings? How important is this relationship in God’s eyes?
CHAPTER THREE REFLECTIONS
1. What is your first impression of Palmer?
2. What is your first impression of her relationship with Keegan?
3. They are clearly attracted to one another. Are they in control of this attraction physically?
4. What do you think God’s take on sexual passion is?
5. Read 1 Corinthians 7: 1-4 Is it a good thing to have sexual relations? Certainly – but only within a certain context. It’s good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder.
6. After reading Paul’s letters to the Corinthians what is your take on sex?
CHAPTER FOUR REFLECTIONS
1. What drives Kat?
2. What drives you? You know, what makes you smile, be energized, jump out of bed? What will you give up a night with friends for or an extra shift at work for or a chance to go to a cool concert for?
3. Read 1 Corinthians 12: 4-10 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere, but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is. Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful!
4. Knowing that the Spirit hands out all kinds of gifts to all kinds of people, list three of your gifts:
5. For each of the gifts listed above, think of one thing you can do this week to use that gift to glorify God