Huddle Meeting 
Reaching Higher

Welcome (greetings and announcements)

Warm-up (icebreaker, games, skit)
• Play a Minute to Win it game - Stack pennies using only one hand – team with highest stack of pennies after one minute wins. Play as many rounds as time allows.

Work-out (Bible studies, devotionals, testimonials)

Large Group Time
• Read Mark 12:30
• Jesus continues to explain what it means to be committed to God, to commit to loving and serving God. 
• We think of our heart as the center of our emotions or passions. In the Hebrew mindset, however, the heart was the center of personality and reason. We are to love God with our whole personality (reason, intellect, the quirks that make you who you are) and with all that gives us life and breath.
• Dr. Jay Kessler, former President of Taylor University and President of Youth for Christ once said, “The requirements to be an athlete match the requirements to be a Christian- discipline, preparation, follow the rules, clean living. It is hard work. Christ is not just your motivation or example. Christ is doing the work. He is the Holy Spirit within you.”

Small Group time
• Do you consider yourself an athlete? How hard to you train? 
• Give an example of your team’s typical week’s practice sessions and workouts. How hard to you personally work during these sessions?  
• What is your weekly spiritual training routine? How does your weekly spiritual training match up with your athletic training schedule?
• What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?

Wrap-Up: closing comments, prayer
• Ask small groups to share one another’s stories with the rest of the group. 
• Read Deuteronomy 10:12 and Joshua 22:5. How do these Old Testament teachings compare with the New Testament teaching in Mark 12:30? What does it mean to ‘fear God’?
• Ask the Holy Spirit to take you to a new level of spiritual fitness, to give Him all our heart, soul, mind and strength each day.

Close in Prayer

What does it mean to ‘fear God’?

There is a difference between being afraid of and “fearing the Lord”. The Biblical reference is similar to the fear that a child has for his father. In this regard, it is like a child who has tremendous respect and love for his father or mother and wants to please them. He has a fear or an anxiety of offending the one he loves, not because he’s afraid of torture or even of punishment, but rather because he’s afraid of displeasing the one who is, in that child’s world, the source of security and love.

This distinction can be helpful because the basic meaning of fearing the Lord that we read about in Deuteronomy is also in the Wisdom Literature, where we’re told that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The focus here is on a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God. We are instructed to maintain a healthy respect and adoration for Him.



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