The Abiding Life: questions for 12/20/09

The Abiding Life Week 8 – Matthew 6:9-13

Learning What to Pray

1. On a scale of 1-10 rate your prayer life. What is the reason for your rating and what factors hinder your prayer life?
   
2. Have you ever lost focus while praying or just run out of stuff to pray? Why do you think it is so hard to stay focused during times of extended prayer?
   
3. Read through the Lord 's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Is this a prayer we are supposed to say or a guide for how to pray? Justify your answer.
   
4. Our Father in heaven… In what ways does being an adopted child fundamentally change how you view God, the world, and yourself?
   
5. Hallowed be Your name… What does it mean for God's name to be hallowed? If someone were to observe you (as God's child) would they think of God (your Father) as hallowed, or something less?
   
6. Your kingdom come… How are we to pray in such a way to see God's kingdom advanced? How have you seen God answer those prayers?
   
7. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… What types of things do you know are God's will? How do you discover God's will? How should that knowledge impact how you pray?
   
8. Give us today our daily bread… Read Matthew 6:33. How does Jesus' admonition to pray for the Father's will to be done relate to the provision of daily bread?
   
9. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… Why is confession and relational harmony essential to advance God's kingdom?
10. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one… How does David's prayer in Psalm 139:23 serve as an example of this aspect of the Lord's prayer?

The Abiding Life questions for 12/13/09

...are available for download here.

Remember your leaders

"It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him."

- Lloyd Alexander, The High King, p. 103

Have you prayed for/thanked/supported/blessed your Faith Family Leader recently (I assure you he needs it)? If not, why not today?

Life is a forge

"Life's a forge!" cried the smith, as Taran, his brow streaming, beat at the strip of metal. "Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You'll be roasted, smelted and pounded, and you'll scarce know what's happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal's worthless till it's shaped and tempered!" [emphasis mine]

...

"Life's a forge, say I! Face the pounding, don't fear the proving; and you'll stand well against any hammer and anvil!"

Taran Wanderer, p. 178, 181

Reminds me of an awesome Brooks Simpson sermon from several years back. Give it a listen if you haven't already.

Food for thought...potential is nothing until it is realized by action. And God chiefly does this in our lives through the process of sanctification - when raw metal extracted from the ground is refined and shaped for useful work as a tool. Though it be painful, are you willing to be pounded and thrust into the fire repeatedly to be made useful for the advancement of the Kingdom of God? Is it better to stay unrefined ore in the rock, safe from hammer and fire, having much potential but no present use?

The Abiding Life - Psalm 119: A Heart for the Word (12/6)

Download this week's questions.

1. What is your greatest need? What is the greatest need of the church? Why?
   
2. Read 1 John 2:5-6. What do you think it means to "keep His word" and how would your love for God be perfected if you did?
3. Which of the disciplines associated with the Word - reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating - seem most difficult to you? Why?
4. Read Psalm 119:14-16, 24, 35, and 47. What does it mean to delight? Which comes first, delight or disciplines (reading, studying, memorizing, meditating)? Justify your answer.
5. What would the evidence be of a life that delighted in the Word of God the way David did? Do you delight in the Word as David did? Why or why not?
6. What kind of things do you delight in? Do any of those delights compete with delighting in God?
7. Read Proverbs 3:13-15. What would your life look like if you believed Solomon's statement that nothing you desire compares with wisdom from God?
   
8. E.M. Bounds said, "A sense of need creates or should create, earnest desire. The stronger the sense of need, before God, the greater should be the desire, the more earnest the praying. The "poor in spirit" are eminently competent to pray." Why is that good news for those who lack delight and desire in God's Word?
9. David's Psalm 119 is a prayer. Take time as a Faith Family to read and pray through each verse listed below.
   

• Psalm 119:12 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!
  
• Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
  
• Psalm 119:17 Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.
  
• Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
  
• Psalm 119:19 I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!
  
• Psalm 119:22 Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
  
• Psalm 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!
  
• Psalm 119:26 When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes!
  
• Psalm 119:27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
  
• Psalm 119:28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!
  
• Psalm 119:29 Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!
  
• Psalm 119:31 I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame!
  
• Psalm 119:32 I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
  

Close in Prayer…

Psalm

E.M. Bounds

Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before prayer, and by it, created and intensified. Prayer is the oral expression of desire.

Holy desire is much helped by devout contemplation. Meditation on our spiritual need, and on God's readiness and ability to correct it, aids desire to grow. Serious thought engaged in before praying, increases desire, makes it more insistent, and tends to save us from the menace of private prayer — wandering thought. We fail much more in desire, than in its outward expression. We retain the form, while the inner life fades and almost dies.

The flaming heat of soul has been tempered down to a tepid lukewarmness. This, it should be remembered, was the central cause of the sad and desperate condition of the Laodicean Christians, of whom the awful condemnation is written that they were "rich, and increased in goods and had need of nothing," and knew not that they "were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind."

Whose house are you building?

God has been leading me, over and over again, into the story of the fall of Judah, the Exile, and the return to rebuild the house of God at the order of Cyrus. I can't help but liken the situation of the people of Judah to our lives and times today (check out Ezekiel 34 if you want to see what I mean). I want to put the Israelites in a special category reserved for "stiff-necked people." The problem, of course, is that I see myself in them. There has been no improvement in the heart of man since 600 B.C. - the human heart is still "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). The story of the Jews is my story too, and I am betting, if you're honest with yourself, it is yours too.

One particular lesson from this road God's put me on is found in Ezra and Haggai. The Book of Ezra begins with Cyrus' proclamation of the greatness of God (!) and his desire to rebuild the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, funded, in part, by the Persians (!!). Some 50,000 Jews leave Babylon to return to their ancestral towns and lands (which by now have been fallow for 70 years...but more on the hardship of reestablishing civilization in what has become a wilderness in a bit) with the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple of God. Quickly the altar is set up and sacrifices begin again to the LORD. The foundation of the temple is laid, and an interesting thing happens - weeping and rejoicing together. Those who remember the splendor of the temple built by Solomon cry as this one pales in comparison. Those who do not shout for joy. Quick application point: how do you react when the current house of God (the Church, see 1 Cor. 3 and 1 Pet. 2) fails to live up to your vision or remembrance of it? I am so frequently in the crying bunch when I should be rejoicing at what God is yet doing (more on this in the future).

Very soon, a problem erupts - the adversaries of the Jews, the Assyrians that Esarhaddon has resettled in Israel (after taking Israel into exile) want to be part of the building project (no doubt they were also somewhat miffed that their homes for 70 years were being resettled by others...can you think of modern parallels?). They worship God too, they say, just not quite like the Jews do (how could they, without a temple?). No thanks, say the Jews. And thus an enduring enmity is kindled. You see, these relocated Assyrians will be called Samaritans in the New Testament. To the Jews, they will be half-breed heretics. The hatred will be mutual. But for now, the one-day Samaritans oppose the building of the temple, writing letters to a new king on the throne of the Medo-Persian Empire. The Jews are ordered to cease and desist, and they are made to by force.

Fast-forward through two kings - we are now in the second year of Darius the king, by my calculations nineteen years in the future from the decree of Cyrus. Haggai the prophet has a word from the LORD for Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel (where have you heard those names before? If you need a hint, think the beginning New Testament - go ahead and look it up, we'll wait...it will be important in a future post), governor of Judah and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: "Thus says the LORD of hosts [also translated "almighty"]: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD" (Haggai 1:1-2). Hmm. What could have been clearer than God moving a pagan king to not only permit the rebuilding of the temple but also finance it?

The Jews fell into a trap that I am so familiar with - misunderstanding the link between the work we are called to and the opposition we face. Initially I am sure the Jews were incensed at being restrained from rebuilding the temple Cyrus had commissioned. Over time, the opposition did to them what it does to me - make me question whether I've really been called by God or not. "Well, maybe it's just not time yet to rebuild the house of God, since we're seeing all this opposition. If this really were the LORD's work, it would be so much easier." Ever feel this way? Within it is a pernicious lie - the truth is that we have a personal Enemy that seeks to oppose the worship of God and the advancement of his Kingdom (check out Matt. 13 and Eph. 6 for more on this). In fact, the fact that we are opposed in our callings from God may mean, in fact, that we are engaged in precisely what God wants for us (caution here - this doesn't apply when we think we're following God but actually walking in the flesh!).

God's response to this line of thought is priceless: "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes" (Haggai 1:4-6). God simply calls them out on their underlying motives. The lie above was a cloak for the real aspirations of the Jews - in the lie that they'll rebuild the temple in "God's time" they find their excuse to work for their own goals instead of God's. The result of pursuing their own wealth? They are still hungry, thirsty, cold and poor in their recolonization of Judah, nineteen years after their return.

Whose house are you building? Are you actively involved in building into the house of God - his church, being built with living stones into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:5)? Or are you on the sidelines, waiting for "God's timing" to make an impact in the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ or take the gospel to the lost, building instead your nicely paneled house? In other words, are you waiting to really invest your life in following Christ until it's easy and convenient - when you're done with undergrad or med/law/grad school, when the kids are older, when you get your own life together? We can make any number of excuses. Here's the promise (coming later in detail but don't miss it now!) - if we will obey God and build his house (where he lives, the Church), we will be richly blessed.

So, if you (just you) were raptured tomorrow, would the impact be on the Body of Christ? Do you feel spiritually impoverished (like the Jews), or do you produce more spiritually than you consume? Are you conflicted like Paul, wanting to be at home with God but knowing his value to his brothers and sisters in Christ and willing to give up his desire to aid them (Phil. 1:21-26), and would your brothers and sisters in Christ lament being without you?

The time to begin building is now, even if it starts with just a few minutes a week. You don't need to be a master builder to help build God's house. There are lots of tasks that can be done by the unskilled. Further, you'll grow in your abilities as you start building and one day you will be a master builder. You can make a difference in someone's life today - believer or not - just by showing them Christ's love and putting yourself second in any number of circumstances, mundane or not (being dedicated to praying for others is a great way to start...). There's also lots of help needed also in various ministries at Grace. Find one that fits you (or even one that doesn't if you're not sure what fits!) and plug in. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask: stevel@gracecommunitynet.org.

More from Haggai in the future. Stay tuned...or add us to your feed.

Can you hear me now?

Our Faith Family had the privilege of having Tim Sullivan visit while he was here. Being next to a person who spends time with God has a profound impact. I was moved by the lack of fruit, (or the plastic kind I can generate) in my life, coupled with the Word's call for us to abide and bear real fruit. The struggle in western culture to escape materialism, stress, and chronic distraction often leaves us with a 5 minute prayer life and a passing glance at scripture. (on a good day) I have been torn up by the distance between the life Paul describes and what my life looks like.
God has been leading me to make a 30 minute appointment in the morning and evening, with an emphasis on putting myself in a quiet place in front of Him so I can actually be led by the Spirit. Then I went back to a book I read 20 years ago by Richard Foster called Celebration of Discipline. It focuses on very simple principles of meditation, prayer, and fasting, designed to put us in front of God in a focused manner. He is very clear that there is a place between idleness and human works, where the power of God can be manifested. "The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us." He explains that the people who exhibit the fruit of the spirit are not exceptional people. "God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen."

In light of what Brooks will be teaching about, I would encourage you to read this book, and set a daily appointment to be still. Paul was human just like us, but he found a place to live that was insulated from circumstance, and heavy with the power of God. He ran the race in a way that let God's power manifest itself.

Speaking the truth in love

I found this blog post by Joel Comiskey that I found helpful...thought you might too.

Here's an excerpt [emphasis mine]:

"Cell groups are born for intimacy and in such a close atmosphere conflicts will occur. You’ll see weaknesses in your brothers and sisters. You’ll witness areas that need correction. You might discover, for example, that a cell member is out of control in financial spending, drinking, or pornography. Or perhaps there are issues of pride, rebellion, workaholism, ignoring children or wife, skipping church, or not tithing. Care enough to confront. Holding back and being “nice” when you should share the truth does not serve the person’s best interests. Challenge the person and he or she will appreciate you for it. The Bible even says in Hebrews 3:13: “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

For practical tips on how to do this in love read the rest of the blog here.

Poll Faith Family is born!

Congratulations, Matt and Lynnette - thanks for stepping up to shepherd God's flock!

And the Kingdom advances...

No questions this week

Tim Sullivan, our field staff with Heartcraft in Colorado, will be guest preaching on John 15.

First things first

We were blessed to have Ajai Prakash, the semi-new pastor of Valley Church, and his wife Maureena over for dinner last night. It's always wonderful to get together with family you didn't even know you had! The beautiful thing is that even though we'd never met, we have fellowship through Jesus (we have the same Father). The Middle East house churches started this way too.

Ajai and Maureena accidentally planted more than ten house churches in the Middle East. I say "accidentally" because they didn't set out at first to be missionaries - they set out to make easier money than they would have in India and get enough to be able to afford a house. Both third generation Indian Christians, Ajai told me he started his missionary journey thinking that being a Christian meant sitting in the pews. His devotional life frequently resembled the two-minute drill that all-too-frequently characterizes ours. But God wasn't done with Ajai and Maureena.

Upon arriving in the Middle East, Maureena was distraught at the thought of not going to church. Asking around for directions, she was told, sorry, but she'd come to a place without churches. There were a few Christians that met together to pray, however, if she were interested. This koinonia in Jesus developed these Christians into friends, then into an underground house church. The church grew and grew until there were about sixty people in the Prakashes' living room on Sunday night (God had provided a house with an enormous living room - that the Prakashes did not much like at first - at half rent). Ajai would have to make trips to pick up the people who would come in his car (they would not risk a large herd of cars out front). They quietly sang in worship, but had to keep the volume down lest an Arab passerby hear them and call the police. Ajai, a teacher of English in a madrassah, was befriended by colleagues and his students' parents alike. Maureena was a trainer of nurses and became friends with the women with whom she worked. Along these relationships, the gospel moved. Underground churches began to grow and multiply.

Planting house churches would carry the Prakashes 4-6 hours each way out into the wilderness to serve in far-flung underground churches. As they had secular jobs, they did their ministry on their own time - which made their weekends a blur of dangerous travel along rocky roads deep into the countryside. They'd return home at 10pm on Sunday night just to get up and head to work in the morning. Yet they'd be the most refreshed people in the workplace Monday morning, by God's grace. And then they'd do it all over again the next week.

Anyone else amazed? They lived their entire lives for the advancement of the gospel. How much TV did I watch this week? Really?

It would take too long to tell you everything I learned from the Prakashes. Two things, however, I want to share with you.

1. The most important thing in all of life is your intimacy with God. Your marriage, family life, work life and ministry are all directly correlated with how good your relationship with your Father is. Yet we so frequently seek the aforementioned (and lesser things as well) before our Lord, the gift before the Giver. When we do so, we do it in our flesh and to our peril. We all know that building a relationship requires time and authenticity. Why are we so stingy with our time with God, as if scheduling a ten minute conversation with him once a day were sufficient to get to know him well? How would our spouses react if we treated them the same way? If we want to see change in our hearts, in our families, in our church, in our world, the first step is prayer and hearing from God through his Word.

2. Focus on internal growth in Christ. It's so easy to try to judge our fruitfulness by looking at the external. Man looks on the outward appearance, 1 Samuel 16:7 says, yet God looks at the heart. Work diligently to present every man mature in Christ and shepherd people into a deeper relationship with God, wherever they are starting from. If the internal is set right, the external will take care of itself. Mature disciples make more disciples. All we need to do is make mature disciples. And that starts with sharing the gospel with those we know well and helping believers grow in their faith.

I don't know about you, but I have a long way to go in growing to be dependent on Christ. The wonderful hope is that, if God can grow the Prakashes and use them despite themselves to share Jesus and plant churches, he can even fill and use a fragile, leaky clay jar like me too.

I challenge you to decide what you're going to do to grow closer in your relationship with God this week, and do it (I'm cutting the time I spend following the economy - and I'm going to trust God that if he wants me to know about something, he'll bring it to my attention). Post it here in the comments section. We'll hold you accountable!

What Is Your Faith Family Studying?

The Chidister Faith Family is starting 1st John this coming Monday. What is everybody else studying, and what has God been teaching you? Faith Family leaders, if you would like me to add you to the list of people who can add posts, send me an email at pchidister@gmail.com.
-Peter

Chidister Faith Family has multiplied!

Dan and Bridget Baumhover will lead the daughter house church. Great work, Chidister Faith Family!

And the Kingdom advances...

Some Food for Thought

This weekend I began rereading An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus, and found the following three paragraphs especially thought provoking:

"The contemporary church has chosen the same course. We have chosen standardization over uniqueness. We have chosen predictability over surprise. And without realizing it, to our own regret, we have chosen comfort and convenience over servanthood and sacrifice. But in the end, what we have chosen is organization over life, and this, perhaps, is the fundamental dilemma we face--that at best the church is seen as a healthy organization.

The church is seen as the religious equivalent of IBM or Microsoft. If the church is not running well, then the solutions clearly lie in the best business practices available. The pastor becomes the CEO, and the success of the church is in its ability to move from a mom and pop business to a conglomerate. And Robert's Rules of Order becomes the guiding text rather than the pattern of the apostolic church.

The problem is that we treat the church as an organization instead of an organism [italics are mine]. Even an elementary reading of the New Testament would make it clear that the church is the body of Christ. The church in her essence is a living system. Whenever we relate to the church as an organism, we begin to awaken an apostolic ethos, which unleashes the movement of God. The power and life of God's Spirit working in his people result in nothing less than cultural transformation."

What do you think?

True Religion

I have conflicting feelings when I hear the term 'religion' used. Often it is used negatively--as a synonym for ignorance or hypocrisy. Other times it can refer to an ingrained pattern of behavior that has nothing to do with spiritual matters, like to describe the regularity with which I drink coffee or pick up a book. Dictionary.com's first entry for 'religion' reads: "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs." One of my favorite definitions of religion comes from the Book of James, chapter 1:26-27:

"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Here's the irony though--I hate hearing mainstream culture describe Christian religion as worthless or ignorant or hypocritical, but if I evaluate my "religion" according to James' criteria, I find mine to be just that: tainted, hindered, ineffectual and stained. How often do I dishonor Christ by not bridling my tongue (often); how often do I visit orphans and widows in their distress (never); and how well am I keeping myself unstained by the world (not very well).

How do I remedy this? James has an answer for this in 4:7-10: "Submit yourselves therefore to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

Calvary Road Discussion Questions – Chapter 8

1. Describe the difference between a hired servant and a bondservant. Does it rob a person of their dignity to think of themselves as a bondservant, belonging to their master, with no rights of their own? Why or why not?
2. Read Philippians 2:4-7. In what ways are we most like Christ as servants? In what ways are we least like Christ as servants?
3. Read Luke 17:7-10 along with the five marks of a bondservant on pages 86-88 of The Calvary Road. Which of the five marks of the bondservant are most difficult to swallow?
4. Do you agree or disagree with Hession's five marks of a bondservant as they apply to daily Christian living? Why or why not? If not, what then is the point of Luke 17:7-10?
5. Hession says concerning being a bondservant, "Those who tread this path are radiant, happy souls, overflowing with the life of the Lord." How would your life be different if you believed this statement with your heart as well as your head?
6. Read the last paragraph on page 89. Why is it impossible to become a humble servant without repenting over our current non-servant attitudes and dispositions?
   

Calvary Road free online

For those who might be interested, get Calvary Road online free here.

Anybody reading who...

...has a Tae Kwon Do uniform to lend for 8 weeks? We need a size 5 (for a guy who is 5'10" tall and wears an XL shirt). If so, let us know at Koinonia@gracecommunitynet.org.

Koinonia in the Chronicles of Prydain

I am reading and discussing the Chronicles of Prydain with one of my friends from the lab. It's a classic good-and-evil tale in which through dangerous quests a boy grows into a man. I'd read them before as a kid, but since my friend loves fantasy and was looking for something to read (and I am always looking for good discipleship stories for the kiddos -- especially ones that will help my boys grow into men), I thought I'd recommend this and join him in it (I didn't remember it all that well, due to the time since I'd read it). Lloyd Alexander has a lot right, and there are copious hidden gems (some not-so-hidden) about sin and righteousness and what it means to become a man scattered throughout the text. My favorite from The Black Cauldron is the personification of pride in Ellidyr, how he eventually comes to brokenness, and how that brokenness leads to self-sacrifice. Somehow the tale lends clarity to my own pride.

But I digress. Now we are reading The Castle of Llyr together and I ran across this gold nugget about koinonia [my notes for those unfamiliar with the story in brackets]:

"He [Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper] turned to Gwydion [the Prince of Don]. 'I remember, too, when a Prince of Don aided a foolish Assistant Pig-Keeper. Is it not fitting now for the Pig-Keeper to aid a Prince [Rhun, the bumbling princeling whose life Taran had been saving the whole novel]?'

'Whether it be Prince or Pig-Keeper,' said Gwydion, 'such is the way of a man. The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.'"

Permit me a few brief illustrations/parallels:

1. There are no lone rangers in humanity, especially not in the Body of Christ. We can't sever ourselves from community and pretend that others' lives don't impact our own. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" (1 Cor. 12:21)
2. The natural response of a man to being aided is to aid others who need it. Same goes with our spiritual walks with Christ. Does this evoke 2 Tim. 2:2 to anyone else? A man of God responds to being discipled by discipling others whom he can help grow in Jesus. This isn't dependent on where you are (be you Prince or Pig-Keeper, spiritually) - there is always someone less mature than you that you could pour into.
   

Lloyd: The way of a man is to live in community and share your growth with others!

Greetings, all! The Koinonia Blog will now be the central posting ground for all things Faith Family, including the discussion questions. Here are Brooks' questions for this week...hope they're fruitful for your study.

1. Read Matthew 7:1-5. In what context have you most often heard Matthew 7:1 quoted in contemporary culture?

2. Do you think Jesus wants Christians to never address sin in others or make a moral judgment as to whether something is right or wrong? Why or why not?

3. Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides” in Matthew 15:14, 23:16, and 23:24. What does Matthew 7:1-5 reveal about the nature or reason for their blindness?

4. Why do you think it is so much easier to see and identify sin on the lives of others while missing the sin in our own lives?

5. What does Jesus mean by a speck in your brother’s eye?

6. What does Jesus mean by a log in our own eye?

7. Roy Hession in Calvary Road suggests that the log in our own eye is often our reaction to the speck in someone else’s eye. Read 79-80 and describe a time in your life when you developed a log in your eye over someone else’s speck.

8. If some logs are our sinful responses to another’s sin, can it be said that those people’s sin “caused” our sin? Why or why not?

9. Jesus says we are to first take out the log in our own eye, and then we can see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. What often happens if we address the speck before addressing the log in our own eye?

10. How do you get rid of a log in your eye? (See Calvary Road pages 80-82).

11. Describe a time you allowed God to reveal and remove a significant log in your own eye.

Welcome

Welcome to faithfamily.blogspot.com, the Koinonia blog. After a three-week hiatus, we are back, and in a new format. We are changing to a blog format to open the articles up to community response and discussion--rather than responding via email only to the author of an individual article, you will be able to respond publically in discussion threads, both in response to the article itself, and to other comments.