Monday, February 26, 2007
Feb. 25 - Engaging others in LiFE...
We all have a vivid memory of a teacher in our LiFE. A teacher that stands out because of the impact he or she made--being firm but fair, passionate, consistent, enthusiastic, or caring. They truly had a gift of being able to engage us and meet us where we were.
Jesus had the same ability to engage those in his sphere of influence (thanks Todd). Whether it was with his disciples, the teachers of the law, or a crowd of strangers, His message was the same. He proclaimed the truth with love and compassion. Even when people disagreed, He stood his ground with confidence.
Jesus had the ability to call out the false teachings of others. He held both close friends and strangers to the same standard. And in the end, His message was clear--
Matthew 19:25-26
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Time to make some comments...
Jesus had the same ability to engage those in his sphere of influence (thanks Todd). Whether it was with his disciples, the teachers of the law, or a crowd of strangers, His message was the same. He proclaimed the truth with love and compassion. Even when people disagreed, He stood his ground with confidence.
Jesus had the ability to call out the false teachings of others. He held both close friends and strangers to the same standard. And in the end, His message was clear--
Matthew 19:25-26
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Time to make some comments...
- How can we take the characteristics of Jesus and put them into use in our own sphere of influence?
- Do we really have what it takes to engage others om LiFE?
- Is engaging others the same as evangelism?
- What are the risk and rewards?
- Share an expreience you have had engaging with someone in your sphere of influence.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Feb 18 - Todd M - LiFe Responding to others' needs.
Welcome to LiFE!
Question: Who do you spend your day(9-5) with?
Some answers: Co-workers, kids, 80 - 7th graders per day...
Content:
Theology of our serving others' needs comes out of Genesis 12:2-3. The call of Abram is our call as well. To paraphrase: "We are a blessing(no matter what is going on in your life, rich, poor, tired, energized, well fed, or hungry) and we are to be a blessing to others!
The rest of the time we spent literally writing down and looking at these 3 things:
1. What groups of people you are a part of that you have influence in and/or over?
2. What our your passions? Who or what do you have a heart for? (Ex. Age groups - teens, seniors; Type of people - Homeless, stay-at-home- moms; Causes- AIDS, Compassion Child, Cancer; Subjects - Sports, music, books, gardening, leadership development...)
3. What are your blessings right now that you give or have to give? (Time, material, possessions, relationship, Spiritual gifts...)
Lastly, we put these in a sphere of influence chart that we are going to try and put on the blog. We filled in our passions and our gift(what we have to give) next to God and then we prioritized flowing outward which groups we need to serve.
I think this shoudl have tie in next week with David L.
Thanks for stopping by LiFE!
-LiFE
Question: Who do you spend your day(9-5) with?
Some answers: Co-workers, kids, 80 - 7th graders per day...
Content:
Theology of our serving others' needs comes out of Genesis 12:2-3. The call of Abram is our call as well. To paraphrase: "We are a blessing(no matter what is going on in your life, rich, poor, tired, energized, well fed, or hungry) and we are to be a blessing to others!
The rest of the time we spent literally writing down and looking at these 3 things:
1. What groups of people you are a part of that you have influence in and/or over?
2. What our your passions? Who or what do you have a heart for? (Ex. Age groups - teens, seniors; Type of people - Homeless, stay-at-home- moms; Causes- AIDS, Compassion Child, Cancer; Subjects - Sports, music, books, gardening, leadership development...)
3. What are your blessings right now that you give or have to give? (Time, material, possessions, relationship, Spiritual gifts...)
Lastly, we put these in a sphere of influence chart that we are going to try and put on the blog. We filled in our passions and our gift(what we have to give) next to God and then we prioritized flowing outward which groups we need to serve.
I think this shoudl have tie in next week with David L.
Thanks for stopping by LiFE!
-LiFE
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Feb 11th - Greg M. - Topic "When will the world end?"
Question:
Share a time where you had great anticipation about an event or moment in your life?(Birth of a child will not be accepted answer).
Some answers: Golf season, Vacations, Death of a parent who has cancer, Fly fishing, outting a bid on a house...
Content:
1. Talk in a small group about your experience with "End Times" ideas and theology?
2. Next 4 groups looked at 4 different passages on end times. I don't remember all of the different passages but our group looked at 1 Thessalonians 4:16- 5:11. Then we shared what are our verses said about the time frame of the end times and what we should be doing in the mean time according to the verses.
3. What I gathered from what all 4 groups had in common was that Jesus would come, Followers of Jesus wouldn't be all that surprised and those who were not followers would be very surprised.
4. I missed the wrap up, so not sure if there was a challenge or a last thought...
See you next week,
- LiFE!
Share a time where you had great anticipation about an event or moment in your life?(Birth of a child will not be accepted answer).
Some answers: Golf season, Vacations, Death of a parent who has cancer, Fly fishing, outting a bid on a house...
Content:
1. Talk in a small group about your experience with "End Times" ideas and theology?
2. Next 4 groups looked at 4 different passages on end times. I don't remember all of the different passages but our group looked at 1 Thessalonians 4:16- 5:11. Then we shared what are our verses said about the time frame of the end times and what we should be doing in the mean time according to the verses.
3. What I gathered from what all 4 groups had in common was that Jesus would come, Followers of Jesus wouldn't be all that surprised and those who were not followers would be very surprised.
4. I missed the wrap up, so not sure if there was a challenge or a last thought...
See you next week,
- LiFE!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Feb 5 - Humility - Todd M.
The question:
Share about one person in your life that you feel has modeled humility for you? What did they do? How did they handle themselves? Share if you can a particular time you saw their humility in action.
Content:
Define humility? Confident(in Christ) yet selfless servant.
Here are the passages we looked at:
a. Phillippians 2: 1- 8
b. John 13: 1-17
c. I Thessalonians 4:11-12, 5: 12-18
d. I Samuel 24: 1-12, 16-20.
Then the class looked at ways these passages define humility.
A thought for discussion:
Humility is a great value, but I might suggest that it is a valued more as a belief than it is as an action to be lived out daily. Why might that be?
Some thoughts from class: We don't have a great number of models of humility. it takes effort and its easier to be lazy. It’s easier, more natural to be proud. Humility takes the wind out of stances like we can or could know-it-all. Humility embraces our finite abilities, knowledge, talent, skills. Humility embraces the very thing our body naturally strives to fight off, that is our death. As a Christian our true identity is supposed to be dead.(Dead to our ambitions, Dead to our ideas, Dead to ourselves, dead to our judgments of others).
Application:
- As Christians, how do we show humility to each other? In the church, those we disagree, our kids, our spouses, friends, those we do not see eye to eye with?
- As Christians, how do we show humility to the world? Neighbors, bosses, co-workers, those we might strongly disagree?
Stay warm! And thanks for being there today!
-LiFE
Share about one person in your life that you feel has modeled humility for you? What did they do? How did they handle themselves? Share if you can a particular time you saw their humility in action.
Content:
Define humility? Confident(in Christ) yet selfless servant.
Here are the passages we looked at:
a. Phillippians 2: 1- 8
b. John 13: 1-17
c. I Thessalonians 4:11-12, 5: 12-18
d. I Samuel 24: 1-12, 16-20.
Then the class looked at ways these passages define humility.
A thought for discussion:
Humility is a great value, but I might suggest that it is a valued more as a belief than it is as an action to be lived out daily. Why might that be?
Some thoughts from class: We don't have a great number of models of humility. it takes effort and its easier to be lazy. It’s easier, more natural to be proud. Humility takes the wind out of stances like we can or could know-it-all. Humility embraces our finite abilities, knowledge, talent, skills. Humility embraces the very thing our body naturally strives to fight off, that is our death. As a Christian our true identity is supposed to be dead.(Dead to our ambitions, Dead to our ideas, Dead to ourselves, dead to our judgments of others).
Application:
- As Christians, how do we show humility to each other? In the church, those we disagree, our kids, our spouses, friends, those we do not see eye to eye with?
- As Christians, how do we show humility to the world? Neighbors, bosses, co-workers, those we might strongly disagree?
Stay warm! And thanks for being there today!
-LiFE
Thursday, February 01, 2007
In the world, not of it...
Everyone has a worldview--certain presuppositions and biases that shape the way we see the world around us.
How do you see the world? Is it through the lenses that our culture provides, or do you see things from a biblical perspective?
If you weren't with us Sunday, answer these questions to give yourself an idea...
In class we tried to answer these questions from both a Christian Worldview and a Secular Worldview--the two that see to be most at odds with one another.
Further questions to ponder...(and perhaps post a comment about)
The band Caedemon's Call has a song titled "This World". The chorus reads:
This world has nothing for me
And this world has everything
All that I could want
And nothing that I need
This reflects the Christian Worldview that our focus should be on things to come, not on the here and now. As Christians should our labor be toward tempral or eternal things?
So how do we live LiFE in the world, not of it? In class we looked to Romans 12 as a place to take some practical steps. If you haven't read it lately (or ever), go there now and pick a couple things that you can do today, this week, all month! (Then post a comment about what you have done and how it's going for you!!)
Something Extra:
I found a very interesting article about a man mentioned in several of Paul's letters. His name was Demas, and he traveled with Paul for quite some time. Not much is said about him, but as Paul is nearing the end of his ministry Demas deserts him.
Be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica...2 Timothy 4:10
Click here to read the entire article.
When all is said and done, what will be said of you? Will you, having loved this present world, foresake what God has called you to do? Or will you fight the good fight and finish the race?
How do you see the world? Is it through the lenses that our culture provides, or do you see things from a biblical perspective?
If you weren't with us Sunday, answer these questions to give yourself an idea...
- How did things begin...(ie. life in general)
- How should we live?
- What determines right from wrong?
- Where are we headed?
In class we tried to answer these questions from both a Christian Worldview and a Secular Worldview--the two that see to be most at odds with one another.
Further questions to ponder...(and perhaps post a comment about)
- In what ways do you tend to conform to the world?
- What are some of the world's major influences on your life?
- How have you tried to break away from them?
The band Caedemon's Call has a song titled "This World". The chorus reads:
This world has nothing for me
And this world has everything
All that I could want
And nothing that I need
This reflects the Christian Worldview that our focus should be on things to come, not on the here and now. As Christians should our labor be toward tempral or eternal things?
So how do we live LiFE in the world, not of it? In class we looked to Romans 12 as a place to take some practical steps. If you haven't read it lately (or ever), go there now and pick a couple things that you can do today, this week, all month! (Then post a comment about what you have done and how it's going for you!!)
Something Extra:
I found a very interesting article about a man mentioned in several of Paul's letters. His name was Demas, and he traveled with Paul for quite some time. Not much is said about him, but as Paul is nearing the end of his ministry Demas deserts him.
Be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica...2 Timothy 4:10
Click here to read the entire article.
When all is said and done, what will be said of you? Will you, having loved this present world, foresake what God has called you to do? Or will you fight the good fight and finish the race?
