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Saturday, October 31, 2009

November 2 Chapter 8 The Help of the Divine Encourager

Scripture:  Romans 15:13   May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Summary:   Placing our dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit provides hope for the battle against sin. The Holy Spirit encourages us in at least four ways: 1) He opens our eyes to the love of Christ for us, producing profound gratitude in our hearts; 2) He gives us an awareness of our sin and a greater love for God, which diminishes our appetite for sin; 3) He gives us a growing appetite for enjoying an intimate, satisfying  relationship with God; and 4) He gives us the promises of God in Scripture—promises of truth, wisdom, strength, eternal life, and much more.

Discussion:   What is gratitude for purchased grace? Why is it life-changing? (110-111)

What do you learn about enjoying your relationship with God from pages 116-117?

From the paragraph that starts at the bottom of page 118, describe how the Spirit uses the promises of God to equip us for our battle against sin. 

Monday, October 26, 2009

October 26 Chapter 7 Dependent Responsibility

Scripture:  Romans 8:13  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Summary:   As we live the Christian life, we must always be aware that we are both responsible and dependent. We are 100% responsible to work as hard and as effectively as we can, but we are 100% dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to work. The Holy Spirit uses various "means of grace" to strengthen us and produce spiritual growth; these include the gospel itself, regular communion with God through Scripture and prayer, and the various circumstances he brings into our lives. All of these means contribute to our fellowship and communion with God.

Our fellowship with God is both objective and subjective: objectively, a believer always has the same relationship with God, whether he feels like it or not at any given time; subjectively, a believer's experience of his relationship with God varies, depending at least in part on his dependence upon the Holy Spirit as he works diligently at the spiritual disciplines.

Discussion:  Explain the two sentences that start on the bottom of page 98: “There’s no conflict between our work and our dependence. In fact, the harder we work, the more absolute our dependence on the Spirit must become.”

Explain the differences between our union with Christ and our communion with Christ. (106; also see the quote on page 48).

Monday, October 19, 2009

October 19 Chapter 6 The Power of the Holy Spirit

Scripture:  Timothy 1:7 …for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Summary:   Just as a believer depends on the righteousness of Christ for his acceptance by God, he also depends on the power of the Holy Spirit for strength to live the Christian life day to day. The Holy Spirit's power is evident in two ways: 1) he supplies the power so that we can do the work of obeying God, and 2) he works alone in us when he gives us new life, when he gives us assurance of our faith, and when he gives consolation and gratitude. Bridges refers to these as the synergistic (working together) and monergistic (working alone) work of the Spirit.

Discussion:  From the section titled, “The Spirit’s Synergistic Work” explain what is meant by the expression, “qualified synergism.” Describe how this relieves the burden of our having insufficient willpower and strength to obey God. (86-88)

Describe the similarities between the first and second bookends. (92, paragraphs 1-2); now describe the differences between the first and second bookends. (92, paragraphs 3-4)

Monday, October 12, 2009

October 12 Chapter 5 Leaning on the First Bookend

Scripture:  Luke 19:10  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Summary:   The righteousness of Christ is all-sufficient for believers; it cannot be lost. But too often we tend to depend on something or someone else. Whenever we find ourselves depending on anything other than the righteousness of Christ, we must consciously shift our dependence back where it belongs. Three focal points will help us to do this:  1) seeing ourselves as desperately lost sinners, 2) seeing the righteousness of Christ as all-sufficient for us daily, and 3) seeing and rejecting our functional saviors. Functional saviors are anything that we depend on and turn to for our sense of security and significance. As we learn to identify and reject earthly things that we value too highly—things that we treat as more important to us than Christ—we grow in joy, love for God, and dependence on the righteousness of Christ alone.

Discussion:  Read all of page 68 and the first half of page 69. In what ways does the list help you “see” Focal Point #1?

Read the first paragraph on page 70 and think about specific areas you desperately need the righteousness of Christ to substitute for your sin and failure. Is his righteousness sufficient for even that? How does this realization make you feel toward him?