Chewing On This Week's Message At Northview: Spiritual Growth - Daily Living according to the Biblical Model

Spiritual Growth - Daily Living according to the Biblical Model

1. Would you feel comfortable explaining the Biblical model of Marriage? Do you feel that your marriage is an example of one?

2. Would you feel comfortable explaining the Biblical model of Parenting? Do you feel that you try to model this?

3. Do you tend to make your daily decisions based on how you feel or on God’s truth? (I don’t want to forgive her because I’m angry vs. I will forgive her despite how I feel because God commands me to.)

4. My communication tends to be loving and patient:
· Never
· Rarely
· Sometimes
· Usually
· Always

5. Name an area in your life that you have given over control to God.

2 comments:

Lou said...: I think that this is one of the most challenging areas for me personally. As an athlete growing up in a very competitive atmosphere, i grew up with the idea that if I worked harder than anyone else and performed better, then i would control my own success and failure. This attitude carried over to most areas of my life as i got older including relationships, finances, schooling, career, etc. I've come to the realization (and i still struggle with it daily) that although hard work, determnination, discipline, etc are good qualities to have, if God is not the one guiding your motivations, something will always be missing. It's hard to sit back and say "I'm going give up control of this situation and let God decide." In the past year i've had some of the most life changing and satisfying experiences (meeting my wife, for example) when i have let go of my control and given it over to God.; January 14, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Great comment, Lou...I have to say, I think the "world" makes it so very hard to give up control. Jobs, bosses, school...all expect us to "do better, work harder, work more", and we get rewarded with good grades, bonuses, maybe extra time off when we do things "their way". Learning to reconcile real life with the Biblical model is what I'm struggling with, and where I have a lot of room to grow right now!

Stan - thanks for this forum, even though it's not getting much use yet! Really appreciate the messages you've been sharing lately.; January 18, 2008 at 11:46 AM

Romans 3:20 - 31

20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Romans 6

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chewing On This Week's Message At Northview

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Spiritual Growth - Daily Living according to the Biblical Model

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Romans 3:20 - 31

Romans 6

Romans 12:1-2

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