Side by Side (p. 141 - 163)

This section has some practical thoughts on confronting sin.

"Sin is our most dangerous problem." (141)
"The Spirit, the Word and the community (the Church) are God's primary means of doing battle with sin." (141)

"Our God 'richly provides us with everything to enjoy' (1 Tim. 6:17).  As such, saying no protects our capacity for enjoyment rather than diminishes it."  (143)

DON'T BE SILENT OUT OF FEAR
"Our fear of people's angry reactions, the myth that help is needed only when asked fork and our sense that we have no right to say anything because we ourselves are quite a mess - these contribute to safe relationships rather than loving one."  (144)

GET TO THE HEART
"We prefer to manage aspects of our lives in our own way; we love our desires more than we love Jesus.  At those times we need to be reminded of who God is and what he has done, who we are and how we live in light of God's Word."  (148)

DEVELOP A PLAN
"We [need to] stay away from vague 'I'm just going to try harder' kinds of commitments and instead have clear plans for how to do battle with Satan and sin and how to love others deeply from our hearts."  (150)

Last Week of Missions Month!

I want to encourage to check www.emmanuelbaptist.com/blog for possible discussion ideas

What was something you learned about or were reminded of regarding missions?

Here are two statements that seem to contradict each how but don't.  Why not?  "We haven't even gone across the street to share the gospel." & "No one is going to get saved because of us."

What are some things you need to pray for our missionaries and other missionaries?

Lord, God, help me to understand that my child's security is not in their career or circumstances.  It is in our God.

 Pray for those who may be considering full time missions/ministry.

Go to page 8 (Friday) for some specific things to be praying for our missionaries. www.emmanuelbaptist.com/nextstep/

 What are some things you need to do related to missions?

Read 1 John 3:16 - 18 and consider sacrificial giving and what should be our motivation.

How are you going to help at least one EBC missionary for the next year?

Think about a specific thing.  Notice what is common in all of these things.  Here are some examples..

• regular giving to a specific missionary
• regular giving to the 9:00 am Missions offering
• regular praying for a specific missionary.
• regular, systematically praying for our missionary family.  You can use our missionary family bookmark.
• plan to visit a missionary.  This may involve sacrificing some vacation time. 

Side by SIde (113 - 139)

This section has some great resources and thoughts about how to think about ourselves and how to talk to God & others

Pray During Trouble

"Then we return to that familiar ground:  God is at the center of all our swirling emotions and the must human thing we can do is speak to him." (113)

How to pray

Prayer for healing

"Sickness is always a spiritual matter in that it raises questions about God's care and goodness, and it is an opportunity to grow in trust and obedience."  (116)

Prayer for Comfort

"Comfort might mean simply that the storm of suffering would lessen, or it might mean that the suffering would be increasingly outweighed by the knowledge of Christ and what we have in him (2 Cor. 4:16) - or both."
"If comfort is slow in coming, we pray especially that spiritual benefits would outweigh the hardships."  (117)

Be Alert to Satan's Devices

"We follow Jesus in suffering, but suffering does not have the final word.  Jesus's resurrection leads the way to our own resurrection, and there is nothing Satan can do to stop it."  (128)

Prepare to Talk About Sin

"Our church inadvertently communicates that preachers can talk publicly about sin, and a men's group convened to deal with pornography can talk about it, but as a general rule, it is impolite to talk about sin one to one."  (133)

"The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.  We dare not be sinners...  The fact is that we are all sinners!" Dietrich Bonhoeffer quoted on page 134

Examine yourself first

"Humility means that we already see our sins as worse than others' sins, so we have no reason to defend ourselves when someone points out our sin (Matt. 7:2 - 5).  (137)

Acknowledge the Hard Circumstances

"Sin can be provoked by the hard things of life and as a general rule, we acknowledge those circumstances before we move on to the sin itself."  (138)

More Mission Essentials Helps

Here are the questions:

• What was something you learned about or were reminded of regarding missions?
• What are some things you need to pray for our missionaries and other missionaries?
• What are some things you need to do related to missions?
• How can you leverage your job/current situation for the Gospel?

Here are some blog resources to possibly help you with the last two questions.

• www.emmanuelbaptist.com/more-mission-essentials/
• The Gospel @ Work resources mentioned in this post can be found at www.emmanuelbaptist.com/the-gospel-at-work/

Side by Side Section 4 (87-110)

"All humanity has been created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). Though sin has distorted and sullied that image, the image persists and is the reason we can enjoy each other (James 3:9). Everything good is a reflection of the God who is good."  (88)

"Everyone has strengths, and these strengths are good. They can be used selfishly, but they are also gifts from God that are expressed in the way we serve one another."  (90)

"The church is an ideal venue to see the talents and gifts of others, because most gifts emerge in the context of serving people."  (91)

Notice pleasures and preferences - even hobbies

"If they enjoy something we find uninteresting?  Out of respect, we believe they enjoy that something for a good reason, so we will ask a few more questions." (91)

Example:  why do you like ___________ so much?

Notice spiritual vitality.

As I was reading this section I thought "share spiritual life with others" 

Here is a challenge for you...

Have you recognized good qualities of the members of your group?  Have you told them?

Side by Side Section 3 Revisited

Revisiting section 3 (65-84)
I originally posted about this section a couple of weeks ago
(soulcare-disciplemaking.blogspot.com/2016/03/side-by-side-65.html)
Below are some additional thoughts on this section.

We have the Spirit.

"When ordinary people are used in ways they did not even know, then God is honored." (71)

The discussion questions on page 71 are very helpful.

1)   What are the qualifications of those who have helped you in your times of trouble?

2)   What did your helpers do that was most helpful?

Move toward and greet one another.

"God has moved toward us; we must move towards others in His name." (73)

"Instead of talking to the same people - those with whom we are comfortable and who we are similar too - we treat others as God has treated us."  (74)

"To move towards others is hard."  (74)

First step:  Greet People
Here is how we can prioritize who we greet (75)

1. The visitor (what Scripture calls the “foreigner” or “alien”) comes first. 
2. The visitor who returns comes next. 
3. The less popular, the introverts, the marginalized, or those sitting alone come next. 
4. Then come the children. Jesus singles them out as examples of the marginalized. 
5. “Hi, _______” is offered to as many people as possible, which doesn’t have to be accompanied by a hug or a handshake.
6. Good friends are interspersed through these greetings, but they are left for later if time is short.

Roof Wrecker

The following four questions are going to be what we keep revisiting each week in our Soul Care questions:

1.  What was something you learned about or were reminded of regarding missions?

2.  What are some things you need to pray for our missionaries?

www.emmanuelbaptist.com/praying4missionaries/ is a helpful link.

3.  What are some things you need to do related to missions?

4.  How can you help Emmanuel Baptist Church share the Gospel with more people?

Steve Barnes' and the Bibles International presentation provided some great prayer requests.

Gary Walton's roof wrecker challenge is a starting point for questions 3 and 4.