I am... a child of God

I am... a child of God

April 29, 2012

Connection Group Questions

Connection Groups Update

Home Groups are scheduled to run through May.  At or around Victoria Day Weekend your group should prepare to wrap things up.  Of course we hope your Group will plan for some summer events, and that relationships will continue!

  

We also have several Groups running at the office that are open to all who are interested: Mom2Mom meets Monday’s 9:30-11am and is for all moms with kids of all ages.  Man2Man (OK, we don’t really have an official name for this group) is open to all men and meets Wednesday mornings at 7am.

Visit Financial Peace University this Wednesday, May 2

Everyone is welcome to visit FPU, 7pm and get a taste of this in depth program on money management.

Serve at the ARK, May 9, 6:15-9pm

We always have a spot or two open for folks who are not on the regular team.  Let us know if you want to check out this awesome ministry.

Advanced Care Planning Worship, May 15, 7-8:30pm

This is not a sales pitch.  It is a workshop to help you prepare for the things in life many hate to think about: living wills, end-of-life care, estate planning.

Bible Study

A topic like this can bring up very deep emotions and memories.

Your group might need some time to talk about parent/child relationships.  Some have had wonderful parents, other have lost parents, or never had the kind of parents all children  should.  Also, some parents might have very strained relationships with their children.  As much is needed, and is appropriate, share about your experience as a child, or adopted child.  Parents in the group might share about their own struggles, and joys, in this role.  Leave time to support and pray for one another.

Make sure to move into the bible study, or at least the affirmation that all of us can have a perfect Heaven Father, and a perfect brother/savior in Jesus Christ.  Is is our faith in Jesus, the Son of God, that brings us into the Father/child relationship we have with God.  

Read 1 John 3:1-3

(As always, feel free to let the text guide your discussion and direct your answers.)

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

• How would you describe God’s love to someone?
• What does it mean to be a child, but to not yet be fully revealed?
• What does it mean to be like him (Jesus) when he appears?
• What can we do to purify ourselves as Christ is pure?

Also Read Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brothers,[e] we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[f] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

• How does being the “adopted” children of God bring more clarity to our relationship with God?
• What does it mean to be an heir with Christ?  What is promised to us?

Bonus Discussion:

According to these, and other passages, being a Christian can be defined by being a child of God. This begs a question, are not all people the children of God?  Perhaps the following will help answer...

“We are all the offspring of God in the sense we are His products of the creative work of God (Acts 17:25ff), all men are not the children of God in a personal sense as a father with a son. Scripture teaches that God only dwells in those who have put their faith in Christ. All others, while God’s offspring by creation, have been separated from Him because of sin. When a person turns to God by believing in His Son, Jesus Christ, they are spiritually regenerated, born anew, given new life, justified (declared righteous in Christ), forgiven of all their sin, past, present, and even future, and made children of God (John 1:12-13). At the same time, at the moment of faith, God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell their lives to enable them to experience fellowship with God and understand, grasp the truth of Scripture in a personal and meaningful way.”

To say that all people are the children of God, as this passage and others teach, does not really do justice to the depth and nature of the relationship God is inviting us into through Jesus, the son.