Blog Archives
Lessons from Marriage, Part 1: Adjust Your Aim – Marriage and the Glory of God (audio)
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean to “glorify” or “magnify” God?
- In what ways can we do the “right” things, but fail to glorify God?
- How can this principle protect and nourish your marriage or your parenting?
- Can you share practical examples of glorifying God in marriage or parenting?
- What things do you need to repent of, that have become roadblocks to glorifying God in your family?
Body, Soul, & Spirit: Intimacy in Marriage, Part 2 (audio)
Intimacy is far more than simply the physical or the sensual. Intimacy in marriage is a beautiful and intricate dance between body, soul, and spirit.
Week 2 – Roadblocks to Intimacy
Discussion Questions
- Do you agree with what Mike said about the importance of the sexual aspect of the marriage relationship? Why or why not?
- Which roadblocks have you, or are you, experiencing in your marriage?
What obstacles are keeping you from experiencing greater intimacy in your marriage; body, soul, and spirit?
- Roadblocks in the Spirit
- Unbiblical view of intimacy in marriage
- Broken fellowship
- Lack of vitality in your Christian walk
- Isolation from Christian community
- Roadblocks in the Soul
- Unbiblical view of ourselves
- Broken relationship
- Lack of vitality in the friendship
- Boredom in the Bedroom
- Roadblocks in the Body
- Poor physical health/fitness
- Low energy
- Stress
- Disparate Drive
Bootcamp to Battlefield – Colossians 3:1-17
A message given at Reston Bible Church – October 14, 2018
When you put your faith in Christ, you enter into a new life, you place yourself under a new authority, you take on a new identity, you are given a new purpose, and you have a new love.
DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- What was one thing from this message that you found particularly interesting, helpful, or challenging?
- If someone were to ask you to explain what Christianity is all about, what would you tell him?
- What do life, authority, identity, purpose, and love look like in the world? How are they different in Christ? How did your life change when you came to faith in Christ and “put on the new self”?
- Read and discuss Colossians 3:1-17. How does this passage describe and instruct your new life, new authority, new identity, new purpose, and new love in Christ?
- What does it mean to say that Christ “is your life”? Can you profess that with a whole heart? If not, what is holding you back?
- What does unity in the body of Christ look like? Why is that unity such a powerful testimony to the world?
- Spend some time in prayer that God would help you so that “whatever you do, whether in word or deed” would be done in the name of Jesus.
In the Eye of the Storm
A talk given at HomeFront, a couples ministry of Reston Bible Church
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What was one thing you found particularly challenging, insightful, thought provoking, or helpful from today’s talk?
- Why do I entertain escapist ideas or at times want to run from other’s in need?
- What are some storms going on around you, now or in the past, that you’ve wished you could hide from?
- How have you seen Christ use your times in the “eye” to help others?
BEING DOCTORS WHO MAKE HOUSE CALLS
What if Jesus had stayed in the temple courts or the synagogue teaching? What if He never ventured out into the community, never called old Zach down from the tree, never ate with tax collectors and sinners, never touched the sick and hurting? Why don’t doctors make house calls these days? I’m not sure, but wouldn’t it be interesting if suddenly people stopped going to a doctors office or hospital when they were ill?
What if they thought that was the last place to go to be healed? How long would it take for the docs to begin making house calls again? Not long I suspect. Is the church today, the body of Christ the great Physician, staying in the hospital building waiting for the sick to show up? Or, worse yet, staying in the hospital talking about the remedy but secretly hoping that the sick stay away?
I think Jesus was less like a physician as we know it today and more like a field medic or a country doctor of days past. He went out looking for the lost sheep. Let’s help give our children a heart for the lost and pray that the Lord would use them to make Christ known in the world!
(Excerpt from Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition, a children’s curriculum by Michael J. Meyers)
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TRAIL GUIDE: Forgive and Pray
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Unit 2, Section 2, Lesson 2: Forgive & Pray
The church is made up of people. As people being transformed into the image of Christ, we are by definition not finished products. This leaves us open to mistakes or offenses committed against one another. The question is not whether we offend one another but rather when it happens how do we respond in a way that is not of this world?
Forgiveness and prayer – this is the model we have in Christ. If we behave as the world behaves, we diminish our witness to the lost, inflict pain on the body of Christ, and damage our own walk with the Lord. As we take a look at the topic of forgiving one another and praying for one another, take personal inventory of your relationships in the church. Are you actively praying for those with whom God has brought you into relationship within the body? Are we keeping short accounts with our brothers and sisters in Christ? As you prepare for this week with the children, I encourage you to read the two articles on forgiveness and prayer, keep your kids before the Lord on your knees, and ask the Father to continue your extreme makeover in this critical area of our spiritual lives. (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLES.)
Thank you for giving to the Lord by serving His children. Your offering is making an eternal impact.
”Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Here is my command. Love each other, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” – John 15:12-14
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Acts 4:33-35 | Phil 2:25
1 Corinthians 16:13-18
