QC and small group accountability 15/4/16
I shared how Joyce and I were visiting another cell on Good Friday as part of an 'inspection tour' and how they were doing spiritual gifts in Book 4.2. Listening to their sharing helped me realize how fortunate I felt to be able to serve in church in areas where I am gifted. We shared that our service in church need not always be in areas where we feel capable or gifted. We also serve where there are areas of need when no one else is available for a critical task. When He does this He always provides the resources and the grace to see us through. And sometimes the experiences we have in areas where we feel unsuited make us better equipped for service in areas where we feel more comfortable.
We asked the question: if the Holy Spirit leads us into all the truth(Jn 16:13), how is it that Christians with the Spirit can disagree on practical and doctrinal matters? One possible reason is that our experiences and mindset obscure the voice of the Spirit, but it is probably more correct to return to the context of Jesus' words in John 16. There, He speaks about the continuing work of the Spirit in revealing His truth to the disciples. The promise does not therefore refer to complete revelation of all scientific or theological truth. After all, "we know in part" (1 Cor 13:9).
Selwyn shared about his sister's passing after many years of being in a persistent vegetative state. This led to a discussion of 1) whether we enter a state of limbo ("soul sleep") between our death and final bodily resurrection, and 2) the final state of the believer in heaven.
Passages such as the parable of Lazarus (Lk 16) and Paul's desire to "depart and be with Christ" (Phil 1:23), and the promise to the thief on the Croess "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43) teach that at the point of death we immediately enter into the presence of God.
Nevertheless, we do not receive our new resurrection bodies until the final return of Christ to earth, when both the righteous and the unrighteous will be 'raised' (i.e. given new physical forms) to receive their final judgement (Dan 12:2, I Cor 15, 1 Thes 4:13-18).
In the meantime, here are the pics from Winnie's birthday celebration. Orange cake made by Amelia and Joshua!
I forgot to add that we also spoke about the meaning of near-death experiences (NDEs), in which individuals appear clinically dead but return to life. In the intervening period the may have experiences of a spiritual nature, either reassuring or frightening. I said that the experiences can certainly be genuine, but the principle is that we do not judge truth by experience, but all experiences by the truth of Scripture. So an NDE has the same significance as any other experience or vision or dream. Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14)
We asked the question: if the Holy Spirit leads us into all the truth(Jn 16:13), how is it that Christians with the Spirit can disagree on practical and doctrinal matters? One possible reason is that our experiences and mindset obscure the voice of the Spirit, but it is probably more correct to return to the context of Jesus' words in John 16. There, He speaks about the continuing work of the Spirit in revealing His truth to the disciples. The promise does not therefore refer to complete revelation of all scientific or theological truth. After all, "we know in part" (1 Cor 13:9).
Selwyn shared about his sister's passing after many years of being in a persistent vegetative state. This led to a discussion of 1) whether we enter a state of limbo ("soul sleep") between our death and final bodily resurrection, and 2) the final state of the believer in heaven.
Passages such as the parable of Lazarus (Lk 16) and Paul's desire to "depart and be with Christ" (Phil 1:23), and the promise to the thief on the Croess "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43) teach that at the point of death we immediately enter into the presence of God.
Nevertheless, we do not receive our new resurrection bodies until the final return of Christ to earth, when both the righteous and the unrighteous will be 'raised' (i.e. given new physical forms) to receive their final judgement (Dan 12:2, I Cor 15, 1 Thes 4:13-18).
In the meantime, here are the pics from Winnie's birthday celebration. Orange cake made by Amelia and Joshua!
I forgot to add that we also spoke about the meaning of near-death experiences (NDEs), in which individuals appear clinically dead but return to life. In the intervening period the may have experiences of a spiritual nature, either reassuring or frightening. I said that the experiences can certainly be genuine, but the principle is that we do not judge truth by experience, but all experiences by the truth of Scripture. So an NDE has the same significance as any other experience or vision or dream. Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14)
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