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Showing posts from March, 2020

Paradigm 22: Discipling for life change (27/3/20)

In this chapter Edmund Chan talks about the components  that create real life change in disciplemaking. There must be truthful content , a community environment that encourages change and a spiritual, God-given consecration. Chan speaks of a gracious work of God "breaking in" to our lives. When we repent and surrender our wills to Him there is a "breaking with" our old life. When we truly change, that is "breaking through". In cell we must go to Scripture to know the truth (= content). There must also be an inspiration to hunger for the truth and the skills to learn the truth for themselves. We need ways to grow ourselves in truth. Cell is a place for a community of like-minded disciples who are serious about their faith who can encourage and be accountable to one another. We all also need to pray for special moments when God is present in a powerful way to deal with our souls (= consecration) We cannot engineer those special moments. But we can ce

QC (no SG accountability!) on 20/3/20

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We largely (except for Wen Jin) met virtually today!  We discussed prayer. Winnie was saying (quoting R C Sproul) that "people who think prayer doesn't work don't pray. We talked about the 10 lepers (Lk 17:11-19). Jesus said that the Samaritan who returned was 'made..well (Gk: 'saved') by faith, i.e. he had experienced more than just physical healing. All 10 may have been grateful for what Jesus did for them, but only one expressed that gratitude to Jesus. All received healing, but only one received Jesus. Why pray if God already knows everything? We said that prayer the means by which God ordains that things come to pass (i.e. God ordains the means as well as the ends). Prayer is the place where human responsibility and Divine sovereignty meet. Knowing that God has ordained some things to happen through prayer helps us pray with significance (our prayers make a difference) and boldness. However, prayer is more than a transaction - i