Saturday, October 11, 2008

JUSTI(FIED)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Opening:

Last week we began to tell some of our "rebirth" stories. Continue to share where you are at in this journey of regeneration.

Digging Deeper:

While simplified, we are looking at the following trajectory of salvation

Regeneration- Repentance/Faith- Justification- Sanctification- Glorification

Now we examine our next step in the process of our salvation- Justification.

Simply defined, it means to "make just." Biblically, it is God's act of declaring us not guilty of our sins. Discuss this concept– what does it say about us, what does it say about God, what des is say God offers us, what difference does this make in our life here, what difference does it make for our eternity?

Read Romans 5: 1-11. How does this enlighten our understanding of justification? Who are the unrighteous? What does it mean that Christ died for the unrighteous?

It appears in scripture that a very real "fruit" of faith is this justification. What is the role of faith in the Christ-followers life? Read Matthew 8:5-10 and discuss this story. What would it look like to have an "astonishing" faith? What would you do with an astonishing faith?

Closing:

If you had faith, real faith in the promises of the Bible, how would that begin to effect your life? What might you attempt to God?

_____
Romans 5: 1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Matthew 8:5-10
5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
7Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Connection Group Covenant

Connecting with God. Connecting with people. Connecting with the world.

Connection Groups target the second part of our mission- to connect with people. We believe that being in relationships, in the body of Christ, is an essential part of every Christ-followers life.

In the days of the early Church the first Christ followers gathered the first day of the week (Sunday) for worship. In addition, they meet throughout the week, daily in fact, in homes (Acts 2:46; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15). We believe that being a part of a Connection Group is not something we do in addition to “going to church,” it is essential to “be the church.”

We gather around the following values:

Common Purpose: To become more Christ-like in everything.
Common Place: To become more a part of our community.
Common Possessions: To become more generous in supporting one another.

Therefore,
• We agree to meet for the duration of this semester.
• We will try to make every Group meeting.
• We will discuss the topic/text of worship services.
• We will make worshiping at Connections a priority. If we cannot be at worship we will listen or read the message online.
• We will support our facilitators and hosts and respect their role.
• We will be respecters of persons.
• We will practice confidentiality.
• We will seek to deepen relationships within the group.
• We will play together.
• We will serve together.

When: _________________________________________________

Where: _________________________________________________

Other: