Week Nine is here! We’re
now down to only one week left in our study over The Hole in our Holiness.
I noticed tonight while blogging that I definitely forgot to put up a recap for
Chapter Eight. I’m sorry about that, but
as it’s been a bit, I’m going to go ahead and skip to “Abide and Obey.” We were a bit short-handed this week at
study, but we happily all had our hands.
Right Tyler? However, in spite of
a small number of peeps, we had some great discussion. Let’s dive on in! Hah, get it?
Because we were watching ‘Splash’ before starting? Oh, never mind.
The major theme of the chapter this week was pretty
self-explanatory. It was mostly about
the concept of Union with Christ versus Communion with Christ. That Union with Christ occurs when you’re
converted and you give your life to Christ.
However, Communion with Christ is the aspect of spending time with Him
and furthering and deepening that relationship. We first discussed whether or not we see the
aspect of communion with Christ lacking in our lives. I believe that the answer for most of us is
that we definitely appreciate the ability to have a relationship with Christ,
but can see it lacking at times. It’s up
to us to be able to grow and develop that through being obedient to Him.
Dustin then brought up the point of how to engage in
communion with Christ. As Kevin said in
the chapter, there are really four ways to do so. They are through prayer, scripture,
fellowship, and the actual act of communion.
As we read the Word, we will often see the lessons contained within
permeate into the rest of our lives. Our
prayer life can be a great asset to us in our walk as well. Through engaging with God on a one-on-one
basis, He can open up His plans for us to see a little easier. It’s also through prayer that our heart is
displayed. Fellowship is so crucial as
one cannot stand alone in their pursuit of God.
It’s through encouragement that we are often molded. Even Jesus had the disciples following Him
and engaging in everyday life with Him.
Communion is important because it’s the reminder and the act of
acknowledging Christ’s sacrifice for us and also paying tribute to that
sacrifice in a way that is honoring to Him.
We also discussed what things hinder our communion with
God. One of the biggest can be how we
use our time. As we’ve discussed before,
we all feel entitled to our time and want to spend it as we please. However, that’s not the only area where we
run into trouble. We also all have a
natural independent streak as we are human.
We’ll think that we can handle anything that comes our way by ourselves
and don’t necessarily need God to help us through it. Finally, we have a feeling that we need to
prove our faith through some grand gesture.
While this may be nice to shoot for, humble obedience is key. We need to be disciplined and let God refine
our character and mold us. The only way
to extraordinary holiness is through ordinary means as Dustin so eloquently
stated. :D
And now for your moment of reflection…
Cool be there tonight
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