FEBRUARY HOMEGROUPS 'CORE CHRISTIANITY' - CHAPTER TWO

GOD IN THREE PERSONS

1. Does the doctrine of the Trinity matter? If so why?

2. In what ways are our understanding of the doctrine influenced?

3. What analogies of the Trinity have you heard? What is helpful about each one and what may be misleading?

4. What does each member of the Trinity do for our Salvation? What is their role?

5. Why do we pray to the Father in Jesus' name? 

6. Read 1 John 5:14-15. How should we pray in Jesus' name according to these verses? Why should Christians be confident when we pray in Jesus' name?

7. Why do people struggle to understand the Trinity?

Questions 4-7 are from the 'Core Christianity' course. Why not take a look at it and hear Michael Horton teach on the Trinity. It is a good way of reinforcing what you have read.

www.corechristianity.com

TRANSGENDER ISSUES

The topic for our Tuesday evening Bible Study on 31st January will be TRANSGENDER. 

The Cambridge Institute have issued a helpful paper on this. You can read it by following this link:

http://www.jubilee-centre.org/gender-next-christopher-townsend/

A useful, very short book (only 75 small pages), by Vaughan Roberts, has been produced by the good book company. 

An article by Sharon James in Affinity, 'Are we all "omnigender" now' is also helpful.

http://www.affinity.org.uk/downloads/The%20Bulletin/issue-32---july-2016a.pdf

See also a paper in the Christian Medical Fellowship File 59 2016 Gender Dysphoria.

https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=26419

JANUARY HOMEGROUPS 'CORE CHRISTIANITY - GETTING STARTED AND CHAPTER ONE

1. Why does Doctrine matter? Which doctrines, if any, would you be prepared to go to prison for, and which would you die for? (If we remember we will revisit this question at the end of the year to see if our answer has changed.)

2. In what ways does doctrine impact on our worship?

3. Why do these claims to divinity make it impossible for Jesus to be only a wise guru like Buddha or Muhammad?

4. How does Jesus have the characteristic of God?

5. There have been other people who performed miracles in the Bible, but Jesus had characteristics that only God could possess. So how do his particular powers and authority described in these verses prove Jesus' divinity?

6. How was Jesus worshipped as God?

7. Look up Matthew 16:16-17 and John 20:28-29. If Jesus was simply a wise guru or teacher, how should he have responded when people worshipped him on earth? Consider Christ's response to Peter in Matthew 16:17 and Thomas in John 20;29 as you answer.

Please note: questions 3-7 are taken from the 'Core Christianity' website. A link to this is found in the previous post. 

HOME GROUPS 2017

CORE CHRISTIANITY by Michael Horton.

You can read about it here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Core-Christianity-Michael-Horton/dp/0310525063/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

There is a web site by the same name that enables people to go through the book in groups – see:

https://corechristianity.com/

We could sign up as many of our group as wish to do this.

In addition as 2017 is the 500^th Anniversary of the reformation we shall use the book ‘Why the Reformation Still Matters’ for some Tuesday evenings. It covers roughly the same area as Core Christianity from the view point of the Reformation.

 See here –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783594071/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

MORE ON FASTING

If you would like to look more into the question of fasting then I would recommend the book by John Piper, 'A HUNGER FOR GOD'. 

This can be download for free as a pdf file from the DESIRING GOD website section on Books, or try using the following link:

http://document.desiringgod.org/a-hunger-for-god-en.pdf?1446646561

Two extracts: 

"In other words, in this age there is an ache inside every Christian that Jesus is not here as fully and intimately and as powerfully and as gloriously as we want him to be. We hunger for so much more. That is why we fast." 

"We have tasted the powers of the age to come, and our fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not experienced, but because the new wine of Christ’s presence is so real and so satisfying. We must have all that it is possible to have. The newness of our fasting is this: its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit, and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives. The new fasting, the Christian fasting, is a hunger for all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19), aroused by the aroma of Jesus’ love and by the taste of God’s goodness in the gospel of Christ (1 Peter 2:2–3)."

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS BY JOHN BUNYAN

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

I have been greatly enjoying listening to a series by Derek Thomas on Pilgrim's Progress. I have read this book more times than any other apart from the Bible. Every time I have learned more and never failed to enjoy this compelling allegory (a story that is a picture) of the Christian life. 

You can hear the series on the following link:

http://renewingyourmind.org/broadcasts/2016/06/13/the-pilgrims-progress

Or go to the Ligonier Ministries web site, Renewing your Mind, and go to Ministries, then to Renewing Your Mind Broadcast, begin at 13th June 2016.

Or down load the app to your phone and access the talks that way. 

They are offering the talks for purchase and there is an on line courses you can buy, but you can listen to the talks free of charge. 

I suggest that you down load them to 'itunes', or what ever you use, as soon as possible, then you will have the talks if they remove them. 

REJOICE THIS CHRISTMAS (AND EVERMORE!)

Many of you will be familiar with the writing and preaching of John Piper. Through the Desiring God Web site he has generously made freely available some of his books as pdf files. I am intending to read one this Christmas and invite you to do the same. The book is 'THE DAWNING OF INDESTRUCTIBLE JOY' Daily Readings for Advent.

It can be found here: http://www.desiringgod.org/books/the-dawning-of-indestructible-joy

May you know what it is to rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory this Christmas.