Assignment 4

[burge...@gmail.com]

Hey guys,

again - sorry about being late on the last assignment.  This time you're getting it on THURSDAY.  So on top of it.

This week was awesome.  I feel like you guys are really grabbing a hold of some of these concepts and letting them be practically redefined in your relationships and ministry.  As we talked about this week, I think we're going to be seeing a lot come up about the practical beliefs we have in the Lord's GOODNESS and his SOVEREIGNTY.  I think each week it will be important for us to remind each other about our application of these concepts into our beliefs, pasts, fears and day-to-day actions.  That being said, here's the topic for this week:

LOVE IS THE INDICATOR:  We'll discuss the concept of incarnational ministry as they calling of the Lord on our lives as leaders.  We'll define the concept of "loving like Christ" and specifically take a look at AGAPE, or divine love.  Building off of the last few weeks, I want us to discuss what it looks like to have Christ's life and love flow through us in our "new creation" (see Galatians 2:20 and Romans 8:15-16)  

TO DO: Read the following:  John 1; Colossians 1:15-23; Philippians 2:3-11; Mark 10:35-45; 1 John 3 (**note 1 John...not the gospel of John)

Write a 400 word response on how you would describe A) The LOVE of God in Christ and B) How that is to intersect with his disciples and children.

Looking forward to this one.

Will

[Rachel Larsen]

a.) From my own limited experience and understanding of the Bible, Jesus' love seems to always come from a place of seeking the absolute truth.  His love is in pursuit of the truth.  He wants people so desperately to understand the Father and His ways.  So, His love is always asking questions about the inner workings of our soul and mind.  His love is always showing us HIS ways and the way HE thinks so that we can align ourselves to Him. His love is always reconciling our fault, our lack, and the piece of us that is an enemy to God so that we can live as a Holy Nation.  His love is always constant and present.  

b.) I feel like I kind of answered his in "a," but essentially He is constantly talking about being a humble servant in all of the passages we read.  His interactions with his disciples include suffering, humiliation, & serving.  We even see this when serves his disciples by being patient with their worldly way of understanding Him.  

[Dana Gallup]

Im sorry guys I have been really busy these past few weeks. Here is Assignment 4 and later today I will send Assignment 3.
a. The Lords love has been something I have always struggled with. I always question his love and his amount of love for me. It is so encouraging to read all of 1 John but especially 1 John 4: 18-19. The Lord is perfect love, we don't need to be afraid of anything because we are loved by God. That brings me back to questioning his love, if he loves us so much then why do we feel as though he isn't going to provide in our life? Its because we are living of this world and not by living the life that Jesus has called for us.
b. The Lord wants us to love like he does, and his son Jesus did. He wants us all to use our spiritual gifts to spread God's love and his word. We each have different spiritual gifts that God gave us to use. I think by knowing these gifts, that is how we can help others and tell them about the love of God.

[Derek Sawyer]

The Love of God in Christ is perfect.  As Paul puts it in Philippians, Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.  This just absolutely blows my mind! The God of the universe, who has every reason to do something for himself, lowered himself by taking the appearance of an ordinary man and died one of the most despicable deaths ever.  Why did He do this?  LOVE.  I have always wondered why God would do this for us, but it really is only perfect love that makes it possible.   

God has a command to us who believe: to love one another.  All of the commandments can be summed up into that one word: love.  In 1 John 3, the example John uses is that if we see a brother and sister in need and don’t have pity on them, we do not have the love of God in us.  He then goes on to say that we should love not only with words and speech, but also with actions and in truth. 

 True followers of Christ can be identified by how they love others.  One might ask, ”I know non-christians that show love to other people.  What makes them different from Christians?”  It is the motivation behind that love.  That is why John makes it clear that we must love in truth.  This means that Christ’s love in us is the love that comes out of us.  If someone doesn’t have Christ in them, then they can’t love in the way Christ desires.  As we have been saying, even our good deeds (and loving actions) are nothing to God unless He is the one driving that love.