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Christlife Posture: Loving Like Jesus

Topic: Giving from what God has given you

 

Suggested Approach: Choose 1 thing from each of the three boxes

OR Choose 1 from Media or Reflection + 1 from Scripture 

Media Excursions      (Watch/read/listen and be ready to discuss Q's)

Painting

  • The Palsied Man Let Down Through the Roof (James Tissot) Think about the four men assisting their friend. What did they have to give? What couldn’t they give? What do you tend to downplay in what you have to offer when someone is in need?

Video Clip

  •  The Un-giving Tree (Letters to the Exiles) Listen to the story.  Watch the faces of the children! He asks a “leading” question at the end. How does this parallel our own created nature?

Song

  • Give a Little Love (Noah and the Whale) Do you think love is this contagious? How have you experienced it as either the giver or receiver of an act of kindness?

Devotional/Article  

  •  Giving out of what God has given you  (Greg Laurie) What spiritual gifts do you believe you have? (here is a list​) What spiritual gifts do others have that you feel you have been able to benefit or grow from?  What if they had not chosen to use their gifts on your behalf?

Reflection Options  

Journal  (Reflect on one or more of these questions) 

  • Make a list of the things that God has given you that could be of some benefit to others.  

  • Recall a time when you didn’t think you had anything to give but God used you anyway.  Was there anything in your attitude or actions that helped you to be a vessel for God to use?

  • What spiritual gifts do you believe you have? How are you currently using them?  If you don’t know, try taking a test online such as: http://giftstest.com

Quote Interaction   (Agree, disagree or otherwise engage with the quote/quotes)

  • The world asks ‘What does a man own?’ Christ asks, ‘How does he use it?" (Andrew Murray)

  • There cannot be a surer rule, nor a stronger exhortation to the observance of it, than when we are taught that all the endowments which we possess are divine deposits entrusted to us for the very purpose of being distributed for the good of our neighbour. (John Calvin) 

  • Charity is, indeed, a great thing, and a gift of God, and when it is rightly ordered likens us to God Himself, as far as that is possible; for it is charity which makes the man. (John Chrysostom)

Reading & Reflection from the book, Shaping The Journey of Emerging Adults

  • Read the section on “perfect love” and “the indisputable mandate” (pp. 61-63).  What do you learn from this section about Jesus or the disciples in giving from what they had to give?

  • Create a “map” of growth for your own journey of learning to love like Christ loved (see page 141).

  • Mentor: Look at “Connect them to other growing adults” (pp. 137-138).  How might this practice actually be a positive way to give out of what God has given you?

  • Mentor: Read through the Intentionality ideas for chapter 9 (pp. 156-160).  Pray for discernment and choose two to explore with the young adult.  Or review them until you understand them and then show the young adult the list and ask if it would be helpful for you to pursue any of the ideas with them.  

Explore Scripture

Meditate on one or more of the following passages. Always look them up in context.  Take some time to really explore the verse in relation to this topic.  Look in these verses to see what insights you can gain about what we have to give or how we are to give it.  Make a note of what you discover to share later.  See "Learn More About Ways to Study Scripture" below for help in getting the most out of the verse.

  • I Chronicles 29:10-19

  • Proverbs 11:24-25

  • Mark 2:1-12

  • John 3:22-30

  • Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:11-13

  • II Corinthians 8:12-15 & 9:7

  • I Peter 2:9

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