Skip to main content

LIFEGroup Reflections

LIFEGroup Reflections

I’ve been reading about friendship this week. I’ve been thinking about the question: What makes for a good friendship? My dad taught me two things about friendships. The first is that you eventually become a reflection of the people you choose to be around. The second is that you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. Both have proved to be important life lessons for me.

The Bible gives great advice on what to look for in a friend. Proverbs alone contains an amazing wealth of wisdom on friendship. Proverbs tells us to choose our friends carefully. Proverbs 12:26 says “A righteous man is cautious in friendship.” Proverbs also gives a warning of what can happen if we hand out with the wrong crowd. Proverbs 22:24-24 warns “Do not make friends with a hot tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

Proverbs also speaks to the blessing that a true friend can be. A true friend doesn’t run at the first sign of trouble. A true friend wants to help in times of trouble. Proverbs 17:17 says “A friend loves at all times, a brother is born for adversity.” A true friend is not afraid to be honest. A true friend won’t sugar coat problems. Proverbs 27:6 “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” Proverbs even goes to so far as to say that there a type of friend who can be closer to you than your family. Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stick closer than a brother.” Where can I find a friend like that? Where can I find that kind of love, honesty, understanding and support?

In a world that seems to be becoming increasingly secular it seems to be getting increasingly difficult to find friends that share my values. I have a few close friends who aren’t Christians but there is some primary element of connection that is missing in our relationship. I don’t want to get rid of those friendships. Those friendships are important. At the same time I need to have friends that share that connection that comes with being united through the blood of Christ.

I need to have those friends so that by being around them I can be conformed to the image of Christ as we all work towards being made more like Jesus. In my LIFEGroup I’ve been developing those friendships. It doesn’t happen over night and it will happen at different levels with the different people in the group. I’ll be closer with some than with others. Still, I have a group of friends I can count on to be the type of positive friends that Proverbs describes. My prayer is that as those friendships grow I’ll have the opportunity to bring my unsaved friends into a LIFEGroup and into the body of Christ so we can experience friendship to the fullest. In the end it is God who makes friendships good.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion Questions for Easter

Have several people ask the question, “What’s the most important thing you’ve ever done?” Ask other people, “What do you hope to accomplish in the next several years of your life?” Tell your class that today you’ll be talking about “life mission” or the one most important thing you do that drives everything else. Tell them that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the defining moment in history, so it should be the defining moment in our lives. Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. How does the resurrection impact some of the crucial beliefs of Christianity?  How would Christianity be different if there was no resurrection? How would you be different without the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. What are some specific ways that the resurrection gives us hope? If you had been a friend of Jesus when he was on earth, how would the resurrection have impacted your life?  How do you think his followers then were effected by the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthian...
3 comments
Read more

FIGHT CLUB! (iron sharpening iron)

Our youth pastor, Keith Sandison, has implemented "Fight Clubs" with the young men of our church. While these teenagers and young adults aren't actually pummeling each other physically, they are using the opportunity to aggressively challenge one another to be more attentive to their spiritual formation. Right now my son is participating in a fight club focusing on Proverbs. I love it. Keith has created a handout he uses for the fight clubs which lists seven different methods of "generic Bible study". I think the idea started with this post a few years ago, but as he often does; Keith took my thoughts and made them immensely more substantive and beneficial. Check out his system below:
1 comment
Read more

Community Killers Part Four: Complaining

Nothing can tear a group apart faster or more effectively than a spirit of complaining. For some reason, complaints seem to breed faster than rabbits. Once one person’s complaining goes unchecked, it won’t be long until others have joined in and eventually the entire group is sucked into a hopeless vortex of swirling complaints. Often these complaints have little to do with the group, but they have the potential to sideswipe and destroy a group meeting, or if left unchecked, an entire group. Complaints may cover a variety of subjects. Group members might complain about their job, their day, their neighbor, their spouse, or even the church. The role of the leader is to deal with these complaints in a way which is formative for the person, instructive for the group, and glorifying to God. Because a LIFEgroup should be a place where people share their struggles and receive support and prayer, it can sometimes be difficult to know when someone is sharing a difficulty or...
Post a Comment
Read more