Kinship Group Discussion
The Good and Beautiful Life – James Bryan Smith
Chapter 1 Discussion Questions
4/5/2019
In the section titled How to Ruin Your Life (Without Even Trying) – The Six Steps to Ruin:
Q1: How would you describe seeing any of the individual definitions in yourself?
Q2: Could we find ourselves progressing in the ‘steps’ in order, or can we begin somewhere else in the list?
Q3: If I want to reverse the problem and grow in the Lord, how would I do it?
Q4: How do you describe the topic/discipline/pursuit of Discipleship, or Spiritual Growth?
Q5: What might it look like if we don’t pursue Discipleship, or Spiritual Growth?
Q6: What might we gain if we do pursue it?
Tozer, A. W.. Meditations on the Trinity: Beauty, Mystery, and Glory in the Life of God . Moody Publishers.
COMMUNING WITH THE SPIRIT
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 CORINTHIANS 13:14
The Holy Spirit is a living person, and He can be known in an increasing degree of intimacy. Since He is a personality, He can never be fully known in a single encounter.
One of the great mistakes we make is to imagine that by coming to God in the new birth and receiving the Spirit of adoption we know all we can know about God! Similarly, those of us who believe in being filled with the Holy Ghost after conversion also make a mistake in thinking that we know all there is to know about the Holy Spirit.
Oh, my friend, we are just beginning. God’s personality is so infinitely rich and manifold that it will take a thousand years of close search and intimate communion to know even the outer edges of the glorious nature of God. When we talk about communion with God and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we are talking about that which begins now but will grow and increase and mature while life lasts.
Actually, I do find Christians these days who seem to have largely wasted their lives. They were converted to Christ but they have never sought to go on to an increasing knowledge of God. There is untold loss and failure because they have accepted the whole level of things around them as being normal and desirable.
The Holy Spirit is a living person, and we can know Him and fellowship with Him! We can whisper to Him, and out of a favorite verse of the Bible or a loved hymn, we hear His voice whispering back. Walking with the Spirit can become a habit. It is a gracious thing to strive to know the things of God through the Spirit of God in a friendship that passes the place where it has to be kept up by chatter. TS264–265
Father, forgive me for not cultivating my relationship with the Holy Spirit as You have wanted me to. Draw me closer to Him and give me the grace to respond to Him when He calls. Amen.