Sphere Relationship

When reading through the book of Luke, specifically Luke 4:16-30 social justice comes front and center almost immediately as Jesus is handed a scroll of the book of Isaiah. Jesus, not being one to shy away from teaching, read this book out loud and brought focus to an issue that many of us face today. The question of who is the Gospel for? Who are we as Christians, meant to share the good news with? Socially are we supposed to go outside of our comfort zones to reach those who, the Church or Society has deemed as un-teachable? This is what we will be looking at in this paper.

To know God as creator, to learn from Christ as teacher and experience the Holy Spirit gives us liberating freedom to understand more fully how our faith impacts our daily walk. Just as the entertainment center has many pieces to make it valuable, so does our relationship and understanding of God. In the words of John Calvin, “As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.”

Discipleship is about engaging in the Word, following and obeying Jesus and going out to make disciples. An essential element in being a disciple is to be open to learning, to be teachable. It is a mindset to be continuously adopted and cultivated. For us to disciple others, we must be a better disciple ourselves. When making disciples, we are instructing others to be willing to be a discoverer. It applies to both spiritual growth as well as personal development, openness to new techniques, ideas and methods in all aspects of life. Our spiritual learning comes from delving into His

The book also focuses on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus discusses those that are blessed and why they are blessed and also the kingdom of heaven. Jesus discusses faith-community and what is required of disciples including reconciliation with others. The book discusses Jesus and his righteousness. Jesus gives instructions in dealing with those who cause harm to is folowers and believers. The book addresses the question as to whether to literally or figuratively take the commands of Jesus.

A one on one discipling relationship allows for the greatest accountability and requires the greatest amount of trust on the part of both individuals. This type of discipleship often is the strongest and most effective to achieve true spiritual growth. While it is quite easy to evade issues that may be struggles in your life while listening to expository preaching or in a Sunday school setting, it is almost impossible when in a one-on-one relationship with another Christian. As a result of the trust that has been developed in the course of the relationship and the permission given by both parties to ask the tough questions of each other, there is no escaping the immense amount of learning that can produce a great deal of spiritual maturity in a new Christian.

As it was shown when Jesus healed two blind men and a servant, having faith results in action. In Matthew, two blind men called out to Jesus, and the crowd told them to be quiet (Doc. 1). This caused them to shout even louder, so Jesus walked over to them and asks what they want. The men said that they were blind and wanted their sight back. Matthew 20: 31 says, “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him” (Doc. 1). Basically, all it took was one touch from Jesus, and they could see. These men proved their faith by not giving up when they were rebuked by the crowd and believing that Jesus could and would heal them. Because of this faith, Jesus took action and gave them sight.

Christ is the central person in Christian discipleship. Without Christ, Christianity would not exist and there would be no followers of Christ. To be true followers of Christ, believers must be willing to learn of the ways and teachings of Christ. Christ is central to Christian discipleship because He is the teacher of His disciples. Through the Holy Spirit and Word of God, Jesus Christ calls His disciples to Him and then

Putting your faith into action, brings a type of satisfaction of love from God that is unique. That same love is then poured into and onto all that you do, think, believe, or seek. Get up each day and pray what you do and say, will help and make a special difference to someone. You can tell with a hug or smile from the face from the people who are in your space, that God's love lifted us up.

Are you willing to risk everything in order to make a difference with the time you have? Robert F. Kennedy is credited with saying, “Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.” In essence, those who accomplish something great do so by taking great risks. Do you want to make a difference? Do you desire to see God move? We must be ready to take whatever risk God requests of us. Remember that we don’t have to do it on our own; it isn’t up to how much we accomplish, but how willing we are to be used by God. I have to warn you, pursuing Christ isn’t always safe. Just look at the life of Paul. He was beaten, shipwrecked, and eventually beheaded. Esther was faced with the possibility of death by choosing to ask the king to save her people. Still, in each case, God was glorified and he used the people who listened and were obedient to whatever He asked of them. They took the risk and were

Relational. The ministry of Jesus was focused on people and meeting their needs. Spending time with others, both individually and through corporate gatherings, is modeled throughout the Bible. Fellowship with other believers in small groups allows individuals to forge relationships and develop accountability at some level. These deeper bonds demonstrate to others their love for God and others by loving God’s Law, obeying it by God’s grace, and allowing it to lead to Jesus Christ for transformation into His image.

The first power of faith is that of Christian Liberty, the freedom that Christian experience from works and laws because of their faith in Christ. Christian Liberty makes the law and works unnecessary for a man’s righteousness and salvation. A Christian does not feel forced to do works, but will continue to do them because they help in living a Christian life. He who has Christian Liberty is free from the obligation of doing works because they are already choosing to do them. The second power of faith is that we are able to honor God by ascribing truthfulness and righteousness to him through our belief in him. This is a great honor because we cannot “ascribe to a man anything greater than truthfulness and righteousness and perfect goodness.” The third power that arises out of faith is the relationship we develop with Jesus. When we have faith, it is as though we are married to Jesus, with us as the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom, as he is referred to as multiple times in the Bible. When we come together with Jesus, our soul receives grace, life, and salvation, all qualities that Jesus possesses, as he cannot sin, die, or be condemned. Likewise, Jesus takes on all the imperfections that our soul possesses, including sins, death, and damnation. However, because Jesus is so perfect, he is not diminished in any way, despite taking on our sins as our own. His

Jesus demonstrated what He wants you to do. He sat down on the ship and began to teach the people about His Word. He became the first partaker of His Word as if He is saying do what I do. Jesus requires you to have order in your life. In order for you to hear His voice you must be at a period of rest. Rather you are in your personal closet, which is your quiet area, you must be able to let go of all the daily distractions around you so you can listen to the voice of the Lord.

However, we have temptations, so I think it is also hard to always act in the way that we know we should to please God. These temptations are the sins that we commit. I think to grow in our faith we have to be wise and gain knowledge of the religion and what God would want. The only way to gain this knowledge is to read and understand the Bible. To further, one’s relationship with Him they need to be confident with what they believe in and follow it and attend

I am a christian and always have been since i accepted christ at the age of 12 i have been able too do many things couse of my faith not only in god but i have found faith in myself through him. i now am able to live day to day and think at the end of each day thank you god for lettting me mak e it to this spot or thank you for giving me the things i have today. so i think no matter who you are or even if you aer like me you would be able to see that any thing is possible with faith, and that is how Faith has worked in my

Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.