Day 30

LOVE: ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER!

  • WE “WELCOME ONE ANOTHER” AND ARE NOT ISOLATED CLIQUE

GOD’S WORD: Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What does it mean to really “accept” another person?
  2. What is so unique, so special about the way “Lord Jesus accepted and continues to accept me” as his follower?
  3. In all of my “social relationships,” where have I felt most accepted?
  4. In which of my “spiritual relationships” have I felt most accepted?

GOD’S WORD: I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me;

and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” (John 13:20, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What might be some reasons why it is sometimes difficult for me to “accept others”?
  2. What are some things about me which others might find most difficult for them to “accept in me”?
  3. How does this passage explain the importance of Christ-followers “accepting one another”?
  4. How does my acceptance of others “reflect my feeling of full acceptance by the Father and the Son”?
  • WE “ENCOURAGEONE ANOTHER” BY WE EMPOWERING EACH OTHER

GOD’S WORD: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living & the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

(2 Timothy 4:1-2, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. From its introduction, how are we to weigh the spiritual importance of this directive to “encourage one another””?
  2. What is “the primary resource” which Christ-followers may use when they encourage one another?
  3. How can I best “prepare to encourage” others spiritually?
  1. How can I learn to “encourage rather than discourage” others even when I feel a need to correct or rebuke them?
  2. How have others really “encouraged me” in my faith and faithfulness?

GOD’S WORD: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:12-14, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Why is our “encouragement of one another” so essential to our faith and faithfulness?
  2. “How frequently” am I, as a Christ-follower, challenged to encourage others?
  3. Who has been consistently “encouraging to me” with me in my personal faith and faithfulness?
  4. How might I “more consistently encourage” others?
  • WE “SHOW AFFECTION TO ONE ANOTHER” AND GREET WITH THE HOLY KISS

GOD’S WORD: But show me unfailing kindness like that of the Lord as long as I live,

so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—

not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.” And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself. . . David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.” (1 Samuel 20:14-17; 20:41-42, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What is the “historical context and spiritual meaning” of this narrative about a very special friendship?
  2. Have I ever had a friend “like David and Jonathan found” in each other?
  3. What were the “great risks of this spiritual friendship” involving these two men and what prices were they willing to pay for their relationship?
  4. Why might this “depth of friendship be difficult” for me to understand or duplicate in my own life?

GOD’S WORD: Greet one another with a holy kiss.

(Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Did I realize this short commandment is the one “most repeated directives in the New Covenant Scriptures” and how does that repetition speak to my heart?
  2. Is “showing touching affection” something which is personally easy or more difficult for me?
  3. Was “touching affection” a regular part of greeting and relating in my family of origin?
  4. What are some “forms of touching affection” with which I feel comfortable both giving and receiving?

GOD’S WORD: Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

(1 Peter 5:14, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What “kinds of kisses” are described in Scripture other than the kiss of love?
  2. Why might the Apostle Peter tie together the “kiss of love with the peace of Christ”? (Hint: remember the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane)
  3. Why is sharing a kiss most often seen as the “show of very deep affection”?