Sep 19, 2021
Second in the series: Some straight talk about the class formation and core principles dating back to the founding of the Fellowship Class 36 years ago.
FRAN AND DON'S THlNGS TO PONDER
from Fellowship Class teaching, September 2021
From Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning:
"When we cannot change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves!"
"The last of the human freedoms we have is how we respond to any given set of circumstances [no matter how dire!]."
"Those who have a 'why" to live can bear with almost any 'how."
From Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith: (what we called "Big G, little g"):
What he described as God or the god of your life is whatever is "the object of ultimate concern in your life ....
which promises total fulfillment and offers complete satisfaction
even if all else in your life goes away."
And so....who, Who or what, What is the God or god of your life? (That's easy to name, if you'll just be completely honest about what in your life makes you completely happy even though it/they are all you have.)
Our faith demands all of us to be centered on it- body, mind, soul, spirit -now and forever, our emotions and feelings, both conscious and unconscious, ego, superego, etc. - and encompasses our decisions, choices, behaviors, promises, and follow-through - with total fulfillment and complete satisfaction.
Who/what is the God/god of your life right now? And do you live out that ultimate concern each and every day?
From Leon Kass on the meaning of God's word "good" in Genesis 1: "A being is good insofar as it is fully formed and fully fit to do its proper work...Precisely in the same sense that man is in the image of God, man is not yet "good" - not determinate, finished, completed, or perfect. It remains to be seen whether [each person] will be able to complete himself (or be completed).............................................................................. Man is capable enough of deviating widely from the way for which he is most suited or through which he - and the world around him -will most flourish." Leon Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, p.39.
FELLOWSHIP CORE BIBLE VERSES
Acts 20:24 - "I do not count my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." [give God glory]
Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives within me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me." [let Christ live through me]
Romans 12 - the entire chapter, especially vs. 6 ff: "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them." Verses 9-21 spell out the ways we can interact with others with Christian love.
John 5:19-20, 30b - "Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does likewise." And, remembering that when Jesus was on Earth He was fully human with His own strong will, "I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me." Can the same be said of each of us?f
Philippians 1:27,2:5-8,12-13 - "Only let your manner of life be worthy of he gospel of Christ... standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel...Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality of God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death upon a cross...Therefore, my beloved,...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Philippians 1:6 -- "And I am sure that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion."