Nipate
Forum => Controversial => Topic started by: GeeMail on October 03, 2014, 12:31:13 PM
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http://www.absg.adventist.org/2014/4Q/TE/PDFs/ETQ414_01.pdf
Further Study:
“His brothers often brought forward the philosophy of
the Pharisees, which was threadbare and hoary with age, and presumed
to think that they could teach Him who understood all truth, and comprehended
all mysteries. They freely condemned that which they could
not understand. Their reproaches probed Him to the quick, and His soul
was wearied and distressed. They avowed faith in God, and thought they
were vindicating God, when God was with them in the flesh, and they
knew Him not.
“These things made His path a thorny one to travel. So pained was
Christ by the misapprehension in His own home that it was a relief
to Him to go where it did not exist.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 326.
Discussion Questions:
The letter of James is essentially a handbook on practical Christian
living. It may even have been the first New Testament book written
(some time between a.d. 44 and 49). That is, besides it being a book
on theology, it also tells us how to live out the Christian life. Why is
living out what we believe just as, if not more, important than what
we believe? Or is what we believe more important than how we live
out that belief? For instance, what’s better: a sincere Sunday keeper
who truly and seriously keeps the first day of the week holy or an
insincere Sabbath keeper who “keeps” the seventh-day Sabbath but
doesn’t really take it all that seriously?
Give reasons for your answer.
As we have seen in Sunday’s study, James was the brother of Jesus.
In other words, though Jesus was God Himself, the Creator of all that
was made, He was also human, one of us, even to the point that He
had siblings. How does this amazing concept help us to understand
how the vast gap between heaven and a fallen world was bridged?
What does it say to us, too, about the lengths that God goes to in order
to save fallen humanity? How does the humanity of Christ help us to
understand how we can have victory over sin? How does the humanity
of Christ assure us that God understands the reality of our toils and struggles?
This week’s lesson mentioned that humility was a theme in James’s
letter. Why is humility so important in the Christian life? That is, in
light of the Cross and what happened there, how dare any of us ever
assume an attitude of arrogance or self-importance, especially when
it comes to spiritual matters?