{"id":6519,"date":"2020-06-28T15:20:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T05:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6519"},"modified":"2020-06-28T15:20:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T05:20:30","slug":"unity-readings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/unity-readings\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity Readings"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Psalm<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 133<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing: Life forevermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. The psalmist refers to unity as something that is particularly \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018pleasant\u2019 \u2013 what are some of the ways that unity achieves this?<\/li>
  2. What is this oil that is referred to in the psalm, and why is it mentioned in the context of unity? <\/li>
  3. What are some of the ways that we can practice living in unity, in our homes and in our service?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Old Testament Passage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    2 Samuel 11: 6-11<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Then David sent to Joab, saying, \u201cSend me Uriah the Hittite.\u201d\nAnd Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 <\/sup><\/strong>When Uriah had come to\nhim, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the\nwar prospered. 8 <\/sup><\/strong>And David said to Uriah, \u201cGo down to\nyour house and wash your feet.\u201d So Uriah departed from the king\u2019s house, and a\ngift of food from the king\nfollowed him. 9 <\/sup><\/strong>But Uriah slept at the door of the\nking\u2019s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his\nhouse. 10 <\/sup><\/strong>So when they told David, saying, \u201cUriah did\nnot go down to his house,\u201d David said to Uriah, \u201cDid you not come from a\njourney? Why did you not go down to your house?\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    11 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>And Uriah said to David, \u201cThe ark and\nIsrael and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my\nlord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and\ndrink, and to lie with my wife? As\nyou live, and as your soul\nlives, I will not do this thing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    1. In this passage, we see how great Uriah\u2019s unity was with his fellow soldiers. He was very conscious of the danger and discomfort that they were in, to the point that he refused to accept his own comfort and pleasures whilst they were in distress. How can we grow this same spirit of unity within us?<\/li>
    2. Shortly after this encounter, Uriah is killed in battle under the orders of King David. We had previously read in Psalm 133 that unity brings from blessing. How can we then reconcile this with the way that Uriah\u2019s life ended?<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Psalm Psalm 133 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains … Continue reading “Unity Readings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6521,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions\/6521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}