{"id":6590,"date":"2020-07-31T18:07:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T08:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6590"},"modified":"2020-07-31T18:07:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T08:07:58","slug":"spiritual-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/spiritual-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

New Testament\nPassage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\n6:7-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>And He called the twelve to\u00a0Himself,\u00a0and began to send them out\u00a0two\u00a0by\u00a0two<\/strong>, and gave them power over unclean spirits.\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff\u2014no bag, no bread, no copper in\u00a0their\u00a0money belts\u2014\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>but\u00a0to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.<\/em> 10\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Also He said to them,\u00a0\u201cIn whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And\u00a0whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there,\u00a0shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them.\u00a0Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!\u201d<\/em> 12\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>So they went out and preached that\u00a0people\u00a0should repent.\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And they cast out many demons,\u00a0and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed\u00a0them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion\nQuestions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Christ could have sent the disciples out one-by-one to reach more people, and yet, He chose to send them out two-by-two. What are three things Christ may be revealing about the power of friendship by doing such a thing?<\/li>
  2. Outside of service, how else is friendship given for us to be used? What are the benefits of a friendship outside of service?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Old Testament\nPassage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1\nSamuel 18:1-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the]<\/sup>soul of\nJonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own\nsoul. 2 <\/sup><\/strong>Saul took him that day, and would not\nlet him go home to his father\u2019s house anymore. 3 <\/sup><\/strong>Then\nJonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own\nsoul. 4 <\/sup><\/strong>And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with\nhis armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also\nread Ecclesiastes 4:9-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Two\u00a0are\u00a0better than one,
    Because they have a good reward for their labor.
    10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
    But woe to him\u00a0who is\u00a0alone when he falls,
    For\u00a0he has\u00a0no one to help him up.
    11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
    But how can one be warm\u00a0alone?
    12\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
    And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion\nQuestions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Exploring the relationship between David and Jonathan, discuss how the two of them epitomized the concept of Spiritual Friendship.<\/li>
    2. What are some other Biblical examples of friendship that you can think of in the Bible?<\/li>
    3. Some of us consider ourselves to be \u201clone wolves\u201d, not requiring the company of others. How do we reconcile this lifestyle with what we are taught about friendship in the Bible? Is it wrong to not have close friends? Furthermore, if I struggle to make friends, how do I overcome this? <\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      New Testament Passage Mark 6:7-13 7\u00a0And He called the twelve to\u00a0Himself,\u00a0and began to send them out\u00a0two\u00a0by\u00a0two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.\u00a08\u00a0He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff\u2014no bag, no bread, no copper in\u00a0their\u00a0money belts\u2014\u00a09\u00a0but\u00a0to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics. 10\u00a0Also He said to them,\u00a0\u201cIn … Continue reading “Spiritual Friendship”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6591,"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":[357,358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups","category-small-groups-small-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590","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=6590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6592,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590\/revisions\/6592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}