How People Grow - Session 5a - 8/31/2009

Today's Mental Image:

 Temptation

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How People Grow

by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

PREPARATION FOR SESSION 5a

Discussion Starter of Small Group That Meets Monday Evenings In Our Home
At 642 North Broadwell Ave., Grand Island, Nebraska
New Participants Are Welcome Or
 Feel free to create an online discussion through Comments

THE MASTER GARDENER:  THE GOD OF GROWTH
JESUS: OUR EXAMPLE FOR LIVING
Response To Suffering
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Jesus taught that we would have trials and tribulations
in this world [John 16:33],

and he showed us much about how to respond to suffering.  Most important is that he did not avoid suffering but saw it as part of the growth path [Hebrews 5:8]
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Jesus is a wonderful example of embracing needful suffering and rejecting that which is not.  He understood that pain must have a purpose.  He chose the path of the Cross because of the fruit it would bear. . .  Yet he refused to enter suffering inappropriate to his purposes and not in line with God's timetable ... [John 10:39] .

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One way to bear necessary pain is to be humble.

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Being humble means not perceiving ourselves to have rights or privileges that we do not possess ... 

Jesus ... humbled himself and underwent pain he didn't bring on himself [Phillippians 2:6-7] .

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Depend on God and people. We can't bear life on our own, nor were we created to do so.  Jesus did not model independence, but dependence. Jesus was dependent on God and people [Matthew 6:11; 26:38] . 

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No One Grows To Maturity Who Does Not Understand Suffering.

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