How Shall We Treat Others

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Matthew 7:7-14 NIV

 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) In His Sermon on the Mount, what three things did Jesus tell His disciples to do and why? (v.7-8)
2) How do parents generally respond to the requests of their children? (v.9-10)
3) How willing is our Heavenly Father to give good gifts to His children? (v.11)
4) How are we to treat others? Why? (v.12)
5) What does our Lord Jesus tell His disciples about the path to destruction and the path to life? (v.13-14)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) What do you typically do when you have a need that you are unable to meet yourself?
7) How do you typically treat others? Why?

LIFE LESSONS
8) The Lord desires to meet our needs, but He cannot do so unless we ask Him for what we want.
9) The Lord commands us to love others as ourselves; not through our own power, but through His.

You Did Not Return to Me

Saturday, June 6, 2015
Amos 4:7-13 KJV 

7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. 8 So two [or] three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 11 I have overthrown [some] of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what [is] his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, [is] his name.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What else did the Lord God do to His people when they would not receive correction? (v.7-11)
2) What did the people of God refuse to do after each act of correction? (v.8-11)
3) Who did the Lord God tell His people to prepare to meet because they refused correction? (v.12-13)


APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you faced one hardship, or trial, after another, in recent years? 
5) What do you attribute those difficulties to?

LIFE LESSONS
6) The Lord God often uses hardships, or trials, to draw us back to Himself.
7) When we refuse to return to the Lord, our destruction is inevitable.