Summary of July 7 Care Group

The DeVivos, Angels, Bennetts and Versaces attended. To begin, Wade encouraged us all with Ephesians 2:13 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Thanks Wade!

Tony directed us to Hebrews 10:19-27 and Hebrews 3:12-13 from the Paul Tripp messages that speak about our identities in Christ and the call to godly community embedded in the middle of those verses. Our first identity is as sinners who must grasp the gravity, seriousness, depravity and the destructiveness of sin so that we can appreciate the wonder and magnitude of Christ's gift to us. Transparency is necessary between close brethren where we let our guard down and let others see who we really are and where we struggle. Then we can be helped by their insight and care! We don't want to be people who have one persona in private, and another very different persona in public. Tripp says that "Personal spiritual insight frequently comes in the context of community."

Our second identity in Christ is to be those who have received the glorious grace of God. Tripp says that we Christians should be the saddest and the most celebrant people on earth simultaneously. If we embrace one aspect of our identity without the other, there will be problems. Dennis cautioned us not to let the awareness of sin overwhelm us without letting God reveal His help and His way of escape. He reminded us of the faithfulness of God to never let us be tempted beyond what we are able to handle, but always provides the way of escape (from I Corinthians 10:13). We should always be looking at the cross 10 times, for every 1 look at our sin!

We also discussed that discipline is unpleasant but that we must trust the loving hand of our heavenly father in leading us for His glory. It's healthy to admit when sin has reared its head in us, and that even our clear conscience doesn't acquit us from guilt. We need the constant cleansing of His presence and forgiveness. We can glory in our weaknesses so that His grace can be made strong in us. Gary encouraged us to "Count it all joy" because we can trust God and His sovereignty in all trials. We ended with Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."