Basic Christianity Brown Bag Book Study 2016 Bishop Mike Lowry March 17 Salvation and Response

Class Requirements: 1.Open participation and a prayerful willingness to challenge your own perceptions 2.An attitude of grace and respectful learning with regard to fellow classmates 3.Read the chapter(s) before you attend. (No exceptions!) 4.Brown bag your lunch and be on time. We will finish by 12:50 p.m.

The Salvation of Christ, 1

The Salvation of Christ 2: A work of the Holy Spirit “Jesus Christ offers to change not only our standing before God but our very nature.” (p. 120) Images of the on-going work of salvation transformation sanctification new birth new creation Abandoning a philosophy of sin-management.

The Salvation of Christ 3 “ This is the open secret of how to live as a Christian. It is not about us struggling in vain to become more like Jesus, but about allowing him, by the power of his Spirit, to come and change us from the inside. Once again we see that to have him as our example is not enough. We need him as our Savior.” (p. 122) The Wesleyan concept of a synergistic relationship “Trust and Obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”

The Salvation of Christ 4 Christianity is not in the business of sin management. A Way of thinking about salvation that is both orthodox and modern: Addiction = sin Salvation = Rescue or Deliverance Interlude One: Where have you experienced addiction (or the tug of addiction)? Where have you experienced rescue or deliverance?

The Church of Christ

The Church of Christ (cont’d)

Response: The Call and Cost of Following Christ A Claim of highest allegiance as Lord the way of salvation – sanctification Reign and rule FDFers = Fully Devoted Followers of Jesus Christ not by might nor by power but by the Spirit! “Without God we cannot, without us God will not” (Bishop Augustine of Hippo)

Response: The Call and Cost of Following Christ

Steps that need taking (continued) Public Acknowledgement/Witness Incentives: For your own sake For Christ’s sake For the Sake of Others Witness (p. 144) Interlude Three - What public witness is the Lord calling on you to make in His name? How do you explicitly live out His Lordship (reign and rule) over your life?

Reaching a Decision Interlude Four – What is most striking and instructive in Holman’s The Light of the World for you? What decision about/for Christ have you put off making? Are you ready to make the decision? If not, why not?

Being a Christian 1 Intimate Relationship - the crucial importance of spiritual formation Let’s hear it for the Wesleyan Class meeting Quiet! An Assured Relationship Inner and outer peace Living as a different human being A Secure Relationship Justified once, forgiven every day, moving on to perfection (holiness of heart and life)

Being a Christian 2 Back-Sliding Methodists!? “If anyone persists in disobeying God’s commands and in disregarding his duties to other people, he writes, then he is not a Christian, whatever he may say. Righteousness and love are indispensable marks of the child of God.” (p. 160) Are you saved? De-facto and De-jure, justification and sanctification, the porch (prevenient grace), the door (justifying grace), and the living room (sanctifying grace). There is yet more but we shall stop for now.

Q & A

Upcoming Brown Bag Studies Are you interested? Possible different format? Possible topics: The Trinity Orthodoxy & Heresy The Class meeting Thank you for the joy of sharing in intentional faith development! Bishop Mike Lowry

Basic Christianity