Biblical Community - Discipleship

Good morning, Five Minute Families! How is your family handling this new school year? Please share with us your challenges or triumphs on Clear View Retreat’s facebook page, or head over to clearviewretreat.org for more information about us. Five Minute Families are to devote time to each other, intentionally and abundantly, and we know that having a strong support system means investing time and energy into the support system as well. So, now, we want to look at disconnection within family time in order to build a better biblical community. We are not saying that you spend all your time with others; we are suggesting balance of personal time, family time, and biblical community time. Here’s a simple analogy. Think of your Five Minute Family as a house with doors and locks. There are times when we lock those doors, holding out anything and everything. We also have the ability to open the doors and invite others in or go out and engage with others where they are. We should not let any one time grouping dominate to the detriment of the others. Again, our guiding verse here – just as last week’s discussion about humility – is Philippians 2:3-4, which says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” You know your own interests, and you may have already struggled with those leading to selfish behaviors. If you look at 1 Timothy 4:7, it says, “But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness.” The world advertises to your selfish side. Have you seen that Dr. Pepper ad which says, “Sweet reward – you deserve this!”? Does that ad, and many others, help you focus on others or yourself? We do not deserve the grace of God and yet He freely gives it, and our sweet reward is our fellowship with Him, our families, and our biblical community. So, we train. We work