SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP

Dr Alex Tang

What is friendship?

What is friendship among Christian?

What is spiritual friendship?

GOD

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Proverbs 17:17

PR 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Being a spiritual friend is being the physician of a wounded soul. And what does a physician do when someone comes with a bleeding wound?

Three things: He or she cleanses the wound, aligns the sundered parts, and gives it rest. That's all. The physician does not heal. He or she provides an environment for the dominant natural process of healing to take its course.

The physician really is midwife rather than healer

Proverbs 18:24

PR 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Aelfed of Rievalilix 1974. Spiritual friendship. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2:11-12)

But what happiness, what security, what joy to have someone to whom you dare to speak on terms of equality as to another self; one to whom you need have no fear to confess your failings; one to whom you can unblushingly make known what progress you have made in the spiritual life; one to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and before whom you can place all your plans!

What, therefore, is more pleasant than so to unite to oneself the spirit of another and of two to form one, that no boasting is thereafter to be feared, no suspicion to be dreaded, no correction of one by the other to cause pain, no praise on the part of one to bring a charge of adulation from the other.

"A friend," says the Wise Man, "is the medicine of life.“

Aelfed of Rievalilix 1974. Spiritual friendship. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2:11-12)

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1.God seekers

John 15:12-17 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1.God seekers2.Readers (Bible)

Acts 17:11

11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1. God seekers2. Readers3. Accountablers

Romans 14:12-13 RO 14:12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

RO 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1. God seekers2. Readers3. Accountablers4. Pray-ers

Romans 1:8-10 RO 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1. God seekers2. Readers3. Accountablers4. Pray-ers5. Encouragers

Hebrews 10: 23-25 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1. God seekers2. Readers3. Accountablers4. Pray-ers5. Encouragers

What is the connection of spiritual friendship and this?

Five Specials of Spiritual Friendship

1. God seekers

2. Readers

3. Accountablers

4. Pray-ers

5. Encouragers

Spiritual Friendship is a GRAPE relationship

1. God seekers2. Readers(Bible)3. Accountablers4. Pray-ers5. Encouragers

Alex Tang

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 ECC 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

ECC 4:10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

ECC 4:11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?

ECC 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

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