God the Son, Mentor's Guide, MG10

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G O D T H E S O N

below are provided as guides and primers, and ought not to be seen as absolute necessities. Pick and choose among them, or come up with your own. The key is relevance now, to their context and to their questions.

The case studies in the God the Son module are designed to help your students interconnect and apply the doctrinal lessons and truths that they have received in the material to their own life and ministry situations. Many of the cases are actually taken from real life situations in urban ministry which your author has encountered, or knows others to have dealt with in actual ministry. No answers are provided to the cases, for the goal of the dialogue is to give your students a “blackboard field experience” in wrestling with the very real implications of these truths and ideas. Help your students to explore the possible range of “right answers,” and don’t allow them to settle these issues quickly or unthinkingly. Much of the wisdom they will need in urban ministry will come from their ability to ponder slowly, carefully, and thoroughly all the facts and issues associated with situations before they act on them or speak to them. Deut. 17.4 - And it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, Isa. 11.3-4 - And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, [4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. To this kind of “suspension of judgment” the Scriptures speak often: Prov. 18.13 - If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

9 Page 38 Case Studies

John 7.24 - Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

1 Tim. 5.19 - Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.