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			      F R I E N D S H I P
				       
		    How do we deal with "problem" friends?
				       


We are social beings. We  live in a  world full of stress  and we need a lot of
support to make it through life. This  support comes from our immediate family,
from our extended    family (the  church),    and of course  from friends   and
acquaintances.  In this discussion we  would  like to  talk  about starting and
terminating friendships.


Questions:
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1. What is friendship? How do you know that "you got a friend"? 
     o Unselfish love
     o Fun and pleasure
     o Trust and patience
     o Sharing of experience

2. Do we choose our friends? Should we choose or just wait to be chosen? 
     o From friendliness to friendship
     o Friendship is an investment
     o Deciding to befriend

3. How is friendship reinforced/weakened by sex, cultural norms, and values? 
     o Friendship with people who differ in faith and values
     o Friendship between male/female 
     o Your friends' friends

4. How many friends do you have? How many friendships can you maintain? 
     o Maintaining a friendship requires time and energy

5. Do you criticize your friends? Do they criticize you? 
     o Love never fails!

6. When should a friendship be terminated? How do we terminate a friendship? 
     o From friendship to friendliness
     o Giving up a friend for another: Who to let go?
     o Giving up a friendship for Jesus, the true friend!



Verses to start off discussion:
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 o Blessed is the man Who walks not  in the counsel  of the ungodly, Nor stands
   in the path  of sinners,  Nor  sits in the seat  of  the scornful; But   his
   delight is in  the law of the   LORD, And in  His  law he meditates day  and
   night. [Psalms 1:1-2]

 o Then  Peter came  to Him and  said,  "Lord, how  often  shall my brother sin
   against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus  said to him, "I do
   not say to you, up to seven  times, but up  to seventy times seven. [Matthew
   18:21-22]

 o "And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you;
   for it is more profitable for you that one of  your members perish, than for
   your whole body to be cast into hell.  "And if your right hand causes you to
   sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that
   one of  your  members perish,  than  for your whole  body  to  be cast  into
   hell. [Matthew 5:29-30]

 o "Greater love  has no one than  this, than  to  lay down  one's life for his
   friends. [John 15:13]

 o "No  longer do I call  you servants, for  a servant  does not  know what his
   master is doing; but I have called you friends,  for all things that I heard
   from My  Father I have made  known to you. "[My friends]  did not choose Me,
   but I chose [them]" [John 15:15-16]

 o Love  suffers long and  is  kind; love does not   envy; love does not parade
   itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not  seek its own, is
   not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice  in iniquity, but rejoices in
   the truth; bears all things, believes all things,  hopes all things, endures
   all things.  Love never fails.  [1 Corinthians 13:4-8]

 o Let love be  without  hypocrisy.   Abhor what is   evil.  Cling to  what  is
   good. [Romans 12:9]

 o For men will  be  lovers of  themselves,  lovers of money, boasters,  proud,
   blasphemers, disobedient    to  parents,   unthankful,    unholy,  unloving,
   unforgiving, slanderers, without   self-control, brutal, despisers  of good,
   traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
   holding the  form of religion but  denying its power.   And from such people
   turn away!  [2 Timothy 3:2-5]