Irmela

5. Why is God the main recruiter? What is our instruction when we need more workers? (10:2c) God knows each and everyone. He has called us to work somewhere. It does not help recruiting who man wants (remember when Samuel was sent to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king. In his eyes the older one looked able but God had not chosen him for that job. His was another job. David was the one God had chosen as king) God knows who will stick it out where. He knows whom He can send into the foreign field, He knows whom He can send amongst the elderly, amongst the youth, amongst the troubled 'rebels', amongst the drug addicts, whom He can send amongst the "special needs" people etc. Our instruction is to pray for workers and to go where we are sent.

4. Why are the workers few? (10:2b) What kinds of things have kept you in the past from being active in the harvest? The harvest always seems to be much more than what there are workers. It is very easy to fall into the trap of guilt and shame that one did not go into a foreign mission field and be involved in harvest there . But in the home field it is also necessary to have workers. Ones life needs to portray Christ. It is only in the hereafter that we will be aware of who was reached for the kingdom, by ones lifestyle. It is so that one sows or plants, another waters and another reaps.

3. In what sense is the harvest plentiful in Jesus' day? (10:2a) Is the harvest plentiful in your area of the world? How do you determine that? The people eagerly accept what Jesus is telling them. They indeed are crying for a change from the Roman Oppression they have lived under for so long. The longing for the promised Messiah is uppermost in their minds. Now the news of the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand is met with great enthusiasm. Indeed all over the need is great. Many have pushed aside the truth that God is indeed God and Christ is the One Who can save them from their sin.

2. What are the strategic purposes behind Jesus' decision to send out the Seventy? What is he trying to accomplish? There is not much time, but there is still a lot of work. Disciples need to put into practice what they have been taught. With a bigger group, more pairs are being sent out. More people can be reached. Greater ground can be covered. The villages where the disciples were welcomed, faith was stirred up. Jesus was soon to follow. But the ground-work had been done and the people would be 'hungry' and eager to receive more. The fact that they were sent ahead was like pre-evangelism. It was into a new area where Jesus was not well-known.

1. Why does Jesus pair up the disciples as he sends them out? (10:1) What application does this have today? It is easy to get discouraged alone. When there are two this is less likely to happen. (One seems to look out for the other and give encouragement without even noticing it. Just another person being present is better than being alone). In pairs it is safer, be it as a witness to something that happened or be it for safety as in an attack. One is an easy target for an attack, two is less likely for it to happen. Not everyone has the same spiritual gifting. Better that there are two and so one fills in as it were, what the other leaves out. This being sent in pairs has been a guideline to follow down the ages. Nothing gets done for nothing, there is always a lesson to be learnt from it.

In 8:14-21, 28, how many times is the idea of being sons and daughters of God alluded to? (14) those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (15) you have received the Spirit of adoption, this produces sonship (16) the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God (17a) being His children we are His heirs (17b) heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ (19) creation waits for the revealing of sonship (21) creation too will be set free from bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God's children What are the promises made to these sons and daughters? All things work together for good. They fit into a plan. All the suffering is not for nothing. What do we learn about our future and our role in the future of all creation? Nature also will be set free from decay. Our future is with God and with Christ. We will share in His glory

(Romans 8:15-16) How does the Holy Spirit inspire us to pray "Abba, Father"? The Spirit we have received is One that produces sonship. So we can call out Abba, Father. The Spirit bears witness to the fact that we are children of God; it provides supporting evidence by testifying to this fact. There is no need to be in bondage to fear anymore. What is the significance of us referring to God as our Dad? A Dad is one who protects, one who cares, one who loves, one with whom I can have a close relationship. GOD IS all that and more. What happens in our lives if we don't have some kind of personal assurance of our salvation? We doubt and fear takes over. How do we receive this kind of personal assurance? We can receive this assurace by reading God's Word, by prayer, by close fellowship with God. Walking with and talking to HIM

(Romans 8:13-14) What does it mean to "mortify" or "put to death" the deeds of the body by the Spirit? The deeds of the body would be sin and when we put on the new nature the old deeds will not be part of it. The sinful nature is what has been put to death and discarded as a garment being taken off. What would it look like to watch a person do this? The person would no longer be as before. The Fruit of the Spirit would start manifesting in his life. A change would be evident. What does it mean to be "led" by the Spirit? It means not doing your own thing or going your own way but waiting on God for His guidance and going where He leads and doing what He leads you to do. What does this look like in actual practice? It means not saying/doing what would be natural to say/do when something bad is said/done to you. How do "putting to death" and being "led" by the Spirit fit together? It is a way of life. When you stifle or put to death fleshly desires then you will not walk in the way of the ungodly because you will not be led there. When you put to death cursing or bad thoughts then when something happens where you normally would have cursed ... you don't do so because that is dead. There are new words and thoughts inside of you. How much of this is the Spirit and how much is us? Remember the 'us' part is dead. Cannot be done by us. Can only effectively be done by the Spirit. When a tube of toothpaste is squeezed........ Toothpaste comes out. No matter how hard you try to get soap out. It will be toothpaste. When you are filled with the Spirit and have truly put to death what is of the flesh. When you are 'squeezed' ...... here also the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT should manifest. This can only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit

No we don't have to sin and neither are we compelled to sin. We are encouraged to withstand the evil. JAMES 4:7 RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. With the Spirit living in us, we are able to do so. With the help of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we are able to have the victory over sin. As we are still living in our mortal bodies, we do sin at times but if we admit it and confess that sin, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1:9. The defeatist attitude can be because there are times when it just seems that one does not have victory over a specific sin and we seem to be tripped up by it over and over again. We do need to hand over the reigns completely for VICTORY

Put briefly, Acts 2:38, says: Repent Accept the will of God Be baptized Receive the gift if the Holy Spirit Thus answer to the possibility of being a Christian w/o the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, is 'no'. So once we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour we are being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We allow Him to take control of our lives. As we daily feed on the Word and live 'the Word' and allow Him more and more access to take complete control we experience more and more the fullness of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit will be seen in our lives, as we will no longer be controlled by the flesh. Should we give in to the desires of the flesh and take over control of our lives, we grieve the Spirit, the Fruit is no longer visible, the 'being full of the Spirit' is no longer true because "self" will have taken over the controlls.

. (Romans 8:5-6) Exactly what does it mean to set your mind on the things of the Spirit? How do you do this? I understand this to mean that my thinking (which causes action) is on things that would please God and not be a disappointment to Him. It is thinking on things which would ultimately produce the Fruit of the Spirit as spelled out for us in Gal 5. For this to become part and parcel of our lives, we need to spend much time with Lord, by reading His Word, praying without ceasing. Concentrating on Him. How can you recognize when the things you're setting your mind on relate to your sinful nature? When my actions are not Christlike and are gratifying my fleshly nature in an inappropriate way. How much of this is deliberate? I guess we have a choice to break away from that. How much is habit? When we first hand over the reigns of our life to Christ, there are many habits that need to be broken or left behind or changed. What part does the Holy Spirit have in this? Or is this primarily right living by force of will? We cannot do right living by force of will. It does not work. We need the Holy Spirit.

We fail. We are not and cannot be obedient to the law. Our unregenerate and carnal nature is the 'weak link' to being fully obedient to the law which is holy. It took Christ who was sinless, who took our sin upon Himself as it were and gave Himself as an offering for our sin. In this way the punishment of our sin was met and we are assured of salvation.

6. Is Jesus speaking in hyperbole (using exaggerated speech and examples) here? If so, what is the value of hyperbole for a teacher? If Jesus is using hyperbole, does that mean we don't have to take his words seriously? He sure is. I don't think He meant us to hate anyone. Possibly to shock His audience into listening properly; Into taking heed what He was saying ; into recognizing the seriousness of what He was telling them. He was letting them know that following Him meant following Him and not dilly-dallying or playing the fool.

5. What characteristic is absolutely essential for plowmen? What trait is absolutely necessary for disciples? (9:62) Not to look back. To complete the work, by looking ahead. Not to the right and not to the left. Do not be distracted by anyone or anything. Remain focused. So obedience and trust by following to the end, no matter the circumstances, is very necessary/essential.

4. What's wrong with the man wanting to say good-bye to his family first? (9:61) Normally there would have been nothing wrong with the request. The mission about to start was serious though, and Jesus needed people to be bent upon following Him wholeheartedly and immediately. There was no time to dither about a decision. By the time he returned it would be too late to send him.

3. What does Jesus mean when he says that the dead should bury the dead? What's the point? (9:60) Jesus meant the 'spiritually' dead, should bury the spiritually dead. The one desiring to follow Jesus should do so immediately, not wait for the partner (husband or wife) to do the same. Jesus needs people to be ready to follow Him immediately and be ready to go werever He sends them. Following Him must have priority, it must be first and foremost in our lives.

2. Why is Jesus so hard on the man who needed to bury his father before following? (9:59-60) The father was not dead as yet. It was an excuse to shelve following Jesus. If the father had died, the man should have been busy with arrangements for the burial, not talking to Jesus. Jesus was hard on him, because he had no intention to actually follow Jesus. People were listening and following conversations. The man's reaction could easily rub off on others. Jesus needed people who were truly ready to follow Him.

1. What does it mean to live your life as a sojourner? Why is a sojourner mentality required for disciples? (9:58) A sojourner is a temporary resident. A disciple is not just necessarily called to one place. He needs to be ready to follow wherever the Master leads and in God's timing not the disciple's timing.

Personally I think the 'I' is all of us that are born-again. We do want to do what is right, but so often we fail. Not necessarily so completely, but be it in thoughts or actions it is all the same thing in the eyes of our Sviour. A sin remains a sin. Only when walking or living in the Power of the Spirit, can we have victory over this.

Sin is deep rooted in the heart. Thoughts are 'conceived' in the heart and then 'born' as deeds or words. They are either wicked or to a degree 'good' laced with selfishness/wickedness. This can only change when we totally give over to Christ, who can bring about the needed change. He is the One Who can cleanse us. Create in me a clean heart, oh God!!!

The Law shows us how to live in harmony with God and man. It does not, however, save us or stop us from leading a sinful life. It does not enable us to only live according to the Law, because of our unregenerate nature. In that way it is powerless. We are full of self and always ready to 'do our own thing'. Only Christ can defeat sinfulness.

That would create havoc/chaos. Everybody living as they feel is right or wrong. We are rebellious by nature so we respond rebelliously.

The flesh is that part of us that is not of God. That part that causes us to do indecent practices, like eg., jealousy, anger, selfishness, immorality drunkenness etc. Gal 5:19-21, spells them out clearly

5. What group or groups of people do you have the most trouble loving? How can the Lord help you love them? The ones that purposefully reject our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He said love your enemies and pray for them (my words). I guess by doing exactly that. Pray for them.

4. Jesus' rejection by a Samaritan village is only recounted by Luke. What were Jesus' disciples to learn when Jesus rebuked their plan to call down fire upon the village? What are we disciples today to learn from it? They were to learn yet again that Jesus came to save not to destroy. They should have been able to recognize that they harboured hate in their hearts and racial religious pride. We too can learn by this example that we are to tolerate racial differences. This does not mean we are to accept what is wrong behavior and overlook it. It does not mean accepting sin as being ok.