JOLLAM BANDA

Q8. (John 5:41, 44) How is Jesus' refusal to seek men's praise an example of humility? How does this free him to do God's will? How can seeking approval from others cripple our discipleship? Jesus refusal to seek men’s praise is an example of humility. Though He deserved praise as a Son of God, He doesn’t seek the praise of people. This is a demonstration of humility. People are eager to be showered with nice words and compliments. But Jesus does not need this. He seeks only his Father's approval and praise. Seeking approval from others cripple our discipleship because we do things to please other people and not God and we become very proud and rob God of his glory.

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility? On his own without God the Father, Jesus Christ is powerless. For Jesus Christ to do whatever He does, He depends on God the Father. He is in constant touch with God the Father, and He does what He discerns God the Father to be doing. Jesus Christ constantly communicates with and voluntary submit to God the Father. This demonstrates His humility because He depends and submit to God the Father. We should emulate Jesus Christ by depending on God the Father through Jesus Christ and do what He wants us to do. Our dependence on God the Father through Jesus Christ demonstrate our humility and dependence on Him.

In what sense is Jesus "gentle and lowly in heart"? What does this tell us about him? How does this make him comfortable for struggling people to be around? Though Jesus Christ is God, he has emptied himself, humbled himself to be one of us (Philippians 2:5-8). He calls us out of a good and sincere heart because he genuinely cares for our welfare and wants to comfort us. Jesus Christ takes upon himself our sin and our guilt. He is gentle and humble in heart. Jesus Christ is happy serving us because he is humble. Struggling people are comfortable with Jesus Christ because he cares for them and treats them humbly and in a positive and welcome way.

We are to live humbly, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God opposes the proud because they wrongly think that they are the source of their gifts. They forget that they receive their gifts from God freely and undeservedly. Grace, a favor of God that is neither earned nor deserved is supposed to be shared with others freely because it was given freely. God opposes the proud because he is a source of gifts and a free giver of gifts. Humility is a sign of repentance and it enables us to acknowledge that grace comes from God and is given to us freely. Pride prevents us from showing grace because God humbles the proud by not giving them gifts abundantly and graciously. We are to live humbly, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

It is not possible to be grace filled and stingy at the same time. If you are full of grace you are free with blessings. God expects generosity from us. Grace in us requires a generosity of spirit. Apparently, showing the grace of generosity towards others releases God's grace in us even further so we have enough ourselves and enough to give others. When one gives, he receives so much more from God. Freely we have received gifts from God and freely we should give.

Grace should be shown in our conversations, especially with those who are not Christians. We are to treat them with gentleness and respect. We should take full advantage of every opportunity we are given in conversing with those who don't know Christ. We are called to be gracious in our speech toward outsiders. Gentleness and respect should be our hallmark. We are also to show respect before our adversaries. We should be like Jesus, and emulate the grace he shows toward us, even though we don't deserve it. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and in this way we can avoid bad examples of our culture and the world. By showing grace we become true sons of our heavenly Father and adopt his value system of grace and mercy (Luke 6:35-36). Grace should be shown in our conversations, especially with those who are not Christians. We are to treat them with gentleness and respect (Colossians 4:5-6; 1 Peter 3:15)

Ethical behavior is doing what is the proper, just, or moral thing to do in a situation while grace is to show love towards enemies, those who least deserve goodwill. Jesus teaches radical grace toward undeserving enemies (Luke 6:27-28). For example Jesus teaches that we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, to give to everyone who asks us, and if anyone takes what belongs to us we should not demand it back, and that we do to others as would have them do to us

When you are more open to God’s grace you serve God with more passion and dedication. We are formed to be the people we become by yielding to God's spiritual gifts placed within us by his grace. If we don't exercise those gifts, we stunt both our growth and limit what God has planned for us (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). With God's grace we receive spiritual authority to minister, not based on man's ordination, but God's appointment (1 Corinthians 3:10; Romans 15:15-16a). When God's favor rests on a person, so does power and capability beyond him or herself.

When we isolate ourselves, when we are absent from church, we interrupt or lessen the flow of God's grace through spiritual gifts from us to the body and from Christ's body to us. This is like burying our gift in the ground. When we separate people from one another, it becomes much harder to exercise these gifts. Each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. We are a trustee, a steward of something that belongs to God. We should not wrap up the gift God has given us and bury it in the ground as the evil servant in the Parables of the Talents and of the Minas.

We are stewards or trustees of spiritual gifts given by God's grace, responsible to God to use them to build up God's people and Christ's work in the world. As good stewards of Christ's gifts, we are to be as generous as possible in the distribution of the blessings of the gifts in order to build up his church. As servants of God we should make sure that the master's other servants have what they need for the common good. Grace and gifts of grace are not to be hoarded.

Spiritual gifts are given to believers by God's grace. Spiritual gifts are given to us so that we use it to serve one another. The chief characteristic of a generous person is that they use the spiritual gifts given to them to serve other people. The spiritual gifts are given for the benefit of all. We are stewards or trustees of spiritual gifts given by God's grace, responsible to God to use them to build up God's people and Christ's work in the world.

God's grace is sufficient, and that God's power is especially abundant in times of weakness, when we are most dependent upon him. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness because He delights in taking situations where human strength is lacking to demonstrate the greatness of His power and more importantly His Grace. God’s grace is sufficient in or through us to accomplish His will. In our dependence upon the Lord we will find His power, to serve Him and serve other people. His grace will begin to flow through us with ever increasing velocity as we live a life of joyful dependence on the Lord.

In times of sickness or affliction, we often feel so weak because we think we are abandoned and not useful anymore. We are tempted to stop ministering to others when we are struggling because we focus more on our problems and not the needs of others. However, in the times we feel weakest and powerless, we may be on the threshold of experiencing God's grace and power in greater measure than ever before.

Approaching God’s throne in prayer is intimidating to some people because they are sinful and deserve punishment and they come before God who is a king of King and Lord of Lord and the just Judge. We are told to come before God confidently expecting to receive mercy and grace when we are in need (Hebrews 4;16). When we come to Jesus' throne in prayer, we will find a sympathetic ear. We find divine pardon for our sins, and timely aid for all our troubles. God’s throne is the place where He dispenses mercy and grace. Our houses can become "houses of grace" where our neighbors can come for help in time of need, as we become like our Father

There are so many assurances of faith in the New Testament to emphasize on God’s love and care for us at all times. My favorite promise of Gods role in keeping me in Christ to the end is found in Romans 8:38-39: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. With this assurance and promise am powered to trust and have faith in God through Jesus Christ in all difficult circumstances and at all times.