donald siahaan

I read this verse literally: serving only one master; and for the citizens of The Kingdom, the master should be God. That's meaning living in His territory and under His authority. Otherwise, we lives on other territory, other kingdom; it is kingdom of this world, kingdom of satan in which mamon as one of authority in wealth's territory. It is also meaning, our wealth, inc temporary wealth & money should come from God or by power of God; pour out from God.

Q1. What happens when people adopt the Christian faith without repenting of their known sins? Why do people avoid repentance? What percentage of Christians today do you think are unrepentant, unprepared in heart? The study shows us that entering into the Kingdom of Heaven should be initiated with repentance, turning the way, the focus, the heart into the Kingdom, the God. It is an real action; not just understand the concept of Christian faith. No repentance, no change of position from current worldly life into heavenly life. Some people avoid repentance but adopt the christian faith, mostly because of diffulty to remove from their confort zone into the Kingdom(Eventhough actually we have a very conform life in the Kingdom of God). It is difficult to accept the disagreement with social groups. for example, for Batak people who are Christians (Batak people is one of etnic in Indonesia who received the missionaries several centuries ago), they still conduct sincretism by worshipping the territorial god of Debata Mulajadi Nabolon by doing tradition during celebration of life cycle rites.SOme people to avoid this sincretism usually isolated socially. Perhaps, majority of christians live in unrepentant and unprepared heart for the Kingdom of Heaven, as it is true in my etnic Batak people.May God help them to repent from their sinful life.

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How can we be serious about obeying Christ without become legalistic and judgmental, with a self-righteous attitude like the Pharisees had? How do love and legalism differ? How can we be serious about obedience and make love our center? Its about where we put our heart, I I put it in Jesus then love will bloom without become legalistic & judmental or self righteous attitude; it become objective (according to measure of Jesus not mine) and subjective (for His glory by doing His will) as well.

What assurance does John give us if we do sin? How does this comfort us? If I believe with the work of Jesus in the Cross and now in the side of Father God, I assure that Jesus will stand in our side when I confess sin. How does it make us want to avoid sin? How come I do sin again if He being in my side and lead me in sanctification process? I will hate sin and love Him instead.

How would you define "confession"? Why is confessing our sins so important? What happens to us if we stop confessing our sins? Confession is a declacation of the our weakness to the power of sin and a declaration of the need of ultimate power of God to defeat the power of sin within us. If no confession, means we do not know our position under the power of sins, has no understanding of we are weak and need the power of God, then we still live in the power of sin. Stop to confess, continue in sin. Start to confess then God's power start to work within us to defeat the power of sin. What are the promises given to us if we do confess our sins? How is forgiveness of sins different from cleansing? God's promises if we confess sins are forgiveness and purification. Forgiveness gives us consideration that our position truly in light and truth. Purification should take places after that, i.e. change of mind and behaviour from sinful ones towards spiritual ones.

What is the result when a Christian walks in darkness, that is, continues willfully to do what he or she knows to be wrong? we will have no true fellowship with God and other fellow christians What is the result, according to verse 7, when we walk in the light? If we sin, Jesus's blood will cleanse the sin and still we have fellowship with others How do we get back into the light if we sin? confess the sin and live in His Words...

I learn from experience that deeper level of fellowship will be happened if we ourselves have personal fellowship with Jesus and Father and Spirit who shows us the true fellowship within them and with us. As human being that born in sinful nature, we will not able to conduct true fellowship (then our fellowship will be only in surface level, just as social fellowship); sometimes the fellowship is based on trust. However, when we experience true fellowship with God Trinity, then we understand that unconditional love of God is the foundation of the fellowship, trust will come later on. Apostle John strongly encourage christians to love other fellow christians. For me, I would give priority on love than trust to develop fellowship with other brothers. Help me Holy Spirit to do that thoughout my life...