Old Jerry

Understanding of God’s pure grace fits together with the idea of predestination because it is God that calls us to his side. It is up to us to accept that calling. So it by grace that we have been saved. I can see how the belief in predestination makes us lazy with regard to evangelism but we are God’s tool to help make disciples. It is God that puts it on our hearts to evangelize. No, God does not “need” us to bring salvation to the world but he and given us the privilege of doing so.

I think that a simple definition of “grace” is getting something good that you did not deserve. Legalism and “works” aren’t compatible with grace because it is something that we are doing to please God in order to earn his approval. Grace is a free gift. We have to believe that God did send down his Son to die for our sins and he has been risen and placed at the right hand of God. But is only God’s grace that gives us this faith.

The essential demands of the Judaizers is that you must be circumcised and that you follow the Law of Moses. The difference is that the Law of Moses is not a redemption by grace it is a redemption by human effort. The danger of excessive legalism in our Christian congregation is that we start thinking it is up to us to be saved and not by grace.

“Continuing” or “abiding” in the faith is so important because unless you do it all the time you will forget what your faith is all about. Jesus’ Parable of the Sower teaches us that unless our roots run deep in Christ we will be deceived and want to turn away from our first love. The new believes have just learned about Jesus but then need to know why and how to be a good follower of Him.

Since the people in Lystra and Athens didn’t know anything about God then they had to start by showing them that it was God that created them. In the synagogues they already knew about God and they could start from what they knew and go from there. The common ground that Paul built for the pagan audiences was to start talking about the statues that they had and establish a communicating there. We will need to the same as Paul and contextualize the gospel to the person that we are taking to.

God uses the power encounters and signs and wonders to show that He really is the creator of the universe and that they should follow Him. Miracles are not enough to produce saving faith on their own. It will get their attention but it is the teaching of the word that will bring them to faith. I have seen signs and wonders in evangelism. So people that were cold to the word warmed up to it when they were taught what it meant and were saved.

The “common ground” that Judaism have with the gospel of Jesus is that he was talked about in the Old Testament. He brings this information to them by referring to Old Testament prophecies that they were familiar with. Paul reminds them that this was all prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures.

The church leaders must have been stuck on what to do next so they went to their king and asked Him what to do. They were fasting to get closer to God. God is always close with us but sometimes we need to get closer to God. God gives them the answer to their problem. The reason we don’t do that today is because we have a society that is fast paced and we don’t want to slow down and get closer to God. This was very important to the church at large because they were able to grow. The chosen missionaries knew what to do.

I think that Paul called out Peter publicly in Antioch because he wanted to bring the issue to a head. Paul knew that Peter was trying to make it right with the Judaizes so Paul wanted everybody to see Peter’s hypocrisy. The central issue that Paul feels they must not compromise on is that Jesus died for our sins and was in the grave three day and was resurrected. We must have faith in Jesus Christ.

The reason that ambitious Christians struggle so much when they didn’t seem to be doing anything important is because they want people to think that what they do is important. If we are patience with God and put his plan into action then He is with us and it make things easier and we get growth out of it. I think that a period of spiritual formation is so important to future leadership is that it give you time to learn more about God and how to do the things He wants us to do.

Abraham must have known that there was more than just the moon to worship. He saw the creation that was all around him and knew there was more than just the moon to worship. So when God spoke to him it made sense. A person has to study and believe what he is reading and studying and then ask God for forgiveness. We should do what he tells us to do.

I think that legalism and the resulting spiritual pride prevent us from trusting the Christ by faith and knowing him is because we think we have already reached the pinnacle of knowing Christ and we don’t need to know any more. My pride probably has hindered me but I am always trying to learn more about Christ.

God sent Ananias to Paul rather than revealing directly so that it was a lesson for Ananias to except the people that Jesus had ordained. Besides it was God telling Ananias the mission that Paul was going to have. Ananias argued with God because he knew that Paul had been persecuting the Christians and couldn’t believe that Paul had been converted. In case it took courage to obey because it could had been Ananias life if Paul hadn’t been converted. Ananias does what Jesus told him to do. God has guided be on mission trips and I followed through.

When you are persecuting Christ’s people you are persecuting what Christ has taught them therefore you persecuting Christ Himself. The goads that I have seen God use on me was my mother-in-law. She use to think that I knew more about the Bible then I did and as not to disappoint her, I started studying the Bible. When I “kick against the goads” I feel that it is harder on me because I am not following what God wants me to do.

I think that the Spirit shows himself in all the Armor of God. Spirit-directed prayer is so important for the believer because it is the Spirit that knows what to pray for. I have experienced this in my life. It helps me in all that I do.

Singing makes me feel good because I know that I am filled with the spirit. This is the way that I can express my joy for the Lord.

We will probably always change our character when we hang out with someone for a long time. So being in God’s presence should change our character. I do see the “degree of glory” that I enjoy in myself as compared to a few years ago because I am becoming older. I have also changed the people that I hang out with.

We need to abide in Jesus so that we can have fruits. We can do nothing without Him. The fruit that comes from being connected to Jesus is being able to help others and to make more disciples. I don’t think that it is a good idea to say “souls saved” because it is the Soul that is saving us.

Unless we are listening we won’t know what God wants us to do. That is why it is so important for us to surrender to Jesus so we can hear God’s voice. Jesus is the only way to Heaven and if we want to be there then we had better be listening to Jesus and the Spirit.

I seem to get the Spirit’s nudging or prompting most of the time but I don’t know about the Spirit’s voice. There has been times when a person has advised me and I am thinking that this is the Spirit speaking through them. I think you can sensitize yourself to His voice and promptings by doing what He is telling you to do.

The thing that connects me to the mind of Christ is my quiet time. By reading the bible I can understand God’s instructions better and have a better relationship with Him. I could meditate on His word more in order to make it more meaningful.

I see that Jesus is always trying to get away to pray in silence so that he can do the Fathers work. I think that he spends quiet time with the Father before the day begins because he wants to know what the Father has planned for the day. Jesus ministers through the power of the Holy Spirit because he knows he need all the help that he can get.

If people are always promoting themselves and pointing out how God is using them, then I think that is pride. They are always trying to promote themselves. I do use my spiritual gift because when I do I really feel good inside.

I have learned that everybody has a spiritual gift and they are not all the same. It is the Holy Spirit that determines what gift that we get.

There is a lot of places in Jesus’ ministry that I see the combination of evangelistic power of preaching combined with the healing of the sick. One place is when he healed the lepers and they told others about it. Also when the prostitute was brought before Jesus, he healed the prostitute and also made the men look at their life. The same is true in Paul’s, Peter’s and Phillip’s ministries. The bible tells of all kinds of healing and evangelism.