Old Jerry

The thing that is wrong about worshipping while a brother has something against you is you can’t really worship. You will be thinking about the thing that is between you and it will always be on our mind. Therefore we can’t worship with our mind and our spirit. So to reconcile this we must go to our brother and ask for forgiveness. It is up to us to ask for forgiveness and it is up to the brother to accept it. If he doesn’t forgive you for your transgressions and if you truly tried with you heart for forgiveness then there is nothing that you can do about it.

I think that Jesus treated calling someone a fool in the same classification as murder because it came from the same heart. If from the heart you called somebody a fool from that same heart you would murder them. I don’t think that in God’s eyes that murder so no worse than being angry but unless you settle what the conflict in your heart you might murder that person. If we actually believed that angry attitudes towards others are viewed by God as murder then we would treat people with more respect.

I can see the tendency in the church today to effectively “abolish” the Old Testament from Christian faith by not teaching it. There is little teaching of the Old Testament and if we are not learning about the Old Testament, then we are “abolishing” it. Church legalism looks like people majoring in the minors. They like to take things and are not specifically mentioned in the Bible and making them the major point of their belief. A church that has no moral standards and no obedience expected of Christians is one of chaos. They have no direction and they are always thinking of themselves.

The way that verses 10-12 relate to 13-16 is that we should be expecting persecution if we being the light and the salt of the earth. There are people that will see us and will try to stop us from bring others to Jesus Christ. Hiding our light affects the glory of God because people can’t see God through us if we don’t shine. Jesus’ suffering was necessary because he was trying to let his light shine so that the people would believe in God. Our suffering is also necessary so that people can see God in us. If we are being transformed into the ways of Jesus the world doesn’t want to see that.

Jesus is telling us that we shouldn’t just associate with the people in the church, we should be associating with non-believers. In that way we can let our light shine. If we just associate with people in the church we are just blinding each other with our light. But if we go into this dark world and let our light shine we might be able to bring somebody the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Yes, it is possible for a believer to detect that they have loss of “saltiness” in themselves. We will always have a whole in our heart that needs to be filled and we will not be able to fill it. The secular people will see that you have changed and it wasn’t for the better. It possible to “resaltify” your life if you repent of the things that you have been doing.”

The reason that we should rejoice when we are persecuted is that we know that other people see Jesus in us. The reason that this isn’t some kind of sick masochism is because we truly do love Jesus and there is nothing that can take that away from us. The blessing “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” is appropriate for the persecuted because they are willing to give it all for Jesus like Jesus gave it all for us.

The people with a pure heart can see, know and discern God because they are looking for Him and trying to please him. They know how to please him because they are reading the Bible and believing in it. The reason that “chronic” sinners can’t see God is because they are doing everything they can to avoid him. They are advocating again Him most of the time. We can obtain the clean or pure heart that Jesus is describing by being in the Bible daily, and fellowshipping with people who are involved in understanding Jesus.

The way that intense desire for righteousness can put me at odds with the world is that I keep looking to God for help instead of looking to mankind for the kind of help that I need. When you stop and thank God for your meal others look at you like you are some kind of freak. The righteousness that Jesus is talking about is one that seeking God. The promise we are given in this Beatitude is that we will be filled with righteousness.

This kind of gentleness contrasts the world idea of being in charge and pulling ourselves up with our boot straps. They don’t like the idea that we need to depend on somebody else to get us through this world and into the next. We need to humble so that we can learn from others and learn from their mistakes. If we do learn then we will be able to get closer to God.

It is necessary to be aware of our spiritual poverty before we can become a Christian because unless we are seeking Jesus we can’t know that we need His help. If we are asking for His help then we can get closer to Jesus. The mourning that we need is to know that we don’t have what we need to become closer to Jesus. The kind of mourning is that of crying out to Jesus to save us.

The two parts of the Beatitudes is the first part is expounding on the expression and the other part is telling us the reward for such an attitude. Jesus made each Beatitude a paradox because we don’t think that the weakness of a person could receive such a great reward. The relation of the Beatitudes and the Fruit of the Spirit are connected.

We must be giving to God and to others so that the condition can be met for the promise to be valid. We must be giving because we love God not that we will gain anything from our giving. There is no limit of the fulfillment of the promise. God is creator of the universe and therefore has everything under his control. The promise means that no matter the condition that I am in God can fulfill my every need.

I think that the Philippians’ financial gifts were credited to their heavenly account by the fact that it felt good to give. Anytime that we give we always receive more then we give. It may not be monetary reward but there is always a reward. It creates a piece within you that nothing else can do.

The basis of Paul’s contentment is that he doesn’t have his eye on this world. He has his eye on Jesus Christ and he knows that Jesus is watching out for him. This contentment does not undermine ambition. I should encourage your ambition sense it is focused on pleasing God. We can achieve this kind of contentment when we keep our focus on God.

The way that a “prosperity doctrine” threatens a Christian ministry is that if you aren’t prospering then you must not be a Christian. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are prospering because we don’t have the money that we want but we can have the best friends in the world. Prospering does not always mean that we have money. The prime motivation that the “prosperity doctrine” appeals to is our greed. If we give a little then we will get a lot. The Bible teaches us that we should be content in poverty and in riches.

You have to have mind control in order to stay on course. If you are on a certain course and your mind wanders then you will not be able to make the best of it. Keeping you mind on what you are praying about helps you spiritual being. I have decided to focus on helping other and when I do I loose must of my anxieties.

Making our requests known to God helps us build a relationship and trust in God my bringing to the forefront the things that are bothering us. It helps us to articulate the things that have been slowing us down and turning them over to God helps us be at ease with our problems.

I think that our request in prayer is altered by the presence of thanksgiving in prayer because it takes some of the focus off the situation that we are in. It helps to be thankful for the things that He has done in the past and helps us to rely on Him in the present situation.

I think that rejoicing in the Lord is both a feeling and an action. You have got to have the feeling that the Lord is using you and then you have to take action so that you can rejoice in what the Lord has done. One way that you can fulfill this command if you don’t feel like it is to think of some of the things that have been allotted you by the Lord and change your attitude. The effect of rejoicing is that your attitude will reflect this rejoicing.

It is vital to recognize and affirm that my citizenship and allegiance is vital to my discipleship because then I will do all that I can for the kingdom. I will let some of those thing that seem to bug me I will be let go. It will keep me from the temptation because I know where I will be going when I are done in this body. Now that I know this I know that I will do all we can for the kingdom. The danger of a church combining and confusing the concepts of temporal patriotism with a Christian’s true citizenship is that we will try to conform to this world.

I think that Paul is so bold as to ask others to imitate him because he has the confidence that Jesus is with him. Paul is always asking God to guide him and if God is guiding him then he wants other to follow him in doing the same thing. That is the reason the maybe we are hesitant to ask other to follow us because we don’t have the confidence that we are in God. I guess that if we see that everybody else is doing the same thing then maybe we should be doing it also. When that happens then we can build disciples.

The meaning of being called upwards by God is to be called toward a project that you know that God is calling you to. I have experienced this calling and I have been going on mission trips since. The thing that causes God’s call to become dim in our hearing is that we have not been following Him. We have tuned Him out and we can’t hear Him anymore. We can renew this calling again be getting into the bible, attending church and fellowshipping with those that are following their calling.

The past can get in the way of our quest to know Christ by reminding us of the bad things that we have done. That will keep us from pressing on to seek God.

I think to “know” Christ means that we have faith and that we have a personal relationship with him. In order to have one we must have the other. I am still working on my quest to know Christ.