JustJeff

Holy, being able to have a relationship with a holy God, is being set apart by God, made pure by Him. We cannot make ourselves acceptable to Him as we are filthy (sinful) by nature. The only way I can be blameless before the Almighty is to humble myself and give myself to Him entirely in order that He mold me and make me after His will. The path is to receive His Holy Spirit, study the Word, pray without ceasing, give Him praise, be a faithful witness given to good works and offer up much thanksgiving thereby building up a most holy faith.The more of yourself that you give to Him the more of His holiness will He bestow upon you.

Trials stabilize the faithful by causing us to confront with and repent of the sin that we harbor. As we grow in the Lord we find that we are not as perfect as we would like think we are so, the trials come. Ours trials are manifested by the Holy Spirit as He convicts us of our weak areas giving us the opportunity to deal with them. Once dealt with and overcome we get the victory and our faith grows by leaps and bounds.

Pride causes denial and a failure on our part to confront our faults. It's easy to blame God as we don't see Him as being able to reveal the truth. How sadly mistaken we are a sooner ot later all things will be made manifest in the Light! God doesn't tempt anyone, in any manner. We, by our flesh, alow allow ourselves to be tempted by the world and it's prince. God wants true believers, friends and children, brothers, sisters and priests. He wants our relationship with Him to be genuine, loving and uncondtional. Sin and evil exist because mankind thrives in it and God allows it to contiue because those who qualify in the former will go through the fire of the latter and be purged, happily and by our own choice, guided by the Lord and His Holy Spirit.

Being a Christian I find nothing "scary" about predestination knowing that the Father has lovingly chosen a calling for me and a destiny that, if I follow, will give me eternal bliss in His presence. Paul uses predestination to build the faith of the Ephesian church, allowing them to look into a portal of a future based upon the continuance in that faith. I can just imagine Brother Paul, sitting in a far away place, alone and anxious, hearing a good report on a church that he established, with so many battles with the Adversary behind and ahead. I can see him leaping and praising God with tears of joy for such news. The Lord tells us that there are two roads to choose. One wide, one narrow. He has set the paths giving us a free will of which to choose. Whichever we choose, our destiny will be fulfilled.

My life had been a disaster. 27 years of cross addiction and all of it's "benefits". Loss of family, jobs, depression, suicidal, homeless, evil, all of it. When I came to the Lord 14 years ago all of the hardship, all of the agony became defined. I now recognized the whole of my life as a series of trials. Satan had dominion over during those times and he did try oh so hard to finish me but he lost as the entire time, unknowingly, I had the Rock as my protector. While being knocked down and kicked by the Adversary, it was my Buckler and my Shield that halted any fatal efforts. Now, I look at the whole of my life as God using my sufferings to mold me and make me as He would have me to be. I am now a missionary, ministering to the very people that I had been. I couldn't do this unless I was able to have the compassion that comes from experience, empowered by the Holy Ghost.

To me, being in Christ is that we are one. We are as much part of Him as He us. By being incorporated by Him He has merged us with Himself. By His Word and by His Holy Spirit both He and the Father abide in us and we are one. By consuming His Word, being led by the Holy Spirit my life is changed. I am no longer the scoundrel that I once was so the implications are extreme. Everything that mattered most is now trivial compared to what counts now; faith, hope and love.

My name is Jeff and I'm an inner city missionary in St. Petersburg, FL. We live and work at the mission full time which is a true blessing. Pastor Ralph's bible studies have given me tremendous insight as to our daily experiences with the many people that come our way as well as dealing with one another as members of the body of Christ. The scriptures come alive with their application. I look forward to learning with you all in the lesson from Ephesians.

The fulfillment of God's promises is based solely upon our obedience to His word and, abiding in our calling. The reference made is to an acceptible sacrifice, a sweet smelling savor to the Lord. That can only be attained by one's commitment to the Word. Limit? Who can limit Adonai El Shaddai? God is a God for all yet, my personal God. When He promises me something I know He will provide exactly what I need when I need it. I believe in doing my best to be in His will and as He is faithful, to me His promise is hope that will happen.

It would seem that with their financial ability the Philippians were called to support the work of Paul's ministry. Being obedient to their calling would most certainly be accredited to their heavenly account. When we are walking in the vocation wherein we are called we are able to experience great joy, live a life that is pleasing to God. While we live in this world temporarily we may as well be blessed in this body by serving the Lord.

Of course the basis for Paul's contentment was Jesus Christ and the confidence that through His power Paul could experience any situation and prevail. Paul therefore concluded that by living a godly life in the Lord He was in God's will and would rejoice, no matter what he had or didn't have. Contentment in Christ makes one more ambitious as the little victories that might be overlooked by considering what one lacks or wants become big victories. A great incentive to press on toward success. To achieve Paul's level of contentment it would be to suffer loss, learn to live with that loss, celebrate Jesus in your loss and give thanksgiving for what you do have, the Lord's love, grace and mercy.

Teaching prosperity in ministry causes people to expect God to bless them financially and their focus becomes materialistic, worldy. We do this because this type of message is appealing to the flesh and conducive toward better attendence in church. In all actuality we are conforming to the world, not being transformed, which is a truthful and painful process, spiritually of course. Penury tends toward meekness and humilty while wealth causes pride and idolatry. The Lord tells us that He will give us our needs, not necessarily our wants. Godliness with contentment is great gain. In teaching the poor we dwell on spiritual enrichment, being able to live within the boundries that God has set and having great joy. Throughout the whole bible God illustrates is great love for the poor. Why? Because they have always turned to Him for strength. The wealthy become secular, wordly. Look around. It hasn't changed.

Mind control for a Christian is allowing the Holy Spirit to be your guide, to think of things that are not of this world, our carnal nature, to have our mind stayed on Jesus. As the old saying goes;"Know Jesus, Know Peace". Once we allow ourselves to concentrate on Him, His great promises and our blessed hope we are able to cast aside all doubts and fears, our anxieties. How is this working for me? Easier said than done. Since I live in the flesh I am inclined to dwell in the flesh and have to mortify my carnality, every day. This is the battle; the world, the devil and the flesh. The Holy Spirit gives us the victory, if we allow Him to lead. It's up to me to do that and I do a little better each day. As Paul said: "I die daily".

When we go to God in prayer we are stepping out in faith and faith is trust. The more we pray the more we are demonstrating a greater level of trust for the Father. As we grow closer to Him we bond to Him and as our trust in Him gains confidence, our relationship blossoms into complete dependency upon Him which is exactly where He wants us to be. As we find Him able, we gain shalom, in this sense, oneness with Him. He is the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father and by being in harmony with Him we obtain the shalom that passes all understanding. Thank you Yeshua!

Off all of the the effects that thanksgiving has on our prayers the most obvious to me is the demonstration of our faith that the Father will answer our prayer in according to what He sees as our need and our acceptance of what He sees as best for us. Without thanksgiving our prayer is doubtful, faithless.

Rejoicing is a feeling that comes from within, inspired by the Holy Spirit. If you don't feel like rejoicing it is simply because you are walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. The reason I say this is because the Spirit teaches us to rejoice in any situation whether it be good or bad. This we know because our life is in the hands of the Potter and He is molding us and making us after His will, whatever ill betide. When one rejoices one lifts up God and He, in turn, lifts us up.

Fidelity is essential to success in any endeavor. If you cannot be committed to discipleship there is no way that you will be able to give the Lord the time that He rquires to mold you and make you. When you concentrate on the spiritual you forget about the earthly thus temptations are more readily put under subjection. Too ofter churches placate the pews by mingling worldly items (Super Bowl parties on the Lord's Day, etc.) in an effort to keep the members in church. This has the effect of causing confusion in that the church shows support for the world which is at enmity with God. What are new converts and those that place their trust in the pastors becoming?

Paul knew that he was being taught and led by the Holy Spirit. He had received an abundance of revelations and visions from the Lord and through his trials and tribulations he had the experience to apply that which he had been instructed. He then was confident that his words and actions could be imitated for their accuracy. My hesitancy in having others imitate me has always been that I would not be an accurate reflection of the Lord. That dissipates with spiritual growth. As we are to be like Christ we are His ambassadors and are His representatives in this place. The Father needs us to be His imitators so others can aspire to be with Him. The ones most likely to imitate me are new believers and the more feeble members of the body. A great responsibility indeed.

The first time I LISTENED to the upward call of God, as an adult (I now realize that as a child He called me to Higher Ground several times but I didn't stay), was when I was homeless and at wits end. It was then that I heard Him and paid heed. He directed me to a place that led me to Him, becoming born again filled with His Holy Spirit and giving my life in service to Him. That was 14 years ago. When we consider the things of the world before God we cannot hear Him. To be open to His still small voice we must commit to Him, in prayer, in praise, in worship, in study, in awe, in reverence in...., everything. The content is always to Him, His holiness and His Fatherhood.

The Lord says: "No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62) Using a plow requires setting yours eyes upon a fixed object that is ahead of you. In so doing, your furrows will be made straight. If you look backward, well, they sure will wander all over the field. If we dwell in our past, looking backward, the same effect will occur in our walks with the Lord and we will stray off of the narrow road. To keep focused upon the finish line in our race toward the Kingdom, we need to lay aside all the hurts of our past, give our burdens to our Lord, put on His yoke, and move forward. Every day, a memory comes up that I must let go. So, while I have the occasional rock in my furrow, I bend over (pray), give it to the Lord, and get rid of it.

To know Jesus is to recognize His nature and character. If you don't have faith in Him why would one bother to know Him? Further, who wants to have a personal relationship with someone that is a stranger to you? In my relationship with the Lord I seek to know Him more, by studying His word, by prayer, by praise, by worship, by giving Him my life and, I know Him better each day.

The law served to manifest sin, righteousness. By the weakness of our flesh we cannot possibly avoid living in sin nor can we be made righteous. Through faith in our Savior we are able to not live in sin and, we are made righteous, saints. A congregation is made up of different people of different levels of belief. Like all others, there are those in our congregation who are stuck in the Old Testament, under the law. Society as a whole increasingly views Christianity as holier than thou, hypocrites. Shamefully, we have brought this upon ourselves by compromising the word of God to keep the pews warm and bringing false doctrine into our churches. Today if you ride a bus and attempt to read a passage to a fellow passenger you will be told to shut up as more people adopt a secular view of life because of our failure to be stedfast in the Truth. To grasp righteousness by faith you have to believe and trust in the Lord. If you don't, you aren't.

When born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, we are new creatures. The old is passed away and all is new. This especially applies to our previous understanding of our religion. The Spirit begins to reveal the hidden truth of God's word to us giving us new insight and depth of meaning. That which was previously relevant is no longer applicable and therefore, worthless and unnecessary. If not cast away and applied to our new understanding, out former religion will cause the creation of false doctrine and failed Christianity. This happens all too frequently and is why we have so many denominations, ever at conflict, always further diluting themselves by breaking up into still more denominations. Paul saw this and made the statements in Phil 3:2-6.

In our church confidence in the flesh rears it's ugly head daily, mainly by responding to and attempting to deal with situations of our own, not being lead by the Holy Spirit. The result is discord. As for myself, I die daily.

The Philippian church seems to be suffering from weak leadership causing some disunity.Paul sends Timothy and Epaphroditus as role models, persons to emulate by their use of the Holy Spirit and character. Timothy for his knowledge and application of the Good News, Epaphroditus for his commitment to the work and to his home church.

Serving the Lord as His slave is acknowledging that I have been bought with a price and am not my own. I am at His beck and call and every good thing that I do is to His glory. Serving with preference would tend one toward vain glory, putting themselves before the Lord. When I serve the Lord as a free slave I do so joyously, knowing that He will lift me up and that in doing so, I have a great reward at the end of this life. Should I dare serve for preference sake I may very well be unhappy in my service, never able to satisfy the **** of my flesh, possibly castaway entirely. Even more importantly, there is no way that I can be a witness to Jesus Christ by serving for myself. The world sees you by the image that you project.