brucerobert

Q4. (4:8) Why is mind control necessary for success? For mental and spiritual peace? What have you decided to focus on instead of your anxieties? How is this working for you? An English saying I heard last week, "Trash in, trash out". Dr. Ralph, I like the text you used as part of your lecture from this lesson and it explains what Paul is encouraging each of us Christians to do and to meditate on it. Since Satan is not a human being where we can see him and fight the war; for he is a spiritual being who is very cunning and talented in fooling us Christians if we don't give God our soul and physical bodies to protect. The text is: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things." (4:8) This is the essence of what our faith is all about. By believing in God 100%, we allow Him to work in us in a way that even us don't get sometimes but yet we believe. Trash in, trash out is a saying I heard last week during a presentation at the school where I work. The instructor briefly explains that if we listen to all the junk things going on in the world like politics or bad music or just watch movies that don't talk about our Lord Jesus Christ, than when Satan comes and fool us, we will surely follow him. But when we read the word of God and faithfully pray to Him for protection and help, He will surely offers it. And this secures our salvation with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Q3. (4:7) How does making our requests known to God help build a relationship and trust? What is God's part in the promise of peace? Relationship is a two way road. Relationship is like a circle where you begin at the point where you end and it keeps going. God knows the content of our hearts. And through prayer to God we can make our requests known to Him by following His Prayer example: ACTES (Acknowledging Him; Confession of all wrongs we have done or did; Thanksgiving for what He has given us including our breath of lives; and the E is for Ear to hear which where our relationship blossoms (we talk truthfully, He listens) and then He instructs us how to live our lives by reading, obeying, following, and be Christlike); and the Supplication where we humbly and whole heartedly ask Him for our needs physically and spiritually. When we truthfully have a relationship with Him, then He can offer us peace even when our adversaries are winning, we can still have faith and hope that God has offered His Only Son in our place and He has won the battle for us. He promised that it will be done and we have to have faith and believe that it will be done.

Q1. (4:4-5) Is rejoicing in the Lord a feeling or an action? Rejoicing can be both depending on the way you look at it. When it is a feeling, that means you are only thinking about it; However, when it is a action is like when a sinner comes to realize that he is a sinner and he 100% turns from sin, and comes to church to ask for forgiveness. This is the action of humbling themselves for forgiveness and receiving forgiveness from Jesus Christ. How should you seek to fulfill this command if you don't feel like it? When you feel rejoicing, there is no action that can say you don't like it. The feeling of joy overwrites sadness or just feeling down. Rejoice is explainable only when you truly believe Jesus Christ who gives you peace. What is the effect of rejoicing? The effect is knowing that God loves you 100% and nothing separates you from His love. And this calls for a celebration.

Q3. (3:17) How can Paul be so bold as to ask others to imitate him? His experience at Damascus Road give him insight that no man has ever experienced. And as he met the disciples of Jesus Christ, he became convinced that He can imitate Christ. Why are we so hesitant to do this? We are in nature, humans and sometimes we feel that we can be on our own. We hesitate because we are not sure of ourselves. How does God use imitation in building disciples? As Jesus said in Luke 6:40... "People can never be biblical leaders and truly mature until they come to realize that God has called them to be examples to others. As the Lord Jesus pointed out, “A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher”. If we don't allow God to work His way in us, then we won't know Him till we let Him come into our heart. Who is likely to imitate you? Those who comes to fellowship with us like our Christian brothers and sisters. When they see that you really honestly devote your whole life to Christ Jesus, then they are likely to "mimic you" as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 -- "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ".

Q2. (3:14) What is it like to be called upwards by God? The feeling is out of this world. It gives me a sense of purpose. When I feel it, I know that God value my life and has promised to make a person that I need to be in order to fulfill His commission. Have you ever experienced this? Yes. I have experienced this in Hungry Horse, Montana. What causes God's call to become dim in our hearing? God's calling becomes dim when we don't follow and obey Him and be on our own as society sometimes liked us to do. How can we renew our hearing of his call? When we humble ourselves by asking for forgiveness from God and obeying His words and show His love to others. What is the content or specifics of this message or summons or call? Phillipians 3:14 indicated that when we know there is a prize awaiting us in heaven, we really focus on Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 9:14 said, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize." Thank you Dr. Ralph for this lesson.

Q3. (3:17) How can Paul be so bold as to ask others to imitate him? Why are we so hesitant to do this? How does God use imitation in building disciples? Who is likely to imitate you? Telling others how to live their lives would be a challenging task, but this is exactly what Paul was encouraging his brothers and sisters during his time. To walk the walk and talk the talk. In his letters, he really indicate that if you want to be Christlike, you have to throw away everything and follow Jesus. He also said that it would not be easy since we are not fighting against a human but a spirit. And with Jesus as our guidance and supporter, he assured us that we can overcome our weaknesses. Following Jesus Christ is what our lives are all about and knowing faithfully that there is a price once we accomplish our great commission task.

Q1. (3:13) How can the past get in the way of our quest to know Christ? What do you need to "forget" so that you may focus on Christ today and tomorrow? Is there forgiving you need to do so you can grow in Christ? Forgiving myself is the hardest thing that I ever do. Eventhough I think that I forgive myself, but sometimes when I thought about it, it seems that I did not. When we do bad things in the past, over time, it crawls upto us and get caught in our net of thoughts and that kind of moved us away from getting to know our Christ Jesus fully. Please pray for me. There is so much forgiving I need to do for myself. Thank you. Like This Quote MultiQuote

Q4. (3:8-10) What does it mean to "know" Christ? Does this mean to have faith? Or to have a personal relationship? Is it possible to have a personal relationship with Christ without faith? Is it possible to have faith without a personal relationship? Where are you on your quest to know Christ? To know Jesus Christ is to have a deep Personal Relationship with Him. When we want to know someone, we spend endless time with that person. We converse with him; we cry with him; we laugh with him; we obey what he asked us to do and do it in a way that he is the only one we so care about; we trust in him with all our heart, with all our strength, with all our mind, and with all our soul. How we get to know Christ is by reading God's word and praying to Him in praising God and glorifying God always. Read His word and meditate on it. And really serve Him with our heart content. It really means that we have to have faith in Him 100%. John 14:6 said that no one comes to the Father except through Him; so it is absolutely necessary to have faith with a relationship with Jesus Christ. My quest to know Jesus Christ is that I read His word daily, pray daily, meditate on His word daily. I am also part of the Bible Translation project within the community as one of the translators and typist. And I was anointed in 2013 as a Reverend. Praise be to God in the highest.

Q3. (3:9) How does righteousness obtained through faith differ from righteousness obtained through law observance? How seriously does righteousness by law observance infect your congregation? Society's view of Christianity in general? Why is this concept of justification or righteousness by faith so difficult to grasp? In verse 9 of our text, it talks about Righteousness through our faith. Just by work, we cannot get salvation to heaven, but by faith through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 said.. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Some believers think that by allowing Christ to be our LORD and SAVIOR we don't get to enjoy the beauty of live. For me, the beauty is there since the price will be obtained when we get to heaven and our Jesus Christ will say, "I don't know you." What would I say if I hear Him say this to me. He is our Justification and Salvation. By giving our complete lives to Him secure our eternal life with Him forever (Eternity). We are human and if we don't believe in the diety of Jesus Christ, then the concept of justification or righteousness would be just foreign words to us and our lives.

Q2. (3:2-6) Why isn't Paul merely neutral about his religious pedigree? Why does he consider it loss, dung, an obstacle? In what way could your religious background be an impediment to your faith? Paul was expressing that eventhough he got a good world education; without God he is nothing. As in John 15:2, the scripture indicates that when we don't bear fruit we are at lost. God want's us to bear fruit and how we do it is by sharing His gospel of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. We are nothing without Him.

Q1. (3:2-6) How does "confidence in the flesh" show up in your congregation? Have you ever struggled with it? I am definitely sure that we do have this "confidence in the flesh" within our UCC church since our human nature tends to like doing wrong things most of the time. I am 100% sure that at several times, our church has struggle with this issue. Eventhough I would say out loud that I trust one person, but in action I never showed the person or persons that I really trust him/her.

Q3. (2:22) What is the significance of serving Jesus as a "slave" as opposed to serving him as a preference? When you serve Jesus as a slave, you know exactly where your position is. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and then you on the end. And you remain there as the feeling in your heart which means no pride. Always LORD comes first and you come last. The acronym JOY works in you:: Jesus, Others, You on last. You always serving and never leading. What does it say about the quality of our service? Jesus prefers people with this kind of quality. Put Jesus and others first: before himself. Like what Jesus did, He died for our sins although He never sin, but He take up our sins and paid everything. Of our commitment? When we commit ourselfes to Jesus Christ, we take up our cross and follow Him as He wants us to do. What is wrong with leaders who serve out of preference? When we serve out of preference, we are only looking out for our own interest. Everything we do would be to our benefit. Always thinking, what do I get out of this if I am involved. This means there is no faith there : no complete TRUST in our LORD JESUS CHRIST. If I benefit, then I can do it, but if not, then it does not interest me to get involve.

Q2. (2:22) Who has come alongside you to teach you? What potential leader in your church needs someone to come alongside them? Do you have a person or two that you are mentoring "as a son with a father" or "a daughter with a mother"?'' When I was young, my parents were and still are my best mentors especially my mom. However, as I grew older I studied the Bible on my own and also taking Bible studies through correspondence. With prayers everything comes in place. Church members like my former Senior Pastor, late Rev. Poden Pedrus was another mentor that I cannot forget his wisdom and knowledge he shared with me. But the best mentor of all is Christ Jesus through his own words in the Bible. By reading the Bible and letting our Holy Spirit works in our special heart, then we faithfully increase His knowledge and wisdom within us. And Dr, Ralph through his emails is what also contributes to the person that I am today. Thank you all.

Q1. (2:19-21) Why was Timothy's selfless concern so rare among church leaders? Rather than pointing the finger at others in your church, consider yourself. What things has Jesus had to deal with in your life that has helped you to become genuinely selfless and focused on the concerns of others? How has he refined you? (Of course, he is still at work in us!) The way Jesus Christ cares is what Timothy showed as a true disciple of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. He really cares about what happened to the other Christians including those who don't know Jesus Christ. Pointing a finger at others in some culture especially Christians is a bad omen. We should remember that God is only and one who will judge us one day. So it would not be good to point fingers just because the other person causes sin. God is working in each of those who are faithful to Him. When we really allow Him to change our heart and place faith in the heart, miracles happens in our lives. We really start to care about what is happening to other faithful Christians and also those who has not come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Q1. (2:19-21) Why was Timothy's selfless concern so rare among church leaders? Rather than pointing the finger at others in your church, consider yourself. What things has Jesus had to deal with in your life that has helped you to become genuinely selfless and focused on the concerns of others? How has he refined you? (Of course, he is still at work in us!) The way Jesus Christ cares is what Timothy showed as a true disciple of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. He really cares about what happened to the other Christians including those who don't know Jesus Christ. Pointing a finger at others in some culture especially Christians is a bad omen. We should remember that God is only and one who will judge us one day. So it would not be good to point fingers just because the other person causes sin. God is working in each of those who are faithful to Him. When we really allow Him to change our heart and place faith in the heart, miracles happens in our lives. We really start to care about what is happening to other faithful Christians and also those who has not come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.