haar

It is difficult to believe in the devil and his demons because people can not prove his existence through experiments. Deispite the doubt of his existence, the devil exists and is responsible for all eveil in the world causing sicknesses, lack of peace, bloodshed, etc. He is very powerful but Christ has overcome him and we can stand against him in the power of Him who is in us and is greater than he that is in the world. He can tempt us but it is our responsibilty to resist or yield to his temptation. When we succumb to him then we should blame ourselves.

Employers of secular workplace and the church should be considerate, just and fair, should pay salaries promptly and should give time off rest. Determination of fair salaries could be by comparing what standard organisations are paying.

The characteristics that are called for in a truly Christian employee are: Obedience; respect; sincerity; working as if to the Lord; not with eye service; working knowing that God rewards service that meets ties.hese qualit.

Behaviour that can enbtter the child is that which provokes him. Such behaviours can be unloving, unmerited or unfair treaatment in the name of discipline. Training of the child should be loving, tender and shuld not be by acts of wickedness to the child.

Adult children are to show respect to their parents. They are to care for them. The exception to the obedience required is when the parents demand or oder the childeren to do any thing that will not honor God. Obedience must to God first, parents next.

The times are evil and Paul wants us to live our lives so that we will ever be ready for Christ return. We must always be ready to use every opportunity to do good ie to let our light shine. For us to be able to make use of every opportunity to good, we maust srrender our lives to the leading of the Lord who will enpower us.

We should sing in an attitute that glorifies God and also unites and builds us up as worhippers. God inhabits our worship. As we sing psalms, hymns etc, our souls are lifted up to be receptive to the presence of God. At this stage we are spiritually activated to worship God with all our hearts, the manner He appreciates. Singing helps me worship God easier as I choose songs with words that exalt the Lord which may not just come automatically from me. As I do this, I feel so warmly connected to the Lord.

We should sing in an attitute that glorifies God and also unites and builds us up as worhippers. God inhabits our worship. As we sing psalms, hymns etc, our souls are lifted up to be receptive to the presence of Go

The primary temptation of drugs and alcohol is the wrong belief that they will cause us to forget our problems, make us happy and so on. This is however false because the great negative effect of these substaces destroys our health, peace, joy, testimony, puts off our light and prevent us to be careful to take advantage of oppotunities that come our way. The use of these substances can actually impede the work of the holy sprit in us. Instead of the Holy spirit to find place of abode in us, the acts of darkness that follow after getting high with these substances drive the Holy Spirit away because light can never coexist with darkness. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be controlled by Him, our wants will be directed by Him and we will seek to do only those things that are spiritually motivated, directed and are pleasing to God.

Paul exhorts us to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. As children of light in a dark wolrd, we have o tuse every chance available to let our light shine by exposing the truth, doing an act of righteousness to show the world that is still posible to be different. We probably are just careless and lukewarm Christians that is why we do not make the most of evry opportunity that comes our way. We need to be revived in our Christian lives; to surrender our lives to the controll of the Holy Spirit so that we can be sensitive to the various opportunities tha will come our way.

Paul warns so strongly about sexual immoraility because it has been and continue be one of the greatest temptation between man and woman. It is a particular sin that has caused giants in the Lord to fall such as King David in the old Testament and even great leader who are Christians in our days. Sexuality is and should be part of our spiritual life. Acts of sexual immorality erode our holiness and render us unfit for God's Kingdom. Thus we should pray daily for God to deliver us from sexual temptation that will lead us to sin and thus make us unholy.

We find it difficult to forgive because we probably believe that the person does not merit forgiveness. We should however always remember that forgiveness is just as grace is, unmerited! God loved the world and sent His one and only one Son to die for our forgiveness even while we were dead in sin. We too should forgive with the same attitute. From what I have just said, God is our perffect example of forgiveness. Jesus, being God, forgave those who crucified him saying that they did not know what they were doing! Kind and tender heart attitute is the pre-requisite for forgiveness according to Ephessians 4:32a. I pray that God will give us the grace to exhibit kind and tender heart attitute and humility so that we will love and forgive all the time no matter how the other person hurts us.

The common unwholesome talk among Christians include such talk that is not healthy; dirty language, abusive and immoral language etc. The three guidelines are: 1. We have to speak only what will build one another 2. What we speak must be only that which is for the need of the hearer. 3. It has to be beneficial to the hearer. Slander is any unwholesome talk about some one that is meant to degrade, demean and lower him before others. This is very common with Christians unfrotunatelly, as we find ourselves taking at the back of others. We can prevent this only by submitting our selves to the leading of the Holy Spirit who will control our behaviour as we can NOT be Christ-like in our our own ability or power.

I am not sure I know why God gave us the emotion of anger. Anger can be dangerous when any of the following happens: 1. When we do not cotrol our anger. 2. If our motive for the anger is wrong 3. When we allow our anger to linger for a long while. etc. We can keep ourself from sinning when we are angry by controlling ourselves so that we will not give Satan a foothold. I believe that anger in itself is not sin. The Bible says that in our anger we should not sin by allowing our anger to linger till the sun goes down. This clearly shows that we can be angry (righteous anger) without sining by controlling ourselves and making sure our anger is righteous anger.

The secular, non Christian mind set of the present age is as bad as that in the age Paul was. It is even worst now as there is so much evil in the form of blood shed, terrible sexual immorality, ritual that involves different type of worship and sacrifices (sometimes involving the use of human parts). It is sad that some members of the body of Christ are also involved in some of such evil. In the case of sexual immorality, Satan has succeeded in bombarding even children of God through adverts containing pornograghic materials in papers, radio, television, internet and other media that it is becoming "toleratable" to commit such sim by the Christians. We need the grace and power of the Lord God to stand firm and to resist the devil through prayers and meditation in His Word of God. May Gdo deliver us.

The Church, the body of Christ is meant to be built by the leaders who have the different gifts of the spirit (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers). Where a minister is the main worker in the church, that churh will be undernourshed. Consequently, individual gifts of the members of the congregation will not be identified. Thus, that Church will not grow into maturity. The purpose of a pastor is to tend, care, lead and guide the flock while the purpose of a teacher is to bring out the truth of the Word of God to the congregtion so as to build the the body of Christ.

A person can have spiritual gift of a pastor without having an official position in the Church because God gives gifts to those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Chrst as their saviour irrespect of whether they have a position in the Church or not. Such persons should however work closely with the Church authority to assist in the administration of the Church in such pasotoral services of leading, caring etc for the flock. A senior pastor who has no spiritual gift of a pastor needs the full support of those membbers who have the pastoral gift. He should however be humble enough to accept that he needs such help. God is the giveer of spiritual gifts.

The gift of evangelism can be stirred in the congregation by first telling the congregation the importance of evangelism. It is the great commision given to us by the the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Next, the members of the congragation should be helped on how to identify their gift. There are people who have spiritual gifts but do not know. I have come across a document by the late Selwyn Hughes on how to identfy your spiritual gifts.

If there were apostle today, their functions would be similar to the functions of the first apostles such as administration of the church of Christ, teaching the Word, healing the sick, setting the captives free from demonic bodage and bringing the Church to maturity etc. The greatest need to my mind is that of unity of the body of Christ. There is so much division due to theological differeces that we need apostles to go about preacing the need to be united and declaring the truth. Another area is that of wrong doctrines. There is need to proclaim the Word, (the truth) undiluted and thus the need for men of God to take up this responsibilty as they go round the globe correcting the wrong teachig in love. False apostles can be identified through their teaching. Any that does not preach the true gospel of Christ is a false apostle.

Spiritual gifts are given by the Lord Jesus Christ for the edification of the Church. I think a talent can be related to our spiritual gift. I am not sure how this can be related. However, I believe God who created us with some natural abilities can give us spiritual gifts that compliment the talents so that we can function better in our service to him and to one another. The difference between talent and spiritual gift: I think talents relate to thoes special abilites and skills given to us by God at birth. The spiritual gifts howevr, are given to Christians only, by God through the Holy Spirit when one receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his saviour.

We MUST make every effort to preserve the Christian unity. No amount of energy is too much for this very important command because it is unity that holds the body of believers together. Thus unity is the bond of peace biding and holding believers together. We are working against peace when we engage in unloving arguments and dissensions as these acts break the unity that we are supposed to guard as soldiers keeiping watch.

Why patience and humlity are important in preserving unity: Pride and inpatience are present in the absence of humlity and patience. When this situation exist, quarells and fights will errupt. This in turn will lead to seperation and breaking of fellowships and relationships. Thus the unity so cherished and directed by the Lord will not be possible. When we have the right doctrine but have a sense of arrogance, our right doctrines will not be accepted by whoever we want to share the doctrine with. The target listerner will be put off by our arrognce and will not listen to us. This will not enable us to do what we should be doing- sharing the right doctrine. This will hurt the Lord's reputation.

Happy New Year Pastor Ralph and Fellow Course mates. I just just had access to the study now and want to join you who have already kicked off. I wish all of us of a wonderful time walking with and in the Lord this year. God bless you. And now, back to business. The standard of our behaviour is Jesus Christ. The meaning of the word 'Christian' is Christ-like. We are called to be like Christ in all our conduct. That means we should love like Him, hate sin like Him, seek the salvation of souls like Him and to seek and work for the unity of the saints like Him. He should be our example in every thing. The 'calling' to which God has called us is the call to be united with Him and with one one another, fallowing Him just as the disciples responded when he called them individually when He was on earth. As we respond to the call, we have to do everything to His glory and not ours. God bless us and help us to be like our Lord in every thing we do this year.

If bringing glory to God were to be the most important fuction of our Church to God; what would be different: - We would serve and worship God with all our hearts;strength and mind. - God would be the center of our lives; (we tend to be selfcentered at the moment). - We would love Him and love one onother more than we do now. - The Church would be more united without divission based on ethnic and denominational differences. If bringing glory to God were to be my only purpose for living (IT SHOULD BE); the diffrence: - I would do only things that will bring glory to God. Father forgive me because I have not made bringing glory to you my priority. Forgive my Church too.

To be "filled with the Spirit" means to allow the Holy spirit to have absolute/ total control of our hearts. This enables us to live by the power of the spirit, obey by the power of the spirit, love by the power of the spirit, forgive by the power of the spirit, etc. Without this, we cannot please God as the carnal nature in us will over power us and we will end up doing what we want and not what God wants. Being filled with the spirit is a continous experience requiring us to continuously be connected to the source of power through reading and meditating in the Word, talking to God, worshiping him (felowship). We will become 'deflated' whenever we disconnet ourselves from the source of power and thus become susceptible to fall into sin. To be "filled with all the fullness of God" we need to surrender our hearts fully to God. All known sins must be confessed, all grudges and resentments have to be tackled and forgiveness granted to whoever we are holding the grudges/ resentments against. He (God) has to have unlimited access to and control of us.