Jeannie

What assurance does John give us if we do sin? John explains to us that we are that have a fellowship with Jesus, if we confess our sins He covers them through His shed blood. How does this confort us? To know that we have a Loving and Holy Father above who wishes all of us to be with Him for eternity is more than I can express into words of my own. Praise Him!!! How does it make us want to avoid sin? Sin brings you into darkeness, where there is crying, pain, sorrow, depression, anxiety, fear, and all that is evil, there is no light of hope. To live as Christ brings joy, peace, kindness, love, hope and everlasting life.

How would you define "confession"? I would define it as total surrender to our Lord and heart wrenching sorrow. Why is confessing our sins so important? Because it grieves the Father when we continual in a life that is not pleasing to Him or not bringing Him Glory. What happens to us if we stop confessing our sins? We will have no relationship with The Father or The Son, or each other. What are the promises given to us if we do confess our sins? 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How is forgiveness of sins different from cleansing? We have to ask for forgiveness, Jesus alone can cleanse.

What is the result when a Christian walks in darkeness, that is, continues willfully to do what he or she knows to be wrong? To me we are not Christian and are lying to ourselfs to think that we are if we disobey God and don't understand that we must confess all sin and turn our backs away from walking in it. How does this involve self-deception? We are lying to ourselves and aren't open to the truth because we may have a low self-esteem or may enjoy what the world has to offer. What is the result, according to verse 7, when we walk in the light? If we walk in the light as Jesus did we have fellowship with one another and a relationship with Christ who takes away all our sin. How do we get back into the light if we sin? We must confess "all" sin to God as we are called to be Holy as He is Holy.

Q1. Why is our fellowship with fellow Christians so often just on a surface level? I believe it's because of the distraction we are exposed to in America today, so many false teachings and people pulling God/Christ down to their level or lower, and because of this many Christians are being swayed by lies and believe that it doesn't matter if they have sin in their lifes, because we are all saved by "Grace", and are ignorant to the truth about what the Commandment to love one another means. How can we have fellowship at a deeper level in Christ? To read Scripture daily, believe in the Word of God and desire to know and grow in Him more. What would it take in your Christian group or your relationships with other believers to deepen your level of fellowship so it is authentically Christian? To love each other as Christ has loved us and encourage in build up each other in God's Word. To "be there" when a fellow believer is in need and think of ourselves less than the other.

The common thread between these verses is that they both speak of the wonder and glory of our God. Either through creation or His law. Both bring joy to us, one helps us to see a glimpse of His Glory and the other tells us how we can bring Him Glory. Every time I look at the Word of God He brings a joy, peace or conviction to me. Also, His Word helps me to see how I may have an intimate relationship with Him.

The first part of this question is: It teaches that God is worthy of our honor and praise, and that He is above all creation. What it teaches about man is that we are even lower than the angels, but have authority over what He has created, i.e.: fish of the sea and birds of the air. What it teaches to us about Christ is: That God came down from the heavenly realm in the form of man through Jesus Christ. It teaches us that we are to be as Christ was when He was a man and that all things were created through Him to bring God Glory and it's man's responsibility to do so.

When we bad mouth someone we are seeing them through judgemental eyes with rules that are not of God, but of the fleshly nature. We feel that some people don't meet up to our standard of living the Christian life and tend to think that we know everything there is to know. When we have this attitude it pulls us away from God and closer to the world and evil.

Verses 7-10 are instruction as to what we are to do to set ourselves right before God. When we submit ourselves to God we put on focus on Him an not ourselves. When we resist the devil and turned to God for strength we will not follow through with a temptation that may come our way which if we do fall into it it will keep us seperated from God. When we have falling we need to confess with a repentent heart to God and when with sin against God it should make us grieve, mourn and wail because it seperates us from God. God love is greater then mans'. When asked which command that I can't keep to I find it hard to answer this one. I have been a Christian for 5 years now. Each day I find myself on my knees because of an old sin that may have popped into my head. I am so thankful that I am able to get on my knees before my Savior, and I pray for those who are unable to do this due to a disabilty or ignorance to God.

What James is referring to is the church is acting just like the world attitudes. They fight with each other so they can gain their own desires. The adultery that James is speaking about here is each person in the church is doing their own thing and don't want anyone else to get the credit for what is happening around them and they are asking for worldly desires in order to make themselves look better to others. When we become friendly with the world we don't have a desires on what God's will is and God hates it when we have a worldly attitude. We also take our eyes off God and focus on ourselves which is a sin.

No God is not against pleasures, only when we become self absorbed does it not please God. God is willing to give to us freely, but if we approach in prayer for self-gain we can not expect an answered prayer. Also, we should have a repenting heart when we get this attitude and humbly come before God and say" not my will, but Yours be done".

The only tool that can make peace is the Love of Christ in our hearts that others may see. When we show the Love of Christ to all that we come into contact with (believer or non-believer) it will make them thristy to want more. Also it softens our hearts when we let this love come into it. Those who grow in this will be ourselfs and those that we meet.

In "bitter-envy & selfish-abition" we are mostly thinking about our self and what we can gain for ourselfs and also we tend to think that we a better than the other person. Where in "humility" we surrender ourselves and put our efforts into someone else and their needs. When deny ourselves about having "bitter-envy or selfish-ambition" we will develop a cold and evil heart. Then when we brag about accomplishing something we deny God and except the evil that is within us.

The tongue is untamable because of the thoughts we have in our head that go to the heart and speak want is on it. The only way we can control the heart is to replace it with our fleshly attitude with a Godly attitude. Only God can help to change a heart.

James warns people about becoming teachers, because it makes us more responsible in our actions and speech because other people look to us for direction. I do not set a higher standard for my pastor as he is not any different than I. Although he is the leader of the church we altermately are all "sinners before a Holy God". I'll have to say that I feel strongly that way, but I also know that pastors do have a greater responsibilty. Churches have new people every once in awhile (either for a visit or thinking about joining) and if they come into a church and the pastor is teaching something other than what is scripture, he would do more harm then good.

The difference between James' and Paul's idea on works is: James says that if you say you believe, but do nothing to help someone in need is faith that is dead. Paul says that once we believe we will want to do good works, but just to work to get points is nothing. Both say that we can not have faith without works, but in a different way. James was speaking to the Jewish people because although the believed that followed their law and when someone was in need they would just wish them well and send them on their way. Paul was speaking with Jews and Gentile believers and some of the work they were doing was to make themself look good and not honoring God.