Gerbrand van Schalkwyk

What kind of leader do you believe Paul is indicating for us with the phrase "husband of one wife"? Somebody reliable, as a husband we give a good indication how devoted we are, how trustworthy we are. Obviously we can’t be divorced, that would indicate that we are disobedient to God and not devoted. Why is a leader's family an important indicator of leadership potential or problems? People's character doesn't change, how you react at home will reveal your natural character, not the polished character you display when you want to impress somebody for a new position. The way you handle your children will show how successful you are with people.

How should Paul's instructions about women teaching and leading in the church be applied in the twenty-first century? How do you support your view? 1st I want to point out that Paul said "I will ...." This was Paul's own idea/feeling, he never said it was from God. That being said, I must say from personal experience I prefer men pastors / teachers. My own feeling is that women, either feel out of place or seem nervous throughout the service, or when we watch American lady preachers they seem to usually try to degrade the audience to enhance their own importance. We did watch a dvd of a lady who led a women Bible study group a while back, and this lady was brilliant. She was truly concerned about her audience and really wanted to bring a message of love across. My opinion is that women may lead Bible studies, but God installed authority, and in God's authority setup, the man should lead, thus a man should lead church service. Women are usually better at handling children than men. They must help to lay a strong foundation in children's lives. This is extreamly important, because it is so much easier to teach somebody with a strong back ground. Women can support each other, because, a man who has a well balanced woman to support him, can do so much more in the comunity. God's plans and order just works much better.

In the context of the salvation of all, why do you think Paul emphasizes the roles of Mediator and Ransom? We have to understand that we cant be the mediator and that we cant do or pay anything from ourselves to set us free, only Crist could do it. In what way did Christ fulfill both these roles? He was our Mediator to God the Father, He was the only One who could do it. And He was the only One Who could be ransom because He was pure.

Why does Paul emphasize salvation of all mankind in this letter? God's instruction was that everybody must be saved, not just Jews, or today it would be those from our city, or state, or skin colour, or maybe social standing. We must reach out to all. too many times today's churches only reach out to our own churchmembers, or visitors who attend our churches, we need more outreach like churches did before What does this suggest about the practice of evangelism in the Ephesus church? They were not obediant in spreading the Word

Why does Paul need to remind Timothy about the prophecies spoken over him? He wants to rimind Timothyof his authority that he received from God. Timothy must spread the truth he received to counter the false messages being spread He must take control of the church he is leading. In practical terms, what does "fight the good fight" really mean? In this case he must take the false prophets head on, for us we must tackle any problem from the enemy head on, we must not ignore, or worse, take part in it. Why does Paul tell Timothy to "hold on to faith and a good conscience"? What temptation is Paul trying to counter in his protégé? He wants to emsure that Timothy doesn't take part or ignore the problem

Why does Paul comment on his own life after a paragraph on the law (1:8-11)?Why does he share this with Timothy and the church that will read the letter? Paul 1st lived very strictly accourding to the law, and as such he was actually a murderer although he didn't see it that way at the time. He wants his followers, and Timothy to learn from his mistakes so that they dont repeat them. How might sharing this help get the church back on center? Since he admits that he was wrong, it might help the church to also admit its faults so that they do something about it

In what way is the Parable of the Great Banquet about grace? God invited us all, everybody can be saved. He also sent out His servants to find as many souls as they could find. God uses as many of us who are willing to save as many people as possible because of His grace, love and mercey. In what way is it about judgment? Those who doesn't accept Him will be lost. If we dont do all we can to save others, we will also be judged, we will lose our rewards in heaven. In what way is it about evangelism? As said above, we are responsible for spreading this message to everybody. Once we accept Christ we become the servants who must tell everybody about salvation. It is our privilage to be a servant of God and to save others. To what End Time event does the great banquet point?? Jesus' second coming, the doors will be closed once Christ came again and we will receive judgement

In the Parable of the Great Banquet, who do the original guests represent? Israel who was the original chosen people. Who do the later invited guests represent? Gentiles, everybody who will accpet Christ as their Saviour What does it mean to �compel them to come in� (KJV)? Many people dont believe that Christ came for them as well,that all this could be for them as well, we have to convince them How might this sense of urgency apply today? Time is moving, we have to save as many people as possible before they die, or Jesus' return

How do you think Jesus will hold you personally accountable on Judgment Day for using your "talents"? We will be judged for how well we used our tallents and the responcibility we receive, our heavenly rewards, will be given to us as we deserved it, as a judgement of how well we applied out tallents we received. If you begin to be more faithful from now on, how do you think that may affect his accounting on that Day? This is where confusion between salvation and rewards come in. When we accept Christ as our Saviour we receive eternal life. Nothing we do as work give us eternal life, it is grace and mercy if we accept Christ, repent and declare our sin and forgive others. Then we begin to earn rewards. Doesn't matter when you start, it is how much you do, how dedicated and focused you are. The longer you wait the less you have done. The less focused you are the less you have done. How much you earn is your choice.

When we are successful, to whom does the fruit of our labors belong? GOD In what sense are we independent entrepreneurs? We work to please our loving Father. We earn heavenly rewards and even these belong to God. We gain eternal life In what sense are we stewards of the gifts and "talents" given us? God entrusted us with our talents. It is up to us to develop and apply them How does the attitude of a self-made person differ from the attitude of a steward? A steward will never stop serving his Master while a self made person focus on himself

What do you think the �talents� represent? Abilities and resourses. Anything od gave you that you can develop, inrease or use to win souls. If you were to take an inventory of your �talents,� what would they be? I have a fair share of resorses available. People trust me. I can easily speak to big crouds. I like to figure stuff out. What spiritual gifts have you been given? understanding people, patience. What abilities do you have? What Bible knowledge do you have? Where has God placed you in your community? In society? In your profession or industry? In what sense do these �belong� to God rather than to you? All of us is in our positions because we can be of use to God where we are Everything we have is there because of God, He created it and trusted us with managing it.

The great "feast in the kingdom of God" has guests from all over the world. Who are they? Everybody who accepted Christ as their Saviour and followed Jesus in every way. Who will be the ones "thrown out" of the feast? Everybody who didn't follow Jesus Why will they be excluded? The only way into the Kingdom is through Jesus. We must accept Him as our Saviour. We must admit and repent for our sins. We must forgive others who sinned against us and we must be obediant to God, else we will be excluded.

What is the point of the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven? How would this be encouraging to Jesus' disciples who had expected an instant Messianic Kingdom? That both the Kingdom on earth and our own faith will grow. The disciples were enouraged because they knew the Kingdom is growing, they just had to be patiant How might it be encouraging to people experiencing smallness or poverty in their lives? All people just have to be patient and allow God to work through our lives

Why does Jesus frighten us with his statement: �This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you...�? Because not forgiving others can cause us not to receive salvation. It is very serious. We have to forgive others so that our sin can be forgiven. Jesus said it a few times. So if we dont forgive others, our sin can not be forgiven. If our sin is not forgiven, we can not receive salvation. I think that is why Jesus mentioned it a few times, so that we can realize how serious forgiveness is. Is he serious? Yes!!! Is forgiveness (1) a learned grace, or (2) a foundational principle of the Kingdom? Both. We usually can't forgive easily from childhood. We have to practice it, each time we do it, it becomes easier. What i tell my people is this. Practice it. Forgive your child, it is easy because you love him. Forgive your wife, you need a good relationship with her, and it will build your relationship. Forgive the stranger that bumps into you on the sidewalk. It was an accident, not intended. now that you have practiced forgiving easy transgressions, go a step higher. Forgive that person who scratched your car. It is expensive and will be an inconveniance to fix. Forgive the one who stole your wedding ring. It has sentimental value and was expensive. Once you practiced forgiving more difficult cases, move to the extreame cases, the guy who spread rumours that caused you to loose your promotion. He degraded your name, made you look bad to your bosses and cost you money. This will leave most people bitter. Forive these hard cases and it has become part of your character. Of course you will need God's help with this so ask for it regularly. Dont just ask for it, you must long for it to be able to forgive easily, have a yearning for it. If is very much part of the Kingdom because it shows God's love. It also is a relationship builder, between people but also between us and God. It makes us more and more to become a mirror image of Christ.

In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, what is the purpose of contrasting the huge debt with the small one? If we were to put ourselves in the parable, which debt would we owe? Which debt might be owed us? I believe this parable is a comparrison between us and Jesus. We as geat sinners come to Christ and beg for forgiveness. Through His mercy and grace He takes our lifetime of sins upon Him and forgive us. All our sins that we confess and repent, plus even those we forgot about. After we receive Salvation He continues to forgive us our sins, as long as we confess, truely repent and forgive others their sin. Our sin is clearly the big debt. All our sin that we sin in a lifetime was sin against other people and sin against God. We didn't do all that sin against the same person, but all of it was disobediance against God. We don't have small or big sin in God's eyes, all sin is disobediance, thus each time we sin we break our relationship with God. Each time we repent, we humble ourselves and submit ourselves back under God's authority. Our sin is so big that Jesus, the 2nd person of God, had to die for us on the cross so that our debt could be paid. The small debt is the sin that others sin against us. This sin is small in comparrison to what we gave Christ to forgive. In this case we can have small and big sin. A person can steal $1 from me or $ 1 000 000. To me there would be a big difference in how easily i forgive that person. But to God the sin would be the same, we were disobediant. Both the $1 and the $ 1 000 000 will break the trust between me and that person, my forgiveness of him/her will restore our relationship, although there will be concequenses. Forgiveness doesn't mean discipline must be forsaken. Forgiveness is letting go of the resentment, anger or even hate against the person who sinned against you. You forgave him, but next time you will not leave the $1 on the table to tempt him again. You are not angry anymore, but he must carry the knowlage of what he has done. Even David and Moses had to go through and carry the consequenses of their sin, they were forgiven by God but David was at war most of his life, he never built the temple, Moses never entered the prommised land, but he was forgiven. My forgiveness of others restores an earthly relationship, God's forgiveness restores an eternal relationship, our debt is big, other persons debt towards us is small in comparrison. Why was the king insulted by the unmerciful servant�s action? God forgives us so much that we can receive eternal life, why cant we forgive others who's sin against us is nothing in comparrison. We must always strive to be more and more like Jesus, how do we show others God's love if we don't forgive? Also we have a command to forgive, when we don't forgive, we are sinning again, we are breaking our relationship with God again, that relationship that Jwsus died on the cross for, for it to be restored. We are making light of His sacrifice.

Jesus says we must forgive 77 times or 490 times. Should we take these numbers literally or figuratively? Who is going to count up to 490 time how many times they forgive somebody? By the time you get to 13 you are already going to be uncertain how many times you have forgiven. And for somebody to do the same thing wrong 490 times will take a long time. If he does it once a dayit will be over a year. So it is figurative. If figurative, what are they figurative of? Forgive every time. Remember, it is a human being, they are not perfect, just as you are not perfect either. What does this teach us about God�s willingness to forgive us repeatedly for the same sin? i think a lot of people misquote this verse as that you can sin, God.s grace and mercy is big enough, He will forgive you again. 1) The verse is pointing at us as Christians forgiving other people, not only Christians but all people. 2) We must forgive them regardless. It is an instruction to us to always forgive, even if that person didn't ask for forgiveness 3) The Bible tells us clearly for us to receive forgiveness, we must forgive those who sinned against us, confess our sin, give themto Christ, ask for forgiveness and truely repent. If we truely repent we will also change our ways. We will make an active decision not to do it again. We must ask the help of the Holy Spirit to avoid doing it again and work on it. If we then do repeat it, we will have to go through this whole process again. If we truely repent we will be forgiven, but is is very unlikely that you will repeat the sin a 3rd time. This will show that you are not truely repenting and are not working on changing that part of your character. We are one of very few creatures that can decide to change our character, and with God's help we can do it. Repenting means we want to change a bad part of our character. So this verse should not be taken as God forgiving Christians 490 times. We must change after repentace, else we will not be bearing fruit of the Spirit. We will be just the same as non-Christians. By being a repeat ofender we are not showing God the respect He deserves. God know's we will never be able to live without sin, we are humans, but He expects us to strive to be more like Christ. He also knows that once we have beaten one sin, another part of our character that needs change will be reveiled to us. So there will always be something we do that will need forgiveness from God, but we must strive to avoid being repeat offenders.

Why is this verse so famous? It is a summary of much of what we believe in. It only focus on God's love, not His Authority or power. It is a very comforting verse but still points to our responsibility in accepting Christ as our Saviour for our salvation. What does it teach us about God? What does it teach us about salvation? God is love. It also points to God as our Judge in that we will perish if we don't accept Christ as our Saviour. Since �entering eternal life� is a synonym for �entering the Kingdom of God,� what does this verse teach us about our destiny? If we accept The Son we will have eternal life

Q3. (John 3:5-7) What does it mean to be �born of water and the Spirit�? To become a new person, with new ideas, a new will and new goals. When you are bptized you receive the Holy Spirit as a Guide and a teacher in your new life and walk with God. What do you think �water� refers to? Baptism. To be born again, but also to change your ways, your life, your character. Throughout the Bible water and the Holy Spirit is associated with each other. It starts in Gen. We see it in the Old and the New testament. Here again the 2 goes together. When we are baptized we receive the Holy Spirit. Why have you come to this conclusion? Jesus said numerous times that we must be baptized. In this case He is teaching of how to enter the kingdom. You cannot enter the Kingdom if you dont accept Jesus as your Saviour, if you don't repent, if you don't forgive others and if you don't confess your sins. baptism represents all of this and should go with all of this. How, then, would you paraphrase �born of water and the Spirit� to best bring out the meaning? When we are baptized in water we must receive the Holy Spirit at the same time. We must be baptized as soon as we accept Christ as our Saviour. In the ible we see each Baptism was on the same day, even the same hour the person accepted Christ as their Saviour. When we accept Christ and the Holy Spirit, our spirit must be new and changed.

What does �entering the Kingdom� have to do with being �born anew�? You must be spiritually renewed - born again - in order to enter the Kingdom You must change from within to belong to the kingdom. Which do you think is the best translation here: �born again,� �born anew,� or �born from above.� Defend your reasoning. All have the same meaning. It doesn't matter what you call it, you must change. You must understand that a new person is born, you must have a new character

What does Jesus teach here about the nature of the Kingdom of God? He teaches us that we must be born again spiritualy. We must allow the old me to die and be born again spiritualy> Do you think Nicodemus understands him? No, even we dont always understands this at 1st. Why or why not? Nicodemus was thinking within his own experiance base. He thought his body must die, not his spirit.

Why do you think Jesus requires the rich young ruler to divest himself of his fortune? His fortune is keeping his focus away fom God. He sets more store on his fortune than on God Why does this trouble us so much? Our posessions is often too important for us as well If there was no other way for the man to be saved, No what does that say about the spiritual dangers of wealth? We must be very carefull how we go about our wealth. We can loose our salvation by serving the wrong god

Why is poverty and self-sacrifice an inadequate religion? We must be obediant to God's will, we are not suppose to decide what God wants for us. Jesus said "and these things will be added on to you". God will give us as He knows best for our ability to handle. Some can handle material things and still have agreat relationship with God, others can't. We must allow God to be in control of our haves and have nots as well as our suffering. Why does Jesus ask the man to follow him? Jesus wants ultimately for us to have a relationship with Him. He wants all of us to follow him, so why not this man as well. In what senses was this a great privilege that the man was offered? It is a fantastic privilege for all of us to be given the change to serve the Almighty Creator of everything. If you think about Who we are serving it blows your mind Why did he reject the offer? He was probably worriedabout his status, what others might think about his actions, or he valued his possesions too much. The Bible doesnt realy tell us

What does Jesus teach us about the value and worth of the Kingdom? Not only is it valued above all else, we must seek it above all else, we must totally commit ourselves to it Why are we tempted to value it so little? We are still of this world, we have just a little experiance of what is to come throught the Holy Spirit, far far more is in store for us What helps us to appreciate its true value? Jesus's teaching and our experiance through our relationship with God How might your testimony help a seeking friend to value the Kingdom more? Our words and lifestyle must be a testimony. When people see how happy we are under any circumstances they will want that same support base. When they see how self asured we are when under attack without being pride they will want to have that same ability to rise above earthly trails. This will bring them in a position to seek God as well

What do the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Price have in common? In both parables the treasure found was so valueble that the men gave up everything they had to obtain it What is the main point of these parables? the Kingdom of God is valueble that we should not think before we give something of value to us in order to obtain it. This doesnt mean that we can buy our salvation, no, we receive it through grace, but in order to receive it we must price it above all else. How should it affect our values? Earthly possesions should not matter to us, our focus should be on God Our lives? We must live all out for Christ

What does our passage teach about the separation and judgment that will occur when the Kingdom comes? It will be suddenly and complete. Sinners and believers will be separated instantly How should this affect our lives? We must be ready to receive our judgement everyday Our testimony? We must realize that those around us must be ready for judgement as well, we must always testify to make sure that nobody we know will be lost. Our love for our neighbors? Since we must care for everybody, we must show God's love to all, make sure they are ready to meet their Maker, since we never know when the end will come