retired

1. First of all, the Children of Israel had abandoned God Almighty and were worshiping a false God. They were breaking one of the prime commandments that they should have no other God before God. Of course at this time they had not been given the ten commandments yet, but they were still breaking it. They knew that God was the only God. Look at all the miracles that God had performed to get them out of Egypt and they still abandoned Him. They were deep into sin and debauchery. 2. A loving God can be angry at sin. The Children of Israel were sure exhibiting plenty of that when they were worshiping the golden calf and who knows what all that goes along with it. Sin is so foreign to the nature of God that He couldn't help but be angry. 3. God's sentence to destroy Israel and start over is perfectly justified. In the first place everything is His, everything. He owns it all. So He can do with everything as He will. The children of Israel had gone deeply into sin. They deserved to be punished and God planned to do just that. Remember he had wiped everything but Noah and his family once before and started over. So he had a history of wiping the slate clean. The children of Israel had abandoned Him after a short time and went back to the old style of worshiping. They no longer worshiped Him. so He was perfectly justified in wiping them out and starting over with Moses's clan if he so chose.

1. We need to continually ask for forgiveness because we are sinners. Even though He forgives us, we go right out and sin again. Christians try to learn to sin less all the time but the fact remains that we are and will continue to be, sinners in need of forgiveness. And we will not receive this forgiveness without asking. 2. Unforgiveness on our part is sin. We were commanded to forgive our brothers. Therefore, when we do not forgive, we are going directly against Jesus' teaching. Not a really good idea if you want to be a good Christian. 3. Unforgiveness blocks forgiveness because we will not be forgiven while we are still unrepentent. And while we are unforgiving we still have "stiff necks" as they used to say in the Bible. We are exhibiting pride and not letting God take care of the situation. And we have already learned in this lesson that we are to rely on God for everything. We are to trust in Him and not in ourselves. When we do not forgive we are holding onto the old ways. God wants us to accept His new ways and trust Him, not do things as usual.

We, as Americans, are taught from childhood to stand on our own two feet. We are taught to do "it" ourselves. It becomes second nature for us. Therefore we do not want to depend on anyone else. We want to be independent of God for a couple of reasons. First, becausewe as Americans are self-sufficient, we don't want to rely on anyone, including God. Second we wish to be independent because of sin.When things are going the way God intended for them to go, we lean on him as the Children of Israel did in the desert as they wandered there for 40 years after the Exodus. God taught them obedience and to trust him. This is the third reason we do not ask God for help. We do not trust anyone, including God. If we trust no one and lean on no one we are not going to get hurt. Or so the thinking goes, but it couldn't be more wrong. Why should we ask God to give us this day our daily bread when we can earn a living for ourselves. Well, first and foremost, because He wants us to ask Him. That is reason enough right there. Do we really think we would be earning a living if God did not allow it? Do you remember the story in the Bible about the rich fool. He had so much wealth and so big a harvest that he was going to build a bigger barn. But, God said, you fool, this very night your very life will be taken from you. No, of course not. All our wealth and strength could be gone tomorrow. We need to learn to lean on God today so that when the trials come tomorrow we are able to handle them because we know from whence our strength comes. Our source for everything is God and we are to petition Him for everything. Additionally, we are to thank Him for everything. Because it all comes from Him!

Wow, what a question! How/why are we asking that Gods kingdom come here on earth when we pray? Can you imagine a world in which everyone is living as God wants people to live? We wouldn't recognize the place. It would be a bit like heaven on earth! Now THAT is the earth I want to live in. Jesus knew that this kind of world would be so much etter for us than what we presently have. He knew that if we asked the Father (Daddy) to come and run things we would be so much better off. Things would be like they were meant to be. Because of sin, this world has never been what God wanted for us. Besides, when we ask that God's will be done, we are acknowledging His soverignity, His majesty, His holiness, His supremacy. We are acknowledging that he is the Lord of all. He is God and that is the way it should be. We are putting the proper perspective on the whole thing when we ask God to run things.

We "Hallow His Name" when we remember who and what He is. When we remember He is Holy and the Creator and Lord of all creation. We 'Hallow His Name" when we worship Him and turn our lives over to Him in every way. Unfortunately our lives are filled with sin and so even though we give Him our lives, we take them back again. We profane His Name. At that time we are no longer "Hallowing His Name," we are profaning it. The minute, nay the instant we get out of the worship mode and start to run things our way we are profaning the Name of God. We swear, use His Name in vain, break the ten commandments and in general, sin. When we do this we are no longer "Hallowing His Name".

I really did not get much out of this particular study. Sorry, but there did not seem to be much meat in it. Perhaps it was just me, I am happy to take the blame for this, but I stopped even reading it about half way through because it seemed a waste of my time.

Q3. James 2:9-11 Why does James refer to the Great Commandment as the "Royal Law?" Why is it more "Royal" than the mosaic law? How does showing favoritism towards a rich person break the "Royal Law" towards that rich person? How does it break the "Royal Law" in regard to a poor person? The Great Commandment is the "Royal Law because Jesus is the one who gave it to us. Moses gave us the mosaic law. While both came from God, Jesus was in fact God in person. This was the word of law out of the very mouth of God. When you show favoritism towards a rich person you are breaking the "Royal Law" because you are not treating everyone the same. You are not loving everyone as yourself. You are leaving out the poor person. The poor are to be treated just the same as the rich. Jesus said that even as we do to the least of these we are doing to him. So if we want to be good to Jesus we had better be good to the poor and downcast.

Q.1. What kind of person or what kind of sinner do you tend to discriminate against? What kind of people are you (or your church) trying to make a good impression on? There is so much meat in this question. Actually, it goes to the heart of God's word.When you discriminate against anyone you are going against God's will. When you are going out to "make a good impressuib ib anyone, just to build yourself up for personal gain, you are going against God's will. But don't take my word for it, look at what the Bible has to say on the subject. The above quote pretty much tells it like it is. Don't hold anything against anyone. Love other people because God is God and he says to do so. That is reason enogh. If you need more, look at this. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied, " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' (38) This is the first and greatest commandment. (39) And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. (40) All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments."

Q. 2 Why are we so easily fooled into thinking that listening to Bible teaching means that we are living out righteous lives? What is the Nature of the self-deception? We think we are so wise as to the ways of the world. For some reason we get this false notion that just listening to the Word of God means we are living as God wants us to live. I guess that is sort of like looking out the window, seeing that the sun is shining and thinking we are a sunny day. It isn't quite that simple. We have to not just hear God's perfect Word, we have to obey it if we are to live righteous lives. When we follow God's instructions, we are doing His will and showing our love for Him.

Q. 1 In what sense are we given spiritual birth by the "Word of Truth"? What does spiritual life have to do with the Word? When we accept Jesus as Lord of Lords and King of Kings and our personal Saviour we are born again. We are given our tickets into the Lambs Wedding Feast. We are new creations. Gone is all our old self and here is our shining new self in Jesus Christ. We are washed in the blood of the Lamb. The Word is Jesus. There is no spiritual life without Him. But God used Him as a way into heaven. We are so fortunate in this that God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to "die for our sins on the cross".

Q. 4. What is the promise to claim in verse 5? What is the condition attached to this promise in verse 6? How do trials help us receive this wisdom? The promise is that if anyone asks God for wisdom, they will receive it because God is generous. WOW! What a promise! It has a condition in that you have to believe when you ask. This is because he who doubts is like a feather blown around. Or, as the Bible says, like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. A person like this who is tossed and doubtful never realizes when they have received the promise. Trials help us to trust in Jesus because we learn that He is faithful and true. His love knows no bounds. He is always there for us. The more we learn to put out trust in Him the better off we will be.

How do trials cure us of "doublemindedness"? How do trials help us grow in faith? Trials teach us to turn to Jesus for strength. Without Him we cannot handle even the everyday problems that come our way, let alone "trials". But with His strength, we can handle anything that comes our way. The more faith we have in Him, the more peace we have, no matter what the circumstance. Because we know that God is in control and the battle has already been won. We are just waiting for the final curtain to come down. He told us that we would have problems and that the world would hate us because it first hated him. He told us this so that we would not be surprised when it happened. And we can count it as our gain when it does happen because we are then sharing with Christ!

What value have trials had in your life? Have you let Satan destroy you with those trials? Or allowed God to refine you? How have you changed? Well, my life has been a difficult one. I came to Jesus late in life and prior to my being saved, Satan had his way with me. Then I accepted Jesus into my life and things changed dramatically! While I still have trials, I know where to look for help! Now when things are difficult, I ask for assistance from the Master and turn to Him for strength. With His help I have even been able to overcome post traumatic stress syndrome and panic attacks. He is my source of strength. Without Him I am helpless in the face of the enemy. So I guess I can say that I do not look at adversity the same as I used to. Because I know where my weakness can be of value to the Lord. I have been sent to another Church besides my own and spoke briefly of my trials and how Jesus saved me. He is using my trials to help others. So I consider them well worth while although I would not have at the time I was experiencing them.

We are given the same amount of faith when we accept Christ as our SaviorQ No other faith is as precious as this because no other faith brings the blessing of eternal life with Jesus in Heaven. No other faith is true. All others are false. That is what makes our faith "precious." Now what we do with that faith is another thing. We can turn our lives over to Jesus as Peter did or we can try to run things on our own and make a mess of things. All too often today we think we are self sufficient and don't need any help. That is where we waver in our faith. The more we trust in Him and give our lives to Him, the more He gives right back. You know you cannot "outgive Him." Yes, where there is persecution people have to rely on their faith because that is all they have. "When I am weak, then I am strong. because of Jesus Christ." Yes we do need a revival. Come Lord Jesus. My Church just had a renewal this Spring and it was wonderful. It was right after Easter and while the movie "The Passion" was showing. It allowed us to really get into Jesus. We must not be like the foolish virgins and not be ready when the master comes. We must always keep up our faith. Faith is not something that will stay if you do not work at it. It will slip away. You must read the Bible, attend your House of Worship, spend time in fellowship with other Christians and do His good works. You cannot work your way into Heaven, Jesus work on the Cross gave us that gift, the gift of Eternal Lift with Him. But you must always be vigilant because we do not know the hour or the day of His return. So that is why our "faith is so precious" it is the ticket to Heaven if we but hang on to it.

Hi, I'm glad to be back for another study. I am looking forward to this as I have never studied these books before.