JanMary

Q2. "Save" and "Savior" are used so much in Christian circles that they have become almost jargon words that we don't even think about. What are synonyms for "save" and "Savior"? Savior:Redeemer, deliverer, emancipator, champion, Good Samaritan, Salvation, Rescuer, Christ, Jesus, The Messiah, Lamb of God, Our Lord, Son of God, King of Kings, Prince of Peace. Save: Bail someone out, retrieve, keep, preserve, guard, safeguard, protect, secure, shelter, shield, set apart, hold, spare. What does a "Savior" actually do to earn the name? He saves! Rescues and emancipates sinners from their eternal destiny of hell apart from God, because of their sin and unrighteousness. He replaces fear and dread with His peace. He Himself became the sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.

Q1. (Romans 8:3-4) Why can't obedience to the law save us? The letter of the law would have to be obeyed perfectly, and that is impossible in our fallen human flesh. The law wasn't meant to save us, but to point out our sinfulness and the futility of trying to save ourselves through good works! What is the weak link? I am! My flesh. What then does it take to save us? Accepting on my behalf, the perfect sinless sacrifice of Jesus Who shed His own blood for me.

Q1. What was the responsibility of the next of kin to someone in his family who was in trouble? If a relative lost his property through debt, the next of kin did whatever was necessary to redeem it. If a relative was murdered, the next of kin avenged the death. If a relative went to prison, the next of kin paid the fine to get them released.....to redeem whatever the difficulty was. How did Jesus play the role of Kinsman-Redeemer for us? We were in prison to Satan/ darkness, with no hope of ever getting out. Sentenced to eternal damnation...Jesus paid the price to redeem us, that of His own sinless blood. What does this say about God's love? What does this say about our worth? As Max Lucado put it: "He'd rather die than live without me". His love is unfathomable, beyond comprehension, immeasurable. Our worth to Him is all of those things!

Q6. (3:17-19) Why does Paul pray that the believers grasp the fullest extent of Christ's love for them? When we are rooted deep in His love and founded securely on His love, we live at peace, and are reassured and unafraid, able to be led by the Spirit, and to worship and praise Him from a heart of love, rather than out of the motives of fear or duty. It's a flowing well of love to us, which enables us to love others. We cannot give what we do not have. How does comprehending this love change a person's spiritual life? Understanding His love took me from a life of fear and dread over what He might do to me, to a place of knowing I'm loved unconditionally, accepted in the Beloved, and the fear melted away. I'm learning to run to Him intead of hunkering down inside myself until the storm passes, as I learned in childhood from being abandoned and neglected. I enjoy Him, and delight in Him and in His creation. I no longer see a long bony finger pointing at me in disapproval, but rather arms outstretched to receive me. I see His sense of humor now and appreciate discipline when needed because it's done in love. Is there any end to Christ's love for a person? As Max Lucado put it:"He would rather die than live without me!" His love and mercy is new every single morning on into eternity! God IS love, and since we are in Christ, He is in us....we possess the very essence of Who He is and we will forever and ever!

Q5 (3:16-17) Why does Paul pray for strengthening of the inner man? The inner man is our spirit, which has been reborn from death to life in Christ. The inner man is where our spiritual battles are fought and where the world's pressure to be conformed, is aimed. The joy of the Lord is our strength, not our muscles or money or outward man...We press into the Lord with a "made up mind" and the strength of the Holy Spirit encouraging us. How would we pray this prayer today? I pray it the same way Paul Prayed it for the Ephesians....can't be improved upon. Why does he pray that Christ dwell in the believers' hearts? Jesus told us in John 15 to "live in me and I will live in you"... In Him we live and move and have our being....but we can choose to live in ourselves in the fleshly realm and grieve the Holy Spirit...Paul is asking us to crucify our flesh, and to allow Christ to dwell on the throne of our lives. Isn't this already an established fact? If we've asked Him to reside there we can also shut Him out through the choice of denying Him the power to reign as King...He never revokes our free will, so Paul is exhorting us to choose to allow Christ to dwell in our hearts.

Q5. (Romans 7:14-25) Christians disagree about who is the "I" in Romans 7. Is Paul referring to himself or others? I think Paul is referring to himself and the struggle he lived before he was born again, but also the internal stuggle of each imperfect believer until we are delivered from this body of flesh. What is your opinion? I read the Bible to see what God is speaking to me. As Paul spoke about himself, I see that I am also the "I" because I too am fallen and in the process of, "I was saved, I am being saved, (my flesh is dying) and I will be saved.(fully, "at that day") I think as each individual reads Romans 7 and Paul's words, it applies to every man/woman. Yes, I'm free in Christ, but since I cannot live a perfect life as Christ lived, I sin at times. This is when I see that I just did "that which I did not want to do (say, think)", but thanks be to God, He will deliver me from this body of death, through Jesus Christ! V25. I walk in the Spirit, but to me this explains those times that I fail....my flesh is dragged around with me and sometimes rises up to have a "say", and then I confess and repent, and thank God that I am no longer unregenerate and without hope...He has given me His Spirit to walk in, so I don't despair. His mercies are new every morning, and one day, I will see Him face to face in my glorious body, where I will no longer have to worry about sin or death....but in the meantime, His blood cleanses me from all sin and unrighteousness, and His Spirit is transforming me into His likeness, one day at a time, but with a few slips here and there. (We won't all agree here, but we'll learn what the issues are by taking and arguing for a position -- lovingly).

Q4. (Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:18-20; Romans 7:24) What is the doctrine of "total depravity"? Put it in your own words. It means that our fallen nature is deceitful and wicked and is untrustworthy to do or be good according to God's standards of Holiness. Does it mean that none of God's original goodness shows through? Then what does it mean? No,the imprint or remnant of who God created us to be, is still there, but is unregenerate. Why does modern man tend to believe that man is basically good? Because we don't want to admit that we are sinners. The teaching of evolution, which is a fraud, teaches that creatures are evolving to be better, and smarter and stronger...all on our own, since they don't believe there is a Creator. How does this differ from what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches that man was created by God in His image in a perfected glorified state, but when Adam and Eve sinned, the human race fell into a depraved state of sin, and death (thank God!) entered in....or we'd be forever in our fallen state. The only way to be redeemed and to enter into relationship with our Creator God once again, is through His Son Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed to cleanse us from our sins, and to bring us back to a righteous state, where we can now choose to do good and to be good through Him.

Q4. (1:18) Why is a revelation of "his incomparably great power for us who believe" essential to a vital faith? The revelation brings the truth to life in our lives. Until we receive a revelation, it's just head knowledge or a concept we've read about. Once we have the revelation...the "ah hah!" , we begin to walk in faith and power, step by step, and from glory to glory. How do you develop this faith in yourself? We are all given faith at the moment of salvation, but I see it as a muscle. A muscle grows by exercising it and then increasing the weight bearing by increments as it gets stronger. I'm not sure I develop my own faith, but would rather say that I exercise the faith He has given me. I do that by trusting Him and following Him where He leads me, by feeding on His Word, through worship, through honesty and prayer in our relationship, by exposing myself to good teaching and fellowship, practicing His Presence day to day. When He has exposed strongholds, I've cooperated with Him in tearing them down. I'm learning to war in the Spirit against the opposition and hindrance by Satan. As I share with others what He has done or is doing in my life, my own faith is strengthened. I keep a journal every day, and I record the special things He does or where I see Him at work in my life or those around me....this builds my faith. How do you pray for it for others? I pray for them to be drawn to Jesus by the Father, as Jesus told us, and that they'll come to faith in Christ. For those who do believe, I pray that they will have a revelation of His incomparable power to believe, and for them to grow in Him.

Q4. (1 Peter 5:10) How has God shown his grace to you and your family? Grace is undeserved favor, and He has showered us with His grace in all areas...First He led us out of Utah and away from the domination of the Mormon culture to Calif. where we heard the Gospel and received Jesus as Lord and Savior, forgiveness of sin, deliverance from demonic oppression. He has led us to an amazing church filled with truth and grace and loving people. He has disciplined us and through the loss of our business, home, car, etc, has grown us in grace and compassion toward others in difficult situations. He's restoring to us the things we lost. Our children are saved. He's healing us from lives of abuse and neglect as children. He led someone to give me a computer, which enables me to do these wonderful studies on line...He provided free eye surgery for my husband when he couldn't see. He is so loving and kind to us...patient. His grace sustains us every day! Why do you think Peter describes him as the God of All Grace? Peter was impetuous and said and did some silly things...for which on one occasion, Jesus told Satan to get behind Him, because Satan was trying to deter Jesus from going to the cross through Peter's words. Peter denied Jesus with curses and oaths, and yet in Jesus' mercy and grace singled Peter out after the Resurrection to make sure Peter knew he'd been forgiven and was still beloved by Jesus. He was greatly used by the Lord after the Ascension into Heaven....Peter was a glowing example of God's amazing Grace.

Q3. (Romans 7:12; 8:3) What does the law do well? It is good and holy and just...pointing out God's standards of holiness, and identifying sin. What does it do poorly? It lacks the power to help us live a holy life. Why is the law (knowing right and wrong) powerless to save us? The law is like a book of instructions on how to assemble something which is lacking the essential "part". What is the problem here? The problem is that we're dead to God until He breathes life through the Holy Spirit into our spirit...that's the "part" that's missing (dead). Until that happens, we have no ability to live a holy life, and then only as we yield to the power of the Holy Spirit to live through us.

Q3. (1:18) What is the result in prayer and faith if believers think that God is poverty-stricken? We live a shriveled up existence and a poverty sticken prayer life. Kind of like the miserly man I read about who scrimped and saved existing on practically nothing, never going anywhere, living in a drafty, run down house, in ratty clothes....unaware that he was a millionaire and had inherited an enormous estate just waiting for him to access, because he couldn't read the notices he received. How does knowledge of a "glorious inheritance" motivate our lives? It motivates us to to live with glorious Hope in the future as well as in the "now" moment of each day. If I feel down about what's going on around me, it causes me to "Look Up", and remember that He is always with me now and has me covered, and that He's coming for His Bride soon to be with Him forever in Heaven. Come Lord Jesus!!!! Our prayers? For me it allows me to pray BIG prayers and it enlarges my faith to believe. How can you pray for others to glimpse this inheritance? That God will open the eyes of their heart to be flooded with light so that they too can know and understand the hope to which He has called them and to His glorious inheritance in His set apart ones.

Q3. How does God's steadfast love in the Old Testament relate to his mission of love in John 3:16? God is the same yesterday, today and forever....He's immutable...never changing. His steadfast love is new every morning...old Testament or New Testament. His constant activity has always been and always will be the rescue of those trapped in a pit, unable to get out on their own....I'm so thankful that He rescued and redeemed my life and He's been doing that for centuries....He redeemed those O.T. saints as they looked forward to the cross, and when He sent His Son to the cross, He redeems N.T. believers as we look back at the cross.....Redemption is His love reaching...reaching....always reaching....

Q2. (Romans 7:7-8) The law reveals sin for what it is. Why wouldn't we be better off just not knowing that we should not covet, for example? If we didn't know we were sinners we wouldn't know we need a Savior...we would be dead in our sins, believing we're ok with God. Why does the flesh respond to being told "Do not covet" by coveting all the more? Our flesh is fallen and in rebellion against God...we want to do what we want to do...like 2 year olds who are told not to touch the stove, are suddenly determined to touch it. The human will is what God gave us to exercise....but since The Fall of Adam and Eve, it is unregenerate and anti God, until we surrender it to the obedience of Christ. Only then do we desire to live a righteous life, and then it's a moment by moment choice to do my own thing or to do His will.

Q2. What does faithfulness have to do with trustworthiness and keeping one's word? They go together. You can't be faithful without being trustworthy. These guarantee God's promises to us...He keeps His Word, because He CANNOT lie. His character forbids being untrue in any way. What does the Faithful God inspire in you? He inspires trust and peace, and the desire to be faithful and trustworthy like my Abba Daddy. Why must faithfulness be part of our character as believers? Because we are created in His image...His character is being developed in us so we will be like Him when we see Him face to face. We are His ambassadors to those around us....saved or unsaved. We are to reflect Him to others.

Q2. (1:18) How has your Christian "hope" changed your way of living? Before I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I was probably clinically depressed...flat...Hope in Him and His promises has totally changed my life. I feel joy, and anticipation. I live with purpose as He guides my steps to fulfill my destiny...that changed too....before Christ, I had no idea that there was a purpose for my life! I didn't know about eternal life...that is so Wonderful to look forward to! I love knowing that He never will leave me nor forsake me, as I was abandoned in childhood. What is the result of Christians with only a meager or minute hope? They probably live much like I used to live.They probably live very much influenced by the world. How would you pray for hope to be borne in others? I love Paul's prayer in Eph.3:16-19.

Q1. (Romans 7:5) Paul uses the word "flesh" (or NIV "sinful nature") many times in chapters 7 and 8. In your own words, what does Paul mean by "flesh" in these verses? When I read "flesh" I think of my mind, will, and emotions in their fallen, unregenerate state. My natural bent to sin. Who I was before I was born again, and that part of me that is dying daily now that I'm in Christ. It's the part of me that has yet to become fully Christlike...I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved....

Q1. Why was God's willingness to forgive essential to Israel's survival in the wilderness? They didn't have the Holy Spirit indwelling them...they were hopeless sinners and could never keep the commandments (like us!). Without His forgiveness, He could have wiped them out and started over.They were in training to learn to trust and rely on Him and to understand that He was their Father and to teach them righteousness and obedience. Was Israel contrite after turning away from the Lord in Exodus 34? God's goodness leads us to repentance. They were grateful for His forgiveness and a fresh start. What is so amazing about God's forgiveness? It is so undeserved! They deserved judgement. We deserve judgement. But He is patient and kind. He says in Ps. 103:14 "For He knows our frame, He earnestly remembers and imprints on His heart that we are dust." His love and mercy are new every morning. we would perish without His forgiveness.

Q1. (1:17-18). What do you learn from Paul's manner of prayer for the Ephesian believers? Paul had God's heart for these saints. He earnestly loved them and wanted them to become all that they could be in Christ, and to know Him in His fullness as Paul did...intimately and powerfully. This was his work...he prayed as if their very faith rested on his prayers. If Christians stopped praying for people to receive a revelation of God, would people come to know God on their own? Scripture teaches that no one comes to Christ unless His Father draws them. The Holy Spirit teaches and leads us into all truth. I believe what our prayers do is intensify the Spirit's work in each life...perhaps by doing spiritual warfare to keep the evil one from snatching away what has already been planted in them. The Father knocked Paul off of his beast, and his training ground was 14 years in the Arabian desert alone with Christ. He was so earnest in his prayers, this must have been by revelation that we are to pray this way for others, to stir them up. Would God work in them at all? Of course He would...once one is a believer in Christ, He promises to never leave nor forsake that one. And His Holy Spirit is always at work in each life. How important is this kind of prayer? I think it's very important, or Paul wouldn't have exhorted us to pray this way.

Q5. What do we miss in our understanding of God if we remove the metaphor of Father and Son from our church vocabulary? We miss the strength, and Headship as our Master, Protector and defender who guards his family, Disciplinarian, Provider, Warrior and Strong Tower, absolute authority over His family in a love relationship with each. It has been said that most people's God is just a little bigger version of themselves. To eliminate The Father and Son metaphor, is to try to reduce Who God is, to fit a smaller version of what suits feminists, or those who haven't been healed from an abusive Father or abusive Pastor or church leadership. I've been a victim of all of those, but that doesn't reduce God from being Who He is. It's simply man/woman's attempt to try to make Him more palatable to their woundedness. He is also the Great Physician, and He heals those wounds....He healed mine by separating the abusers from Himself. He is the lover of my soul...and would never abuse me. Which feminine metaphors of God especially help you understand God's nature? As a mother of 2 children who were breast fed, I love the metaphor of the many breasted One...He is a true nurturer of His children and the breast feeding time between a mother and Child is a precious time of intimate bonding. I love the metaphor of God giving birth, and of comforting His son. He is the ultimate parent with both male and female characteristics, but having had abusive, violent parents, the ones that mean the most to me are the tender side of our God and Father. He is reparenting me with His love.

Q4. In what sense was God the Husband of Israel? He created them, loved them, chose them and was their master and provider. He was in covenant with them, just as the marriage ceremony is the entering into covenant with a spouse. What is the New Testament extension of this metaphor? We believers are the Bride of Christ, and when raptured at the sound of the last trumpet, will celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with Him in Heaven. What causes God to be jealous? leaving Him to go after other "lovers"...or idols.

Q4. (22:43) Did Jesus get "special treatment" because he was the Son of God to have angels help and strengthen him in his spiritual struggle? His Son was at the point of exhaustion after His battle with surrendering His will to the Father.His treatment was a model for His joint heirs, of what we can expect to receive when we need help.God never leaves us nor forsakes us, always providing what we need in comfort, reassurance, help, guidance, etc. Do we get that help, too? Yes, we do, according to Hebrews 1:14 "Are not all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the sevice of God for the assistance of those who are to inherit salvation?" I have personally received that help....just moments before a car crash I was in with my 2 little children, the car lit up with a dazzling, radiant light, glistening off of the chrome in the car. It was a pitch black evening in a blinding rain storm, so the light in the car stunned us. My daughter who was 5 sat up and said "Mommy, what is that bright light???" I told her I didn't know what it was, but at the time it was in the car with us, I was seeing a vision of the car accident I was about to be involved in...a rollover after sliding on black ice across all lanes of the freeway, and ending upside down on the other side of the freeway, with the kids hanging upside down in the seat belts, and since I wasn't wearing one, I ended up in back with them, lying on the roof of the car. I've always been a very fearful person, and one would have expected me to be freaking out. Instead I was stoically calm and peaceful, saying to myself...I'm going to have an accident, maybe I should get in the slow lane or pull off the freeway. Before I could do anything, we were sliding and spinning through what had been a solid wall of trucks and cars in heavy commute traffic. I was the only car involved, and when rescuers pulled us out we only had minor injuries, though it required a trip to the hospital. While being driven there, I was calmly wondering to myself if I'd make it to my art class on time....the angel had done his work, and prevented me from the hysteria which would have been normal for me and would have terrified the children.

Q3. (22:42) When Jesus prayed "not my will, but yours be done," was the Father pleased? Yes, I believe He was. It's always a choice we can make..ours or His. Jesus honored His Father by choosing His will over His own, even though He would rather have had a different way to fulfill it. Why is the Father not pleased when we are passive and uncaring and dispassionate in our prayers that his will be done? Jesus said He'd rather we be hot or cold, rather than lukewarm (uncaring). His expressed desire is that we share His heart and mind in living life and in prayer. He desires an authentic and intimate relationship with Him, which requires honesty and real discussion...tears if necessary. We're His ambassadors on earth and are to represent Him and His viewpoint...which is always caring and compassionate. What is required for us to pray the prayer of submission with authenticity? That I wrestle with Him until my heart is in genuine relinquishment of my will, after letting Him know my preference and what my will is desiring.

Q2. (22:42) Why did Jesus pray that the Father take the cup from him? I believe the weight of sin was beginning to manifest itself, and He was asking if there was any other way to fulfill the will of the Father other than the cross. He was fully God, but also fully human. The cross was a disgraceful way to die, and a heinous torturous death. His humanity shrunk from it, as ours would!He had never been separated from His Father from way back in Eternity, and the cross would separtate them, as the Father could not look upon the sin as His wrath was poured out on "the perfect lamb" for my sins. According to Mark and Matthew, Jesus repeated this prayer three times. Why was he so intense about it? It was crucial to do this thing in a fully surrendered way. No wavering, no looking back, no trying to come down from the cross once He was fastened to it. I believe that each time He prayed, He became more in tune with what was awaiting Him and what He was to do and say to fulfill the many prophecies about the cross. In Jewish law there had to be 3 witnesses to a matter. It may be symbolic in some way, or may be the length of time it took for Him to surrender His will completely to the Father. What did this mean? I think it meant that He was hoping there was another way to do the Father's will, than to carry the weight of the world's sins on His body, and to hang there on a public thoroughfare naked, before His Mother and His sisters...everyone that He knew. The cup of suffering or judgment is mentioned in the Old Testament, as "being drunk to the dregs". I think even His prayer was the fulfillment of O.T. prophecy. It means also that He was fully human...truly the High Priest Who can understand our weaknesses. It would seem odd to me, if He had run to the cross with no shrinking back..if that were the case, I doubt that He could really understand my shrinking back from difficult things. Why was Jesus resisting the Father's will? Or was he? I don't think He was resisting the Father's will. I think He was so in tune with the Father, that after the agony of prayer He would do anything and everything the Father asked of Him.

Q3. In what sense are Jesus and the Father one? Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. They are co-equal, along with the Holy Spirit...the Holy Trinity. They are the source of all that exists...co-Creators of everyone and everything. They are One in Spirit, character, purpose, power...complete unity. In what way was Jesus distinct from the Father? He is a separate personality, as is the Father and yet they are One. Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us and chose to be subordinate to the Will of His Father as He fulfilled perfectly the plan of redemption to "buy" back that which was lost. I love St. Patrick's illustration of the three leaf clover as an illustration of the Holy Trinity. Is Jesus God in the sense that the Father is God? Yes. They, along with the Holy Spirit are the Godhead. In Genesis 1 "Let US create man in Our image after Our likeness"...the Triune God creating the earth. Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Immutable, Pre-existent, eternal.

Q2. How was the intimate way that Jesus taught his disciples about God as "Abba" and "Father" different from the Jews' understanding of God as Father? Their understanding was the O.T. concept of Father as creator, authority, judge of their nation. He was distant, unapproachable, feared. Jesus introduced the Father as His Father, our Father, the personal God and Father, of the individual. How does God as Abba influence your relationship with him? As my Abba Daddy, He is close, intimate, loving, personal..the "crawl up on my lap and into my arms and pour out your heart, your fears, your tears and let me dry them", kind of Abba. He's welcoming, tender, easy to talk to, and I'm eager to listen to Him because I don't fear Him....though I revere Him and esteem Him greatly. This is a miracle of His work in my life, as my Dad was an angry, often violent man who threatened to kill me, my Mother and my brothers. His discipline was severe punishment, and abusive. I began my Christian walk by talking to Jesus only. I wanted nothing to do with the Father, as I was terrified of Him. He has done the miraculous in my life in bringing me out of that place of fear, to where I have none, and have forgiven my Dad, and have come to understand that he was doing to us, what was done to him.