cezhead

I think it's difficult to believe in demons because so many people are so skeptical.I find it interesting that people don't want to believe in the spiritual realm, but yet they talk about vampires as if they were real. The existence of demons explains much of our troubles because they constantly work to lure us away from God with temptation and appealing to our flesh. We stand a good chance of victory because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. He gives us the power to defeat satan, but we still have to make the choice to say no.

To be holy is to be set apart for Him. It is to be separate from the world and chosen for His purposes. We can stand blameless before Him in the sense that the price for our sin has already been paid and God sees us through the lens of the cross, as white as snow. It's just the same as a criminal in court being pronounced not guilty : he looks the same, but once he is exonerated, everyone looks at him differently.

I really can't think of anything scary about predestination. It's comforting to know that he already has everything planned out and He knows what's going to happen before it does. I think Paul brings it up for the same reason he praises God for it : since everything is already planned out, all we have to do is follow Him and trust in Him. We still must seek Him for the steps we are to take, but the reults are already apparent to our Lord.

To be "in Christ" is to be part of Him, to be His, to live in him just as we lived in our mother's womb. The implications are that I can't be separated from Him and that He truly does love me because I am part of Him.

We should support ministries because they do the work of spreading the gospel and witnessing for Christ so others might be saved. This is honorable work and by supporting them, we partner with them in spreading the truth, and we will be blessed as well. Without our support, this would not be possible.

To refuse hospitality to the false teachers is to not welcome into our church family and to resist them. This is to protect the flock from the wolves satan likes to send in to try to lead us away from the truth. To tolerate something is to know that it is not good but doing nothing. We can tolerate poor manners or strange dress in our congregation because these things do not distract us from the truth of the Gospel. However, it becomes stupid when something or someone teaches something that is clearly not the truth and we allow them to infect our family and lead us away from the truth. Someone could use this verse to support denominationalism, but they would be wrong because John calls it evil.

Running ahead of Christ in anything is foolishness. There are no "deeper truths" than those taught by the Creator. If we try to get ahead of Him with our plans or intentions, we will surely fall. Running ahead tells God we are smarter than He is and we don't need Him. To "abide" in His teachings is to live in them, or make them a part of every part of our lives. Just reading them or hearing them preached is a start. Then, we must take these words, plant them in our hearts, and focus on them every waking moment.

The second question actually answers the first. We are to keep ourselves from idols so they won't keep us separated from God.

The two conditions to answered prayer is to ask according to His will and to know that He hears us. To find His will, we can search the scriptures as well as seek Him in prayer. If we ask according to our will, He may not hear us or He may give us what we ask for and let it teach us a lesson.

To say that life is in the Christian church is to say that Christ is inconsequential. Our lives are of course found in Christ who is the Life giver. The church is made up of people who have found their life in Him. When we teach, we must teach directly from the scriptures and not adding our own spin or opinions. The Lord didn't need us when He wrote them and He doesn't need us to put in our two cents worth. To teach religion is to teach a set of rules and traditions developed by man. To teach relationship is to teach us to seek Christ. Just "faith" is actually trusting in someone or something. Faith in Christ is knowing He exists even though we haven't seen Him and allowing ourselves to let go of our unbelief.

Our fear toward God should be similar to that of our fear of our earthly father : one of respect and awe. We have no need to be "afraid" of God, just be supremely reverent of Him. A lack of reverence, in my opinion, shows a lack of true faith. We really need not fear anyone or anything, even though we all do. However, God's love in us allows us to be confident about Jesus' return, and our hope for eternity.

The Holy Spirit of truth living in us is far greater than satan or any of His demons. It stops satan from convincing us his lies are true, and we also can discern the false prophets from the real one because the truth lives in us. We have overcome the false prophets because we put our faith and belief in the word of God and not of man, and it will continue to protect us the same way in the future. If we know the real thing, it will be much harder to fool us.

If we don't believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, then everything He did and said was a lie, and the crucifixion was for nothing. If we don't believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, then satan has won because then all of us are doomed to eternity in hell. The implications of Jesus living out His life as a human is that He experienced all the things we do so He can relate to us, even though He did not sin. The significance of Jesus being God incarnate is staggering. God sacrificed greatly for us. His love for us is so great that He CHOSE to die for us, and then to give us hope, and a bridge to God that we didn't have before.

Obedience is another way of saying "keeping His commandments". Keeping His commandments pleases God, and it also pleases Him to bless His children. I believe that there is no such thing as unanswered prayer. God will ALWAYS answer prayer. His answers are yes, no, and wait. Just because we don't get the answer we want does not mean He didn't answer our prayer.

i think our enemy satan can use our anger to his advantage and turn it into hatred. When we allow an offense to build up within us and turn to hatred, the the enemy has us right where he want us. We begin to deceive ourselves into thinking that our anger is justified. As we justify our anger, the person who offended us becomes the target of our anger. As we see them as the target, they become the source. By allowing our anger to turn into hatred, the love we had for the person is covered. When the love goes away, our hearts are distanced from them and it is very similar to murder. The best way I know of getting rid of our anger toward someone is through forgiveness. Many people much wiser than me have said that forgiveness is as much for me as it is for the person I am forgiving. I have heard it said that not forgiving somone and harboring hatred toward them is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to get sick.

Cain resented Abel for much the same reason much of the world resents those of us who put our faith in Jesus : the see righteousness. Of course they don't see our righteousness, they see God's righteousness in us. Cain killed Abel in hopes of getting his inheritance This backfired of course because their father would not bless him. I have experienced this to a certain extent in my own family. I have two older brothers and neither one of them have spoken to me in over 8 years and part of the reason is, I believe, my faith.

I think this passage proves to the false teachers that there is redemption through Christ even if we do sin. The false teachers wanted everyone to believe that once they sinned, it was all over. However, John tells us, from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that as long as we abide in him, we do not sin. This doesn't mean we truly don't sin, just that when the Father looks at our sin, He sees Jesus. It seems to me that the false teachers wanted people to follow the law out of fear or obligation, whereas John teaches us that obedience to the law is a result of falling in love with the Lover of our soul.

God's seed in us causes us to see things from his perspective instead of the world's. Instead of moral relativism, we see what is good and bad and make choices which reflect the will of God. The Holy spirit is our helper and He empowers us to get back up when we fall.

If we live with the expectation that Jesus' return is imminent, then we will live our lives in preparation for that moment. We will live an obedient life with a true love and zeal for the Lord.We are purified by God's grace because it is His grace that allows us an infinite number of second chances as long as we have a repentant heart.

We are children of God because we have been adopted by Him and born again by the Holy Spirit living in us. This changes us because it helps us to see everything in a whole new perspective : God's perspective. If we have truly repented and the Holy Spirit lives in us, we will truly see everything in a new light.

The Holy Spirit is an internal guide because he speaks to us in our spirit to help us avoid sin. However, I emphasize HELPER. He doesn't stop us, He just offers advice. He teaches us by opening our eyes to the truth of scripture so we can understand.

The "anointing" that John speaks of is what the King James calls "unction" and is synonymous with the Holy Spirit. This is why once we receive the Holy Spirit and are anointed with Him (we "put Him on"), scripture begins to make sense and the "light goes on ". My opinion is that not every Christian automatically receives this anointing unless they specifically seek it or ask for it.

THE antichrist is a spirit which will come into the world and mark the beginning of the end times. It is this spirit that will start the movement against those who worship Jesus as the Christ, very much the way Islam teaches. Antichrists in the church are those who deny Jesus is the Christ. My opinion is that antichrists are anyone who denies ANYTHING in scripture. Antichrists are everywhere in our daily lives : the aforementioned Islamists, atheists, Bill Maher, even other religions or cults such as Mormons.

The "world" in this context is our society and it's ideology and culture which are enmity with God. The world has chosen it's own way instead of the way of the Lord and every day we pay the price with murder, abortion, etc. , etc. To "love" the world is to prefer it's ways and methods and morals over that of God's. In this sense we are worshiping Satan because anything that takes on more importance or preference than God is an idol, and by giving ourselves to this system we worship it.

I think he encourages fathers because they are the leaders of their families, and young men and children so that they don't wander off the path of righteousness. He encourages them by reminding them of who they are in Christ and what the scriptures say about them. he also reminds them of God's commandments and how He wants us to live our lives.