Paula Price

The Pharisees sin is that they rejected Jesus for they did not believe He was the son of God. UNBELIEF is sin. Jesus came to teach a new way to salvation which would full fill and do away with the law of Moses. They did not understand and would not listen to the word of God. The way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. He is the promise that the old law is built on. He came so that all men would have the same right to salvation as the Jews. Here is where He is to began His teachings to the religious leaders of the correct way to salvation. The physical law of forgiveness is being done away with and the spiritual is now being taught. Keeping of the of law is no longer required. Jesus is trying to show them a better way. The only way that is being offered by God. It has not changed from century to century, from generation to generation. It is the same today. God has not changed His plan. Man is trying to change God's plan for their own benefit. All of the many denominations and many different churches and ways of worship are confusing and man made religion. This also is a rejection of Jesus. We must follow the plan of salvation that God has written for us in the New Testament. Belief in Jesus as the son of God is necessary. There is no other way. Then keep the commandments He gave us just as He gave us, no adding to them or subtracting from them. LOVE..........""" if you love me, keep my commandments"". Not the rules and commandments of self and man. God's commandments. The blind man was being introduced and taught as well . He did not understand either. When Jesus said go and sin no more, He was not saying that the man was blind because of his sin. Jesus was saying , now you are healed, go and learn of me and do not sin, for the wages of sin is death. Jesus is trying to prepare the people and teach them to receive the word of God on how to be forgiven of sin so that they may have eternal life with God. Their salvation will be a spiritual one, based on what you belief with the heart. Belief in Jesus is the key and they rejected Him. Jesus healed on the Sabbath Day to set an example and to show of the mercy of God. Everything He did and everything He said was from God. Jesus came to do the will of God His father. He tells us that all through his ministry. We need to believe and accept and follow and obey.

We ask a lot of questions on why Jesus did this and why Jesus did that?? We are no better than the people that He healed in the scriptures. We are no better than those who oppose Him, the religious leaders at this time. The mind of Christ is not for us to wonder. What is important is His message of salvation. Are we going to accept God's grace for the saving of our souls?? The man at the pool was healed but it was the state of his soul that Jesus was concern with. The prostitute was saved from the mop but it was her soul that Jesus was concern with. "Go and sin no more" is the way of living that is required . The belief that a person's illness is the result of sin is false. We would all be sick with some kind of deformity if that were true!! "For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God". Jesus is preparing men for the gospel. Until now only a few have heard him teach. In order to be saved the gospel must be preached to all men. This is what Jesus was sent to do. This is what Jesus is doing during His whole life here on earth. The people do not understand what is being said to them when Jesus speaks. Everyone is not listening with "pure in heart". Jesus is saying that there has to be a sincere change in the way we live and in what we believe. Grace is given as a gift of God but it is not free!! It requires us to do something in order to obtain it!!! God gives it freely but it has to be chosen and followed. There are requirements that are set that must be meet. Jesus isn't saying that the reason the man was crippled was because of his sin. He was telling him that sin would lead him to separation from God. Go and do not sin. Turn from a life of sin and walk in the holiness of God. Jesus is speaking to everyone, not just this man. He is telling us how to have eternal life with God the father. Why are we so caught up in explaining the man's character and what he did and is doing? These are lessons to us as well, to examine our own lives. Jesus's ministry is to teach people the word of God and how to obtain heaven. this is the way God has chosen for us to be redeemed to Him. It is His way of Salvation. It is not our way or what we think. When we choose to follow Christ, we walk in His shoes, we do what He does and say do. The people were not looking for the kind of savior Jesus was. They were looking for a physical King, not a spiritual one. Even the religious leaders did not understand what they were dealing with. All their knowledge of the law did not prepare them for this man Jesus. He was not what they wanted, not what they were looking for, so they rejected Him. We are still rejecting Him today. We still do not understand. What will it take?

God does not perform these kind of miracle anymore because we now live by faith. The reason for these miracles was to show people the power of God so that they would believe. This is a time when God was establishing His word among all men and not just the chosen Jews. Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy of the old scriptures of the Messiah who would make salvation possible for everyone, the world and not just the chosen, the Jews. Miracles happen now in our person lives, but not on the scale as they were in the bible. I do not have the scripture and I know that I need it , where Jesus tells us through His word that we now live by faith in Him and our believe in Him is what is required for salvation. Now that we have the word, the bible, these kind of miracles are no longer needed. God knew that man needed to see signs and wonders in order to believe. It was Jesus's mission to prepare a way of salvation for all man kind through their belief in Him. He came to do the will of God, His father and received instructions through prayer on how to achieve this. Jesus performed these miracles during His teachings and His chosen disciples recorded them as they witnessed them. This would be the written word that would passed on after Jesus died on the cross and ascended back to heaven to sit a the right hand of His father to intercede for us. Revelations speaks of many false prophets who will lead many to believe in the antichrist. Let us be strong in our faith and help others to see the truth as our Lord and Savior has required us to do. We are to continue in the faith and the mission He left for us . To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to salvation to the ends of the world.

We are addressing things of man in these questions, not things of God. Man made denominational churches, it is not scripture. There is one church and Jesus is the head. We should be discussing how to maintain the church of God the way God designed it in His word. The bible is the only word of God and our path to salvation is written in it, therefore, we should be concern with living and doing things God's way, the way he has designed for us, not the way WE THINK it should be.... There is only one God, one church and Jesus Christ has been made the head of all things of the church. As many churches as we seem to claim to have, we say we all believe in one God. .so all of "our" churches should be worshipping the same way, which is the way it is described in the word of God. But let us not forget.. we do not have a church.... we do not have a heaven or hell...... we have chosen to believe in God therefore we must believe in His word. Romans 10:4-13. This is our father's world. He created it and us to worship Him.....It is His will that we are to follow, not our will.....When we confess ours sins and repent, and are baptized in to Christ, God adds us to HIS CHURCH........THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST........ THERE ARE NO DENOMINATIONS...... ONE CHURCH..... ON GOD..... ONE WAY..... HIS WAY!! Why aren't we discussing this???? What does the Bible say concerning these matters???

God used miracles through out the bible to show His power to weak people who would not believe other wise. He used miracles to deliver the Hebrews from bondage, to show His might and power, so they would believe, so that all who witness would believe. God does not have to prove anything to anyone, HE IS GOD. But He knows man is weak and needs to be assured of things in order to believe. Once we see proof of something that we can not explain, we seem to believe in it. That is our nature. There are many who will see these miracles and choose to believe and there are those who will want to believe, but still have doubt. God wants our faith in Him, miracles or not, He wants us to choose belief in Him.....and when we do, miracles happens!!. Only Believe!!!. God rebukes the Galileans because they only want to see Him perform miracles, they do not want to know him, they only want to know and see what He can do for them or what will benefit them. They are treating Him as a performer! One who does tricks to entertain. (Hebrews 11:1) "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen.." A matured faith is built on trusting and believing. Miracles or not....

Jesus does not answer to man but he answers to God His father. He does only what his father tells him to do. He did not come to do the will of man. Jesus has started his mission of bringing salvation to the world, to all men , Jews, Genitals, women,, the whole world. He is spreading the gospel where it has not been received before. Once he sets the pattern his disciples will have the means to do the same, regardless of social customs. Once we accept Christ, he will strengthen us to do what is necessary to reach those who are lost. We need to trust in his word and do his will. We are not to live to the world but to God. God is the answer and his will is to be obeyed. This is our mission, just as it was for Jesus and his disciples.

the scripture said that they came to Jesus to hear him and that they asked him to stay with them , so he stayed two more days. The people were hungry and thirsty for the gospel, for the word of salvation that Jesus was offering. They wanted to learn more of Him. That is what God desires of all of us. To want to learn more of how to be saved and how to please God. He instructed his disciples not to preach in Samaritan villages because it was HIs assignment from God to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Also the custom of the day would not have allow the disciples to be heard there and Jesus knew that they were not prepared and ready for such an assignment yet. They themselves had a lot to learn on how to deliver the gospel in order to be accepted and believed. Jesus is following a pattern that comes from his father. He does not have to follow the customs of man. He is there to break these man made customs and deliver the truth of God for the salvation of all man kind. Remember that up until the birth of Christ, only the Jews had the right to salvation .They were the ones who received the law from God in order that they might show and be an example to the rest of the world on how to have faith, believe and do the will of God in order to receive Salvation and enter into heaven. Jesus came to fulfill this law now so that not only the Jews but every man, Gentiles too, the whole world, can have eternal life with God the father in heaven. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us how to do this. This is Jesus's mission. This is his reason for coming in the flesh.

When Jesus spoke to the woman of receiving the "living water", she in turn asked Him for some so that she would thirst no more. Jesus told her of her sin.. In order for her to receive this water she must confess her sin and repent and live a life free of sin. She did not understand what was being said to her .she did realize that he knew something about her and thought he was a prophet. Jesus has the opportunity to begin a change in the way all people will worship, one person at a time. This woman believed in what she had been taught about worship and believed that a Messiah would come and tell all things. The motive here was Jesus introducing himself as the one who she spoke of, the Messiah. She asked him how she might receive this living water and He is telling her the way to receive it. Though she does not understand, he is telling her that people will no longer worship God in a particular place, but will worship Him from the heart, in spirit and in truth. The heart must be pure from sin and the person must believe in Jesus the Christ. This is different in the way worship is and has been done. Jesus is the living water. Jesus is fulfilling his ministry of including all men, the Gentiles as well as the Jews in the way to Salvation. This was His mission. This was His ministry. I don't focus on what people are trying to do to distract me from doing the will of God. I just try to do what He tells me to do and leave everything else up to him to handle.

The "gift of God" is grace, given to us even though we don't deserve it because of our sin, given through Jesus Christ, who died and took the sin upon himself, to make us whole in the sight of God, to be forgiven of our sin, so that we may have eternal life in and with Him. The living water is Jesus Christ, when we believe (drink) in Him, we are forgiven and redeemed in the eyes of God. Salvation is ours. Eternal life is our. Heaven is ours. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. Those who choose not to believe and receive will die. Those who believe will receive and live.

Jesus did not come to do the will 0f man. He came to fulfill the will of God. it is God's will that man have a way to be forgiven of sin and Jesus is the way. Jesus fulfills the old testament of the savior who will save man from sin. The Messiah. Jesus's talk with the woman at the well was another stepping stone in fulfilling the prophecy that all men, not just the Jews would have the right to eternal life. Until the birth of Christ that right was only to the Jews for they were chosen by God to prepare the way and show the world how to please God and how to do His will. Jesus came so that now the whole world can know God and be heir's to the inheritance of eternal life. Jesus is preparing the way for this great gift to all men. There really is no balance between doing the will of God and being In the culture of the world. We are followers of Christ, therefor. we are to do the will of God. The bible is the way and the only way to do it. God's way is written in the bible, the bible is the word of God. There is no substitute. We are in the world but not of the world. We are to do the will of God, the way God has chosen for us to do it. He is the maker, the master, the potter, the creator and it is His way , or no way. It is in the Book!! The bible. That is why we are studying, to show ourselves approved. the world was concern that Jesus would take their power and position and wealth.. They thought only of material, earthly treasures and things. Jesus came for the spiritual things of God. They did not understand. The fact that He performed miracles that they could not understand, and could not explain, was a sign from God, so that they Would Believe!!! and they refused to believe what their eyes saw.! Jesus was never concern with doing what man wanted. He was concerned with doing the will of God, His father. Everything He said and did He received from God. he said as much, that" he only does the will of Him who sent me". It was never about His will or what He wanted. We need to do the same. Jesus set the example for us to follow and show us the way to achieve it. Walk in the light. Jesus is the light of the world.

Our reward as the chosen people of God is to be in heaven and live with him eternally. That is his promise to those who believe trust and obey Him.

The people, just like the woman must have heard of Jesus but no one had seen him and maybe they were surprised that he would even be in their town. The customs of the times was that Jews and Gentiles did not mix. The Jews were the chosen people and all others were excluded from righteous. Jesus is the Messiah they had been told about who would come and deliver the world from sin. this one woman made an impact because of her testimony of this man who did not live there and did not know her but could tell her about herself and how she lived. She recognized something different about this man and the fact that she spoke to people of him, which she evidently had not done before about any man she met, caused them to be curious enough to go and see for themselves. Jesus said if we would lift up his name, he will draw all men unto him. Our job is to lift up the name of Jesus, to tell others of his saving grace and how to be forgiven of sin.

The "food " in these verses are the gospel. Jesus's passion was to tell a dying world or sinners about the love of God and how to be forgiven of sin so that they may receive eternal life through the belief in Him. Our work is the same as Jesus's was. We are to teach the gospel. We are to tell those who are lost how to be saved and how to walk in the light of the world, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus taught the word of God to everyone He met who wanted to hear. He taught them of God's love for them and what they needed to do in order to be saved from their sins so that they may have eternal life with God. We are to have the same passion and the same mission in our lives ,to tell someone of God's amazing love and be a testimony, a living witness of how God has changed our lives from sin to a live of love and holiness and righteous in Jesus Christ.

All things are made possible through Christ. It is necessary to believe in God's wrath as well as His mercy. If you believe in God you have to believe in every word He speaks. He says that there is wrath for those who chose not to obey his commandments and He has shown His wrath throughout the old scriptures, the old testament. He proved His love by sending his son Jesus to die for our sins, even though we do not deserve it. His grace and mercy is a gift to us. It is how we are able to be forgiven of our sins. When man chooses to believe in Jesus and confess our sins, repent, be baptized and walk in holiness and righteous, we are forgiven and there is no wrath for us.

It was important for Jesus to spend time with his disciples to preach to them and teach them the gospel, the word of God. This was his mission in coming to earth. God send him to be the way of redemption for man to be restored back to God. Jesus knew that He would not be with them always and that they needed to be prepared to carry on the gospel. The disciples were chosen for this purpose. In order for them to be able to save others , they themselves needed to know how to be saved. Jesus came to do the will of God, to show man how to live a life free from sin in order to be reunited with Him, who created man for the purpose of worshipping and serving Him. Jesus did not follow a pattern. He only spoke and did what His father said and told Him to do. he always said that He came to do the will of His father who sent Him. There is only one way of salvation and it has to be God's way. The only way to know God's way is to follow him and spend time with Him and do what he tells you to do and say. Obedience to His word, His will, His way. That is what Jesus taught the disciples.

The disciples heard John say " Behold the Lamb of God" as they watched Jesus walked and followed him. It was always John's purpose , to prepare his followers for the coming of the Messiah. He taught them until Jesus came to take over the role of teacher. John's role as teacher and preparing the way for Jesus has completed it's course now that Jesus has been presented to them. He must decrease so that Jesus can increase.

John's baptism of water is to physically wash away the sin of the person who has confessed and repented. Once immersed and we come up out of the water, we are a new creature. There is a change in our hearts to live free of sin. To live according to the will of God. We have accept Jesus and now wait to be complete in Him, Filled with righteous and holiness. It is after our confession and repentance and washing away of our sins, that our bodies and minds are right to receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of God. We are now ready to begin our lives in Christ. The Spirit of God can only live in a clean sinless heart. That is the purpose of water baptism. It washes us white, clean from sin and prepares us to receive the spiritual things of God. the Holy Spirit lives in each Christian but performs differently in us according to our need and God's purpose for us. We are now used for the glory of God which shines in our lives and the way we live. We are able to testify to others of God's mercy and grace and lift up His name so that he can draw all men unto Him. I am often concern with how we explain the gift of the Holy Spirit which fell on the Apostles at Pentecost. We need to reread it carefully and realize that He fell on the Apostles and they spoke in tongues, so that those who were there were able to hear the gospel in there own native language. "Tongues" here means language. This was a meeting where different cultures were gathered and they all spoke different languages according to the region they were from. There were those who where amazed that they could understand what the Apostles were saying, and knew that they were not educated men, just fishermen and had know way of knowing how to speak the different dialects. Also the Holy Spirit was promised to the disciples when Jesus ascended back to heaven just for that purpose. At this time the gospel had not yet been preached to the people so the Holy Spirit would not have fallen on those who had not heard the gospel and accept it yet. The Holy Spirit, at this time was given so that people would see, hear and believe. The same thing applies to the miracles and wonders the Disciples performed. All done so that people would know and see God and believe.

John was born from his mother's womb filled with the Holy Spirit. He knew his purpose because it was revealed to him from God. We do not know much about his early childhood, we only know what God has revealed of him through scripture. I do not quite know why the questions ask of our opinions. We are to accept the word of God as truth whether we understand it or not. Faith is believing in things seen and unseen. What I read of John the Baptist is that he was a humble servant doing the will of God. It was never about him, but rather about what God did through him. He was born to prepare the way for Jesus and that is what he did. He was not acting on his own but acting on the will of God. Just as Jesus did. Because of this, we are now to do the same thing. We are to tell the world of the wages of sin and preach the gospel just as John the baptize it. When we do the will of God, He equips us with what we need to fulfill His purpose. We do nothing on our own but be a will vessel to be used for his glory.

John baptized with water, to wash away the sin and to symbolize a new person, free from sin once repentance takes place. He was to prepare the way for one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Baptizing is required to cleans the body and spirit form sin so that it can be pure to receive the Holy Spirit. To those John baptized it was a turning point in their lives. They believed in what John preached about the Messiah and King coming who would forgive and make new and whole. they wanted to be free spiritually from sin and to live according to the will of God.

John the Baptist was being hassled by the religious leaders because they considered themselves keeper of the law and John the Baptist was not one of them. They did not understand his role and what his purpose was and did not want him to divide the people between the law that they taught and what it was that John was proclaiming. There was such a large following of John and much talk about him baptizing, that they were concerned that he was teaching something contrary to the law they taught . John understood his mission by the Holy Spirit. He knew and was doing what he was born to do. He was not swayed by those who considered themselves the religious authorities. He was only obeying the voice of God as he spoke to him.. he was being obedient to God and not to man. There was much conflict because John the Baptist was finally beheaded. He preached against sin and urged everyone to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sin. he was preparing the way for the Savior of the world who would show them a better way of life and the glory of God which would save them from their sins. The government and rulers did not understand that this was to be a spiritual movement, a individual choice people needed to make. They only thought in the realm of the physical things. they thought there would be a physical battle with kings and armies to take over the ruling government.

John recognizes Jesus as being fully God. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Jesus is the word of God. Jesus and God are one, They were in the beginning and shall be forever, AMEN. And the word was made flesh. Jesus , God's word was sent as flesh into the world. We may not understand it, but we must believe it, for God said so, therefor it is true.

This was an opportunity for Mary to introduce her son as the Messiah to her family and friends on a big scale. Until now He was not known to all the family or the people who came from far and wide. There were still many who were not aware of who Jesus was and this was center stage, to let people know just who her son was. By asking him to do this at a big important event, the word would spread fast and would reach many when the guest returned to their homes. Jesus was not ready to begin his ministry here, at this place. He receives His instructions from His father per prayer, as to what God wants Him to do. He is not doing His will, but the Fathers will in every aspect of His life and ministry. He states this through out His ministry, "I do the will of my father, who sent me". Jesus prays faithfully before doing anything!. He does only what He is told to do by His Father. Jesus had already been told where to go and when to start His ministry. He was on His way to Jerusalem to teach in the Synagoues for their Holy Festivities. That is were His ministry was to began. It was to be His introduction to the religious community, and to the people. He was suppose to go and teach and tell of what God wanted for his people. That is what he meant when He say it was not yet His time. He knew that doing this would reveal Him as the Messiah. But this wasn't the place for or time yet for Him to be known. He needed to preach and teach the gospel before doing wonders so that people would hear the word of God first. The wonders and miracles would show proof of who he is so that they would believe the word of him when he told them. That is how God wanted to introduce His son to the world. The world needed to hear the word of God and they needed to hear it through Jesus for that was the promise God gave to Israel, His chosen people. Now at this wedding , he is being revealed before completing the assignment he was sent to do! Now, why does Jesus perform the miracle?? It is the will of God that He is obedient to his parents and honors them, just a God expects obedience from us. Mary knew this and perhaps in her eagerness to let people know who her son was, she over stepped and did not realize that God had his own time for his son to be known. But God allowed it .!!! I am not sure as to why Jesus addressed Mary in that way. Perhaps He wanted her to know that it was more important for Him to do God's will, His heavenly Father's will, and that her role as his mother did not override that. She was not as important. What she wanted him to do was not to be before what God wanted him to do. He was not here to do her will. At any rate, He performed the miracle. The wine was beyond anything that was produced on earth!! And it could not be explained nor denied that it happened! The glory of God revealed at a wedding!!.

Joshua's challenge question was are you friend or enemy? Up until this time, God had only made himself known to Joshua through spoken word. Now he is in the flesh and Joshua is not aware of who it is before him. He is caught off guard so to speak, not expecting God to appear before him to lead the people. Now God is demanding the people to follow HIM, and not Joshua. There is no substitute . God is the power and the commander of his army... We are to follow him and do his will in all thing... He has trained his people through obedience to do his will and now he is leading the charge in battle.....

The manna stopped because God made provisions for them to be able to grow food on their own land. The manna was to sustain them until that time .,"

Let us not loose the focus on the lesson here. It is all bout GOD and what he can do!!! Joshua is following the commandments of God. He is doing everything that God is commanding him to do. The stones from the Jordan are to be a testimony of the power of God. How else could they have gotten there from the bottom of the Jordan River??? In that day and time??????? There were no other stones such as those from the bottom of the river sitting around on shore!!!!!!! Generations will view them and ask how they got there.!! They shall not be moved. God said so!!!!!!!! We are not talking about pebbles or bricks that a man can easily lift!!!! These stones are proof of the power of living God!!!!! He gave the strength to remove them from the bottom of the river before he return the water to flow again..!!! It is important to pass on our history to the next generation. Our children today do not understand the struggles we went through because there is no history of it and it is not being told to them. We want things to be better for them than they were for us so we share our struggle, just our triumphs over overcoming. God wants us to remember who he is and what he has done and what he will continue to do for his children who are faithful and obedient. It is not about us. It is all about God!!!! He uses man to show his power, how else would we believe it???? We have to see the physical with our eyes!!! God made us so he knows that!..