Janzie

The servants went out and they gathered together all they had found from the highways whom they found, both bad and good. The poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. We the Body of Christ to witness and bring people to Christ and the born again experience that they might really know Him. We have a multicultural Church and we take in anyone who is hungry for God and searching and want to give their life to Christ. We have an Saturday program where we witness with pizza to the homeless, connect groups, a Christian school, Make us one conference, etc.

His people Israel, the Pharisees and Jewish religious establishment. Our excuses are an insult to God. It is his mercy that we are not consumed! We need to spend more time with the Savior and hear from Him. This will enable us to have the power to do His will by the Holy Spirit.

So concerned with keeping the law and really not keeping it. Not believing and receiving Christ. Crucifying Christ their sacrifice for sin and their only help and deliverer. Not spending time with the Lord and in the Word. We need to stay close to the Lord and depend on Him. He is the One that really changes things. We can't depend on ourselves. In this world of sin and distractions we can't afford to not spend time with the Lord. The enemy will do everything in his power to distract us from spending time with the Lord and in His Word. We need to repent and get back in the Lord's plan for us. Being cultivated and refreshed by the Word of God. We need to think on the Lord and all His greatness and all He has given us to succeed - His blood, The Armor of God , His Spirit, Fruits of the Spirit, His promises, His Word, Grace, a New Birth, His Presence.,etc. We need to think on what He has done all over the World for everyone who receives Him, He has given them New Life. What an amazing God! We can't comprehend His greatness, only by the Spirit of God and He has given His Spirit to us so that we can.

I see justice that when the unmerciful servant would not forgive the servant of a much smaller amount than he, even though he was forgiven of the great debt that he was found out and put into prison himself. I see grace in that the unmerciful servant after begging was forgiven of his great debt. I see greed in that he was not thankful after being forgiven and went after the servant that owed him a little debt and threw him in prison. I see unforgiveness after his being forgiven he did not extend grace and forgive his servant of the little debt he owed and grabbed him by the neck and choked him and demanded immediate payment and showed no mercy like he received. We are to forgive people from the heart, not just lip service, but to show mercy and grace. "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15)

Does it matter? She went to see Jesus as she had heard His teachings and and was touched by His teachings, weeping she repented of her sins, and anointed His feet with precious perfume and showed her love to Him by kissing He feet, washing them with her hair. She was so thankful! Because I am In my later years, I have been through some illnesses, I realize how Faithful the Lord has been to me, how He has worked in my life and how thankful I should be for every little thing. Swallowing, having an appetite, walking, seeing, hearing, motivation, His provision, His love, His mercy, His grace, His Faithfulness, how I am fearfully and wonderfully made and everything works together in my body for good and I can go on and on. How He has given His life for me, His shed blood, forgiveness, healing, and deliverance. He has given me His blood, His Holy Spirit, My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, His righteousness, Fruits of the Spirit, the Armor of God and He is changing me. 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We are to be thankful in all things, spend time in prayer, spend time in intimate relationship with the Lord. Do His will, not my will, and stay close to His Word. (Proverbs 4:20-22)My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

That the Father is looking for lost sinners and when they are found, come back to Him, He rejoices! The Father operates with love and compassion, forgiveness, grace and mercy. He holds his fathers values in wanting to live a righteous life. He lacks them in his attitude, jealousy and in thinking he was better than his brother. We are to seek after the lost and tell them of our testimony, what Jesus did for us in taking our sin and that we can be free. God is willing to receive them with open arms and they too can receive Christ in their hearts and that they can be delivered.

How much He loves us and never gives up on us. How He has given us of His grace, favor and mercy. And when we stray He continues to chase after us and draw us to Himself. Jesus seeks and saves the lost. That is why He met with sinners and tax collectors. The Pharises who didn't need Him because they felt right and good in their own eyes in obeying the law, but they never did and couldn't keep it. So they murmured and complained because thought they were better than everyone else and that Jesus mixed with sinners. We should get to know people and shine the light of Jesus in us. Seeking what their needs are, pray with them and lead them to Jesus and tell them How much He loves them and cares for them and what He has done for them.

I am Janzie. I am so happy to be back at this Bible study. It is a must. We need to be in the Word every day because it is powerful and changes us. I live in Rochester, NY and have lived here all my life. I am a senior who enjoys gardening and cooking and studying the Word. Looking forward to His Word being planted in my heart.

The Spirit works in us after we are saved, as He works in us to will and do of His good pleasure. He helps us to grow as we listen to His voice. This is a process of working out our salvation as it is making us more like Christ, our sanctification. A person's life changes when they put their faith in Jesus. He lets us know that we are in the world and not of it. You see more and more the lies and corruption of this world. Even little things that we see bother us like a piece of paper on the floor at church, needs to be picked up and tossed in a pail. Getting more into the Word and out of TV or entertaining ourselves. We make it a point to care about someone with God's love and compassion. The Lord is making us more like Him every day. He is changing us from glory to glory. We draw out the fruits of the Spirit - Love , joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, kindness, self control, and faithfulness. If there is no discernable change we have to question whether the person is really born again.

The Holy Spirit works in our lives to prepare us for salvation by revelation, by persistent conviction, The Father drawing us and by grace to those who believed. The Spirit's revelation is important to faith because revelation brings faith. I have seen the Father draw people to Christ at an altar call in church as the person is convicted of sin through the preaching of the Word and drawn by the Spirit to give their lives to Christ. Or, they may have heard the Word that night and in the quietness of their bedroom, convicted of their way of living, commit their life to Christ. The role of free will in our salvation is that we have the right to choose. God doesn't force us. He has given us a will , a free response to God's unconditional love. We need to make a decision.

The idea of earning salvation by being good enough for God distorts the essential gospel because it is depending on oneself, not on the mercy and grace of God. We cannot save ourselves no matter how good we are. Paul tried it - it didnt work! If we think we can earn salvation there is no need for the cross. But indeed there is....Our sins need to be nailed to the cross, crucified with Christ that we may receive His freedom and live unto Him. It affects our thinking that we are good enough and can keep ever law to please God - we cannot. It only makes us feel self righteous, prideful, we think we are better than someone else. We need to love others, have compassion on them, not in competition with them. It is a gift, by His mercy He rescued us. Works-righteousness is ingrained in people because we were taught if you do this, you will get that, but you always have to do something first. We never think we should get a gift we don't deserve. We have also learned a lot about being independent, and depend on ourselves alot. Understanding that grace is a gift of God, not of any works that we have done or by anything we have done to earn it, but by His unconditional love and mercy and favor.

We have been rescued from a life without God, a life of sin and spiritual death. He personally rescued me from a bad marriage and in my desperation, a friend told me about Jesus. I cried out to him, put my trust in Him and He rescued me. As soon as I put my trust in God, He gave me favor and showered me with His wonderful grace and salvation.

The natural man born with a tendency to sin cannot just stop sinning. He needs a Savior. We could not pay for our own sins. God loved us so much that He had a plan since the beginning of time to save His people from the sin of Adam. Ever since Adam sinned, sin passed upon everyone born after him. We needed to see our need of a Savior. We just needed to respond to His love when we realized we could not make it on our own. Jesus knew why He came to this earth to die. He was born of a virgin (human), overshadowed by the Holy Ghost (God). He came to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin, shedding His blood, died, buried and rose again and ascended to heaven to take care of all sin but we need to respond and trust Him. Jesus in the perfect, precious holy lamb of God that paid for our sins once and for all. He is Holy, precious, meek, humble, with spot or blemish. He is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, our Savior, the perfect offering for our sin

We have been redeemed from slavery because Jesus died on the cross, sheding His blood and paid the penalty for our sin that we might go free. We have been freed from the bondages and slavery of sin. The price of our freedom was the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Because we now have the Holy Spirit living within us, we are now free to choose to live by the spirit unto God. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11 We can still be slaves unto sin if we choose to: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:22

The Bible says that - All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) There is none righteous, no not one - (Romans 3:10) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I Corinthians 2:14 Adam's transgression: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned Romans 5:12 Christ- the Last Adam: But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. When someone tells us about Jesus and that he loved us enough to die in our place and take our sins on the cross and forgive us, and we believe and receive Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are born again. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 After Christ was resurrected and went to the Father, He sent us His Holy Spirit to live in us. (1Corinthians 6:19) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? Yes, we can chose to sin, but the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to make the right choice and not sin, to choose right.

The word says where your treasure is, there your heart is also. He was rich, young, and worldly did not want to give up everything. He needed to trust and believe in God. His love for money and things did not allow him to give up his goods and money to receive Eternal life. Yes, he needs a miracle to change his heart. Probably the richer you are the harder it is to give up all because they are used to a rich lifestyle. Those who have less and suffered some are more willing to give and believe God. We can't save ourselves no matter what we do, but God comes to us in our need and reveals Himself to us. Pouring His wonderful Grace on us and we respond to His love.

The thief knew he was guilty and Jesus was innocent. He believed Jesus was the Messiah. He knew he was getting what he deserved. The thief was repentant and said to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus by His grace forgave him and said to him, today you will be with me in paradise. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. This sinner deserved death, but God's grace triumphed.

It teaches us how much God loves us and how patient He is in waiting for us to come to our senses. How willing He is to receive us with open arms as we repent and comeback to Him and even celebrates our return. His love for us motivates His grace!

The servant owed so much to his master and his master had mercy on him and forgave him his debt and let him go free. The forgiven servant withholds grace because he sees his fellow servant that owed him 100 denarii and would not forgive him but had him thrown into jail, even though he begged forgiveness. No, we need to forgive others just as God forgives us. If we don't forgive others, God will not forgive us.

Maybe He wanted to draw out who would have mercy on him - A Samaritan. The story goes -A certain man fell among thieves was beaten and left for dead. The priest and the Levite, did not have compassion on him and crossed to the other side. The Samaritan saw the injured man and had compassion on him, bound up his wounds, set him on his own beast and brought him to an Inn and cared for him and left giving the Innkeeper some money to let him stay till he gets well and if he needs more I will pay you when I get back. He showed undeserved favor by caring and having compassion and mercy to the stranger. He was showing love and compassion to an enemy (the Samaritans and Jews hated each other). God's Word say to love your enemies. Russian Jews elderly. Just in checking on them and know that they have a friend who cares for them. Cooking a meal, caring for them and letting them know they can count on you.

Because He loved us so much, His Creation, made in His image, seen our predicament, by sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to die in our place, to save us from an eternal hell. So in His wisdom made a way by us hearing the Gospel and believing and trusting in Him, not ourselves. He gave His life for us, even though we didn't deserve it. One motivates the other - Love gives! Love motivates the gift. Because of God's love for us, He continues to give us grace/favor in our relationship with Him.

The attitude that they don't have to repent - that they can be justified of sin without repentance. No, "Grace" is not about merit, deservedness, or obligation, but about an unexplained love, generosity, and giving on the part of the giver. Grace is "favor that is neither earned nor deserved. What is costly about grace is that Christ gave His life for it, for us.

Any kind of good that comes out of me like goodness, kindness, love is all because of Christ in me. He even gives me the Love to love Him with! Both - good -Because we were made in God's image and bad - because - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? A deceitful heart shows up as sin - out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander, cheating, stealing, hateing someone, lying, etc Many people don't even know they have a deceitful heart and sometimes they are even surprised that they do the things they do and why they did it.

They teach me that before Christ came into my heart I was a child of wrath, leading my own life and doing what I pleased. I tried to be good but it did not work out. I did not have Christ in my life. I motivated my own actions and do what I pleased or deceived by the devil. The conscious were motivated by myself. The unconscious were when the devil deceived and tricked me without knowing it and realized it later.

In our human state we were utterly helpless. We wouldn't even die for a friend even, but Christ loved us so much that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. His great love for us in wanting to save us.