Bianca

God wants us to love others and care about others not just give a religious ritual. A person can go through all the rituals that may sound good but their heart is still not right. The Pharisees thought themselves to be better then sinners. They felt they were not the sinners but righteous before God but they needed a saviour to. Jesus loved the sinners because that's what he came for and everyone was a sinner and needed a saviour. Just like Jesus love the lost, we to are required to the love the lost. We were once lost to and didn't understand things. So that is something that I definitely need to remember. Jesus was and is the spiritual doctor because he came to cleanse us from our sin. Our souls needed saving and that's what Jesus did.

We shouldn't be like the Jewish priest or the levite. We are called to care about others of a different race and background. God loves everyone and cares about everyone so should we. A neighbor is anyone we see in need of help. Not just our next door neighbor. Anyone The Lord leads us to. I like to help whoever the Lord leads me to help. Sometimes God does ask us to go out of our comfort zones to help others. But that's a good thing. It keeps us from just always doing things in the same way all the time and getting into a routine. Such as for example, I only help this person or do this or that at a specific time. We should always be open minded to however The Lord wants to work.

No being wealthy is not a sin. It's where the person's heart is at with what to do with the money. Being wealthy can be a big blessing to God's kingdom if the money is in the right person's hand with a godly love for wanting to bless others according to how God leads them. The rich man's sin was selfishness and thinking of himself and hoarding. He was rich to himself but not being Rich towards God with his heart and wealth. Greed can come up in different ways. Afraid to give to others and even poor people will hoard and can be afraid to give any money because of fear of having less than what they already have. Hoarding doesn't make things better. I have watch people do this and it still didn't make them have more. Christians being to focus on material things and hoarding money can cause them to lose sight of what it really means to serve Jesus and loving others.

What is in a person's heart the mouth will speak. A person can't keep hiding it. It will come out. Their words will let you know what is really going on with a person. For example If a person is fearful about something they can't hide it to long. It will come out. A true disciple will produce good fruit and right works according to God's word. A false leader will produce poor quality work and lead others astray. It is important in churches so people will know who to trust to keep them from being deceive. This is something good for the pastor to recognize(if their corrupt) in order to protect the congregation. No one is perfect. If a person cannot recognize the difference between a flawed leader and a false prophet, then it can cause the person to falsely accuse someone of things that are not true and can cause Much damage to that person's reputation. There is Always room for improvement in all of us.

It can be fallen human nature to want to be noticed and be first. Sometimes humans feel like they got to exalt themselves before others when it's not time instead of waiting on God to exalt them. God has made it very clear if a person try to exalt themselves before others he will have a way to humble them. Sometimes when a person is exalted to higher position it can cause a person to get lifted up into pride. So Jesus wanted them to guard their hearts and also us to. The danger is we can get out of control and get lifted up into pride and go in the wrong direction and it can end up truly costing us.

The pharisee thought because of his so called good deeds that made him better than others. This same thing happens today. People pick and pull certain sins and say how awful it is but look past other things that seem lesser. Having a prideful behavior. Looking at his own so called righteousness as the standard. The tax collector recognized that he was a sinner and he needed help. Help from God and that nothing he could do could make him righteous before God with his own works. He knew he needed God's mercy. Prideful behavior can cause this in individuals. Always wanting to look the best in front of others not wanting to feel shame or embarrassment. He wanted them to understand that having a prideful behavior doesn't get you anywhere with God. We all need to humble ourselves before God and realize it is because of him we have anything.

It is important to keep us from doing the wrong things. Listening to Jesus and doing as he says will save us unnecessary trouble. Trouble that could be avoided. Things can also happen quicker in our life by being obedient. Plus we want God's best so we need to obey and listen. Acting independently can cause many troubles and confusion. Listening to the wrong voices can cause people to stray. A person wanting to do things in their own way instead of doing it God's way can cause people to stray.

A person has to be very serious about following Jesus and being one of his disciples. They can't put anything else first. You can't keep living an old lifestyle and saying you Love Jesus and doing whatever you want to do. When he calls you now is the time to change. There is only so much time left to let people know about the kingdom of God. We don't know the day when Jesus is coming back and we don't know how much time a person has before it is to late. A person priority has to be what Jesus wants first. Whatever his instructions are to the person they need to follow. They can't put parents or anything else first. Jesus must be first.

The cares of this life. Being too obsessed with things in this life can choke the word and stop it from working as it should. A true follower will do what Jesus says and seek to become more like him. A person holding a belief system like to go by certain rituals and rules to impress men or trying to impress God. We can't get to God in that way. Or they come up with their own so called Christian way of thinking or belief system saying they are serving Jesus when truly in their heart they are not. They still want to do things their own way and live like the world is living. I need to try not to idolize things in this life and make sure things in this life keeps it's place which is after Jesus. Material things can be good but not worth pulling aways from The Lord

These people does not have true root in the word. They may seem happy about it at first but there wasn't a true change to start truly following Jesus and his words. This happens all the time. If trials come along or tests they want to back off of it and go back to the way it was before. We have to be truly serious when we say we want to follow the Lord and must understand that things will not always be easy because just like God is working so is Satan.

It is symbolic to The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is flowing through every believer and is flowing everywhere here on earth. He is always present whether someone gets a physical feeling of something or not. He is unseen but present. The Lord creates the spiritual thirst within people. The promises have been fulfilled with the outpouring of The Holy Spirit on the day of pentecost. The Holy Spirit is constantly manifesting himself through us to be a blessing to others.

We're getting a fresh start a new life. We can't have this unless we have been born again. We been wipe clean of our sins just like a baby getting a new beginning by being born. The wind may go here and there whichever way it pleases so The Holy Spirit does whatever he pleases and goes where he wants to go and does what he wants to do. The Holy Spirit is beyond us and cannot be manipulated.

God is a generous and fair God. It may offend others when he chooses to do this or that for another and they haven't done as much as someone else has done within the kingdom but that's how wonderful of God he is. Just like with salvation we didn't deserve but God did it anyway out of his Great love for us. I believe it's our fallen nature. Because human beings in general like to be recognized for their good deeds. When we see others get things that we feel we put a lot of effort in to earn might feel like they didn't deserve it but we did because of everything we done. We need to do things with a heart of love and faith and know that God hasn't forgotten our works of love. We have to avoid feeling this way because it can turn into pride which God hates a prideful behavior.

There will be a permanent separation between the righteous and unrighteous. There will be a final judgment of the wicked. It encourages us that all of the wickedness in this world will come to an end. That the wicked if they don't change will have to be judge and righteousness will reign forever.

I believe his selfishness and lack of concern for others that were in need which is basically hoarding and being greedy cause him to go hell. Since he didn't have concern for others which was his neighbor Lazarus. He didn't fully realize he was also ignoring God and his commands which was ultimately going to be his permanent downfall. In hell he wants Lazarus to help him but he has to remember that he wasn't kind to him or more than likely others the way he supposed to be. I believe we need to Truly care about others and what God says(his rules) because there are eternal consequences that we will have to deal with if we don't. Giving to others as God instructs me. That can be food money or anything else.