JOLLAM BANDA

We are to live humbly, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God opposes the proud because they wrongly think that they are the source of their gifts. They forget that they receive their gifts from God freely and undeservedly. Grace, a favor of God that is neither earned nor deserved is supposed to be shared with others freely because it was given freely. God opposes the proud because he is a source of gifts and a free giver of gifts. Humility is a sign of repentance and it enables us to acknowledge that grace comes from God and is given to us freely. Pride prevents us from showing grace because God humbles the proud by not giving them gifts abundantly and graciously. We are to live humbly, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

It is not possible to be grace filled and stingy at the same time. If you are full of grace you are free with blessings. God expects generosity from us. Grace in us requires a generosity of spirit. Apparently, showing the grace of generosity towards others releases God's grace in us even further so we have enough ourselves and enough to give others. When one gives, he receives so much more from God. Freely we have received gifts from God and freely we should give.

Grace should be shown in our conversations, especially with those who are not Christians. We are to treat them with gentleness and respect. We should take full advantage of every opportunity we are given in conversing with those who don't know Christ. We are called to be gracious in our speech toward outsiders. Gentleness and respect should be our hallmark. We are also to show respect before our adversaries. We should be like Jesus, and emulate the grace he shows toward us, even though we don't deserve it. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and in this way we can avoid bad examples of our culture and the world. By showing grace we become true sons of our heavenly Father and adopt his value system of grace and mercy (Luke 6:35-36). Grace should be shown in our conversations, especially with those who are not Christians. We are to treat them with gentleness and respect (Colossians 4:5-6; 1 Peter 3:15)

Ethical behavior is doing what is the proper, just, or moral thing to do in a situation while grace is to show love towards enemies, those who least deserve goodwill. Jesus teaches radical grace toward undeserving enemies (Luke 6:27-28). For example Jesus teaches that we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, to give to everyone who asks us, and if anyone takes what belongs to us we should not demand it back, and that we do to others as would have them do to us

When you are more open to God’s grace you serve God with more passion and dedication. We are formed to be the people we become by yielding to God's spiritual gifts placed within us by his grace. If we don't exercise those gifts, we stunt both our growth and limit what God has planned for us (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). With God's grace we receive spiritual authority to minister, not based on man's ordination, but God's appointment (1 Corinthians 3:10; Romans 15:15-16a). When God's favor rests on a person, so does power and capability beyond him or herself.

When we isolate ourselves, when we are absent from church, we interrupt or lessen the flow of God's grace through spiritual gifts from us to the body and from Christ's body to us. This is like burying our gift in the ground. When we separate people from one another, it becomes much harder to exercise these gifts. Each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. We are a trustee, a steward of something that belongs to God. We should not wrap up the gift God has given us and bury it in the ground as the evil servant in the Parables of the Talents and of the Minas.

We are stewards or trustees of spiritual gifts given by God's grace, responsible to God to use them to build up God's people and Christ's work in the world. As good stewards of Christ's gifts, we are to be as generous as possible in the distribution of the blessings of the gifts in order to build up his church. As servants of God we should make sure that the master's other servants have what they need for the common good. Grace and gifts of grace are not to be hoarded.

Spiritual gifts are given to believers by God's grace. Spiritual gifts are given to us so that we use it to serve one another. The chief characteristic of a generous person is that they use the spiritual gifts given to them to serve other people. The spiritual gifts are given for the benefit of all. We are stewards or trustees of spiritual gifts given by God's grace, responsible to God to use them to build up God's people and Christ's work in the world.

God's grace is sufficient, and that God's power is especially abundant in times of weakness, when we are most dependent upon him. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness because He delights in taking situations where human strength is lacking to demonstrate the greatness of His power and more importantly His Grace. God’s grace is sufficient in or through us to accomplish His will. In our dependence upon the Lord we will find His power, to serve Him and serve other people. His grace will begin to flow through us with ever increasing velocity as we live a life of joyful dependence on the Lord.

In times of sickness or affliction, we often feel so weak because we think we are abandoned and not useful anymore. We are tempted to stop ministering to others when we are struggling because we focus more on our problems and not the needs of others. However, in the times we feel weakest and powerless, we may be on the threshold of experiencing God's grace and power in greater measure than ever before.

Approaching God’s throne in prayer is intimidating to some people because they are sinful and deserve punishment and they come before God who is a king of King and Lord of Lord and the just Judge. We are told to come before God confidently expecting to receive mercy and grace when we are in need (Hebrews 4;16). When we come to Jesus' throne in prayer, we will find a sympathetic ear. We find divine pardon for our sins, and timely aid for all our troubles. God’s throne is the place where He dispenses mercy and grace. Our houses can become "houses of grace" where our neighbors can come for help in time of need, as we become like our Father

There are so many assurances of faith in the New Testament to emphasize on God’s love and care for us at all times. My favorite promise of Gods role in keeping me in Christ to the end is found in Romans 8:38-39: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. With this assurance and promise am powered to trust and have faith in God through Jesus Christ in all difficult circumstances and at all times.

We are protected by the power of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Our linkage to all what God has for us is through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is our link to God and all what he has for us. Faith in God through Jesus Christ is given to us by God’s Grace

Salvation is by the grace of God. God's grace working through his Holy Spirit convict people of sin, draw them to Christ (John 6:44), and (hopefully) lead them to receive Christ by their free will. This is the grace of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work in our hearts and minds to bring us to repentance and salvation. He frees our will from Satan's influence enough that we can choose Christ as our Lord. This is the grace of God.

Predestination is gracious because it is God who predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in Jesus Christ, the One he loves.

Our God is a sovereign God. His ability to predestine us is because of his grace and not foreknowledge of how good we would be. Our works of righteousness do not count in His choosing of us. We are chosen because of his grace and not our works. God foresees our faith in Christ, which is also given to us by God by grace. Those chosen by God through faith in Jesus Christ are also given the ability, by the grace of God, to do good works. Even the goods works are a gift from God by his grace.

We have been rescued by God’s grace from the following: (i) Spiritual deadness caused by transgressions and sin. Our repeated sins and transgressions of God's holy principles have somehow dulled us, deadened us, so we are unperceptive. We are without spiritual life as it pertains to God; (ii) Following a corrupt culture by following the ways of this world; (iii) Following of Satan who is the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Though we pretend to independence, we have come under his influence and are now marching to his drumbeat; (iv) Self-indulgent (Ephesians 2:3a), by gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. We desire, we want, we burn with ****, with hate, with greed, and we steal to satisfy ourselves’ and consequently from (v) Divine judgment and righteous anger since we are rebels against God, justly under a sentence of death.

The idea of earning salvation by being good enough for God distort the essential gospel because God saves us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy, having been justified by his grace. To think that we could earn salvation on our own is an insult God the father and Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross. We are saved by God's favor and not by our own goodness. A works-righteousness puts us in control; a gift-righteousness makes us utterly dependent upon the God the Giver. Saying you have faith isn't enough. Your faith needs to be evidenced in your actions, your deeds, your lifestyle. If it isn't, it probably isn't genuine faith. If it isn't, you're probably kidding yourself about really trusting God with your life. Faith that hasn't affected our lives, then it probably isn't real but "dead.

Salvation is a gift from God that we get by faith in the death of Christ Jesus. The faith and the ability to repent are aided by the Holy Spirit through prevenient grace, grace that precedes salvation. Grace influences us to believe and put our trust in Christ. God draws people to Jesus Christ. The Spirit also gives us knowledge. The spirit does not compel us against our will. Grace is not irresistible. Grace also inspires sanctification and the good works that we do, now that the Spirit lives in us. The father draws people to Christ in many and different ways such as through family members, fellowship, sickness, church services, relationships, revival meetings, visions and many more.

The Spirit works in us after we are saved to form Christ-like character in us and produce good works. This is in a number of ways the process of working out our salvation because the Spirit changes and influences us to produce the good works of God. When a person put his or her faith in Jesus Christ, the person’s life changes and mirrors that of Jesus Christ. If there is no discernable change, the person is yet to be changed by the Spirit of God.

According to Bonhoeffer, Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner, Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. No we don’t have to work for, it is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

No there is no good in humankind because we are lost in sin by nature. Humans are both good and bad. They are good because they were created in the image of God and they are bad because the heart, the very center of our being, is corrupt and cannot be trusted. Our whole being is at least somewhat corrupt and, therefore, even the "good" in us cannot be completely trusted. The following are some of the ways a deceitful heart shows up, evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean. The origin of all these is the heart.

Without Jesus Christ human kind is a sinner and deserves the punishment from god. Before we come to god human kinds were motivated by transgressions and sins and were followers of the ways of this world, of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, gratifying the cravings of their sinful nature and deserved punishment from god. “Gratifying the cravings of their sinful nature” and “following the ways of this world” is a conscious motivation while by “nature we were objects of wrath” is an unconscious motivation

The humankind’s situation was very powerless, sinful and ungodly. While humankind was still powerless sinful and ungodly, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

To be in a state of grace is to be at peace with God. When Christ saved us we were and are to this day in a state of God’s grace or favour. We have gained access into this state of grace by faith in Jesus Christ. Our point of access is faith, and trust in Jesus Christ. The opposite of peace with God is to be in sin and fall short of the glory of God.