GeraldG

The od that is brought out of the treasure box is the law, the scriptures, and the understanding of them. The new is sharing the good news, the gospel, and ministering to the needy. We must be cross-trained as disciples that we know the scriptures, old and new, and preach the gospel, sharing the good news of salvation and ministering to all the needy and bring forth healing to the lost and hurting

A sharp and tasty witness is important because we have to be strong in our faith, our words, and our actions; preaching the truth, standing stedfast, even knowing that persecutions will come. A bland witness to Jesus is anyone who has allowed the trials of the world to cause them to stop ministering to the lost. To stay salty is to stay strong in the word, in our prayer life, and not be blended in with the world. Stay active in our walk with Christ. People are tempted to hide their light because of trying to please the people or blend in, and because others come against their testimony they just begin to hide their light. Just said that you are a light upon a hill,so don't put your light under a bushel basket, but let your light shine for all to see. Arise, Shine, for the glory of the LORD is upon you. Shine for Jesus Christ

I have experienced more people receptive of the gospel in the street services, and rehab centers, jails and prisons. I really see myself as a sower and a reaper for I don't want to just leave someone with a word, but I want to see it through where salvation comes and heaven rejoices. People doesn't seem to want to go through with the long haul, if they don't receive it right off the bat they just quit with those people. They don't like going through the hard times to see salvation through. Yes Lord please, I want to reach as many as I can for the gospel of Christ and see salvation come, and heaven filled.

Jesus was heart broken because His sheep has been mislead, and uncared for, there scattered like sheep with no shepherd. The lost sheep of our community are the ones who have been hurt by the church and fell away. The missions that I know of, and have been associated with are like the refugees who have been pushed away and forgotten by community or even the church. I want to reach out to everyone I can to the hurt and struggling, for my heart is broken with compassion for them.

Jesus desires mercy, not sacrifice, which means that He desires us to have mercy, compassion, and love for others over our little sacrifices. Pharisees thought that sinners were unworthy of their time much less their compassion. They felt like they should just avoid sinners, pushing them away. Prideful attitude. Jesus had a merciful attitude towards sinners with love and compassion. I feel like sinners need someone who will understand, who will listen, and who will have mercy and compassion on them leading them to Jesus. The role of a spiritual doctor is to go out and reach, and heal the sin sick soul for Christ so that they may have life

Jesus uses this contrast to let the lawyer see his pride, and let us all know that we are to help anyone in need no matter who they are. Jesus is defining a neighbor as someone who is in need, or someone who needs a little help, or mercy shown, no matter the sex, race or nationalism. I have a hard time passing anyone who is down and hurting, I just have a heart that I want to see them smile with joy in their heart and know that it's from the Lord.

Jesus gave this parable to instruct and encourage His disciples to use the talents He has given them to advance the kingdom. I am going into the prisons, and in the streets, nursing homes, as well as in the churches, and even the mission field preaching the gospel unto all that will receive. Sometimes people allow problems and trials in their lives to cause them to bury their talents. Not sure exactly what the reward will be if other than salvation, although whatever the kingdom offers will be glorious. God expects more out of people who are given more, so those who are greatly talented, there is more expected out of them.

It is a parable, for Jesus is saying that just like He is a servant to us, we must also be a servant to one another. This was so shocking because Jesus was Lord and Master, therefore He should be lower Himself as a menial servant. It's a parable of cleansing in comparison just as if you take a bath then you only need to wash your feet and your clean. And just like once you're baptized, we must just wash away our sins we commit day by day in repentance. To wash another one's feet, you must put away your pride and except being a servant. It is one of the greatest lessons to humble ourselves teaching us how we must serve one another to the very lowest degree. We really need to implement this teaching in our everyday lives, for we must have a servants heart in order to serve one another and reach others for Christ

Here both of the parables, the friend at midnight, and the unjust judge, both show us that persistence, and not giving up will give us victory. My persistence in crying out to the Lord gives me the strength and the ability to keep going day after day pursuing my walk with Christ, and ministering to others. Persistence in prayer will make you stronger as a disciple, and help you grow in Christ so that you can reach others for Christ Jesus

Jesus gave this parable of asking the Father for bread to encourage them to pray to the Father, and don't worry about asking Him for what you want, for the Father is going to give you what's good, not evil. He wants to correct the misconception of being careful what you ask for, for you just might get it. But Jesus wants us to understand that this is not true for the Father will only give you what is good.

The parable of the birds and the lilies teach us that if God can take care of the birds and lilies, He can truly take care of us. He teaches us not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Jesus instructs us to seek ye the kingdom and His righteousness, and all the things that you seemed to worry about will be given to you, so therefore you shouldn't worry about the future. Obeying verse 33, seeking the kingdom, will give us peace instead of worry, which will make our lives easier and more peaceful.

We begin serving money rather than God, when we spend our money on worldly things for ourselves more than we give to the Lord. We can detect these things by asking ourselves if the things we are buying with our money is glorifying God or not. Jesus was telling this parable to His disciples warning them to be careful and not to get caught up with what the love of money can do to you.

No, being wealthy is not a sin for a Christian. The rich man's sin was greed, or a selfish attitude. Some people think that they have to have more, or better than what others have in the neighborhood. Some Christians think that they are liked more than others, or that they have a better office than others. Or even drive better vehicles just to be seen

He is a positive example to do good to others even though you've done wrong. We can lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven by doing good, and seeking heavenly things. God does truly look at the little things we do, for He tells us that if we will be faithful in the few things, He will make us rulers over many. God wants to see us faithful in the small things, and humble ourselves, and do good to others and love others just as He loves us. If a person is promoted beyond their spiritual growth that person could stumble or fall

Jesus teaches us to discern false leaders by watching their actions, observing their fruits, and listen carefully to their words. This is very important in our churches, for false leaders looks just like everyone else, therefore they can deceive, and mislead, pulling others away from the truth. Flawed Christian leaders makes mistakes but quickly repents and learns from their mistakes. But dangerous false prophets don't see that they are wrong, and don't care that they are wrong, and they just want to draw as many as they can to follow after them.

Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means to feed on the word of Jesus, to take it in. To nibble on the bread of life means not going all the way with, not 100 percent real with Christ, just wanting enough to feel good, but not the rest. But to actually make it a meal means you are going all the way with Christ, through the bad as well as the good. Eating His flesh means that you want Christ within you, that you cannot live without Him, for He is your bread of life, you want to abide or remain in Christ. Jesus probably used these words to weed out those who were not serious about following Him, just nibblers.

To abide means to remain, or to stay. Mutual indwelling is like a relationship, so if you don't abide or remain in that relationship it dies because in a Mutual relationship one can't do anything without the other. In a personal relationship, the two must remain together to make it. Without Jesus Christ in us and us in Christ we cannot do anything spiritually, for He is the vine and we are the branches, so without staying connected to the vine, the branches die. The value of anything is loss without Christ. The final end of things done without Christ is death.

Skillful pruning takes away the dead branches so that they won't be using up the nutrients that the good branches need to bear fruit. When are are exposed to the words of Christ, receiving them and being obedient to His words; the word cleanses us from the impurities of sin making us clean. Jesus tells us that if we hold to, or keep His teachings, then are we truly His disciples. Then shall we know the truth, and the truth will set us free. When we are truly obedient to the teachings, the words of Christ, then that word, or teaching is able to cleanse us and set us free from sin.

It's easy to detect out hypocrisy in others, but difficult for us to detect it in ourselves; because of shame, we want to hide our sins, but at the same time point out others faults. Hypocrisy is very deadly to spiritual growth, because it keeps us from showing who we really are, therefore we become stagnant and can't grow. From witness, because our hypocrisy destroys our witness when we say we are Christians but our actions are worldly. Our obedience, because it keeps us from really being true to ourselves and God, therefore if we are hiding our sins, we are being disobedient to God. We can overcome hypocrisy by the help of the Spirit through repentance and confession of our sins

People push themselves forward because they want the best seats, to sit closest to the guest of hon,to be seen or recognized as someone special. But Jesus says to beware of taking the best seats less someone of more honor comes and then you will be asked to take a lower seat, and you will move back in shame. Jesus wants His disciples to learn that they must humble themselves in every situation, for unless you humble yourself you can not enter the kingdom of heaven. If we don't learn this lesson we need to understand that unless we humble ourselves we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

We must come to Jesus like little children be pure in heart, open minded, and trusting, and receptive to the word, and humble. In rebuking the parents the disciples were being prideful thinking that the children wasn't good enough to get what they were getting. In arguing about who was the greatest, the disciples were being very selfish. Humility is essential to repentance, because unless we humble ourselves we can not be forgiven. It's essential for us to learn all that we can, for we can not have a relationship with Christ if we don't get to know Him. Obedience is essential, for we know that Samuel told Saul that Obedience is better than sacrifice, we must be obedient to the word of God that we can enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus was telling His disciples that they really need to be careful and be more like the little children so that pride and selfishness won't take over and cause them to fall.

The Pharisee is confident of his righteousness because he is observant of the law and keeps the law, pays his tithe and offering, he does his good works. So he thinks he is a good and righteous person. But the problem with him, or his sin is his arrogance, selfishness, pride, just thinking that he is better than anyone else. The remarkable thing about the tax-collectors prayer was that he recognized, and knew that he was a sinner, therefore he was very sorrowful, humble, and was just asking for forgiveness, mercy and atonement with God. It is easier to promote ourselves in front of others rather than humble ourselves, for no one likes to be looked down on. But most of the time it's selfishness and pride that causes a person to do such. Wanting others to think they are something they are not. Jesus is telling His disciples, as well as all of us that we need to be very careful and not allow pride to slip in, but that we need to keep ourselves humble. Because pride will cause you to fall: for all who exalts themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves shall be exalted.

No, there is nothing I have, nor have ever had that could compare to how valuable my relationship is with Jesus Christ. For I know and understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that there is no other way to the Father except through Him, and that Salvation only comes through believing in Jesus Christ. So again, No there is nothing in my life more valuable than my relationship with Christ. I would hope that others can see how that I choose to follow Christ over anything else in this world, even over my family. In which I pray that that would encourage them to receive Christ as their own as well.

To take up your cross daily means that you need to be ready and willing to die for Christ every day. For if you carry a cross, you are going to your death. This has everything to do with losing your life for Christ, for we must be willing to lose our lives to follow Jesus Christ that we may have everlasting life. If you want to make the commitment to walk the Christian walk of Christ, then you must understand the consequences, which is that you will be hated by the world, you will be persecuted, and you must be willing to die for Christ. If you are to worried about saving your own life, then you cannot be a disciple of Christ. For if we save our life in this world we will lose it eternally, but if we lose our lives for Christ sake in this world, then shall save our lives in eternity.

No, Jesus's demands are not too uncompromising: If we truly want the things of this world, we do without and give up everything we can to receive it. Should we Not be willing to give our all for the kingdom? Yes, we usually are too compromising for the things of the world. Sadly we think that we should be able to have both. We need total commitment to Christ, humbling ourselves, asking Christ to come in to our hearts and fill us with His Spirit that we may completely surrender our all to Jesus.