kas

Adam sinned while in the body. The body has senses which rule us. Jesus came in a body to show us how to live without sin, without letting our senses dictate our actions. We have to die to self, die to the physical pleasures our senses desire. Jesus sacrificed His body to show us a better way. We must die to the self nature of the body and live spiritually. Paul disciplined his body daily so that he wasn't a slave to his body. Die to sin and be alive to God.

I am just awed of His love for a sinner like me. That He went through all that He did, for me. I really need to keep that humble reality in my mind always so that I can love others and forgive them as He did me.

the part where Jesus says "Do this in rememberence of Me"

Extreme meaning "literal" is to cause Christ to die again; extreme meaning "mere symbols" means to mock His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Christ said "do this in rememberence of me." I believe we must feel and deeply acknowledge all that Christ has done for us so that we can be humble and thankful while particpating in the eating and drinking of bread and wine and to live a humble and thankful life to Him.

In remembering that He suffered for me, marred beyond human likeness (as stated in Isaiah), He shed His blood for me, He died for me and He rose again for me so that I could have hope in living for Him, suffering and dying to sin to rise with Him eternally.

Because we continually sin we must continually repent and ask for forgiveness. If we harbor unforgiveness agains someone, it may be easier to forgive them if we think how Jesus died on the cross for us and our sins and how He forgave us our sins. If we want God to forgive us all of our sins - we'd better start forgiving others of theirs against us even if they aren't repentant. The big picture is that everyone will spend eternity somewhere. If I don't forgive them I may be helping them towards an eternity of hell rather than heaven and I wouldn't want that on my conscience.

We seek independence for various reasons, some which are; because man can disappoint us; we don't want to burden anyone; and we don't like to feel needy. Perhaps because we don't see God and we are used to operating on our senses. We don't see Him and we sometimes forget about Him and/or are just too busy-caught up in worldly affairs. Asking God to give us our daily bread means that we realize He is the ultimate provider and we must daily remember this always giving Him thanks in everything becuase He is the author of everything and it keeps us humble in realizing that. God loves to work through the humble. satan wasn't humble, see what happened to him? God exalts the lowly and calls the exalted to fall.

We are asking that all should be saved in a sense because if everyone believed and obeyed God's will, His kingdom would be here, in a sense and as you stated, it will be here fully upon Jesus' second coming. We ask that God's will be done - to intervene in all worldly affairs. It also means that His will be done in our lives also. IF we obey Him by living according to His will, we honor Him and He works His intervention through us. We are allowing ourselves to be used a gold vessel for His purposes.

When we obey His will we show Him reverence and that we truly believe He is hallowed. When we disobey Him and then pray to Him with Hallowed be Thy Name...we are hypocrites because our actions do not line up with our words. We should truly repent of our sins and forgive others and then ask Him for forgiveness. In this way our hearts and minds are cleansed and we can sincerely pray "Hallowed by Thy Name."

The promise that the Lord will meet all your needs means that when you pray with a sincere heart and the right motive you can be confident that He will meet your needs. However, sometimes we don't get what we pray for for various reasons; it's God's timing, not yours; we may harbor unforgiveness and haven't repented or we ask to spend it on our own pleasures. If we are right with God and we pray in accordance to His will, we can fully expect God to answer us in His time and know that all things work for the good of those who love Him. To me, the promise means, depend and trust in God for all things, and you will surely not be dissappointed. Speaking from experience, I know this to be true. We serve an Awesome God!

Paul can't preach if he's dying or ill due to lack of food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. If he doesn't preach, the Kingdom doesn't grow. The church feeds Paul + Paul is able to preach = Kingdom growth. The church doesn't feed Paul - Paul's inability to preach = no growth. The cup of cold water you give to the least of Christ's brethren, you have given to Christ. Christ will hold you accountable for all of your good deeds.

Paul's focus is on Christ, not his surroundings. Absolutely not, it strengthens it - if you focus on God/Christ who is unchanging, life's chaotic ways won't destabilize you. If you focus on life - that's always changing - you'll topple over due to lack of stability. We must train ourselves to focus, trust and depend solely on Christ by reading His word daily, praying daily and ACTING on His word daily, lest we forget our image when we walk away from the mirror. We forget things quite easily so we must always fill our minds with the good things from above. Our thinking affects every aspect of our being - so if we train our minds on Christ daily - He'll carry us through everything.

It promotes materialism more than spiritualism. It takes your eyes and trust off Christ and fastens them to some shiny object (idolatry). Our self-centered old man desires materialistic pleasures, so it's a battle for many. THe bible teaches "Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you". Our spiritual prosperity matters to God, not our physical prosperity - God is interested in our character, not our comfort. Jesus learned perfection through suffering, who are we to think we'll escape such things?

To know someone is to walk in their shoes. Follow the model. To obey all of Christ's teaching, perform His will in faith and suffer like He did. His suffering perfected Him and so too will perfect us in His image. It's both. We can't have a personal relationship with someone we don't believe exists. If my relationship with Christ can be measured by standing in water - water over my head means total obedience and overfilling of the Spirit, I would say the water is up to my knees. I can still move around - exerting my will more than the water's exerting it's will. I'm heading into deeper waters. I want to know Him more, it's my prayer/communication that really needs a lot of work. I have faith and I love reading His word daily but my prayer life is more one sided.

Righteousness by faith is not only believing and confessing but doing. Faith/confession of, are synonomous with action. No one is good, not even one describes mankind's inability to ever attain righteousness. The law was created to show us that we could not attain righteousness. If we live by the law, (which we cannot fully obey as humans) we reject what God did for us by sending His only Son to die for us. When we believe in Christ and not only confess our sins, but repent and turn away from them (action), we are forgiven and cleansed by His blood. Our faith with action brings us a righteousness never attainable under law. We were always taught that there's consequences for our actions and can't believe it's a free gift and easy to attain, we think there's got to be more. It's too easy.

Paul once lived according to the law which couldn't help you cleanse your sins no matter how hard you tried. Living for the law after knowing Christ, is to reject Christ in favor of the law. Christ's blood cleansed us and accomplished what we could never do - sanctify us and allow us to have an intimate relationship with the Lord through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can do far more through us than we can do alone. Paul realized, after tasting the Holy Spirit with all the gifts, that it far surpasses anything he experienced while trying to live under the law. My religious background was catholicism. It was 99% tradition - nonbiblical rubbish. It was an obstacle because I wasn't praying only to the Father but to Mary and St Jude and St. This and St. That. The only one who died for my sins was Jesus, not Mary, St. Jude, etc. I now confess my sins to God, not to a priest. I'm not told any more to say three hail mary's and five our Fathers as a way to climb back into God's favor. I now read the bible and believe and try to do everything Jesus said to. The results of no longer being steeped in tradtion far outweight the lack of results being in tradition. The veil has been lifted. Praise the Lord!

When we think and act as man does then we're acting in the flesh. It shows up in my congregation when our own desires are put above Christ's and yes, it does happen. My own struggle is not keeping focused on Christ daily, not walking in faith daily, but looking at what's around me. I struggle to keep the focus.

IF you don't have faith that God is in control and the situation seems bleak - what is there to rejoice about - It is only knowing that He's in control and trusting that all things work out for good to those who love Him can we truly rejoice in the midst of pain. My trails cause me to come closer to God and to trust Him. I grow big time.

The real you comes out when you're stressed or oppressed. If you believe in something and the going gets rough, that's a true test of that belief. It then becomes clear what you really believe in when undergoing tirals. Paul's witness was powerful because he lived what he believed. He walked the walk. If I relied on Jesus, the resolution to my trial would glorify Him because others would see it was supernaturally resolved. If I resolved it according to my reasoning, it would might only be a a temporary resolution if at all. His ways are beyond our reasoning.

If we seek His kingdom first (knowledge of Him through His word and through prayer) and His righteousness (obeying/living according to His will - walking the walk) and learn who God is then we can worship him in spirit and in truth. How could we love and worship someone we don't know? By seeking His Kingdome, we read, pray and walk with Him daily and get to know Him. We also get to know Him really fast when we're driven to our knees. When the storm passes and we're no longer on our knees we must continue to seek Him (not just during our needy moments). Once we really get to know Him we will desire what He desires and as Jesus said (paraphrased) "if you ask the Father anything that is according to His will, in My name, it will be done". So I know that my prayers will be answered because they are all in HIs will. I may not see them all answered, but they will be and this confidence I enjoy. If I ask for something and don't get it when I want it, it doesn't mean He's not listening, it means it will be answered in His time. His time is always the right time. IF however, we are sinning and not repenting and are not forgiving others, then the Lord will not hear us. If we are not living in obedience to His will, He will not hear us. It is important that we forgive others and repent of our sins.

They indirectly spread the Good News by supporting the messenger. It was as though they were giving their money to Christ Himself. It also displays humility in that they knew Christ blessed them financially so they could demonstrate their thankfulness by giving it back. If they chose to keep it that would have demonstrated greed and mistrust of Paul and Christ. God blesses us when we give with kindness and sincerity not wishing to be paid back. They knew they would be rewarded in heaven.

That it is in Christ's strength, not his own, that will get him through anything. Absolutely not, Paul was very ambitious. He was extremely zealous for God and obeying His will. Through trying experiences we learn to trust the Lord. Once we stop trying to solve the problem and let it go to Christ, we find that it gets solved very easily. We also gain contentment through faith which is produced by daily fellowship with Christ through prayer and meditation in His word.

It takes our eyes off of the Lord and puts them on material possessions and that is idolatry, which is a sin. We've seen how Peter began to sink once his focus was off the Lord. We will also sink if we take our focus off the Lord. If we sink, eventually we'll die and this is the great danger. This doctrine appeals to our old materialistic "I want it all and I want it now" nature. We are to seek the Kingdom of God first and everything else will be added. Jesus showed John, Peter and James that He could supply their external needs easily with abundant fish. It was also evidenced by the coin in the fish's mouth. Jesus can easily provide for our physical needs but we are to seek to fulfill our spiritual needs and all else will be taken care of. If we truly walk with God, material possessions would have little-to-no value to us. I believe that a true disciple would desire first and foremost a close relationship with God and then to bring as many people into His Kingdom as possible.

If we don't cleanse our mind daily by reading His Word we will have a filthy mind. We are bombarded daily with the world's noise and it is very necessary to wash our minds out with God's truth. If we don't, the world will find a nice resting place in our heads. As Jesus said, "Just as you have believed, so let it be done to you". We believe what we think and our actions are based on our thoughts. Jesus also warned us to be careful about what we hear. We must filter out the junk with God's truth. I experience fear, doubt and anxiety but when I turn to the Lord and give it to Him and/or focus on Him it totally dissipates my fears. I know I'm supposed to keep my eyes on the Lord and not my circumstances because we don' t know His plan but I still look at the circumstances - I'm learning!

The fact that we are communicating with Him builds a relationship and when our prayers are answered it builds trust - trust that He hears us and answers us. God's peace will transcend our minds and give us a peace that surpasses anything we could imagine. He will do this if we let Him.