alogrippo

These are GREAT questions!!!!! Ones I have been thinking about and honestly I do not know the answer so I will give it a shot and am looking forward to reading other people's replies. Before i became Christian i was of the mindset that being homosexual was okay, "to each his own" i thought to myself. Obviously this mindset leads to death because if you follow it through it basically means that anything goes which is a lie. I see the church struggling with this issue for example. Some churches are extremely intolerant of homosexuals while there are now churches which seem to basically be taking on that mindset of "to each his own" (using "love" and "compassion" as a disguise for saying the sin of homosexuality is okay). Both extremes I see as bad. While practicing spirit of love and tolerance is important, God's law stands and will "in no ways pass away". We must find a way to lovingly instruct in truth while at the same time hating the sin that God hates. I am very interested to hear others opinions on this. As far as legalism, I see the Catholic church as an example of a church very immersed in legalism--however, i admit I have not spent much time ever in a Catholic church so I will not ellaborate on a subject I do not know much about. There are some churches who because of many reasons are not being clear about the truth--there are plenty of sermons on the subject of love and forgiveness but not as many on God's law and how it applies to us today. They preach half a truth and that is dangerous. There are too many "new religions" out there preaching only what people feel comfortable with. As Christains we know we are not out to please people, we are out to please God. Yes, we want to love people and carry the gospel message with a pure heart and motive, however, our hearts and motives must be turned to God and doing and speaking what is right in His eyes not in the eyes of the world. Reading and studying and praying are so important for us as individuals--not just in a church setting--so that we can learn a little more each day about the heart of God, who He is, what He desires from us.

If we are truly light to the world, if we truly let the light of Jesus shine in our lives it most likely will bring persecution at some point or another. If the light of God is shining in our lives it means we are standing for something meaningful, true and right--and that brings persecution to Christians in the world today. Glory and suffering go hand in hand because we are not of this world. Our Kingdom is not of this world and the Lord whom we serve is not of this world. Our minds ( romans 12:2 ) should not be set on the things of the world around us, not conformed to the world's thinking, but set on the things above, the things and thoughts and words of Jesus. These things will "rub the world the wrong way" and at times will mean persecution and suffering for us--for some, the persecution may be just in the words of treatment from other people, for others, the persecution and suffering may be much much more severe, to the point of prison or death. We are told not to be surprised by this, Jesus says the world hated him first. His suffering on the cross was for our salvation. So we too may suffer many things in the world if we stand for God, but better to suffer for good than suffer in sin.

symptoms of a desaltified Christian: lack of passion for Christ, lack of passion and joy in life and in sharing the gospel, a desaltified Christian is probably not reading the bible, praying or studying the word because doing this brings joy and peace and refreshing to the soul. I think a person who is "desaltified" are probably somewhat aware of what is happening but maybe they make up their own rationale. Maybe they have become somewhat jaded and mixed with too much of the world, so they justify their lack of passion or loss of joy in the gospel, possibly passing it of for practicality or worse, reality. Secular people may see a Christian who is just like them. Other people in general notice a peace, a light and a joy in my life. People know that Jesus and my faith is at the center of my life. That it is what makes my life "go". It is possible to resaltify your life but it begins with prayer and reading of God's word.

Christians are the salt of the earth because we live a daily walk with Christ--we strive daily to maintain our passion, love, faith, honesty and purity. (flavor). We stand out from the world and at the same time make it a better place. We are the preservation of the earth also because our prayers to God help to change lives for Christ, our walk with Christ and our love for Christ extended to the world brings healing and change.

God is pure and holy and only people with a sincere desire to know and walk and obey him can see, know and discern Him. If we truly want to know Him, we will strive to keep our lives and hearts pure so that all of ourselves always belong to Him. A chronic sinner still loves the sin more than a walk with God, so they cannot know God. We must ask God to purify our hearts and our lives and strive to walk with Him and hear Him daily.We must set our eyes on Jesus and meditate on His words.

Often times the world will not take us seriously as Christians. They may think we are "goody goodies" and sometimes accuse us of being "self-righteous". We are surrounded by opportunities to take "the easy way out", "short cuts" and we live in a world which doesn't see a need for it's own justification. The world is in favor of "everything's okay, i'm okay your okay, let me believe in my own personal god that i make up" . We are not made righteous of our own doing but only because we see how unrighteous we are, only by the desire to be made right do we see our need for Jesus. Only then do we experience the grace that he gave us by dying for us, justifying us. He is our redeemer, our "lawyer" who justifies us.

Humility, meekness, gentleness completely contrasts with the world's point of view. It seems everywhere we look and all we hear on the radio is a "me me me" attitude, it's all about "me and my happiness and well-being, me first, and if i step on you in the process too bad". I think this is an attitude i see reflected in the world. Humility is extremely important to Christlikeness, important for us as Christians because without it we are not teachable. Without humility we are unable to hear God's voice--a still small voice, if we are all about ourselves, and our own egotistical voices have the volume up high, we won't be able to hear a thing He is trying to tell us! : )

Without the awareness of our total necessity of God, and need to call on Him, depend on Him for everything, without the realization that without Jesus' sacrifice we would be completely lost and unable to do a thing to save ourselves, without the realization of how blind we really are without the light of Jesus, we are unable to humble ourselves enough to want and to accept the beautiful gift that we receive when we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and savior! The mourning that comes when we become Christian is a deep repentance and realization of our sinfulness and true need of Jesus, it is sadness in one way, but beyond that it is a mourning that i think we feel often, but it is coupled with peace: b/c our hope is in Jesus, thank God we need not rely on ourselves to be better than ourselves! Often as Christians I think we mourn our own sinfulness and the struggle to be better Christians, we also mourn for the world and the people around us who are lost. We also mourn the injustice and pain and hurt that iis often nflicted on innocent people. I also think that mourning doesn't necessarily mean crying--it is something we feel deep inside our spirit. something i often feel when i read things like proverbs or the Sermon on the Mount. These are Gods perfect Words, and i am looking in the mirror, and though i do not grasp all of what i read, i grasp enough to feel the sting of my own faults and humaness, but at the same time, the peace and gratitude of God's provision in Jesus, and the hope to little by little, change more and more into who He wants me to be. Mourning doesn't have to be a depressing or sad thing, it is an acknowledgement of truth, a true repentance and desire to change even if we don't know how.

The beatitudes consist of a state of being and a blessing, but the two parts are conflicting ideas. Jesus may have made the Beatitudes a paradox for a number of reasons. One big reason that stands out is that Jesus himself was a paradox. The jews of that day (the pharisees and religious people of the day) were waiting on a messiah who was big and strong, rich, someone who at least superficially displayed the qualities of strength and power. Jesus was not like this. Also, people in that day were so used to judgement and criticism from the law and from religious leaders, when they were taught in the synagogues and by the religious leaders they were accustomed to being judged. This teaching from Jesus brought peace and comfort...What a difference!!! The paradox of the beatitudes themselves may have been kind of a wake up call for the people of that day...and now. It causes you to stop and think. The sentiments are contrary to the attitudes of people all through time. We are to seek a change in heart and spirit, not money, power, strenth, fame. When I read the fruit of the spirit I see that when we seek to be filled with the fruit of the spirit it produces the blessings in the beatitudes and vice versa --- when we experience the states of being in the beatitudes, it produces the fruit of the spirit and then too we are very blessed. For example, when we are persecuted for our faith, it produces faithfulness, patience, longsuffering, and these fruits produce blessings in our lives. Will have to think more on these questions, there is a lot to ponder : )

Hi, I am Amy, from N.J. I am very excited about this bible study too! One of the great blessings of technology!