Marloes

It's not only your personality. It's also your geografical area and culture. If you live isolated, it will be difficult to spread the word. If you live in North-Corea it's illegal to spread the word so it will be more difficult then in a free country.

Jesus warns a lot about rich people. Paul warns Timothy about riches(1 Tim. 6:2-10). Therefore this sure is important. Now to other people worries are the major problem, and to other other people pleasures.

In an unrepentant heart, there's no room for Christ. It doesn't matter which sin is already living there ;-) Nothing else can be more important then Christ. If we don't give something up, we think it's more important.

Q3. (Matthew 3:11) What is the point of comparison between John's action and the Messiah's action? What is the point of difference? Do you really long to be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit? What might prevent this in your life? What might encourage it? http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=995 Both were having baptism. John baptised as sign of repentence. Jesus' disciples baptised in Jesus' name for forgiveness of sins. Repentence is necessary to be forgiven. Well, first of all you must believe it's possible.

If you don't understand how serious your sins are, you don't feel the need to repent or the need for grace. Then you don't understand the need or Jesus and why He came to earth. We avoid repentance because we don't like to say we were wrong and we don't want to change our habits. I think that many Christians not completely repent.

In my physical body, I don't cut my feet off because that would hurt. Now we should love eachother like our own body. Then we don't hurt eachother.

We represent Christ's glory here on earth. To be with Christ in future, we already have to be with Him in life. We need to persevere, always.

1. how nice the christians behave towards eachother 2. because Christ sets us apart 3. by behaving nice?

It means that He died for us. That He's very committed. This was altruistic and self-serving; but in Christ those words are just the same.

Submission means that one accepts authority - in this case Christ's authority. All things come to one thing: do as the Bible tells you to.

in order to make the Church stronger

In an army, the marshall can't talk to all the soldiers in person. He talks to the officers who talk to lower officers who talk to the soldiers. So the pastor here is the marshall. He can't do everything on his own. Therefore he better instructs some deacons or something to do their job. This way it's more efficient. Jesus trained His men to do their job. We Dutch say that 'many hands make a light job'. I guess this doesn't make sense in English but I guess you know what I mean.

Pastors set the general line. Teachers explain the Bible. They all teach people how to be a part of the Body. The more people they teach, they bigger the body becomes. But teachers to small groups are just as valuable.

Yesterday there was an evangelist on the telly. He spoke to strangers on the station or something. Most people hate that, but sometimes he wins a new Christian. this way he builds up the body of Christ.

Apostles and prophets tell other people about the Lord. This way, there are more Christians and better ones. Like a body has cells, every Christian is a cell in the body of Christ. Therefore those apostles and prophets build up the body.

If we don't learn from our mistakes, it doesn't make sense to think about them. We should confess it is wrong and not do it again.

We compare our behaviour and thoughts with the Bible. If the Bible says it's bad, it's bad and otherwise it's good. We better not look for things that might be wrong.

We tend to minimize our sins - but God doesn't. He holds us fully responsible. We ourselves make excuses, like I couldn't help, or, it wasn't that bad. The verses in Hebrews tell us that God sometimes disciplines us to teach us that certain behaviour is bad. So we know that sin is serious and we don't do it anymore.

If we take the communion with a unclear conscience, we are a disgrace to our Lord. This is a very bad sin.

We all have spiritual gifts to use in the Church. Nobody is too stupid or useless. Nobody has a reason not to help the Church.

no calling names at stupid people