Foofee's Nana

What is the significance of the statement: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" It is the reality in the flesh of His grace toward us.....a loving Father who gave His beloved for us. Who might our enemies be? Our one true enemy is Satan....he wants us to always live in doubt. It is his nagging little thoughts that say...doubt...doubt...doubt.....but it is God's pure mercy love that has saved us. What is the evidence presented that God is for us? God gave us eveidence that we did not deserve by sacrificing of His will...His Jesus to an awful death on the corss for us . How does this statement make you feel? This makes me feel like one of the beloved of Christ....one of my Father's own. I did not deserve but I am grateful and want to serve Him. How does it affect hope? How does it allow you to act? It makes me always live in hope....to know that what is ahead of me in Christ is forever better than anything else. By this I want to be a reflection of Him in the ways I act. I want to be long suffering, full of mercy, faithfulness, I want to have the heart of a servant. What might: "...graciously give us all things" refer to? He graciously gave us Christ on the cross... we did not deserve it....but He gave for us....freely, with willingness.

What does it mean to "be conformed to the likeness of his Son"? To be conformed to His likeness means that we truly become more like Jesus, by our character, our show of love, mercy, kindness...we want to be a reflection of His love. In practical terms, what does that involve in our lives? I think it means laying down those selfish desires that are only self....and keeping our eyes on the Savior. Why does Paul support this statement with ideas of our destiny? Paul teaches this so that we know God chose us....loved us so much that he asked us ti be one of His kids....AWESOME.... Why does he support this with ideas of brotherhood with Jesus? Paul compares us to being sons and daughters...we have that need to be family. Jesus is the first born Big Brother...and I am His little sister.

What is the actual promise contained in verse 28? The promise that God works ALL things for good for those who love Him.... What does this promise mean? Put it in your own words. This promise means that because I have chosen to love and serve Christ Jesus that any circumstance....good, bad, unfair, wrong....that my God can change it for my good because I love Him. What are the two qualifications to the recipients of this promise? To have been called and taken the step to believe. How does verse 28 give you hope? It gives me hope in a world of despair that my Abba Father is always looking out for my good.

In what sense do we expect to experience God's glory when Christ comes? As humans we long for that day to stand in the mere presence of God...to be near our Christ Jesus and back on His glory. The toils of everyday life will be gone and replaced with the never ending love of God....it is surreal. How will the suffering creation experience God's glory? Creation will be as God first intended it...no death...no discord....lions will lay with lambs just about covers it all. How will our mortal bodies experience God's glory? We will be resurrected with Christ Jesus and be given a new heavenly body...in the likeness and refelction of Him, I do not pretend to know or understand but this sounds the BEST !!!! In what way will our spirits experience God's glory? We will be new creatures...that old sin nature is now gone and we are in love totally with our Lord....and He loves us the same way. AMEN!!!!

What are the characteristics of a person who has lost hope? He seems defeted and downcast....hopeless, like he has no will or thought of the future. How does this person typically conduct his life? If ap person does not have hope he may live in a way that is just for now....do reckless things with no thought of the future. How does this differ from a person who holds an eager expectation of a better future? A person who holds that Godly hope goes forward knowing that things will get better, that life or life after here will be fulfilled. We know that each day is lived with the full hope of one day being with Christ in a new kingdom. What is the "Christian hope"? Being with our Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah..... How should it motivate us and affect our lives now? We should get up and face the day with the hope of glory....being a loving kind person with the heart of a servant for Christ.

How does the Holy Spirit act as a Helper or Mediator or Intercessor in verses 26-27? The Holy Spirit prays for us....even groans to the Father our need when we do not know how to pray or what to do. He intercedes on our behalf. What similarities do you see between the Holy Spirit's ministry here with Jesus' teaching of the Spirit's ministry as Counselor/Comforter/Paraclete in John 14:16 and 15:26)? Jesus promised us He would ask the Father for another counselor that would remain with us forever. Jesus also intercedes for us...He has walked this human life and is there to tell the Father our pain and need. Why do you think we tend to take the Holy Spirit for granted or fail to understand His ministry to and through us? Perhaps we are just not fully aware that He is totally and completely God....He is here with us since Jesus left the world and stays as the part of the God head on earth with us. We need to be open to asking for His help...His mercy.

In what ways was suffering Jesus' lot in life? Jesus was rejected by those around him...the people in His own town thought he was nuts. He was wounded for our sin...by paying the ultimate price for us...death on the cross. Why do we suffer? We suffer because that is really part of our life...it is necessary to help in our growth and when we suffer we become more Christlike. Why does all creation seem to be suffering? All of creation is suffering because we are on that downward spiral since the fall of the first Adam...and only lifted out of that pit by the second Adam...our Lord Jesus. What will signal the end of that downward cycle of suffering, decay, and death? When Christ Jesus comes back to this earth the cycle of decay will be broken by His love and mercy. Is there anything good to look forward to in this present life? Yes....I am a saved person and will wait for my Jesus. I want to serve Him here by my love toward others...I await His triumphant return.

In Romans 8:14-21, 28, how many times is the idea of being sons and daughters of God alluded to? What are the promises made to these sons and daughters? What do we learn about our future and our role in the future of all creation? I count 9 times, because of the differnt text of sons, heirs, co-heirs, Abba-Father. We are promised a spirit of freedom form fear, we will share in sufferings but also share in His Glory, we will be liberated from the spirit of bondage to the spirit of God. We are promised a wonderful future in Glory, free from the problems and sins of this world, set free by our Christ Jesus. I love how it was put, the party for us will come later......

How does the Holy Spirit inspire us to pray 'Abba, Father'? The Spirit is always testifying that we are the children of God....so this makes us want to scry our to Abba, Father...our Daddy, God. What is the significance of us referring to God as our Dad? It shows us that we indeed have that closeness that we as humans desire and we relate to our Dads...so what better than a heavenly Daddy. What happens in our lives if we don't have some kind of personal assurance of our salvation? If we do not have that personal salvation assurance we can get caught up in doubt, working our way to salavation, or becoming so legalistic that we lose our joy. How do we receive this kind of personal assurance? It is a step of faith...a walk of trust and then we can be filled with the love of Christ Jesus.....it is nothing that we have done or can do but it is a gift to us.

What does it mean to "mortify" or "put to death" the deeds of the body by the Spirit? This is to put to death those desires and deeds of our flesh....we follow a new path to a Christ-like manner of living so put to death our old ways. What would it look like to watch a person do this? I think it would be to see a person wholly submitted and committed to the will of God, one not in rebellion but in peaceful loveing kindness. What does it mean to be "led" by the Spirit? To be led is to follow with free will, we are not drug along as an unwilling participant but go with joy to follow our new life. What does this look like in actual practice? We put aside our desires and follow the love and peace of Christ Jesus through our comforter....we submit and become more like Him. How do "putting to death" and being "led" by the Spirit fit together? We put to death our old self and follow the Spirit as much for guidnace as to know the love and joy of being one with Christ. How much of this is the Spirit and how much is us? God does not take us hostage, we go to follow the Spirit of our free will and because we want to grow more like our savior.

Do we have to sin? No...we are now in Christ Jesus and have been set free. Are we compelled to sin? No....we may thrick ourselves into thinking in this way, to give us a free pass card, but it is not true. Is it possible to live for two hours of wakefulness without sinning? Four hours? One day? Two days? Yes...yes....yes....and yes..... Where do we Christians get such a defeatist attitude towards sin? From Scripture? I think we get it because we have sinned solong in our old nature that we want to hink we "just can't help it"....but we have been set free by the blood of Jesus.

Is it possible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit residing in us? No...if we are in Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit is in us. What is the difference (if any) between the indwelling of the Spirit and the fullness of the Spirit? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is indeed with us when we are in Christ Jesus....no ifs.....but perhaps the fullness of the Spirit refers to specific gifts, and we know that in the body we allhave different gifts. How do we remain "full" of the Spirit? We seek out Christ....we go to Him with our every need, our thoughts, our concerns, our worship, our praise.

Exactly what does it mean to set your mind on the things of the Spirit? If we set our mind on things of the spirit, we are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and exibit sefl-control. How do you do this? We must follow in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit who was left here as a comforter for us. We need to listen as He calls us to Him. How can you recognize when the things you're setting your mind on relate to your sinful nature? Our sin nature is one that goes against God...it follows immoralty, our sinful nature. We are tempted in sexual sin, drunkeness, envy, hate, things of the flesh. How much of this is deliberate? When we choose to follow Jesus, we have taken that step in faith....we all get tempted...but we truly know that we have made that choice to follow our redeeemer. How much is habit? We may have a sin nature, but we also have a mind....we need to kick the habit !!! What part does the Holy Spirit have it this? He helps convict us of our sine, by bringing it to light and then can give us the strength to step away. Or is this primarily right living by force of will? It is by will.....God would not force us....He gave His only for us....and the choice is ours....follow the sin way or the Jesus path.

Why can't obedience to the law save us? What is the weak link? What then does it take to save us? Obedience to the law can not save us, because we can really never do it....we have that sin nature and in our human state can never make it right. We are the weak link, by sin and our selfish pride. It took the saving Blood of Christ Jesus to save us....God gave His only.....to pay the price for our sin.

Christians disagree about who is the "I" in Romans 7. Is Paul referring to himself or others? What is your opinion? (We won't all agree here, but we'll learn what the issues are by taking and arguing for a position -- lovingly). I think that Paul is referring to the Jewish believers that were new to the faith.....they struggled with stillwanint to be in complete obedience to the law as they had been taught, but felt they failed and this made them miserable. he may have been looking back at glimpses of himself as we all do.....we want to be walking in God's plan, following God's lawa and be obedient to His Word....then BOOM, we slip up and want to beat ourself up over it. We are the redeemed, the beloved of God....so we need to trust the Comforter and walk in peace and love.

What is the doctrine of "total depravity"? Put it in your own words. The doctrine of moral depravity is that our hearts and minds are filled with ****, sexual sin, murderous thoughts, the desire to steal, every type of moral wrong. Does it mean that none of God's original goodness shows through? Everyone has that thing that is good, no matter how small there is good in a man. Then what does it mean? In mankind there is a mixture of good and eveil, infortunately because of our selfish sin nature, the ugly part wins out so often, even when we think we desire the good. Why does modern man tend to believe that man is basically good? I do tnot think modern man wants to face the reality of the fact that we are indeed sinners and there is one way out...throught the redeeming blood of Jesus. How does this differ from what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches that we are unclean.....we are fallen, and there is only one solution, the power of Christ Jesus.

What does the law do well? It shows us what is right and what is wrong. What does it do poorly? By putting a light on the wrongs, it made us want to do them more. Why is the law (knowing right and wrong) powerless to save us? The law is powerless to save us because we have that human spirit of rebellion. What is the problem here? The problem is that we as people think we can solve the problem, but it is one that only God could accomplish by the death of His beloved Jesus.

The law reveals sin for what it is. Why wouldn't we be better off just not knowing that we should not covet, for example? Why does the flesh respond to being told "Do not covet" by coveting all the more? We would not be better off for not knowing what sin is....we would be ignorant of the facts, but we would still be in that sinful state. I think when things are made clear to us, when we know the meaning our conscience begins to act....the thought process of knowing what coveting is set in motion. But by knowlege, we are also given freedom.....to not give in to the desires of our flesh. Yes, we are all human but with that we have choices.....

Paul uses the word "flesh" (or NIV "sinful nature") many times in chapters 7 and 8. In your own words, what does Paul mean by "flesh" in these verses? Paul reders to our human body, our relationship to humankind, our physical porperties that distinguish us as human and our human sin nature that seems to follow or haunt us.

In Paul's analogy in these verses, is there a place of independent freedom apart from "slavery" to sin or to Christ? There is no middle ground...no in between....are are either for God or a slave to sin. Why do we long for this kind of independent freedom? It is that part of us that wants to be free to make decisions...but we have to choose....we suffer death if we stay in bondage to sin and have the gift of eternal life in we make that stand for Christ. Why do we hesitate to firmly take sides and make our allegiance clear to all? Perhaps it is pride that always takes over with humans....but to stand with the Lord Jesus Christ is to be on the winning side.

How does good doctrine affect the way we live? With good doctrine we are taught in the right manner and given sound Biblical knowlege from someone who has studied the Word of God. Why should we honor good doctrine? We should honor good doctrine because it helps explian the Bible to us and when it is good and holy we learn form it. If we shouldn't look down on doctrine itself, what kind of teaching should we be avoiding? If something is not based on the truths of the Bible or does not conform to the Word we we should avoid that kind of teaching.

What does obedience have to do with slavery? We are obedient tp the one we serve, our master.....whether we be a slave to sin or a slave to the will of God. In what way does doing acts of righteousness demonstrate your slavery to God? When we love and want to serve God we are slaves to Him, we desire to do only the will of God and not slip into the pull of sin. In what ways does doing bad things demonstrate a slavery to sin? When we do bad things we become a slave to sin in that it is addictive in its power over us....we think that what does this really matter, then the next thing and so on until it is like a domino affect and we succomb to the slavery of sin. How is such a slavery or bondage broken? This bondage is broken by the price that Christ Jesus paid for us on the cross, we no longer have to be a slave to sin but can be a slave to righteousness. What part does obedience have in breaking this bondage? In what areas is God speaking to you about a fresh obedience in your life? Obedience to Chirst has the power to break the hold that sin once played over us. Yes, we are human and still fight the fight....but such a price was paid on Calvary that it makes me want to follow God more closely. I think that I deal with my emotions.....not to let them get the best of me, whether through an unkind word, thought, or temper toward ones that I love.

In what ways do you "offer the members of your body" to either sin or God multiple times in a day? Everyday we choose which path to follow, we can offer ourselves up to God in good attitude and actions, thoughts or such....but also we can make that choice to sin and then it is also our choice. We are no longer prisoners of this so we can yield ourselves to God. Why is it that we can sin unconsciously? If we let that old self take over we can fall into sin...but we also have thepowwer to live an upright life for Christ. How can we begin to offer our members deliberately to God? We can offer up ourselves with deliberate purpose to God by the way we live our daily lives. We can have a good spirit, a kind heart, not be yielding to temper or wrong doings. What changes will it take in our daily life to do this? I think if we yield ourselves to Christ we will want to live a different lifestyle, we will no longer just think of ourselves, but will be sharing, caring , and giving. We will want to spread the Word, share our love of Jesus.

What does obedience have to do with the "reign" of sin? If we are in obedience to our call through Jesus Christ we will no longer let sin be in control of us and our life, we have been set free from it's power.

What does it mean to "reckon, consider, count" in verse 11? Paul uses this "reckon" in the mathematical sense....to figure, to consider. So when all is said and done the equations equals that Christ died once, and paid the price for our sin . He does not die multiple times...the debt is paid. Does this actually mean that we are convincing ourselves of something that isn't really true? No...this is true...the price was paid once by our Lord Jesus Christ. We are now set free. What will be the effect in our lives if we actually do consider it to be true that we died with Christ's death with regard to sin? We are no longer slaves to the power of sin. This does not mean that we are without temptation, but we have the answer, the key.....Christ has broken those chains that bound us and replaced them with a new spirit.