alexandria

Grumbling against a leader can really be a symptom of grumbling against the Lord, when that leader is a leader chosen by God to do his will, so when grumbling against a leader who is trying to do what the Lord has commanded him to do, you are really grumbling against God, as God is the true leader and the person he chose is just the messenger. There can be cases where this might not be true, such as when a leader claims to be God or to take the credit for something that rightfully belongs to God. Some leaders are not sent by God and if this is the case then grumbling would not in any way be considered grumbling against the Lord. Leaders tend to take complaints personally, because the complaints are aimed at them and most leaders tend to forget when they are constantly being blamed for things that may go wrong, that it is really the Lord who they are complaining about. Because of this they tend to take things personally and become angry or resentful. It takes having and accepting the Lord as you leader and trusting him to handle everything. If the leader of a group of people has an intimate relationship with the Lord then he just knows and trusts that God will fix everything, through him. This is when he, the leader finally realizes it is definitely not about him but it is about the lord.

The reasons that people grumble and complain are that they are dissatisfied with things as they are or they just need something to complain about. They also complain because they expect someone else to do things for them instead of trying to help themselves. People are just never satisfied with what they have and always seem to want to blame others for their problems. Fear and faith relate to grumbling in such as they grumble and complain because they are afraid of what might or might not happen and when they grumble or complain this shows lack of faith, that whatever it is they are grumbling about happening etc. cannot be stopped and they do not have the power to prevent whatever it is that they think is going to happen. The symptoms of grumbling that I see in my own life, are those of having a very painful disorder that is impossible to treat and the unbearable pain causes you to complain instead of just giving it to God. The normal things that most people complain about and tend to feel sorry for themselves because of these things. The most sensible thing to do is to give it over to God and trust him to handle it for us but we tend to get caught up in whatever it is that causes us to complain and forget to trust God with our problems.

It is difficult for some church leaders to confront people because they feel that confrontation sometimes causes more harm than good. Most people do not see themselves as sinners and for someone else to point it out to them is not acceptable. Sometimes the church leaders do not figure God into things and they do not have the strength, without God to know exactly how to handle the situation. As Moses and Aaron did, most church leaders do not follow God with humility and faith, so they do not know how to approach people who have sinned openly. The fears that the leader faces are pretty much the same as those of Moses and Aaron, lack of faith, doubt in their ability and most of all trust that God will give them the right words and subtlety to handle such volatile situations. Confrontation and rebuke can be a good thing if it is handled appropriately and makes the sinner see that he or she has been sinning and should change and live for the Lord. When we refuse to confront when we should, the sinner sometimes or most times gets so caught up in the sin, that they start to see it as an okay and acceptable way of life and they move further and further away from God.

Moses blamed God for his troubles because God told Moses he would work through him to make the egyptians release the people but God hardened Pharrohs heart and he refused to release the people. Moses blamed God because he thought that God had not kept his word. Moses and Aaron are stubborn because they do not believe in themselves and they blame God for all their troubles. They expect God to do everything now and do not understand why God is not doing what he said, right now. I think they were afraid but also they did not believe that God would be able to free the people as they both knew the cruelty of the egyptians. God has to command Moses and Aaron, because as most people are, they do not have faith in themselves or Gods promises. God wanted first to have Moses and Aaron believe without doubt that they could do anything as long as they trusted God instead of doubting him, before he freed the people. He needed Moses and Aaron to be strong in the Lord before they could lead their people.

The reason we are afraid to obey God when he puts on our heart to do something decisive is, because we do not feel we are good enough and are afraid of failing just as Moses was. We are to pray and ask God for help to deal with the fear that we feel when asked to do something we feel we cannot do. The relationship of fear to courage would simply be that of trusting God to supply the courage we need and all of the tools we need to do whatever he asks of us, in this way fear and courage cannot exist one without the other.

, Jesus was harsh with those who made excuses when called to follow him, because he was trying to get through to them, the urgent importance of them following him now, not tomorrow, or not next year but right now as time is short. The reason the call is so urgent is because we are getting closer to the end of time, we could die at any moment and must be ready, or we, as the signs seem to tell us could be so close to the end and his coming back to take us home with him, if we stall and make excuses then we will be left behind. Our excuses seem so trivial when offered to Jesus because they are trivial, God tells us that we must put Jesus before everything else, including our loved ones. This does not mean we are to forget or neglect them, but we are to always put God and Jesus first in the sense that we stand strong in our beliefs and we do not let anyone lead us astray and we must put Jesus first to have a better relationship with our loved ones.

The way in which the Great Banquet is about Grace, is that The one who is doing the inviting, is offering the invitation to everyone and those who refuse lose and those who accept win, without having to do anything but accept the invitation and be there. The way in which it is about evangelism is in how he tells his servants how to get them there, it doesn't matter how but they must emphasize the importance to the people of accepting and coming to this banquet. They are to impel them with the importance and urgency of their acceptance to this invitation, in reference to their salvation and forgiveness so as to spend eternity in Gods Kingdom. The End Time event that this Great banquet points to is the rapture of Gods true believers in Christ, when all believers are taken up into the air to meet with Jesus and spend all eternity in Gods kingdom, once they have accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The time is so close that the urgency to fill every seat at the table is a sign that the time is so close that we must be ready.

According to these parables in this lesson, the way in which the Kingdom is small is because, when christianity first begun it started with the apostles and disciples who followed Jesus and would learn as they followed him, that he was truly the son of God. Many people of that time were won over to Christ because of the positive way he spoke and the miraculous healings he performed, as in time the Apostles would also do. Christianity started with a small group of believers. The ways in which the Kingdom grows is because of the first believers who traveled around with the apostles and won more people over to Christ because of their unwavering faith and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. As the followers of Christ grew, they traveled to far away places where Christ had not as yet been heard of and kept winning people over to Christ by showing their unwavering faith and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through them. The Kingdom grows larger and larger with every person who converts and gives their life to the Lord and allows Christ to come into their life and be their Savior and Lord. The ways in which the Kingdom doors are narrow are, depending on how we practice our belief in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. If we trust in him totally to provide whatever we need to survive and to always know that even when times get tough, if we believe he is in control everything will work out and we will be stronger in our faith but if we do not allow Jesus total control of our lives through faith and trust then the doors become narrowed because lack of faith and trust makes it impossible to enter the Kingdom. Even though the doors are probably normal size, the narrowness only is visible to those who are not prepared to enter. The Kingdom banquet, on one hand, is large and diverse because of the people who will be there. People from every nation and different languages and different backgrounds will be there but they will all be able to understand one another as God gives back to everyone the gift of understanding one another, which was taken during the building of the Tower of Babel. On the other hand it is very selective as to how you measure up, as to where you will be seated and how much you will be given in the Kingdom. In other words we will not all have the seats of honor and even if we think we deserve the best, only God knows who deserves to be on his right or his left and whether we will be in a place of honor or a place of lowly servant.