Guitar Jim

Q3. (John 2:6-10) Why do you think alcoholics are quick to point out this miracle? "Jesus turned water into wine and made plenty of it. What's wrong with me drinking plenty of it?" Alcoholics will always defend their right to drink to excess. Which is wrong: drinking wine or drunkenness? Drunkenness of course. Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his bad stomach. There's nothing whatever wrong with having an alcoholic drink. We shouldn't drink to excess though. We're told not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit (of God). Various denominations will denounce drinking any alcohol. I believe this to be because they're in the business of helping people put thier lives back together after they've been ruined by alcohol abuse. In the case of the Salvation Army, one of their main focuses is on helping people beat addictions. They also forbid gambling because it can be addictive as well. As far as I know they don't even have Holy Communion with grape juice. How can we avoid excesses and still enjoy God’s good gifts? Self-control is the key. We need to be aware of alcohol and other things taking over our powers of reason. We have to know when to stop indulging. With some people that could mean having just one drink. And if you can't stop at one . . then stop at none. I haven't drunk alcohol in years, apart from one beer on my birthday.

Q2. (John 2:3-5) Why do you think Mary pushes Jesus to solve the wedding host’s problem? I think Pastor Ralph nailed it in his commentary. Mary knew Jesus could do anything. She knew He could produce wine from thin air if He wanted to. She was probably either a close friend or relative of the bridegroom and wanted her Son to help him out. Are her words to Jesus appropriate? Well, I don't think her words are inappropriate, put it that way. It's no different, really, to a doctor being at a social gathering and someone passes out or whatever. The doctor's mother would surely urge him to attend the sick person. If Mary knew the groom, Jesus probably did too. Would you categorize Jesus’ reply as a rebuke? If so, why does he go ahead with the miracle? If it was a rebuke, it was a very gentle one. Jesus gently reminded his mother that He had to do things in a timely way and to draw undue attention to Himself at this early stage of His ministry would be premature. Jumping ahead to the next lesson, Jesus performed the miracle His mother requested in a low key way that not even the bridegroom knew what had happened. Any dutiful son knows he has to keep his mother happy.

Q1. (John 2:1-2) Why are we sometimes “too busy” to spend time with friends and relatives? We consider our time too precious. We've got things to do and not enough time in which to do them, or that's what we believe. What does Jesus’ attendance at this wedding tell us about him? Even though He knew He only had three years of ministry Jesus accepted the invitation of the bride or groom, whichever one it was who invited Him, because it was the custom to do that. Jesus was definitely not anti-social. His mother and brothers had also been invited, so to not go would have seemed like snubbing His own family. We have to remember that Jesus lived His life around that area and worked as a carpenter until He knew His time had come to commence His ministry. Everybody would have known Him, although most likely not as anything more than the local carpenter who they may have noticed never committed any sin of any kind. We know from Mark's and Luke's Gospels that the folk around Nazareth and the surrounding areas knew Jesus before He began His ministry. How can we apply that learning in our own personal lives? Just because we're on a mission from God doesn't mean we can forget about spending time with family and friends.

Q1. (2 Corinthians 12:7) Why was this “thorn in the flesh” given to Paul? What purpose did God want to achieve through this in Paul’s character? Paul was given a painful physical ailment to keep him humble. It could have even worsened when Paul started to have feelings of self importance and pride, we don't know, but it certainly seems that was possible. I think God was makng sure Paul didn't become too egotistical by having the ailment flare up every time he started to self-agrandize. It was important to God's plan for His church that the main prime theologian . . the man responsible for writing most of the doctrine we believe in . . wasn't a proud hauty person, but a humble man who put Christ first all the time and lived in total obedience to Him. How can something be both used by God and be caused by Satan’s destructive work? No matter how horrific sinful things can be, like the Holocaust and the Bolshevik revolution, where millions of people were killed and tortured, and the present terrorist situation in the world, they are still under the sovereign control of Almighty God. Sin is in the world through the fall of mankind. Sin will stay in the world until the appointed time when God makes all things new. Until that time God has chosen to work through Christians and Godly people on earth. God can and does use any and every situation to His ultimate end, even if we just can't figure out why He condoned mass murder etc. In the Old Testament we see many examples of God allowing people to die in plagues and wars. He even struck thousands down Himself. Back then God was about establishing Himself as the God more powerful and way above all the false gods the people of that time worshipped. God is still the same. Read Revelation and see where a third of Mankind will be lost in the calamities of the end time tribuations! God has given Satan temporary control over the world until the completion of all the sins of fallen mankind and Satan have been accomplished. Why? We don't know. We do know that Jesus will parade His people before the powers and principalities in the spiritual realm. God created those powers and principalities; what does He need to prove to beings He Himself created, and could eliminate from existence with the blink of an eye? Evidently God does need to show everyone and everything that He is the Lord of everything. That's why things will go from bad to worse to worst before the second coming of Christ. I'm thinking about Job at the moment. He was a righteous man who wasn't proud or arrogant. He loved God and was grateful for all God had blessed him with. Satan asked for permission to put Job on trial, as it were, to see if he REALLY loved God. God gave him permission to do just that. So there was God allowing extreme hardship and personal suffering to befall a man He loved and who loved Him. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. How does this verse relate to Romans 8:28 and Genesis 50:20? All things work together for good for those who love God. Some translations put it as "all things work together for the good of those who love God". Clearly that isn't the case a lot of the time. Let's be realistic and admit that for the life of us we can't see any good in our kids getting sick, our loved ones getting cancer, people dying needlessly in natural disasters, wars, etc. There is no earthly good in any of those things. Maybe there is some part of God's plan that requires folk to die in earthquakes, the holocaust, or whatever? When I was married my wife used to suffer migraines sometimes. I had to go to work some days and leave her in bed after making her comfortable with whatever I could do, which was next to nothing, because I had to keep my job since I was the one who had a job. I would plead with God all the way to work in the truck to please heal her and take the migraine away . . . and He never once did that . . not on any occasion. I have not much faith at all when it comes to asking God to heal people because I've never been given a reason to have any.

Q4. (John 1:45-50) How does Jesus deal with Nathanael’s skepticism? What was the nature of the miracle? Jesus tells Nathaniel that he knows things about him that only a prophet would know. They've never met, nor set eyes on each other prior to this first meeting and Nathaniel is shrewd enough to recognize the miracle of prophetic insight in Jesus' words. I think Jesus gave Nathaniel the exact word he was needing to believe in Him. Jesus instantly overcomes Nathaniel's natural predjudice against all things Nazarene with the greatest of ease! Upon coming to faith, what title does Nathanael bestow upon Jesus? Nathaniel actually gives Jesus TWO titles! The Son of God . . and the King of Israel.

Q4. (John 1:29) What does the title “Lamb of God” tell us about Jesus’ ministry? Jesus came to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He came to supercede the traditional animal sacrifices, which only ever provided a temporary atonement, and to become a permanent sacrifice, once and for all, to make us right with God. According to 1:29, whose sins did he come to take away? The sins of the world. Our sins, everybody's sins. In what ways did Jesus fulfill Isaiah 53? At His crucifixion Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53 to the letter! He was pierced, He was crushed, He shed his life's blood down to the last drop. The punishment He underwent did indeed buy us peace with God, and by His wounds we are healed.

Q3. (John 1:19-27) How does John the Baptist show humility? By downplaying his role as the herald of Christ. In Matthew we read of John's humility when told that his disciples were going with Jesus and that Jesus was winning more disciples than John was. John was genuinely glad that Jesus was becoming more well known. Additionally, John lived in the most humble circumstances imaginable. He wore clothing made from camel hair and ate wild locusts. John was a Nazarite, a man dedicated to God since birth. How can a person see himself as the fulfillment of a passage from Isaiah and still be humble about it? I think John never lost sight of his mission, which was to point people to Jesus and not to agrandize himself. I believe the Holy Spirit so filled John with purpose that he could do nothing BUT fulfill his mission. John's mission was so vital to the whole advent that there was no room for personal pride over his part in it. How does John see himself in relation to the coming Messiah? John sees himself as insignificant compared to Jesus. In John's view Jesus was so much worthier of praise and honor than he was that he didn't consider himself worthy enough to intie Jesus' sandals. How can a person be such a strong revivalist preacher and still remain humble? Can humility and powerful, confident speech co-exist? The key to being a powerful confident revivalist preacher and still remain humble is to never lose sight of the awesome privelege God has given you to do the job. Someone asked Billy Graham once how many people he hoped would become his followers. His reply was: "None. I don't want people to follow me; I want them to follow Jesus". Rather than thinking; "I had a great day today, there was a huge respose to my preaching" it would be best to think: "God used my preaching very productively today and thanks to His power and His will, many came to Christ. I thank God for that awesome privelege."

Q2. (John 1:26-27) Why did John baptize? John was preaching and baptizing to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. He was preaching repentance from sin and cleansing from past sinful practices. What is the meaning of the baptism he was performing? It was an outward sign of an inward change of attitude and renewed obedience to God. What do you think baptism represents to those John baptized? It meant different things to different people. To some it meant exactly what I wrote above. To some others it was merely following along with what the crowd was doing. Without wanting to pre-empt Pastor Ralph's next lesson, it was clear to John the Baptist that some of those lining up for baptism weren't interested in changing their ways. Some didn't even know what they should do once they had "repented" of their sins. John took those people to task. Matthew's Gospel gives us more details of John's preaching and his encouter with Jesus.

Q1. (John 1:19-23) Why do you think John the Baptist was being hassled by the religious leaders from Jerusalem? At that time there was a delicae balance of power in Jerusalem. They were being ruled by Rome, under the tetrach Herod, an underling king subservient to Rome. Their own Jewish council did have some power in religious and social matters but at a whim the Roman rulers could step in at any time and over-rule them. Therefore anyone who could rock the boat was kept under close scrutiny. John the Baptist was preaching a doctrine that differed to various degrees from what the Pharisees and the Saducees were teaching the Jewish people. The Saducees were teaching that people do not rise from the dead (in which case why bother being righteous?) and the Pharisees were teaching that absolute obedience down to the very letter of the Law of Moses was the way to righteousness and the favor of God. John preached simple repentance and generosity to one's neighbor. What were they afraid of? John also preached that the Kingdom of God was coming. That would have set off the alarm bells in the minds of the Jewish leaders because Rome would definitely not tolerate the coming of a King. Any talk of rebellion would be detected by the Roman authorities and the perceived rebels would be brutally crushed. How did John understand his own mission? John was a humble man who downplayed his role in the whole advent. Clearly, in the light of history, John was figuratively Elijah. His father Zechariah prophecied as much and John's very manner and appearance were similar to Elijah's. But in real terms of course John wasn't ACTUALLY Elijah. The prophecy concerning Elijah's "return" was fulfilled in the coming of John the Baptist in every sense of the word in as much as prophecies of that nature are fulfilled. He could have claimed to be Elijah and not be lying, but if he had claimed to be Elijah there was a real chance that the Jewish people would have tried to make John king by force, as they later tried to do with Jesus. Elijah had been one of the greatest heroes in Jewish history. A reincarnated Elijah would have been the cause for great social and political upheaval. Rather than claiming to be Elijah, he said he was simply the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He also was fully aware that he was the herald of Jesus and nothing more. When John's disciples told him that Jesus was gaining more disciples than he was, he was glad to hear that because he knew that Jesus was the important one. By the time Jesus began His mission. John's work was almost done. How much conflict do you think could be expected from John’s mission? I think as much conflict as was recorded could be expected. I'm reminded of those prisoner of war movies in which the captured allied officers were accorded a modicum of courtesy by the German prison camp overseers but if they stepped out of line they were brutally reminded they were still prisoners. That was the precise situation in Judea at that time. John was preaching about things pertaining to the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish leaders and elders had built up their little petty empires within the authority of the Roman occupation and they weren't going to let anyone tear that down.

Q5. (John 1:18) What does it mean that Jesus is the “Only God” or the “Only Begotten God”? Does the Apostle John seem to make a distinction between God the Father and God the Son? What does all this mean for our understanding of the Trinity? John, as Pastor Ralph points out, is somewhat ambiguous in his writings. Then along comes a verse that really cuts to the chase. The first chapter of John's Gospel outlines who Jesus really is, from an earthly and Heavenly standpoint. We have to remember that John was perhaps Jesus' closest friend during His time on earth. John knew Jesus as a man and also as his God. Something so profound will have a huge impact on how John writes about Jesus. He saw Jesus as the Son of God and acknowledged Him as the eternal God as well. Only during His time on earth was Jesus apart from God the Father. Therefore there is a distinction between God the Father and God the Son. John was a fisherman, not a scholar. Even under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, his personality and humanity show through in his writings. I think John would have been a very humble unassuming man. Contrast John's simple writings with Paul's . . who was very highly educated. Of all the Gospels, John's Gospel gives us the clearest understanding that Jesus is God Himself. The whole Trinitarian thing is really difficult to understand.

Q4. (John 1:14) Why is the idea of God “becoming flesh” so important to the basis of the Christian faith? In order for Jesus to assume His role as our High Priest, He first had to become human to set us an example for righteous living. In order for Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, He had to become human so he could actually die a physical death. God set out the requirement for the remission of sin . . . the sacrificial shedding of blood. God does not want human sacrifice and so He provided a system where animals were sacrificed, but at the same time He declared through His prophets that the blood of bulls and lambs can never truly wash away sins. Therefore He gave Jesus, His one and only Son, to be the perfect sacrifice. Jesus was truly human and truly Divine. Only that duality of being made Him perfect as God's atoning sacrifice. What would Christ’s life, crucifixion, and resurrection mean if he were only pretending to “become flesh”? I keep referring to God's holiness. We humans can't fully grasp what holiness truly is. It's perfection beyond perfection. Our world has become corrupted by sin, but it was made absolutely perfect in the beginning. It would take the perfect sacrifice to redeem the world and return things to the righteous state in God's eyes. Christ HAD to become truly flesh and not pretend simply because of God's holiness. God would not accept anything less. Jesus volunteered to die for us, knowing that only He could accomplish the Father's objective. In what ways have you personally experienced his grace? In what ways has his truth changed your life from what it was? God has seen fit to allow me to undergo continual physical and mental hardship. Any help He's given me to cope with that has been in the form of my "daily bread", so to speak . . . like the manna the Israelites were given in the desert. If they tried to gather more than enough it spoiled. I've never had more than I need. He's given me just enough grace, just enough money, just enough healing, just enough peace of mind, to enable me to keep going. Very rarely have I experienced abundance in anything. Whenever I look like I'm going to have money left over to build up my savings, something will go serioulsy wrong with my car, my computer . . or even more frustratingly, my career, which will necessitate my spending almost all I have to rectify the situation. I'm 60 now and in a profession (the music industry) where the emphasis is on youth. My retirement savings were HALVED by the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. My marriage ended in 2007. I'm on my own in the world's eyes. God's Grace has kept me going and is keeping me employed in spite of my age. He's allowed me to keep my guitar playing skill into mature age and the work keeps trickling in . . just enough to pay the bills and the rent.

Q4. (2 Corinthians 8:21-22) What is the balance between living our lives wholly before God without being men-pleasers, and doing what is right in the sight of men Our first priority should be to please God. That having been said, we're also under the world's microscope. People watch Christians, hoping to see them fall. Just look at the trouble Cliff Richard is having at the moment. The more high profile you become in the Christian community, the more scrutiny you attract. We're not going to win many people to Christ if they think we're all crazy, or incapable of enjoying life, or aloof, or elitists, or any other of the things many Christians are accused of being. We've got to be seen to uphold the law of the land, be generous to others, do good works, and to love our fellow human beings.

Q2. (John 1:7-8) What did it mean that John was sent to “testify” to the light? John was Jesus' herald, the voice of one crying in the wilderness preparing the way for the Messiah to come. In what sense are you put here with the purpose of “testifying” to the light? How are you doing in this regard? The great commission is given to us to go unto all people and preach the Gospel. How am I doing? . . not too great at the moment. What happened to John the Baptist? He was imprisoned for speaking out against Herod for his blatant sin. Despite Herod's seeming affection for John, he still gave in to his wife's (and step-daughter's) request to behead John because John's main focus in criticizing was on Herodias, Herod's sinful wife. What might happen to you if you testify clearly? A wise man told me years ago that if you want to upset people, tell them the truth. I thought beheading wasn't done any more but now we have Islamic lunatics doing just that to Christians. While that may not happen here, there is still the deriding and the contempt that people show to "God-botherers". What might happen to the people to whom you testify? Hopefully their heart will be open to hearing about Jesus and salvation.

Q1. (John 1:1-3) According to the Apostle John, is Jesus fully God? Most definitely. It does take a moment to decypher, for want of a better word, John's vocabulary . . . but yes, he is saying that Jesus is God, the same as God. What does it mean that Jesus is the “Word”? God is a Spirit. When He created the Heavens and the earth, He spoke words and it all just happened. No scientist will ever be able to explain how it happened without stating the blatantly obvious: God spoke the universe into being. John also says that without Jesus, nothing was made that was made. Jesus is the very word, the Being of God. This is really hard to understand with earthly minds. Father and Son working together to create everything. What does this say about him and his ministry? Jesus came to earth to pay the sacrificial penalty for our sins. God is holy, completely and utterly holy and cannot look upon sin. It must have been agonizingly difficult to make His Son, a very part of Himself, sin itself to be sacrificed to atone for the sins of mankind. IN the thirty-odd years Jesus was on Earth, He would have been aware constantly of His impending fate. Mercifully, God the Father removed certain knowledge from Jesus while He was on Earth. We know this because Jesus told His disciples He didn't know the day or hour of His next coming. I believe God also "blocked out" some of the knowledge of Jesus' coming death on the cross in order for Jesus to focus on His earthly ministry of teaching, healing, and preparing His disciples.

Q2. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8) How do Paul’s words comfort you when you consider your death? What do Christians believe happens when we die? What will happen to us if we die before Christ returns? What will happen to us when Christ returns? I don't want to go all scientific here, but I believe that Heaven is in another dimension. Heavenly time and earthly time are not co-current. In both the Old and New Testaments we're taught that a day is like unto a thousand years, and a thousand years like unto a day, to The Lord. That's the clue right there. In earthly time we sleep in the ground until Christ's return. In Heavenly time we're changed in the blink of an eye. Jesus, on the cross, gave us more than one clue. The statement to the thief next to him . . and the climactic "It is finished". We can draw from that emphatic statement a number of conclusions. The one I'm referring to here is that His redemptive work and God's plan to redeem a fallen mankind were completed that day. Satan had been defeated. Paul describes how Jesus has already led His captives "in Christ" as a public demonstration to the heavenly powers that He has defeated sin and death. Those things have already happened in the Heavenly time frame. Yet on earth they haven't. In our earthly time frame the thief on the cross is still in his grave. In heavenly time he's already there! Jesus told him that would be the case. Our Seventh Day Adventist brothers and sisters aren't completely wrong in their interpretation. We will be given rest from our labors, along with the others who've died prior to Christ's return and the bodily resurrection of the dead, but I don't think we'll sleep through it in the interim. Pastor Ralph made that clear.

Q2. (1 Corinthians 13:4-6) Which one or two of these tests of agape love do you have the most trouble with? Envy and irritability. How might prayer help you grow? How will walking with the Spirit help you deal with these flaws? I need to be more content with what I have and not be so concerned with others who have more than I do and who came by it more easily. I'm talking about career advancements, not material possessions. Thankfully I don't envy people better off materially than I am or I'd be the most miserable personon earth. I also need to be less irritable. Prayer to God, asking for patience will definitely help me in these areas, as will allowing the Holy Spirit to control and temper my irritablilty. I've been told I'm a pretty calm guy, but that came from someone who was accustomed to violence in her previous relationships. There's more to having a loving attitude than the absence of violence. Just because I'm not violent doesn't mean I can't learn greater patience and become less cranky at times.

Q2. Is it legitimate to use Jesus as our example in the use of spiritual gifts? Or was he so different than we are that we can’t pattern our ministry after his example? Of course we can use Jesus as our role model when it comes to using spiritual gifts. In our case we do this in the name of Jesus whereas He just went ahead and did it! We're so accustomed to not performing miracles though that when someone does, we think it's of the devil! We see a gifted Christian healer touching people and making them well and accuse him/her of being a phony while in the Bible Jesus tells his disciples that they WILL do things like this. This brings up the question of how many things Jesus said that were meant specifically for His disciples and how much is meant for us. We try to heal a loved one in Jesus' name and they don't get better so we look for unconfessed sin in our and their lives and/or put it down to it being God's will or something. The jury will always be out on that one. The thing we must remember was that Jesus healed people regardless of their personal spiritual state. He didn't wait for them to confess their sins and to be right with God before He healed them. Personally I think the instructions James gave in his letter are what applies to us. Some gifts are more readily accessible than others. Faith Hope and Love being the most accessible. Words of wisdom from God and prophecy are a real grey area these days. With whole religions springing up after a so called "word of prophecy" from God . . . and I think we all know who I'm referring to here . . . we're naturally cautious about taking as true everything a "prophet" may tell us from God.

Q1. (1 Corinthians 12:7) What is the purpose of spiritual gifts? To build up the body of Christ. Some gifts also serve as a sign to unbelievers that we are Christians. What happens when people don’t employ spiritual gifts for their intended purpose? It could result in false doctrine spreading through the church. The people employing their spiritual gifts for selfish gain or other wrongly motivated reasons could also become prideful and overbearing. What happens when a whole church full of people start using their diverse spiritual gifts? It becomes harder and harder to keep God in perspective when everyone is using their spiritual gifts and they could end up just like the church in Corinth!

Q3. (1 Corinthians 11:26) In what way is the Lord’s Supper a proclamation? Partaking in the Lord's Supper is an outward show of our belief in Christ and His death and resurrection. To whom is the proclamation made? Why is this important? To anyone who witnesses it. In this way we remind ourselves of Jesus' sacrificial death and we show unbelievers that we are under God's new covenant. What happens to the church when its proclamation shifts to a different central theme? To base a belief system on anything other than Christ and Him crucified will skew the whole focus of our religion.

Q2. (1 Corinthians 11:25) What does the phrase mean: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”? Jesus signified that He was making a new Covenant, sealed with his very blood, with mankind. What is the old covenant? The old covenant involved Israel's obedience to God's commands. If Israel obeyed God, He would be their shepherd and take care of them. However, Israel broke the covenant and worshipped other gods so many times that it nullified the covenant and a new one was needed in which God could give of His Spirit to everyone who accepted Jesus as their Savior. What are the provisions of the New Covenant? God paid the penalty for our sins in the form of His only begotten Son's death and resurrection. We have to accept that sacrifice on our behalf and then live our lives directed by the Holy Spirit, who indwells us when we become believers and followers of Christ. We are baptized into union with Him.

Q1. (1 Corinthians 11:23-25) Why is it so important that we continually remember Christ’s broken body and shed blood? The sacrificial death if Jesus Christ is the cornersrtone of our religion. We wouldn't be Christians if not for the atoning sacrifice of God the Son. Paul himself said at one time that he made up his mind to forget every other thing concerning Christianity in his preaching apart from Christ and Him crucified. That's how important it is! In what sense do you believe that the bread is his body? That the wine is his blood? I don't. I believe that we partake of simply bread and wine, nothing more. But we partake in remembrance of Jesus's death. The broken bread represents His broken body and the wine represents His blood which was shed for us. I don't believe the communion elememts actually become Christ's body and blood. In my view that's too big a stretch. We break bread and drink wine to remind us of Christ's sacrifice. The words of institution are spoken and we partake. I also don't believe that we receive the Holy Spirit when partaking of communion. We already have the Holy Spirit.

Q5. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) What point is Paul trying to make by using athletic analogies? Just as self-discipline is necessary to succeed in athletic endeavor, it's also necessary to win the rewards in Glory. What place does self-discipline have in our effectiveness as Christian workers? Gotta keep our minds on the job. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What place does self-discipline have in keeping us from falling into gross sin, such as idolatry? If we keep focused on out mission we won't slip into gross sin. How might lack of self-discipline disqualify us for all God has for us? We won't receive a reward in Heaven if we haven't kept ourselves in shape spiritually. I don't believe we can lose our salvation unless we completely renounce God, but we won't be living in a mansion in Heaven if we haven't been busy for God on Earth.

Q4. (1 Corinthians 9:15-22) Why did Paul “become all things to all men”? What was his purpose? To win as many as possible to Christ. If he'd only preached to the Gentiles he wouldn't have saved any Jews and vice versa. If he'd avoided contact with Gentiles and their customs as the Jewish law commanded his ministry wouldn't have been so effective. Was he able to be authentic in doing so? Yes I think so. What is the difference between Paul’s chameleon ministry and mere role-playing? Paul was willing to suffer any consequences for the stand he'd taken in being all things to all men. Someone just role-playing would have quit once the going got tough. What are you willing to give up so that you can reach the people God has called you to minister to? Well first of all I really don't have a clue who the people are that God has called me to minister to. I've been involved in various ministries over the years but nothing ever came of any of them. I thought I had something going in Christian music but it flopped. I though I had something going in Powerlifting but that was totally derailed by the enemy. I thought I could be a good ambassador for Christ as a truck driver, talking to the people I delivered to but that was also taken away completely with a succession of work injuries that eventually saw me pensioned off at just 43. Nowadys I play guitar in pubs and clubs and witness to no one. The people who compete against me for gigs have banded together and branded me as a thug and other less desirable things because I'm a better musician than over 90% of the others doing what I do. They can't out-play me or out-perform me so the lie about me to shut me down. I've been put out of business FIVE times since starting my professional career in 1997. So now I have to play to drunken idiots and stoned hillbillies in country venues.

Q3. (1 Corinthians 9:15-18) Why doesn’t Paul have a personal choice about preaching? I think we need to realize that Paul was a very special case. God had him earmarked to not only convert the gentiles, but to write most of the New Testament as well. Paul indeed didn't have a choice when it came to preaching. In the same way as Moses had an extraordinary task laid before him, so did Paul. Will volunteer and bi-vocational Christian workers receive a greater reward in heaven than those who are paid here on earth? If so, why? If not, why not? Everyone will be rewarded according to what he/she has done with the gifts God gave them. Some will receive great rewards while others will just make it in, with their clothes smelling of fire and smoke!

Q2. (1 Corinthians 9:13-14) Why did Jesus command his disciples to receive support on their journeys? Jesus said that a worker is entitled to his pay. It's that simple. That should be applied across the board in life as well as in Christian service. We see in the world today millions of workers getting paid not enough to live on! And that's seen as OK by governments and employers the world over. I reckon it's disgraceful. What scriptural obligation do Christian congregations have to do their best to support their pastor – and, if possible, other workers? Way back in the Old Testament provision was made in the Law of Moses for those doing God's work to receive support. The tithe was to support the tribe of Levi which was the tribe in charge of worship in the tent and later the temple. "Do not muzzle an ox when you use it to thrash corn" is a command, not a suggestion. What accountability will church board members experience when they pay their pastor less than they should? Jesus told an interesting parable which concluded with: "Whatever you do for the least of my followers, you do to ME!!" The stingy board members may have to wait till judgement day to give an account, but give it they will. Hmm that reads like Yoda wrote it!