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Q5. (Galatians 5:11) What is “the offense of the cross” that offended the Jews? How does the cross offend people in our day? Have you noticed Christians softening their proclamation of the cross? Does this help them communicate more clearly to our age or does it compromise the true message? That Christ not only died on the cross, but that He arose from the grave and is not there. I think people forget that although Christ died on the cross, He did not stay on the cross. He did not even stay in the grave. I think people want to remember that Christ died for our sins, but they don't want to have to give up their sinful lifestyles because that's 'more fun' than living a holy life, in their eyes. I believe that if we truly try to hold onto a sin in our lives because it's 'fun' to us, and then try to witness Christ to a nonchirstian, it opens us up to persecution in that they look upon us and say, 'yeah, you say I'm doing wrong, but do this other sin. You're no better than I am'. I believe it is very hard to live a Christian life. I believe we really have to be on our toes and make sure we are right before we go out and witness Christ. I believe we lead by example, and sometimes when we show Christ in us to someone living a sinful lifestyle, it can have positive effects in that that person turns to them and says, "I want what you have". And that opens the door to witness to them and conversion.

(Galatians 5:5-6) Circumcision had been the primary “mark of identity” for a believer in God. In what way has the Spirit become the new “mark of identity” for the believer? What is the evidence of the Spirit’s presence in a believer’s life according to verse 6? Circumcision has no value in whether or not a person is saved. You can't be saved by circumcision. You can't be saved by works. It is by the grace of God that He saves us. But we have our part to play in this scenario. We have to go to God and confess our sins and ask Him to forgive us and to come into our lives. When we invite Him in, He sends the Spirit to dwell in us. When we are truly subservient to the Spirit and do what He leads us to do, it does show through in all that we do. And that shows through because of our love for God and wanting to please Him. And we can show His love through what we do.

Q3. (Galatians 5:4) Exactly what does Paul mean by “fall from grace” here? What has occurred that has caused this fall? How can present-day Christian legalism cause such a “fall from grace”? They've lost their first love -- Christ. Since Paul was not around to reaffirm the teachings of Christ. The Jewish leaders were able to come in and sway them to their way of thinking. They were able to tell them that the Galatian Christians weren't saved if they didn't do certain practices of the law. I think when we fall into this practice of having to do certain things to 'keep up our salvation' instead of following Christ and His example. I look at it this way, Christ only did the communion once in His ministry, when He was about to die. I look at it as a way to show our communion with Christ and becoming like Him ourselves in order to resist temptations and to live a holy life.

Q2. (Galatians 4:19-20) How is Paul’s grief over his spiritual children like that of a parent seeing children stray? What does it look like when Christ is formed in a person? What is the process involved in this spiritual formation? He's saddened, I believe, to see the Galatian Christians fall back into the bonds of slavery, which was the law, when Christ gave us freedom from the law. They have strayed from the truth of Christ's word and have lost their way for a short time. Many parents that I have known are saddened to see their children stray and it makes them sick inside that the children they raised in the Christian belief just don't hold the same feeling toward Christ that they used to because the world is much more appealing to live in. But when Christ truly lives in a person, you can see Him. This person truly lives a holy life. They may get frustrated by things, but are quick to put it in Christ's hands to take care of. They have no fear of death because they know where they are going. I believe to live a holy life is Sanctification. Which is, the second work of grace. We have the first work of grace, salvation, a one time thing. Then the second work of grace, sanctifiication, which is an ongoing process our whole life. It is letting the Holy Spirit residing in you take ahold of your very being and leading you to do the right things and resist the temptations to do wrong things. Because what is sin but 'willfull disobedience'. It's only when we know something is truly wrong to do and choose to do it anyway that it becomes sin. And sin is always a choice you make. It's not something like 'we're all going to sin anyway, we might as well do it'. Right there, the person has made a conscious effort to sin that day. Christ was God, but He was also FULLY man and as open to temptation as all of us, and He overcame. He is our example to follow. We should follow Him, not give excuses as to why we can't resist sin. (Oh, I'm not Christ. He was God, so He could resist sin). He gave us the Comforter to reside in us. To lead us NOT into temptation. But to give us the choice to choose the right path.

Q1. (Galatians 4:10-11) Is celebrating different special worship days essentially wrong? Why did Paul grieve over the Galatians’ observances? What significance did these have in terms of their movement towards Judaism? How can we be blessed by observing special days in our era? How can observance of special days become legalistic for Christian believers? I don't believe it's particularly wrong to worship special days. But I do think we need to be careful that by doing so on a regular routine time can make it ritualistic or legalistic and by doing that it can lose it's meaning. It becomes just a routine we do once a week or once a month and the true meaning gets lost then. Like the practice of communion. Some churches do it every Sunday, some do it once a month. I believe that when something like this is done so frequently, we can get conditioned and just go through the motions. It loses its true meaning. I think Paul was afraid that the Galatian Christians would fall back into the old Jewish law of doing what they did in the Old Testament and under the Ten Commandment laws and all the other laws and he wanted them to know that Christ fulfilled the law, that the whole law was now practiced under two commandments Christ gave us. I think there is nothing wrong with observing special days. In many cases, it keeps the memory or event alive in us.

Q1. (Galatians 1:11-12) What is the source of Paul’s gospel? How do we know that it is a true revelation? How does it conform to our other foundational sources of Christian teaching? What is the danger of taking the teaching of contemporary leaders as our doctrinal basis without checking it with the Scripture? The source of Paul's gospel was Christ Himself. He revealed Himself to Paul on the road to Demascus. Christ appeared to Paul Himself and showed these things to him personally. Everything that the apostles went through is the strong foundation for our beliefs and doctrines now. Jesus said that we should never just hear someone preach and teach the word, but rather test it to see if it's from God. We need to take what man says and test it against the scriptures to see if it lines up with scripture and we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us any descrepancies.

Paul called the Judaizers' message as a "different gospel," a perversion of the true gospel. How is this dangerous to the Galatian believers? How do twisted gospels (or an unbalanced interpretation of the gospel) affect Christians in our day? It was dangerous to the Galatian believers because it took them away from the truth Paul taught them at the beginning of Christ and Him crucified. This is dangerous to us because when you get too many people taking scripture out of context and twisting it around, it splits the true church of God (God's church). They become denominations with truth in part, but not all truth. They start then coming up with their own belief systems based solely on the portion of scripture taken out of context.

Q1. (Galatians 1:4) According to verse 4, for what purpose did Jesus give himself? How does Jesus rescue people today? How does he keep people from falling back into their old ways? (He)gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, That we may not perish in our sins. We are all born a sinful birth when we are first born. By being born again, by the Spirit, we are washed clean from our sins and sanctified (set apart) to lead a holy life through the Holy Spirit indwelling in us to lead us down the right path.

Q3. (2 Corinthians 5:7) What does it mean to walk by faith, not by sight? Why can’t nonbelievers understand this kind of living? What aspects of your life are guided by your senses rather than by your faith? How can you bring a faith perspective into these areas? I believe it's believing in something when common sense tells you not to. It's the evidence of things not seen. Nonbelievers can't believe in something they don't see because they don't trust their senses. Like, no one of us has ever seen God, we just trust that He does exist. We rely on the 'miracles' as it were to show us He exists. The beauty that we see all around. Mostly things that mean a lot to me that I would like to see done. I don't see the outcome and I sometimes lack faith it will happen when it takes a little longer. I know I need to rely on God more and that takes faith to just put it in His hand and believe that He is in control and He is taking care of it.

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 believe that when we die our spirits go up to be with Jesus. That we get to be with Him in heaven and there are no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain to endure. This is what happens if we die before Christ returns. If Christ returns first, we will see Him descend and be caught up with Him in the clouds.

Q1. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5) In what sense are our bodies like tents? If we were to truly look forward to our “house not made with hands,” how would it affect our daily lives here? Our bodies are like tents because they are not permanent. Just like a tent blows away with one big, strong gust of wind. If we are not anchored in faith, one disappointment can cause us to fall from grace. I think if we truly did look toward our 'house not made with hands', it would make us not afraid to face death. And, maybe like some Christian people I have known, be more willing to face death and not be afraid to die when the time comes.

Q1. (2 Corinthians 1:21b-22) According to this verse, what does the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives signify? How does the Spirit unite us with God? What is the promise of future blessing inherent in the Spirit’s presence? I believe having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us gives us power to overcome temptation. He draws us near to God and allows us to communicate directly with God without having to go through a priest for atonement like in the Old testament. With the Spirit's help, I can go through any troubles and know that I have the power to stand up in the face of that trouble and be the victor. Whatever comes my way.

Q1. (2 Corinthians 1:21b-22) According to this verse, what does the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives signify? How does the Spirit unite us with God? What is the promise of future blessing inherent in the Spirit’s presence? I believe having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us gives us power to overcome temptation. He draws us near to God and allows us to communicate directly with God without having to go through a priest for atonement like in the Old testament. With the Spirit's help, I can go through any troubles and know that I have the power to stand up in the face of that trouble and be the victor. Whatever comes my way.

Q3. (2 Corinthians 1:10-11) Why does Paul ask people to pray for him? How do the prayers of others have an effect? What happened in your life that has helped you enter into a ministry of intercessory prayer? Prayer makes us stronger. It gives us a sense that we are not alone in dealing with what we have to deal with. When I am going through a trial, I find great comfort in the fact that I know that people are praying for me and that sometimes gives me a peace that passes all understanding.

Q2. (2 Corinthians 1:9-10) How does facing a harrowing crisis help us grow in the Lord? How has a crisis helped your spiritual life? What is the value of learning not to rely on ourselves? What does this do to our pride? How does this improve our effectiveness as God’s servants? I have found out that when I go through a crisis, I lean more on God to get me through than my own strengths. I've found that if I rely on my own self to get me through, I fail miserably. I can't do it. And I just make it worse than it was. It has a tendency to humble me drastically. I feel too inadequate to take care of the situation, therefore, I lean more on God to get me through to the other side and I remember that when I reach the other side and look back, I will see God was there every step of the way, even though there may be times I don't feel that when I'm going through it. I tend to remember His promises of never leaving or forsaking me more and holding onto that.

Q1. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7) What kind of comfort do you receive from your faith in God? From your personal daily relationship with God? How might you share the blessing of this kind of comfort with a friend or relative who is currently suffering? What words of comfort can you bring to others? I know that through everything that I have gone through, am now going through and will go through, God has, is and always will be there with me to give me the strength I need to get through it. Looking back at some of the things that I have gone through, the struggles to get through nursing school. The backbiting that took place at my old church by people who wanted to control everything and put me down in the process -- I know that God was right there to stand by me and to hold me up when I had to speak out against things that just weren't right, both scriptuarally and morally. It may be a cliche, but He has been my Rock I stand on and all other ground is sinking sand. And sometimes when my faith falters and I begin to sink beneath the waves, like Peter, I feel His strong hands pull me up and envelope me in His massive, loving arms.