joyandblessings

Hi. I'm from Mississauga, Ontario in Canada. Glad to be here and I look forward to the learning and discussions!

Faith has no spark, no expression and no connection to the world and the church if it is unaccompanie by action? It is impossible to have and maintain a living relationship with God and believe his laws and obey his commands without moving into action. You cannot show love to another human being without taking action. Therefore, your faith is dead. Faith is not only alive as the spark that moves us into action and into a continual desire to have a close relationship with God, but also it expands us, expands our experiences. Faith is alive since it directs us to move out beyond our current boundaries an dtrust in God when we are taking action. Faith continues to do this on an ongoing basis, therefore it's alive.

We are responsible for our brothers. We are responsible for loving our neighbour. Jesus did not add ...'so long as he's Jewish' in this condition. God will reward us for our obedience to the love command. I have to work on this from time to time myself; I need to remember that regardless, we need to love these people and care as much as we can. The other thought I had tonight was, do we realize how many people we could have helped to their destiny in God's work if only we had given them food or clothes or inspiration to move out of the poverty and neediness. It take our acts of charity out of the level of being just kind and into an active level enabling others to grow and develop in God and perform their destiny (potentially).

A demon only has sufficient belief to believe in the devil's lies. Belief for a practicing Christian is a belief in God's laws and intent through his book. A Christian believes that God is able to perform his promises. It would be difficult for a non-practicing Christian to have a belief....perhaps he/she would agree with the testaments but there is no real relationship with God and Jesus.

Faith with works is stepping out by faith to do the works motivated by love, one of the commandments. God did not envision the church where all were isolated and did no good deeds. However, none of us could provide the sacrifice necessary to obtain salvation. Only Jesus could do that..two different things.

As human beings, I think we love to master disciplines whether they be physical or mental. We are taught to acquire knowledge, to attain certifications, to know the right people and so on. It is natural for us to separate those who have the knowledge as being of a specialized group as opposed to those that do not have the knowledge. This is the life of the Pharisees when Jesus told them they were like sepulchres, all white without but inside, rotting. They had deceived themselves that they were righteous since they all had the knowledge of the laws and practiced the laws without heart, as a form of discipline. They felt themselves more righteous than others. This was a huge deception. When Jesus tore down their self-righteousness, they became his enemies. This is easy for us all to slip into.

Love is the perfect law. I am coming to understand that the Bible is a love story...God's love to us and His guidance for living the very best life and beyond. This is his plan for us. Love is the perfect law...the law that the Prince of Peace gave to us. Love God with all your soul and all your strength and love one another as yourself. ALL ELSE hang on these laws. You are never in conflict with God's laws for living by choosing to act on these two laws. I'm amazed that He made these laws so simple, that even a child could follow them. He loves us so much, that he wants NONE of us left out of his kingdom. In fact, we really need to struggle to be left out. This is, the perfect law.

This is such an AWESOME letter! We are to take ACTION and not to just passively listen. There was never a time when Jesus listened to what the Father said and did nothing. This is the challenge to us so we can be doing the will of God. People see us in action before they can ever talk to us about the Word. I've really been made aware of the things that I have to change in order to present the glory of God through me to others.

Our spiritual birth is based upon the receipt of the word and the promises in the word. Upon the new birth the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us, counselling us, leading and comforting us. Without the word and its promises, there is no basis for spiritual birth in Christ Jesus.

Q3. (1:5-8) How do trials help cure us of "doublemindedness"? How do trials help us grow in faith? Trials give us the opportunity to walk the talk. If we were all just to study the Word and not apply it, we would not grow very much. But also, if we have trials and stand on the word and get to a point where we can watch God's response, listen to his wisdom, I have to believe that over time, there will not be so much waffling around what the answer is or questioning ourselves and God. We just trust in him, giving him all our cares, keeping focused on his Word and the promises for our lives and act on it. I want to 'get off the courch' and put on the armor and go!

Q4. (1:5-8) What is the promise to claim in verse 5? What is the condition attached to this promise in verse 6? How do trials help us receive this wisdom? God promises us that we can ask for wisdom from him and he will give it to us unfailingly and without criticism ! What an awesome promise. No mater what the situation, we can ask for God's wisdom on it. The condition is that we don't ask wavering but ask in faith. We need to believe that he will give us his wisdom AND trust that it is His wisdom. I'm working on this one myself. Sometimes I doubt that the answers I receive are God's because they don't make sense to me...I'm not sure that I'm hearing from God. I'm determined to get better at this though!!!

Q2. (1:13-15) Why do people blame God for evil? Does God tempt us with evil? Does he tempt sinful people with evil? Why does he allow people to sin? Why does he allow evil to exist at all? I'm not sure people blame God for evil so much as people blame God for allowing evil things to happen...particularly on a scale where there is no logical answer (the Holocaust, death of a small child etc.) I really appreciate the clear direction that James has stated in this chapter in that we cause ourselves to be tempted which is a foothold to sin. God is the provider of all things that are good and he has no variableness. God allows evil to exist because 1) he allowed all authority in this earth to Adam who handed it to Satan which introduced evil. Thank God that he had a plan for all of us through the final sacrifice of his son for our sins so we could find a way back to him (we win!!!! yeah!!!). and 2) God has given us the gift of free will which means that we have a CHOICE to make, either for life or death; good or evil. God wants us as a part of his family and not as slaves. We must make up our own minds.

Hi. I'm Diane from Mississauga in Canada. Have attended in the past, and look forward to these sessions