brian

I would like a few more thoughts. Paul challenges us when he says he has learnt to be content both in great lack and in times of great provision. In another place the bible says Godliness with contentment is of great gain. I think the best way to ensure we dont grumble and complain is to train ourselves to be content. There is a prayer i have seen where a person asks for ability to change the things they can change ability to accept what they cant change and wisdom to know the difference

Grumbling and complaining reflects an attitude of immaturity. Many times when we grumble and complain we do have a legitimate gripe but we need to reach a stage where we realize that life is not always fair. We need to bring into practise the teaching of Jesus where he says if we are slapped on one cheek we give the other cheek.If someone wants your coat give him your shirt as well. If we develop this character trait it will help solve half the conflicts in this world and it makes the person who still wants to fight for their rights look petty. I am quite weak in this area i must admit but I amconfident that He who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ

If we fail to wait patiently for Christs return, we will get frustrated and give up. We need to be patient as this will develop character in us. Character will develop hope and hope will never dissapoint us. This is because the love of Christ is spread abroad in our hearts

When we live a life of indulgence and luxury it is very difficult to stay alert so as to resist the roaring lion out to devour us. We should be sober and watching. As a practical act we should develop the habit of giving things away all the time. We need to be careful about the things we buy. If we get to know that an item we want to buy was produced in a sweat shop or using child labour , we have an obligation not to buy it however we should accept all things with a clear conscience. We should never get involved in get rich quick schemes or businesses. We need to be patient and dedicated to gain success as it is best when we work on something for the long haul so that when success comes we will be psychologically and spiritually ready for it. We see many people in the US especially musicians and sports stars who get wealthy suddenly and they are not ready for it. They usually self destruct as a result of their extravant life styles.

James warns us against presumption regarding our life plans. We can be humble in our life plans by always commiting to the lord all our plans.One way of doing this is to always give a significant offering tied to the project you wish to undertake and tell someone in spiritual authority over you to pray for the success of your project. You should then move forward in confidence without procrastinating.

The commands are vital because they relate to repentance. Our God wants us to submit to him.This is not easy as we all have to fight the fleshes desire for recognition and self importance. The most difficult are 1. Submitting to God 2. Resisting the devil

God uses the female form because we are the bride of Christ . God is the aggrieved spouse. Friendliness with the world is firendliness with the devil as he is the god of this world.

No God is not against pleasure, He needs us to have a balance so that we do not live in any one extreme.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The best solution is to fill the heart with things that are pure, of good report , profitable etc . That way you will speak out of the abundance of the heart but it will be good things.We are admonished to guard our hearts diligently. I for one have stopped watching television since January 1 2005 . I only watch news and that is only occasionally. I am not recommending this to anyone since we all here from God and know what is good for us. I just had so many issues in my life that i felt i needed to take radical action in order to see change. God bless

Hi all. For me it is quite simple, First comes the salvation by grace and not of works. This means it is a gift freely given by God. As we grow as Christians we now want to know what purpose God has for our lives and what we, out of gratitude, will offer back to God. This is not to earn salvation as it has already been obtained. We want the extra blessing that come out of serving him. At the end of our lives we will say like Paul,We have run the race and fought the good fight ,kept the faith and now await the gift God has kept for us. I believe that God has crowns and commendations he gives to the saints for the work they have done in the world. Some are of hay, wood or stubble while others ar of gold. 1 Cor 3:12-16

I thinkit is royal because it is more effective in making our lives pleasing to God.It does not rely on human effort. Favouritism to the rich breaks the royal law in that it makes our wealth the basis of our salvation and it willmake the poor feel left out.

I think my easiest target for discrimination would be women in the church who dress inappropriately or the ones who are involved in the feminist movement but at the same time claim to love God. I also dont like to associate with men who mistreat their wives and kids I think i try to make a good impresion to men and women who seem really spiritual especially those involved in full time ministry.I guess this is because i want to go into full time myself one day and i need someone to show me how to go about it.

Favouritism makes us a judge in that it makes us assume a role where we can treat one person better than another. The most evil thing about it for me is that the other person who has not been favoured may get discouraged and may even leave the lord.That would mean my act of favouritism hascaused someone to depart from the faith. It canb work the other way in that the person we favour who is not leaving right will get a false sense of security and carry on leaving a life that is not pleasing to the lord.

Ithink the reason God considers taming the tongue and caring for widows and orphans as most important is because God loves people and he considers our relationship with people to be affected by what we say with our tongues.

I think that the stirring that occurs in us when we listen to a message can confuse someone to imagine they are righteous. Attending church is considered an act of holiness. This is a form of self deception. When we try to get away with the barest form of obedience we are deluding ourselves.

The word creates faith and faith creates spiritual life in us. The word you hear and read does a work in each of us to make us want to seek God and be more spiritual. How do we ensure that the word is read and understood well especially by young believers or unsaved people. I ask this because when i was 15 years old and my hormones were raging i came across the verse in the bible that said if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out. You may not believe me but I was ready to do it since I did not see any other way out at the time. I am sure there are many storiesthat you can all give of when we interpreted the bible in way that can cause more harm than good

The answer is wisdom. Getting Wisdom will require that we go through a process of self examination.We will be required to confront our values and attitudes. We need to look at our relationship with other people, purity, peaceableness , gentleness, submissiveness, the level of mercy we exercise, the fruits we manifest, how impartial we are and our sincerety (look at James 3:17)

Trials themselves may not cure us of double mindedness but how we respond to them. We all know of people who experienced difficult experiences that made them doubt God and backslide. When we experience a trial, pray to God and he helps us out then we will increase in faith in that we will trust him more we will have a reference point to rely on to build our faith on. Double mindedness may happen when we want to trust God to help us out of a situation and at the same time we want to retain a "plan b". God wants us to be totally reliant on him and have no other source of help. Remember Shadrach , Meshac and Abednego when they were to be thrown into the furnace and they said that they would not bow down to the idol. They said that God would rescue them and if He chose not to they would still not bow to the idol. I pray that we can reach that level of faith and conviction in our age.

I dont know why we get tempted with sin but i know the bible says that God does not tempt. I would really like to know what I can do to stop falling into various sins. I love God and want to grow but i feel like it is beyond me.

Hi I'm Brian from Nairobi Kenya. I have learnt to ask God to show me what he wants me to learn from the trial and to help me be obedient so that it lasts a short time. My attitude to trials has been wanting in the past but i quickly learnt that i needed to grow up and to stop murmuring. I still get tempted to murmur sometimes but it is something i'mworking on.