jesus

(Philippians 3:13;Revelation 2:4) A person who has "lost His first love' has a vibrant appearance, full of vitality but within looks like a hollow shell. Yes it has happened to me . My love for Jesus was not the same when I accepted Him because I became too familiar into thinking I know Jesus intimately. I got caught up in doing some good works and knowing some Scriptures here and there and thought I know Him well. I did not pursue Christ like Paul enjoying Him,walking with Him and seeking to know Him more by loving and serving Him passionately as I should have. When I get comfortable in life, I go slack, disobedient and even lazy and do not seek Jesus and love Him as I should. I can regain personal intimacy with Jesus by surrendering to Him my will and my ways and spend time in His presence and meditate His word and most importantly obey and do what He tells me to. He loves those who obey His commands. By seeking Him and not anyone or any thing and giving Him the first place in my life,I can regain the intimacy with Him. I might need to repent of my sin of disobedience and walking away from seeking Him and other things that came my way of loving Him as I should. I must desire to have that close intimacy with Christ and press on towards the goal of knowing Him fully. Without this goal of wanting to know Jesus fully I may fail.

(Philippians 3:8-9) Our own pride and righteousness and religious achievements can actually get in the way of "Knowing Christ" because we are proud and self righteous depending on our own wisdom and knowledge to know God. We will not be able to experience the reality of who God is if we full of ourselves thinking we know it all. We have to empty ourselves as Paul did, unlearn everything and seek to know Christ through His Holy Spirit in us. We have to let go of all our achievements ,our human wisdom or knowledge , our self righteous attitudes and seek to know Jesus humbling ourselves before Him. Pride,righteousness and confidence in religious achievements will hinder us developing a closer intimacy with Jesus or knowing Him truly. We have to seek a personal relationship with Jesus by letting go of ourselves and learn from Jesus who gentle and humble. As we develop a closer walk with the Lord and seek to know Him intimately spending time in His presence and His Word we will surely "know Him". To "Know Christ" is living in a closer relationship with Jesus and have intimacy with Him.We have to give up everything as Paul did to know Him.We need to have child like faith in Christ and not faith in our righteousness and religious achievements which makes us proud from experiencing the power of Christ in our lives. Yes many a times my pride ,righteousness and religious achievements have come in the way of Knowing Jesus and getting closer to Him. But He is always faithful and chastises me of these attitudes through any situation and since He is the Good Shepherd of my life ,He leads me with His rod and staff. Thus, I know I am nothing without Christ and have to a place to know that all I am and all that I have is only because of Christ who saved my by His grace and not on my own merit.

(Colossians 1:14-20;Romans 8:1) To be "In Christ " means to be in union with Jesus Christ. It suggests a close association that is, union with Christ. Such a union is very important to as as believers in Christ because we receive the fullness of Christ as Christ dwells in us through His Holy Spirit. This union with Christ empowers us to His true disciples and we will be sharing His righteousness. We no longer belong the world but we belong to Christ who has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into His Kingdom and we receive redemption and forgiveness of our sins because we are "In Christ" Through this union with Christ ,we are born again, created anew, adopted as God's children into His family and redeemed from sin and darkness.

(Philippians 2:2-11) Jesus demonstrated the importance of humility by emptying Himself of some of the "relative attributes" of deity-omniscience,omnipotence and omnipresence. He became a slave as well as a human being.He too on the form of a slave as well as a human being. He took the humiliation to become a human being and takes on the humiliation of death, and a very painful and shameful death. Jesus sets an example of humility and humbling Himself rather than insisting on His own ways with selfish ambition and vain glory.Jesus hymned Himself twice over-first in taking the form of a human being and then voluntarily assenting to the most shameful death . He gave up all his rights and became a slave dying the most painful death and that was humility! When we try to exalt ourselves rather than wait on God to exalt us, God will humble us as He resists the proud ,but gives grace to the humble. This tendency to exalt oneself could be called self-idolatry or self glorification.

( Philippians 1:20-23)Deaths gain for Paul because he departs to be with Christ. Paul says to depart and be with Christ is far better than life in this body. He prefers death to life because it being at home with Jesus, a gain and far better than life. According to Philippians 1: 22-24 Paul has to decide which is better life or death in terms of the benefits of him being alive or dying. He feels convinced that he lives physically it will be fruitful labor, benefit to the Philippians and other churches to help them towards progress and joy in the faith and to increase their joy in Christ. Even though Paul says death is a gain and far better than life, he still decides and prefers life because his life will benefit the Churches all around and build them up in faith and joy.

( 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 12:10) Appearing before Jesus Christ our Judge should make us fearful because will receive what is due to us according to the things we did while in the body whether good or bad. If we have truly stayed obedient to Jesus Christ our names will be found in the Lamb's Book of life and we will not be condemned on the Day of Judgement as we have passed from death to life.Our judgement will not be for our salvation as the issue has been settled when we put our faith in our Christ ,received the Holy Spirit, and our position became "In Christ". Our judgment there will be for rewards we will receive for our faithful service. It is therefore necessary we remain faithful to the end,fighting the good fight of faith , run the race with perseverance and receive our reward. Our faith in Jesus will save us. Our works will be judged by fire, and the fire will test our works. If our work is built o the foundation that is Jesus , it will survive and we receive our reward. If our work was not built on Jesus ,but for personal gain and glory it will be burnt up ,it will be a loss, though we will will be saved ,but only through as fire.( 1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

( 2 Timothy 2:3; 3:10-12;4:7) We are quieted quickly by mild societal disapproval of our witness because we fear rejection, persecution and approval from man. Often, we want to remain in the good books of men by not offending them speaking the truth. We fear losing relationships and many things attached to it and we remain quiet when we see the societal disapproval. A soldier is one who has committed his life to fight for his country and willing to fight any battles and even lose his life for his country. Like as a good soldier of Christ ,we remain committed to Jesus and obey Him and share the Gospel even when we may have to face trials ,persecutions and hardships. We do not back out when we face the enemy and flee but we stand firm and endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ. Fighting the good fight means we realize what we are fighting and for whom we are fighting. We fight for something if we want something. Likewise as Christians committed to Jesus we must know we have a fight against the enemy. When we stand for Christ in faith and serve Him and want to see may souls lost we must continue to fight the good fight our faith knowing our fight is against powers of darkness and our aim to testify to the Gospel of grace to many who will be saved. We fight against all odds and win because Jesus will give us the victory.

Acts 20:24b; Ephesians 6:20; 2 Corinthians 5:20 : Paul is an ambassador because he has an assignment from Jesus to testify to the Gospel of God's grace and is an official representative of Christ and functions as an embassy on behalf of the Kingdom of God. An ambassador for any country is on an assignment or a mission abroad on behalf of that country. Paul is on an mission ,task or and assignment from Jesus and thus functions as an ambassador for Christ ,on behalf of the Kingdom of God carrying out the task of testifying about Jesus. Once I accept the Lord Jesus Christ my life is not my own but His and I also am an ambassador because I have to carry on the tasks of Jesus of testifying and being a witness to His grace and share the Gospel to the others. Sharing one's testimony is very important in ambassadorship because we testify from our own life the grace of God ,how he saved us, what Jesus has done and doing for us which encourages others to know about Jesus and believe in Him. We become witnesses to the Lord's grace and favor upon our lives as we share our testimony and draw others to Jesus.

(Acts 20:24): The problems that result from valuing our life for its own sake is we will lose it. Lose what? we will miss out on eternity with Jesus and eternal life if we hold on to our own dear life. Luke 9:23-25 To take up his cross daily and follow Jesus to total and complete surrender to Jesus Christ and obey His commands and His voice daily and not do what we want to It is allowing Jesus to daily lead us and guide and follow Him and his ways and not our will. What keeps us from taking up our cross and follow Him daily is lack of our complete surrender to Jesus ,lack of obedience to Him, wanting to gratify the desires of our flesh and our will. Galatians 2:20 what Paul means when he says He is crucified with Christ is, just as the Lord Jesus obeyed the will of His Father,upto his death on the cross by crucifixion, Paul has surrendered his life in humility to Jesus and crucified his desires, dreams will ,etc and allowed the Lord to rule and reign and do whatever He pleases to do with him. Paul has chosen to take up his cross and follow Christ in the right way obeying the Lord rather than pleasing men or valuing his own life.

(Acts 19:21;20:22-23; 21:11) No the prophecies about imprisonment in Jerusalem are not in conflict with Paul's leading form God. He had to go to Jerusalem and face imprisonment and death according to the will of God. It was the opinion and the fear of Pauls life of the other believers that persuaded him not to go to Jerusalem and face persecution. The believers loved Paul and did not want to lose him too and tried to convince him not to go to Jerusalem. Paul actively encourages prophecy in the churches he establishes because it edifies the churches. ( 1 Corinthians 14: 1,5) Many Christians despise prophecy because they are not tuned to hear the voice of Jesus and his will which comes through prophecy but have rather sort to their own wisdom and understanding without hearing from God.

(Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) The Christians worshipped on the first day of the week ,Sunday, in honor of the resurrection and to break bread to celebrate the Lord's sipper together. The first day of the week,Sunday is called the Lord's day in honor of his resurrection. (Revelation 1:10). Breaking bread means remembering the precious sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and partaking in communion by receiving his body and blood and honoring His command .." Do this in remembrance of me".(Luke 22:19) It is very important to us believers because Christ instituted it and commanded us to remember Him by receiving His body and blood in communion. Secondly it is the spiritual bread we feed upon for our spiritual nourishment as we know through the words of Jesus that man does not love by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from his mouth. when we break bread we also come in close intimacy with Jesus and we abide in Him as He is the vine and we are the branches. We receive nourishment from Jesus and stay connected to the Vine as we receive communion.

Praise and thankfulness are a related to our faith in Jesus Christ. When we truly are yielded and submitted to Jesus we will be praising and thanking Him in any situation of our lives. Obedience to the commands of God is faith and God has commanded us to be people of praise and thankfulness. Praise and thankfulness is the demonstration of our faith as well. Praise and thankfulness are powerful weapons of in our warfare because we are trusting God and allowing Him to take control and we look ahead for victory,rather than believing the lies of the enemy and get into into fear and despair. As we use these weapons of praise and thankfulness we bring about the defeat of the enemy. The walls of Jericho fell because they obeyed God firstly and then shouted praise. NO matter what,when we obey God by praising Him and thanking Him ,we obey and trust Him it is God who will go ahead and fight all our battles and gives us the victory. That is why praise and thankfulness are powerful weapons on our warfare as God moves on our behalf, stills the storm and defeats the enemy. God works when sing and praise in faith as he did with King Jehoshapat. Praise and thankfulness is also a cure for anxiety . Thanksgiving is a language of faith and God expects us to come to Him in an attitude of remembering His faithfulness in the past situations and thus an expectation of his answer in this situation. Praise and thankfulness as powerful weapons help us to keep our focus in Christ and not on the problems.As we remain joyful and thankful we are in good health as well and we don't strive to battle in the flesh but use our weapons and fight the good fight of faith and allow God to take over.

(2 Corinthians 2:10-11; Ephesians 4: 26-27) anger and unforgiveness are sins are satan's schemes or devices so that we become spiritually crippled and unable to pray. It gives an opportunity for the devil to damage out spiritual life by keeping us in bondage of these sins. Again when we give satan an internal platform to operate through these sins he can continually attack us from within.We must give up those places within us through repentance and faith so that we be effective Christians and not paralyzed in sin. The one who hurts me the most when I did good to them is the difficult person to forgive. anyone who is opposing and accusing me for being a Christian also is difficult to forgive. My unforgiveness is more damaging to me than the person who hurt me is because I allow satan a place or a foothold in my life and an opportunity to damage my walk with Christ I cannot pray and remain closer to God and hear his voice,instead unforgiveness cripples me and allows satan to attack me. I need to repent and get right with God and surrender all who hurt me to Jesus and allow Him to work in my life and in the lives of those who hurt me. Obedience to God is the only key and not get into the deception and lies of the emery with anger and unforgiveness.

( 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; John 8:44) The chief tools of Satan keeping people under control is firstly he has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they cannot see the glorious light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. He also uses lies and deception as his tools against the unbelievers. Sharing and preaching of the Gospel is so threatening to satan because he the good news of Jesus will set free people from his control and destroy his works..Once you hear the good news of Christ you come out of his authority and come into the Kingdom of God. Therefore preaching the Gospel is a threat to him. It becomes difficult to preach the Gospel in the world because the enemy makes us feel bad about "proselytizing" and shuts us up with fear that we will offend someone and appear "intolerant'. This fear keeps us off or makes it difficult to spread the good news of Jesus.

(2 Corinthians 4:4; Psalm 24:1) Legitimate authority is when one has a legal right or clam over another and is his own authority.. Usurping authority is not one's , rather taking authority by force. The authority satan has is usurped authority which is not his own. satan has taken what is God's what is not his own.He is not in submission to God,but a rebel, a usurper of God's authority.Only God has legitimate authority over us as He has rescued us from darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves. Colossians 2:14-15 satan can be defeated at the cross because Christ has won the decisive battle on the cross and we have the power of the Holy Spirit to claim people for Christ's kingdom. satan can be still dangerous because he is still in the field fighting a guerrilla war. According to John 10:10a he is a thief who comes to steal ,kill and destroy what is God's. He retains power by deception as a liar and the father of lies (John 10:44b). Peter also warns us in 1 Peter 5:8-9 that he is a roaring lion who is dangerous and we must take the battle seriously.

( 2 Corinthians 1:8-9;Ephesians 6:18-20) Whenever the Kingdom of God has a victory,satan nearly always counter attacks. Pauls work is dangerous because of the enemies he creates by turning people from idols and occult to Jesus Christ.Paul was in a spiritual was one. Paul was facing this overwhelming pressure as a part of his spiritual warfare because he was effective n his work for the Kingdom of God making the spiritual forces go after him resulting in the "overwhelming pressure". Some normal struggles in life cannot be because of spiritual warfare. They are struggles as you live your day to day life. The struggles which result from spiritual warfare are not normal struggles. Jesus has emphasized to us the power of prayer through His own life. Jesus woke up very early and withdrew himself to lonely places to pray and drew strength and victory through everyday prayer. He prayed before everything and even encouraged us to pray for ourselves and for others according to the will of God and we will be heard. If Jesus our Master,prayed and taught us to pray we see how important intercessory prayer is for our leaders and one another so that they are strengthened and helped through God.

(Acts 19:11-19)Many contemporary churches expect to evangelize effectively in the 21st century without signs and wonders because they may rely more on their wisdom than on God's power. Jesus is the Head of the Church and we need to depend on God and His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and not lead through our wisdom. When you truly yield to God and totally depend on Him signs and wonders are sure to follow. We may be afraid of the congregation itself or what they will think than trusting God. The Holy Spirit will show us ministers who are gifted with healing, faith and miracles. You know a person by his fruit. If he is bearing the fruit of repentance ,you will notice the gifts operating in Him and through him. God will show it to us. To move in this direction you need to pray and ask God to lead you. You also need to sharpen the gift within you by seeking counsel from the elders. F or our church: pray for those who are gifted and encourage them to move forward and use their God given gifts.

(Acts 19:9-10) Paul rented a lecture hall from a teacher named Tyrannus and every afternoon he would teach classes there beginning from 11 a.m to 4.pm. Pauls students would forgo a siesta each day to sit under Paul's ministry. It was these students ,the missionaries who were learning from Paul spread the Gospel over the entire province. This went on for two years and all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard God's word from one apostle who taught daily in Ephesus and did not travel around. It is very vital to evangelize in our great cities because everyone needs to hear God's word and great cities can be very influential in evangelizing others. People from these great cities can go to areas where the Gospel needs to be preached.

( 1 Corinthians 1:11-12: 2:1: 3:3-6;) The primary difference between Paul's ministry approach and that of Apollos is about style and training. Apollos is a trained speaker in the Greek tradition, while Paul has to defend himself against charges that he lacks the skills of formal Greek rhetorical oratory. Paul lacks the type and polish that appeals to the Corinthians. Paul addresses this issue by highlighting the importance of unity in the Church. In Ephesians 4: 3 he says" Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the the bond of peace". Yes.Certainly there can be divisions over style within the Christian community . It is based on the style of preaching, worship etc. People come together from various backgrounds in the Church and prefer to have someone leading them that appeals to their style. We have to work together all differences and as Paul asserts we have to strive to be united and function as the Church of Jesus.

(1 Corinthians15:1, 1 Thessalonians4:4-17) It is very important to believe in the bodily resurrection to the Gospel that Paul taught because it is the Good news and the key truth of the Gospel.This belief makes the rest of the Gospel actually true. That Jesus died for our sins, that He sends his Holy Spirit, that He is coming to bring glory and to bring final justice to our corrupt world. If there is no resurrection says Paul, then all they have suffered for Christ is a waste of time. The resurrection of Christ is foundational to our faith because it gives us hope that we are forgiven from our sins and if Christ was not raised our faith is futile and we are still in sin. ( 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-17) .Our faith is in Jesus and we should believe the entire truth that Jesus died was buried and rose on the third day .We believe in faith what Christ has done for us . The resurrection of Jesus makes helps us believe that as Christ was raised we too will be raised on the last day and spend eternity with Jesus. When we die our physical bodies will be buried and we will be with Jesus in spirit. At the time of Christ's coming the dead will first rise ,and after that, we who are still alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air .And so we will be with the Lord forever.(1Thessalonians 4:17) Our bodies will be changed form mortal human bodies to immortal resurrected bodies.

House churches were very important in the rapid spread of Christianity in the first century church because house gathering in house churches made gathering the church feasible in nearly any situations.God can also use your home to host believers in a kind of house church as a place where unbelievers can come to know our Christ. The advantages pop a house-church model is you can gather as a church easily anytime in any situation. You do not have to invest in infrastructure as you may have to for a church building. God has given us a spiritual gift of hospitality which is a gift of the Spirit which facilitates the house churches. You can reach out to any person even unbelievers who will come to your house to point out to Christ. A house church functions as a family growing together in the Lord.serving one another, helping one another in need and be there for each other in life. You grow stronger together. The only weakness I could think would be of limited space in the house churches to accommodate larger group. Dis agreements and conflicts can also come up.

(Acts 18:3: 20:34-35; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10; 1Corinthians 4:12 ) Paul earns his living by skilled labor than through offerings from the Church because he wanted to set an example for all believers apart from supporting himself and his mission. In the church of Thessalonica there were some lazy people trying to free -load off the church's generosity . Therefore Paul sets a deliberate pattern of work, of supporting himself, so he is a strong example to those who would take advantage of Christian benevolence. There were some who were stealing in the church of Ephesus and making their living, and there were some widows who were doing nothing but gossip and were idle. To all such people he set an example to work with their own hands and not depend on others . Some Christians think that full time Christian ministry is better than bi-vocational ministry because they can full devote their time,talents in serving the Lord rather than getting distracted with other occupations . Paul taught several lessons by setting himself as an example of working for his living: a.He set an example of hard work to support oneself and his family rather than depending upon others to do it for you. b.He set an example bu giving to the poor and the weak . By his earnings he could share with anyone in need and help the weak. He taught that it was more important to give than to get. c.He set an example of not coveting money. there was no element of greed in him. d.He set an example to receive a reward for his ministry. Paul preached the Gospel pout of obedience and free of charge and did not look for rewards but His obedience to God will bring him the blessings of God.

God is very close to the non-believers as well. In fact He loves them all. He sent His only Son Jesus because He loved the world and it includes non believers as well. God has left clues and traces in His creation so that the non believers will seek Him and find Him. Yes He is working in them because part of His salvation plan includes the non believers. God is trying to reveal Himself to them through His majestic creation and His chosen people. Since God shows forbearance for the sin of the nonbelievers it is wrong on our part as Christians to be judgemental about them. We must act in love towards non believers. Yes we must be bold to tell them about Christ and show them their errors. Be like Jesus selfless and kind, speak the truth with grace and pray for them asking God to save them. Yes faith is Jesus is absolutely necessary to be saved. We have to confess through our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord!

(Romans3:25,5:6-8,8:3, 2Corinthians 5:21, Mark 10:45,1 Peter3:18a) According to these Scriptures , Substitutionary atonement means Christ who knew no sin ,sacrificed Himself for us sinners on the Cross so that we are reconciled with God. Christ died on our behalf and sacrificed Himself for our sins. This is such a good news because only someone great as God could do this for us sinners and make us right with God and receive eternal life while we were doomed to persist because of our sin. The Substitutionary Atonement gives us the assurance in our struggle with sins because its a truth that Christ paid the price on behalf our our sins and has redeemed us from curse and sin and we can run to Him to be delivered and forgiven from sin. We need to struggle in our sin but go to Jesus in repentance who will give us strength and victory over sin. Jesus will forgive us when we truly repent and renounce our sin. We need not struggle but believe that we have the victory through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

Paul could be tempted to under emphasize a "crucified Messiah" when preaching to the Jews because the Jews were waiting for a victorious Messiah and not a suffering Messiah. The whole message of the Cross which Paul delivered revealing to the Jews that the Messiah had to suffer ,be crucified and rose again was something that they did not expect or anticipate. Preaching and teaching the right Gospel to an audience who believe in something else may tempt you from delivering the right message. Sometimes we may be tempted to tell how great it is to follow Christ while not telling the other aspects of the Gospel because we may want to please our audience, we may fear telling them the truth fearing rejection, we may want to seek our own popularity and fame than being obedient to Christ .We may want to tell all good things so as to sort of lure our audience into Christianity and have them as our buddies than being rejected by them. It is highly important to be honest about the Gospel because it is God's Word and nothing can be added our deleted from it. We cannot twist Scriptures for our own advantage and preach what the itching ears want to hear because we will be known by the Lord as wicked servants by not doing His will of preaching the truth. True Gospel is preaching about sin ,judgement and righteousness and a call to repentance . If we are not honest we will lose our salvation and will lead many others to destruction as well. When we are honest about the Gospel , we may be persecuted or offended or many may not accept it, yet its for us to be loyal to Jesus and serve Him. We will inherit the Kingdom of God .