jesus

We are commanded by the Lord to "Rejoice always" because as believers in Jesus we have the Spirit of God which enables us to be joyful. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit and when we chose to be joyful in every situation we show our trust in God and keep the enemy of our soul away. When we rejoice we are obedient to God who asks us to be joyful and not stressful. When we rejoice we express our faith in Almighty God and His promises who will never fail us or forsake us. As rejoicing Christians we became a source of encouragement to many others and become spread the fragrance of Christ around us. Our natural tendency when we are under stress is panic, worry, doubt and get away from God. We lose our focus on Christ and we focus more on the problem. When you truly are able to rejoice in God whatever comes our way, its a demonstration of our faith in God and shows the level of our faith in Him. True joy expressed in times of adversity shows how matured we are in Christ . When I feel I am waiting long for an answer from God, or situations in my life go against me , or people oppose and misunderstand me, I do find it difficult to praise God. Even as I begin my day, the tasks ahead of me look overwhelming and I already stressed than being joyful. Yet, I make a purposeful decision to put on the garment of praise and put on the praise songs aloud and worship God which helps me be joyful and accomplish everything.

Paul circumcises Timothy even though his principles don't require him to because to have an uncircumcised Jew in his party,Paul would have been viewed by Jews as supporting apostasy and would no longer be allowed to appear in any synagogue. So as a practical matter, with Timothy's consent Paul circumcises him so as to not to distract the seeking Jews from the core message of the Gospel. Paul becomes all things to all people ( 1 Corinthians 9:19-23) so that he can win many souls and many will be saved. Jesus our Master demonstrated to us through washing the feet of his disciples that He came to be served and not to serve. Jesus chose to be humble than demanding His rights as the Son of God until His death on the Cross. Likewise we have to be humble if we want to serve Christ and true humility will help us advance the Kingdom of God and win many souls to Christ. If we demand our own rights, we cannot serve the Lord. We are called to be humble servants by Christ and follow Him.

The new believers in the Messiah is the New Israel as we see in Ephesians 2:13-15 and Galatians 6:16. The new believers are the people of God who are now United in Christ brought near to Jesus by His blood. Jesus has broken down the wall of hostility by His sacrifice on the Cross and they are a new creation in Christ,the New Israel who are transformed no longer bound to the law. It is Jesus through His Holy Spirit makes one the believing Gentiles with the believing Jews. In my opinion,Catholics and Protestants are denominations made by man. True disciples of Jesus were called Christians first in Antioch. All true believers who believe in Jesus and worship Him in Spirit and truth are true worshippers United in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

God offered us salvation through His Son Jesus through our faith in Him. The grace of God therefore is a favor to us who were sinners now being saved. Salvation is God's free gift to all those who believe in Him. I believe that God has chosen or predestined those who will be granted this grace. Yet He freely calls everyone to hear the Gospel of salvation but it's left to each individual to accept this grace or not. A wrong idea about predestination may cause us to be lazy concerning evangelism as we may leave everything to God and do nothing at all. We need to be sensitive to the leading of Gods Holy Spirit and pray and reach out to those He sends our way and allow God to do the rescue work .We have to be the obedient servants by doing whatever He tells us to do.Pray,fast and reach out. God will answer . Yes .God needs us as His disciples to go out and teach and preach to the lost world to bring salvation to the world. God used Paul powerfully to bring salvation to the Gentiles.Likewise He will use us if we are passionate about Him and concerned about the lost souls. Finally I feel God is Sovereign. He will work in mysterious ways we dint understand. He loves everyone and has sent His precious Son to save us. How each one responds is their free will to chose Him or not. We have to work zealously in the Lords vineyard as Paul and God will reward our labor by granting salvation to those we reached out.

The simple definition of grace could be favor. Legalism and free works are not compatible to please God with grace because they are human efforts while the grace of God is a gift to humans regardless their efforts. We do not have to please God to be saved but it's his grace ,favor which saves us from sin. Our faith should be in Jesus and we must believe that Jesus died to save us from sin and it's our faith in Him Grant's us salvation. We must have faith in Jesus which is necessary for our salvation.

The essential demand of the Judaizers is they must be circumcised and obey the law of Moses. It contradicts the idea of salvation by grace because they do not believe in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and through His grace we receive salvation through our faith in Him. The Judaizers believe salvation is got through the observation of law. The danger of excessive legalism in our Christian congregation will lead us to believe in a different Gospel than what Jesus did for us by dying on the Cross. Excessive legalism emphasises more on keeping the law than trusting the finished work of Jesus on the Cross.

Continuing and abiding in faith is very important otherwise we will fall away. We live in a fallen world and the enemy prowls like a roaring lion. We need to guard our souls everyday and to live as a victorious Christian we need to abide in Jesus in prayer and meditation of His word. If we do not continue in faith we will not last long . The Parable of the Sower demonstrates to us the importance of continuing in faith. We see the seed of Gods word is sown in our hearts. But if we dont take care to nurture that seed in us,quickly the cares and worries of this world will choke it and prevent us from continuing in faith. ONLY when we abide in the presence of God and His Word we will be be fruit bearing Christians used by God and we produce a harvest by winning many souls to Jesus. New believers need basic instructions and discipling as they need to truly understand about God and how to continue living in faith as Christians. New believers are just like new born babies who require lot of care and nourishment till they grow into spiritually mature adults. They need to be strengthened in their new faith before evangelism takes place.

Paul's message of the Gospel is the same to the Jews and the pagans but it certainly differs the way he presents to them. To the pagans who follow pagan gods and worship idols he brings about a message about the living God who is our Creator and emphasises on His goodness and kindness towards them.And therefore they must repent and accept the one true living God. To the Jews who already know the Scriptures he establishes a commo ground between them and Jesus the descendant of David In both the cases,Paul points them to Jesus The common ground Paul builds with pagan audiences is speaking about God .The pagans also know there is a God but do not know Him and have their own gods. Paul speaks about God whom they can relate to and shows them their idols are not true. In my own area or my circle of influence I can contextualize the Gospel by understanding the audience, their belief system,their knowledge about God and then present the Gospel in the way they will understand or having a common ground. We must truly depend on the Spirit of God to preach the message of the Gospel and reach out in a fitting manner. I believe when we truly live our lives well as disciples of Jesus in front of the unbelievers we are already making a difference and an opportunity for them to know about Jesus. Actions speak louder than words. People will believe in the Gospel of Jesus when we live a life worthy of the Gospel.

God uses power encounters as we see in Paphos,Crete and Iconium to turn the hearts of unbelievers towards Him and believe in Him. Miracles are just not enough to have saving faith on their own. Firstly you need to accept and believe in Jesus and the miracles that follow only confirm the power of God and increase one's faith. Yes I have seen signs and wonders with evangelism.The greatest wonder is the transformation of one's heart and character which is followed by healing and deliverance.

The common ground that the gospel of Jesus and Judaism is the history from where it all began is the same. The Old Testament Scriptures which the Jews also believe and is their history is also fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus. Paul uses this approach and builds up on this common ground to show to the Jews that there is a connection they have to the gospel of Jesus by pointing out Scriptures from the Old Testament which they believed. Paul specifically points out that Jesus is the descendant of David and the Messiah which is in the Old Testament. This approach makes it easy for Paul to preach the Gospel by showing them the common ground between Judaism and the Gospel of Jesus. The essence of the Gospel is salvation comes by faith in Jesus and not from the law of Moses.

Paul viewed his calling to preach as a responsibility and a compelling thing to do in obedience to God. There is no choice left to Paul as he surely and certainly knows he has obey God's calling to preach to the Gentiles. No honor to self but through him God would receive honor from a man who persecuted the Church. From Paul's life we learn and understand that we must use our God given gifts and obey the call of God in whatever way He has chosen us to fulfill his purposes. Like Paul we must view it as our responsibility and do it because God has trusted us to fulfill that calling. We must not neglect our call nor waste our gifts but obey God and do what we must. The opposite of faithfulness is unfaithfulness towards God and we are recognized as unfaithful servants because we did value and use our God given gifts.

The Church leaders are seeking God through corporate prayer and fasting because they wanted to get the right guidance and direction from God. When we get together in unity and pray and humble ourselves through fasting God indeed hears and answers and shows us the right way. The Church leaders truly understood that they cannot rely on their own wisdom or strength but need to go to God to carry out His work through His Church. Because the Church leaders sought God in prayer and did not trust in anyone else God answered them by showing them the right way to go ie, setting apart Paul and Barnabas. We dont do more of corporate prayer and fasting today for many reasons. We may rely on our own individual prayers or never go to God for the right counsel or lack of time and many other distractions keep us away from seeking God like this. The importance of this to the Church at large was they could get the right direction through which light leaders were chosen to do the right think according to the will of God. When you act in accordance with God's will it benefits the Church from all wrong things. Its important to the chosen missionaries because they know they are appointed and chosen by God to carry out His plans. They are encouraged this way when they know God is the one who has chosen them and will be with them to go ahead and do everything even when they may feel they insignificant or unable for the task ahead of them.

Paul calls out Peter publicly out in Antioch because he was in the wrong and not acting according to the truth of the Gospel. The reason of Peter's hypocrisy is because he wanted to please the Gentiles than obeying God. The central issue on which Paul feels they must not compromise is that being leaders they should not do or preach anything contrary to the Gospel. It is important to preach and teach Gods word and it's more important to back it up with right actions. All our actions and doings should be aligned with Gods word and not cater to the whims and fancies of men. Leaders need to show the right example through their life and not mislead new believers.

An ambitious Christian is one who has met Christ and aims to do something or accomplish something sooner than God's timetable for him. Such a person is eager in the doing part than waiting on God and His will. Therefore when he is not doing any work or feels he has not done anything important he seems to be struggling. Ambitious people often want to achieve something quicker and when they dont they struggle just like an ambitious Christian. God's plans and thoughts are much higher than human plans and thoughts. Ambitious as we are,we want to do things according to our plan ,our way and in our time. To accomplish God's plans one needs to be very patient, trusting and resting at the feet of the Lord. We often want to hurry up in doing things for God but God is not. Just as the physical process of a baby growing into a mature adult takes time,likewise it takes a process and time for a newly born again believer to grow into a mature spiritual leader. In this process of spiritual formation God will take us through a series of events which will help us mature in faith and grow strong in the Lord. He will teach us and reveal to us all about Him .We will grow from infants drinking milk into mature adults longing for solid food or hungry for His Word .Such a process and spiritual formation is necessary to become effective leaders for Christ to advance the Kingdom of God. Through the process of spiritual formation we will tune ourselves to listen to God's voice. He will speak to us and teach us how to identify His voice and the voice of the enemy. As Jesus says,my sheep listen to my voice. Through these years of spiritual formation we will be trained to listen to His voice through His Word.You can be an effective disciple only when you have learnt to listen to His voice. Effective ministry is successful when we listen to God and carry out His plans.

According to Genesis 15:6 Abraham comes into a right relationship with God because he believed in the Lord. A person today can become righteous through faith by believing in Jesus who died for us and paid the price for our sins. As we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord we are saved and become righteous through our faith. What really is involved in trusting Christ is our surrender to Him to cleanse us from our sin and humility that we need Him in our lives to rule and reign in our life. Our obedience to Christ and His commands and surrendering our lives totally in His hands means trusting Him.

Legalism leads to self righteousness and makes one independent of God. While keeping the Law, and observing a set of rules it makes one spiritually proud in their own abilities and accomplishments. It keeps us from trusting Christ through faith in Him because we rely more on ourselves than Christ Himself. Faith and complete surrender to Jesus will keep you from pride that resulted from legalism. Sometimes I have come to a point that I know the Scriptures well,and self righteousness has creeped in along with pride. Such times I rely more on myself and my abilities than depending on Christ .It has hindered my walk with Jesus. Jesus asks us to deny ourselves daily and follow Him. That is emptying ourselves everyday at His feet and keep ourselves teachable and not rely on our own understanding. Pride makes wise in my own eyes and not trust God with all my heart. I have realised that humility helps me have a stronger walk with Christ as He must increase and I must decrease. This happens when I obey Him and His Word.

God sends Ananias to Paul rather than revealing directly because God uses people it accomplish His great purposes in the the lives of others. God often uses the weak or the nobodies to carry on his tasks.Ananias was not a leader but is seen as a regular disciple who was a part of the newly formed Christian community in Damascus. God receives the glory and displays His strength and power through those who are considered to be weak by the world. Ananias argues with God probably because he thinks he is not strong enough to speak to Paul. Ananias was aware that Paul was a violent man intensely persecuting the Church and was on a mission to kill and persecute the Christians. Ananias also would have feared his life and therefore argued with God. It takes courage to obey God amidst all situations. Sometimes when God asks us to do something difficult we immediately give excuses out of fear. We may reason it out thinking we are not good enough or brave enough for that task. But it needs deep faith and trust to do those things which God asks of us. That is radical obedience to God entrusting ourselves to God despite the consequences. Therefore it takes lot of courage to obey God. Ananias meets Paul and tells him that the Lord has sent him to restore him of his blindness. Ananias lays hands over Paul and he receives his sight ,is baptized and filled with God's Holy Spirit. Yes ,God has sent His people my way to guide me ,to minister to me and show me the right way and my errors too. I have strived to follow God's guidance .

When you persecute the people of Christ which is the Church His Body, you are persecuting Jesus Himself. As we see in Ephesians 5:31-32 Jesus is one with His people and we with Him. Jesus loves His Church where He is the Head and we the people of Christ his body. Therefore, one who persecutes Christ's people persecutes Jesus Himself. God has used several goads or prods in my life to move along Christ's path. It came in the form of my husband losing his job, illness in the family, me feeling a lack in life despite having everything life had to offer. Could not resist God and His Holy Spirit but submit and surrender to Jesus . When we kick against the goads,definetly its harder on us and not on God. God waits patiently for us to return to Him and till we delay going back to Him we suffer.

Hi I am Joan. Jesus is the bread of life for me and took up this study to keep feeding myself with God's Word and grow spiritually. Pray it blessed all of us.

The study of Psalms itself has brought me to place of hope and joy in the Lord. I meditate on these beautiful psalms which fill me so much of strength. I have memorised different psalms.Every week I along with my family have made it a habit to memorise a psalm and then say it aloud. However tough it might seem I somehow praise God with these psalms daily. It has helped me and taught me to praise God and lean on Him and bring myself to rest in Him in daily worship. I spend my time reading and meditating these Psalms which has made me shut doors to all unwanted things but caused me to dwell and rest in the House of God! I have learnt a lot by taking this beautiful study and every word is ministering to my situation right now.

Verse 1 and 2 of Psalm 24 establishes the right of a King by showing us that He is the Creator and Maker of the world . The earth,the seas , and everyything in here belongs to the Lord our God. He is the Mighty King and Ruler of everything. He is the King of the Universe. No other creature gets the glory. God is Sovereign and His reign is established forever. Verses 3 to 6 speak about what is required of us to meet such a Mighty King. How do we go before Him? A man who is pure in heart ,who does not take the paths of the sinners,who does not put his trust in idols can meet such a King. Our God is an awesome God. We can go before him only with humility and a repentant heart. He accepts us when we forsake every kind of evil and stand before Him pure in heart and mind. verses 7 to 10 speak about the glory of this King. He is a glorious God. He is able ,He is mighty,He can fight any battles.Victory is always with the King. He is a strong God,able God.He is our God who will fight all our battles. We therefore need to open the doors of our hearts ,and give him the place to enter and take place in our lives. The Psalm declares to me that God is able mighty and He has the victory. He is a glorious God with whom all things are possible. I need to worship this mighty God daily .I need to forsake all my old ways and give Him the first place in my life. When I do sao,He takes over all my battles and leads me to the right paths blessing me with victory. He is the King of glory. God must get the glory out of my life. I must put my trust in Him and not put my faith in any human or idols to rescue me. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.What a mighty God we serve!!!

The memory of God's deliverance is a reminder of God's ability to rescue at all times. The nation remembers how God delivered them out of captivity and how they were filled with joy and laughter. It ignites their faith in God and they remember the past trouble and how God brought them out from it all. This memory of God's deliverance fills them with hope and confidence to know that God is an unchanging God and He is still on the throne. It gives them courage to make bold prayers as in Verse 4 to restore their fortunes once again . Remembering the past miracles brings about faith and trust in God and strength to go to Him once again and plead to help them. The two metaphors of deliverance signify dryness and restoration . A wadi or a dry gully is totally a dry barren place which has no water or life around. But when a sudden rainfall occurs it causes the wadi to be full and flooded. Then the place is totally changed and there will be life around. Green plants will grow ,flowers will bloom .many a sheep and cattle may come to drink the cool waters. This is the same in our spiritual lives. When we seek the Lord and invite Him in our lives He fills us with His Holdy spirit and gives us new life. Our dry life is renewed and it becomes fruiful. We are filled with abundant joy and peace and everything in us and around us prospers. Sowing and reaping is a principle where what you sow is what you reap. The harvest I reap depends on the what and how much I sow. If is sow in th spirit i will reap in the spirit. God will cause abundant harvest when we generoulsy sow into His kingdom. These metaphors are helping me to know right now that no matter what is in my life right now God will turn around everything. When i seek Him and his kingdom he will turn every dry situation into life. If i continue to remain in Him and sow good things He shall cause me to reap abundant harvest

Ascribing God the attributes of glory and strength means we give Him all the glory for who He is,and for everything He has done in our lives. We acnknowledge Him as our great God and admit to Him that He is our Maker and Creator. By giving the glory we remain humble before him as He is our God and we are his creation. He gets all the glory form our lives. We are nothing without Him ,but only through him we are everything. God becomes supreme. He increases and we decrease in His awesome presence. By giving Him all the glory and strength we express our humility. God is a God and he gets all the glory! When we fail to ascribe such qualities to Him,we do not give him the glory. We are proud and haughty in our own eyes. We do not give him the honor and glory he deserves. We do not give Him the place He deserves in our lives. God is a God who deserves to be praised and glorifeid. It is fitting to praise Him because He is our maker and Creator. He is our everything. He is author of our lives. He has wonderfully made us for a purpose here on earth. As long as we have breath we need to praise Him. He is our mighty God and he deserves our praises at all times God dwells in the praises of his people. Just as a parent would love to hear the loving voice of her child,God waits to hear our praises. We enthrone him as our God by praising Him. For all that He has done for us we can return back by singing praises to HIm. It is therefore worthy and fitting to praise God at all times.

The Psalmist often urges us to praise and thank God in all circumstances. Praising God becomes very difficult in midst of trying circumstances because we stop looking at God and start looking at the problem. The problem seems huger than our God. We try to reason out the difficulty rather than looking at God and thanking Him. We see no way out and we often stop praising and doubting God. Our mind dwells on the difficulty and reasons out on how to solve it and we totally forget to praise God. But however difficult ,when we start praising and thanking God , our attitude towards the difficulty changes. Praise is a sure key to victory and praise changes all things. Praising God means we reconnect ourselves to the Father and he fills us with hope and peace which no man can give us in the trying circumstances. Praise increases our faith and motivates us to trust God. This is my personal experience. Whenever I am faced with difficulties,I somehow arise like David and sit and praise and worship God. Suddenly a great peace takes over and then I am filled with faith that God can do all things. He is able to deliver me out of anything. I then start reading the word and my attitude changes,my thinking changes,and I am able to say God will turn out all things for my good because I love him and trust Him. Praising God moves the heart of the Father,he hears the cry of my heart and he will honor his word..and redeem me from any thing that might seem impossible. These days I praise God with the psalms ,songs etc and it has strengthened me and helped me greatly trust God.

Prayed all the psalms in this study. It was a great inspiration from the word of God to take rest in the Lord's presence despite life's trials. Memorised a few psalms with my children . Meditated on the previous studied psalms. I took up several psalms in hymns and made a joyful noise to the Lord in singing and praises!