PCHRIS

Without it a church can fall apart. When you get a group of people together there will always be egos to be rubbed or people wanting to get their 'point' across. With patience and humilty grounded in love these wrinkles can be sometimes ironed out, i must point out the word sometimes though. The reputation of Jesus would be affected because people in the world see the church as hypocrites, seeing people carry on in church, we must be showing the true nature of Christ which is displayed in these 4 aspects of life, patience, humility, gentleness and bearing one another in love. We can be gentle and fight the good fight by being 'rooted and grounded in love' [Eph 3:17] This will be always be the best way in confrontation for either the other party or yourself.

'walk worthy of our vocation' is a step by step walk in a direction that corresponds with the call to know the grace of God in Christ, to be children of God, and to serve Him as His dedicated ones and messengers of the Gospel. It involves the obligation to live in a manner that is in accordance with the Name of him whose we are and whom we serve.

Oh wouldn't be lovely if (some) churches grasped this, especially the one I attend. It is so hard to get (some) people to grasp of what church is all about. It is a time of rejoicing of what God has done in our lives through the week and a coming together to edify and encourage each other through God's Word and fellowship. But there's an old secular saying that 'you can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink' it so true (some) people are so caught up in tradition or religousity that they get thirsty then they complain that the service is boring. So I ask you brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for this flock for (some) their eyes and hearts to be opened (including mine) to what glorifying God is all about. All I can do is to enter worship myself and hopefully others would get the idea. For me glorifying God is important thanking Him for what He is and has done in my life and for the beautiful things, large and small, in this created world he has given to me to cherish and look after.

I beleive its a continual reality, an ongoing working in one self for continual growing, loving, forgiving, in every aspect of one's life. As we pertain this I beleive the fullness of God will happen within us. As long one wants this to happen, some will take longer than others but thats because some have more rooms to clean out for the total fullness of God to happen and that maybe our entire lifespan.

I think it's ourselves that gets in the way, our selfishness, our pride, maybe even fear of letting God have total control. As Pastor Ralphs analogy of our hearts being a house and we only let Christ into some of the rooms. For me the picture is myself sitting on the edge of a boat, everyone else was swimming around enjoying themselves in the water but I refused to jump in and join in. It was a picture of stubborness and pride and thats what kept me from Christs impacting love. But the day came when I took the all out plunge into Him and gave my whole being to Him and, man the tears are welling up even now, I felt my entire body just radiate with His love and knew that He loved me for who I was. Sure I still stumble a few times and my 'feet' get dirty walking in this world. Thats when I reach out to Christ and renew myself in Him, feel His strength and love permeate through my being and I am able to portray that love and light out into this dark world.

this is good i love these questions that get the grey matter ticking and also on the knees asking for the Spirit to pour revelation into me. I beleive the indwelling of Christ in the heart, and the strengthening by the Spirit are not two different experiences. Paul is not always precise in distinguishing the work of Christ and of the Spirit in man as Romans 9:9f well shows. The verb used katoikein is also significant it doesn't mean a transistory dwelling in place like Pastor Ralph had put in our study notes it refers to a "permanent habitation as opposed to sojourning, pitching a tent or an occasional visit." v17 tells us we are to be rooted and grounded in love, so Jesus' presence means not only strength but wisdom, inspiration, and above all love, and it is to love that the prayer now turns to and continues as its theme to the end.

These 2 verses from Hebrews are the clearest examples and explanations of this, Pastor Ralph already quoted this one: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16 the other is Hebrews 10:19; "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus" Boldness-freedom of speech Access with confidence-similiar to boldness but more personal We are adopted intom God's family, co-heirs with Christ, we can come before the Father with all our wants/desires if we don't come to Him with these qualities, well our prayers will be, us just blowing wind.

Paul remebers what he used to do, persecute Christians. he also remebers how he was once a Pharisee, one who was trained in the temple, learnt the Torah backwards and forwards but until that encounter with God on the road to Damascus he depended on his own strength. Now he depends on God's strenght in his ministry. By the grace of God he was called and received as a servant of the gospel, and by the power of God did all that was effective in that service. His example helps us to be the same as the example Jesus set to serve and not to be served. We have a commission to do and with God's strenght we can accomplish that.

the mystery is simply Christ. Colossians 1:27 states specifically that the mystery is "Christ in you, the hope of the glory", that is to say, the actual mystery, the wonderful truth that has been revealed, is that Christ comes to dwell now in the hearts of ALL people, giving the hope of a future in the immediate presence of God. it is the purpose of God to 'gather together in one all things in Christ'.

The apostles had direct teaching from God. Paul , you might say, had a direct clear revelation from God Himself. What we glean from these people of God through the Scriptures, and revealed to us through the Holy Spirit is waht we stand on, as in Colossians it is the true truth. if we stray from this we are corrupting God's Word, if we attempt to change or twist God's Word to suit ourelves we are opening ourselves up to all sorts of dangers. Not only that, if we are called to shepherd a flock we are interfering with their salvation if we lead them of track with false or misleading revelation. If we try to hold God back or even out of the church we are grieving Him. God will not stay in a church He is not welcome. To say that God does not speak to us today either through the Scriptures or Prophet. the best thing is for people to learn to test the spirit, the word of the prophet, if it does not sit/abide with the Word of God it is not of God and should be ignored.

the church is no longer a building/temple Jesus tore down what is man made. We as individuals are the church and corporately we come together as a body to fellowship,n to encourage and edify, and to praise our Great Creator. The hindrance is that people are not unified as one they either have ulterior motives or they are just self centred instead of being Christ centred. To rectify this there needs to be biblical teaching about servanthood, remember Christ came to serve not be served. To do this will be a great challenge especially in the church we are involved with so i thankyou now for your prayers in this matter. For hearts to be softened and eyes opened. let us break down the walls and boldly proclaim the Gospel in to this lost and dying world.

Christ's work on the cross and the tearing down of the curtain which separated the Holy of Holies from the people. Symbolising we no longer need a "priest" to come to God, we can now go to the Father direct. The Holy Spirit guides, encourages and groans for us as we come to the Father Jesus is the only way to the Father, Jesus says that no one comes to the Father except through me.

Just as in the Old Testament livestock was used as a sacrifice, Jesus Himself is that final sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice without sin. Remember John's description of Jesus, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Jesus bore all our sins and took them to the cross. He paved the way for us to call out to God directly. The Jews no longer have to follow the laws for sacrifice and we the Gentiles are grafted into the lineage of Christ. As Paul states: "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus..."

As Christians we sometimes get caught up with life between the 'four walls' of church and only associate with others we can converse Godly things. We forget that outside of those 'four walls' is a world lost and dying and it is up to us (we are commanded to) to be the light of the world, showing God's grace and love. Pointing those who do not know Christ to Him. The spiritual condition of those who don't know Christ, one word comes to mind; ASLEEP!

We all have a faith in something, may it be a chair we will sit in, the car we drive down the freeway, our spouses cooking. The Christians faith is in Our Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 10:17; "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" The more we seek God the stronger our faith becomes, remember too that we all have a measure of faith given to us. The most important thing is in WHOM we put that faith in, in Christ or our own self. I think someone else has used this but we did this as part of our childrens ministry. For a child to either jump into their fathers arms or lean back and let their father catch them. That is a simple way of explaining faith to 10 year olds.

According to Ephesians 2:10 we are created to do good work. I dont beleive its saying that good works is the purpose of new life, or that people were redeemed in order to be a people 'zealous of good works' (Titus 2:14; rather it is that good works are 'involved' in the new life as an inseparable condition. The nature and character of the works and the direction of the Christian daily walk are predetermined. This then corresponds closely with Ephesians 1:4, which describes the end and goal of election as 'that we should be holy and without blame before Him' Showing the light is being distinctive, as a disciple we are visibly different from other people and will have an effect on them. But the aim of good works is not to parade our good virtue, but to direct attention to the God who inspired them

This is so true, people are convinced that being a good person will save them but unless they are shown/taught what the results will be, heaven or hell for their eternal resting place, that they need Jesus Lord over their lives. As I have heard once, if you saw someone walking towards a cliff, wouldn't you yell out 'stop'! as a friend i am warning you of the danger. Same as eternal matters, we need to warn them of the danger and point them to the Saviour, the one who saves, rescues us from eternal damnation

It is hard for us to fully understand 'grace' but as the acroymn for this word; "God's Riches At Christ's Expense" in a simple way explains God's immense love for us, the sending of His Son to die for us, this is totally God's doing, a gift, something that cannot be earned or worked for. It is done! No one gives you anything for nothing! There's always a catch! that's what I was brought up with. Pride and selfishness comes into it but we need to be turning to God with a sense of need and weakness and emptiness and a willingness to receive what He offers, to receive the Lord Himself! To explain to a 10 year old, I think some can explain this better than some adults. It's an ongoing showing of love regardless of what one has done because the price has been paid by Christ.

We can look back to Ephesians 1:3, where Paul said that God has 'blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. Now he says more specifically that our life has become to be there, enthroned with Christ. Philippians 3:20 tells us to that our citizenship is in heaven. Because of Christ's conquest of sin and death and by His exaltation, we are lifted "from the deepest hell to heaven itself" (Calvin) This shows God's enormous grace to and for us and this grace is free for us and we need to share this with everyone. Since our citizenship is in heaven, we are not under the limits imposed by the world, nor do we have to conform to its standards, as in Romans 12:2. We should be praying for boldness to go out into this world, we do have the most powerful weapons in this spiritual battle; Prayer and God's Word. Let us all go out and claim this world for God's Kingdom in boldness

The words are grace and mercy which shows God's character of immense love for each of us, His created family. 'Made Alive' thank God for that. God's immense love for us in the giving of His Son to take away the sins of each of us (the world)

We have the most powerful tools in our fight against Satan; the Word and prayer. Honestly, myself has succumbed to the evil one, sometimes unwittingly sometimes not. I can tell you though the Holy Spirit grabs hold of me so tight, I feel scared knowing that if I continue in this way I will feel the force of God's judgement on me. He convicts me while sin is 'fun' it is only for a short time because the consequences are eternal and that is enough to get me back on track. In a sense, God can blame us, we have free will, we choose what path we take, and as its already been brought up, our selfcentredness and pride is what gets in our way. So God has every right to hold us responsible for our actions, just like a loving parent would do for a child. You want to have the kicks just remember you will suffer the kickbacks!

They are 'dead' to Christ, still living to worlds standards, rather live in sin/worldly fashion (so temporary) The difference is that we have turned away (repented), and in daily repentance, we live in Christ, the Holy Spirit convicting, guiding us through our walk with Christ. What we must keep doing is share the Good News about Christ, who He is and what He has done for us. And what they must do to restore/renew a relationship with God.

By neglecting our involvement we would start to wane in our faith/relationship with Christ and other fellow beleivers. As in Hebrews 10 states we are not to give up meeting together but to encourage and build each other up. We are to be one together with Christ as the head, coming together to share, worship, pray, love, encourage each other. A good illustration I have heard is the coals in the fire; take one out and eventually it will die out put it back into the fire (fellowship) and again it will glow and produce heat. We need each other, corporately, thats the body Paul talks about in 1Corinthians 12, we all have our different gifts and we come together for the glory of God. Not doing this is robbing others and Christ of what our potentials are in our ministries

The main reason I beleive, and as most responses have been, that we 'pass' on spiritual warfare is a lack of teaching in the church, either because people dont want to know about it or too afraid to ask whats involved, or its totally ignored by church hierarchy. There is a lot of teaching out there but to find which is relevant and importantly scripture based it takes looking. Pauls response is critical to the church at Ephesus, and to us, as a reminder WHO Christ is! That He rules over EVERYTHING. He is the one we focus on, draw strength from, praise and adore, He alone. With that in mind with Christ on our side nothing can stand up to that. Be it spiritual, physical, whatever, we are tapped into the greatest power in the universe. That is what Paul is reminding us about. Perhaps we feel 'powerless' because we are trying to fight on our own strength, we cannot sustain that at all! As Christians we have the Holy Spirit within us, empowering us against spiritual attacks. Prayer and the Word are definetly Very Powerful weapons we have at our disposal. So we need to soak in the Word and praying on our knees daily!! Paul is assuring us of victory in Christ, with Christ who is above all, we will stand together against the evil one. Pray, pray and soak in His Word!!!

This is a good question. I strongly beleive its western culture. You look at the house/underground church in places like China, Korea, parts of Africa, they totally depend on God and not 'influenced' by man made rules/regulations. An excellent example has already been used, Brother Yun's Heavenly Man. Lot of our churches make the gospel appealing not to upset people or scare them off. There's not enough taught about repentance, sin, even hell, and a true commitment to Christ. People start this then they will see the power come through but until they realise this or maybe remove the blockages {unconfessed sin, selfish prayers} it may not happen. As Christians we are plugged into the greatest supernatural power there is, The Holy Spirit, with Him we are capable of miracles, answered prayers, all the great things our Father has promised us BUT we need to do something about it. To come clean in our own lives and hearts, asking for forgiveness then march on in proclaiming the Gospel to all people. We need to be totally dependent on God because with God all things are possible.