Minchar

Christians ought to work with integrity. We must always remember that every thing we do is unto the Lord. We are not men pleasers but God pleasers. If we have this type of attitude at work then we can overcome difficult situations. We will have peace in hard times. We will know what battles to choose and what battles to let go.

Provoking a child can cause the child to become bitter. Alot of times as parents, we try to live our lives through our children which becomes a problem. We begin to make ourselves feel good at the expense of our children which is wrong. They will only become discourage and bitter. Training and instruction involve thing such as maintaining discipline, diligence, teaching, instructing, showing, giving responsibilities, and then supporting them as they learn which will keep them faithful along with warning and admonition. As a single mother, I found myself not consistent with my punishment which was not wise. We must remember that we are raising and training our kids as unto the Lord. They do not belong to us they belong to Him.

As adults, we should care for our parents in the older age. At that time, they need looking out for just like they did for their adult children. The only exception is if they are telling you to do something immoral or against God. We must forgive like Christ have forgiven us.

Common sense says that if you love yourself then you will love your wife because you are one. The bible says that a man should love his wife because they are one flesh and that the man would not harm himself. Genesis says that the man and woman become one flesh meaning what affects him will affect his wife.

Christ is the center of everything in our lives. He is the one that we must follow and submit to. Christ must be the center for everything in our church. We must follow and submit to His authority as a church. We are the body and He is the head. We must put Him first in everything and allow him to be Lord over everything in our life. Christ will take care of us. He said if we seek His kingdom first and all of His righteousness then everthing will be added unto us.

You wouldn't do harm to yourself so why would you mistreat your wife. The bible states that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife so that they may become one flesh. What hurts the husband hurts the wife because they are one. When one suffers the other also suffer it is common sense.

Being the head does not mean being boss. It means that the head is the person who is the sustainer of growth for the family. He is the visionary and he distributes the vision to the wife and they together distribute it to the family. He is the one who makes the final decision but he should still consider his wife in decision making also. Being head requires that the head (husband) considers the whole body (family) not just himself. What hurts him hurts the whole body (family). The head can not be selfish. He can not treat his wife like a slave but as an assistant. The head is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. The husband should follow the example of Jesus.

Why should a wife submit to her husband? The wife should submit herself to her husband because the Word of God instructs her to. There is an order and we serve a God is a God of order. According to these verses, to what degree is a wife required to submit to a husband who is not a Christian or who is a carnal Christian? Her responsibility is to God. If her husband ask her to do anything immoral or against God, she should as someone stated earlier, respectfully decline. Talk with her husband and explain to him her view and standpoint on the matter. Submission doesn't mean that you do whatever he tells you do even when it is wrong. Does submission mean a wife doesn't verbally disagree? Submission doesn't mean that a wfie don't verbally disagree. She should express her point, even though he would have the last word. What if there's a conflict with the wife's conscience? She should consult the Lord to make sure that her decision was according to His direction not hers.

Alot of times, people that use drugs and alcohol as a means of escape. People want to escape from their problems so they become tempted to use drugs and alcohol to take off the edge (temporarily). Drugs and alcohol can give you a temporary high, take your mind off of your problems for a moment; make you feel good for a moment but that's it. Being "high" of the Spirit is eternal. Being filled with the Spirit such as being led or walking in the spirit as Paul says will not cause us to fulfill the **** of the flesh. We are sober even though we are "high" in the spirit. We are pleasing God and not abandoning our morals. We are still shining as bright lights for Jesus Christ and taking advantage and making the most out of every opportunity.

We must make the most of every opportunity because certain moments only come once. You want to always be prepared to share godly words to someone who may desperately need it at that moment. You could possibly save someone's life. They could be on the verge of committing suicide or killing someone else. These are evil and desperate times and we must be carefule with the words we choose and also not to keep silent when we are to share. Alot time we resist to make most out of every opportunity because we have become lazy and fearful Christians. We do no more and no less at times and miss great opportunity due to our complacent and timidy spirits. We must pray for boldness and not be afraid when it comes to sharing a godly word or even living a godly life before men even if it means that we will cost of friendships...or anything else. As Paul says "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness."

He warns so strongly against sexual sin because it was such a great temptation back then and still is today. He tells them that they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God through immoral sexuality. I do believe that sexuality is a part of our spiritual life but it can and should be partitioned from our spiritual life. As long as we walk in the spirit according to the word of God then we will not fulfil the **** of the flesh. We must walk in the spirit which means that we must crucify our fleshly desires which brings on immoral or impure sexual desires or way of life. We are to adhere to the Word of God (feed our spirit man) so that we won't fall into temptation's trap.

Sometimes people hurt us so deeply that it is hard to forgive. We constantly feel the pain of that hurt daily. Christ is our example of forgiveness. We can't expect that person to do or say anything to make the pain or hurt that they caused us to go away. We have to forgive them because forgiveness is undeserved and unearned. Jesus forgave us and constantly forgives us so we should do likewise. Kindness and Compassionate are signs of a forgiving spirit.

I believe that gossip is unwholesome tale that is common among Christians. Paul gives us three guidelines to use to judge or measure the value of what we say. First, is this conversation edifying or building up this person or the body of Christ. Second, is this conversation bringing unity or division. Our we just using this conversation to vent out our frustration. Thirdly, does this benefit the hearer? Slander is defaming a person, causing others to look down on someone because of something negative we said about that person. Slander is very common among Christians. We call it venting our frustration about someone when we are really slandering that person. We can prevent slander by using those three guidelines Paul gives us.

God has given us the emotion of anger to use when it comes to justice. We should get angry when injustice and sin prevails. We should get angry with the enemy when he comes to kill, steal and destroy the things that God has given us. Sometimes we have to get angry with the devil. Anger will cause us to move and to react but our anger should not lead to sin. We should ask God to help us deal with anger His way. We sin when we let our anger run us and we start hating people or allowing bitterness to set in our hearts.

The problem is is that the minister or pastor will become burnt out. They need to focus on what they are called to do and not do everything. They would not be effective as ministers or Pastors if they are overwhelmed. The people in the congregation will be hindered because they will become lazy and dependent on the leaders to do everything. They will never grow up or mature if they are not trained in ministry. I am seeing this in my church where the leadership is doing everything. The people are not growing and the leaders are becoming overwhelmed and tired. The purpose of Pastors and Teachers are to train and equip the saints for the work of ministry. We need to equip and edify the saints so that they may be of service.

As it was stated, a person can operate in a pastorial role without having the official title. Take for instance a ministry leader. A ministry leader pastors those that are under him or her. They are responsible training and teaching the truth to those are under them. I believe that's why there should be ministry heads so that they may take on this role of pastoring those that are under them. We should pray that the senior Pastor will allow God to develop the pastorial gift in him or her. All good and perfect gifts comes from God.

I believe our congregations need encouragement. We need to be reminded that we have all been gifted to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Alot of times, people are scared to evangelize. We get complacent in the four wall setting and we forget that there is a whole world out there that needs to be evangelized to. Coming to together to pray for boldness and direction so that we can be effective evangelizers. If we don't come together to encourage, train and learn then we become disconnected. By doing those things, we operate as an island which causes us to get caught up in our own problems and situations that we don't take the time to evangelize. Another point is that, I believe our best evangelizm is our lifestyle as well as sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. I believe people will look at your lifestyle to see if it lines up with our words.

The secular mindset of our age is backwards. It is true to what you said regarding our mindsets toward sexual immorality. It seems like it is normal, okay and accepted to partake in any type of sex outside of marriage. Our society is declining morally and it is accepted as normal behavior. I believe why many Christians are tempted to conform to its values because we live in a society that accepts this type of behavior. It is all around us. I believe nowadays, our churches are focusing more on teaching and preaching prosperity and blessings and kind of getting away from the pick up your cross and follow me teaching, which would involve denying and crucifying your flesh.

The bible says that every good and perfect gifts come from God. Yes, our natural talents are related to our spiritual gifts. I believe taht our natural talents or natural abilities is something that we are born with or something that can be developed through the years (with or without spiritual growth). Alot of times, people don't use there natural ability to glorify God. They use it for self glorification. The difference between our natural talents and "spiritual gifts is that spiritual gifts are given for the edifiying of the body of Christ as stated in Ephesians 4:12 "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ". Our natural abilities sometimes do not edify the body of Christ. Our natural abilities are done on our strength. Spiritual gifts are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We must spend almost all of our energy on Christian unity. We have to make every effort to keep the unity which means it take some action or endeavor. Peace is what keeps what keeps the body of Christ together not discord. We strike at peace when we try to prove that we are right by silly arguments and arguments festers and breeds contentions and all other ungodly attributes. Peace brings reconciliation.

You must have these qualities when dealing with people who are different than you. Unity will take some patience. Sometimes you may not agree with someone or maybe they do things a little differently than you, or they may be of some other culture, race, etc.. but you will need some patience when dealing with people who are unlike you. You can learn something from them. With patience comes humility. Being humbe can be difficult especially when you are used to having your way but this is a quality you must possess when dealing with others that are different from you in order to keep the unity. This is what Jesus Christ requires of us. He will exalt those that are humble not those that are prideful. When we deal with self righteous, it discredits our Lord. Because Jesus told us that we are to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor is not just someone of your same culture or family etc. Your neigbhor is not limited to people in your neighborhood. Your neighbor emcompasses all types of people. God is not a respector or person. We are all one in the body of Christ. Jesus said with love and kindness have I drawn men. That is what we have to do as Christians in order to win the lost, that is fighting the good fight of faith.

Our best evangelizing and witnessing tool is our lifestyle. We can say we are Christians and talk about the Lord Jesus Christ or we can wear the T-shirts, but people observe our lifestyle. I can talk till I am blue in the face about God, but people watch what I do. The verse says that we are to live our life worthy to the calling. We must take our calling serious. We must do what is pleasing to God and not man. Meaning that we have to act our what we profess (practice what you preach!)

Having access to the Father means that i am now able to come before Him without having a priest go for me. I can enter the most Holy Place myself now as a Christian. Because God is a spirit, I am able to touch or reach Him through the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. Jesus enabled this access by by His death, burial and Ressurrection. The veil was torn in the Most Holy Place, now I have access to the Father. Jesus said himself that no one can come to the Father but by Him. For those who are lost, Jesus Christ is the only way and the only way to gain access to the Father.

Jesus Christ "fulfilled" the Mosaic Law by becoming the ultimate sacrifice. During ancient Israel, the priest would go into the most Holy Place only once a year - Day of Atonement. If the priest was not in good standing, he would die. Jesus Christ served as the High Priest, the sacrificial animal; he took on the sins of the world. jesus fulfilled all components of the Mosaic Law. Jesus Christ ministry was about love. If you loved you would not kill, steal, etc... All of the law was fulfil through one commandment and that is love. Jesus became our mediator. Because of the finished work of the cross, we now can go as Jewish and Gentiles before the throne of God. We are all one body grafted together.

As Christians, we tend to forget that we were once lost and because of that we begin to be judmental of those that are lost which hinders our willingness to witness. Sometimes, we feel just because we are now in body of Christ, we tend to forget that we must witness to those that are lost. The spiritual condition of a friend or co-worker who doesn't know Christ is spiritually dead. They have no hope and living without purpose.