emmaus

Paul was sharing his experience with them for an example. The law is good if one uses it properly. They weren't using it properly just as Paul hadn't at one time.

The result of false doctrine was strife and controversy. It kills the spirit of the church. As the lesson said, the church had become a place of rancor and dispute, no one goes to church for that. God will not be in a church like that.

The early Roman Christians would have faced torture, prison, persecution or death. Christians today are mocked and criticized. Missionaries may face death. But whatever we face can not separate us from God. If we continue on with the race till the end nothing will defeat us.

Nothing can come against us and win when we have all powerful God on our side. The devil is the enemy, along with all his tricks and schemes. We have courage because Jesus defeated the enemy at the cross. We have hope because of Jesus. We have to keep our minds fixed on him and what he means to us so that we will have life eternally with him.

We are to be like Jesus, people should be able to see Jesus in us. We should conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of being a child of God. Paul talks about our destiny so that we will keep growing, never giving up untill the race is over. Jesus in the perfect big brother (what an amazing idea) and we are to look up to him and be like him. This is our goal.

When we have heard God's call and answered it by loving and obeying him, we can trust God to work things out for our good. The two qualifications are that we must have accepted God as our savior and love him. God is in my life every day but when things are going wrong and there's nothing more that I can do but sit and worry, I won't do that. That's when I get in the Bible and study hard. I know that everything is going to work out if I just trust in him.

When Jesus comes it will be beyond our earthly senses. The glory will be like nothing we have ever experienced. Heaven and earth will pass away and God will remake all creation, including us by giving us our heavenly bodies. Our spirits will sorrow no more. Truly, what a day of rejoicing that will be.

A person who has lost hope is inconsolable, heartbroken. They have stopped trying, as opposed to a person who is looking for a better future. They will have a positive attitude, faith that things will be better. The "Christian hope" is our heavenly home, to be with Jesus and God forever.

The Holy Spirit knows our hearts and can help us in our prayers. The similarities would be that the Holy Spirit is able to help us pray, he will always be there to help us. Maybe we just won't be still long enough to listen and understand the Holy Spirit.

Jesus suffered in this life by not having a place to lay his head (home), by constantly being surrounded by people wanting his attention, he was tempted, mocked, flogged and crucified. We suffer because of fallen mankind. Creation suffers because it was cursed when Adam and Eve sinned. The end of this suffering will be when Jesus returns. The best thing we can look forward to in this life is taking as many people with us to Heaven as we can.

Seven times the idea was mentioned in these verses. If we are led by the spirit we are sons and daughters. His spirit speaks to our spirit. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If we share in his suffering we will share in his glory. The idea that we are co-heirs with Christ is simply amazing.

The Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit and tells us we are God's children. We have a close personal relationship with God if we are able to call him Dad. If we can't believe God is able to cleansed us of our sins we're not going to believe or have faith in anything else the bible says. We know that it's true because the Holy Spirit tells us so.

When we mortify the deeds of the body by the spirit we stop doing sinfull things because the spirit is telling us this is wrong. A person's habits and attitude would be changed when they were led by the spirit. You wouldn't go to the places you use to go or do the things you use to do. These ideas of "putting to death" and being "led" by the Spirit fit together because your leaving one way of living and starting a new way. The more we learn and grow the more we understand the spirit, but it's up to us to have the faith to believe and make the right choices.

We aren't compelled nor do we have to sin. We can live without sinning as long as we are seeking God's face, keeping our focus on him. I think it's the world that discourages us and causes us to doubt. When we start looking at the physical instead of the spiritual we start to doubt.

No, it's not possible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit within us. The indwelling of the Spirit would be the Holy Spirit that came into your heart when you were baptized. It helps us walk as a Christian. The fullness of the Spirit is when we trust in God and become bold for Him. We are willing to step out on faith and do things that we could not do on our own. We can do this by having an ongoing personal daily relationship with the Lord. Seeking His face, studying His word, praying and humbling ourselves to Him.

When you set your mind on the things of the spirit you make a conscious decision to live your life on these principles. You do this by turning away from wickedness. You stop doing the things of the flesh that are sinful with the help of the Holy Spirit. You can recognize the things of the sinful nature by the consequences they bring about. At first it's just instinctive to do the things of the flesh but when you become a Christian the Holy Spirit will remind you of your choices and then you make a decision. It's our choice which way we want to live. The more you live in the Spirit the more you see the joy of living right.

The law can't save us because we are too weak to obey the law on our own. Jesus is the only one who can save us.

He is speaking of everyone. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ec 1:9

Doctrine of "total depravity" is fallen mankind, when Adam fell we all fell. Yes, some of God's original goodness shows through, but even our good deeds are done for the wrong reasons. We like to think we're basically good because we just can't admit to ourselves how bad off we really are. The bible says we are wretched.

The law tells us what sin is but it doesn't keep the flesh from wanting to sin. The law can't save us because we have freewill. The problem is that the flesh is weak.

We are better off knowing that we shouldn't covet because there are going to be consequences for our actions. When told no, the flesh just wants all the more because that makes it more tempting.

I think Paul means the flesh is the sinful thoughts and deeds of a person.

There is no middle ground, a person is either for or against Christ. It's in our nature to want control. We hesitate to commit ourselves because of fear of failure and we will fail until we depend on God.

Good doctrine teaches us the right way to live our lives. We should we honor good doctrine because it has been passed down from the saints of God. We should avoid teachings that has been added to what the bible says.

Whatever you obey,good or bad, you are a slave to it. Your slavery to God is demonstrated by your obedience in doing acts of righteousness. If we do bad things we are allowing sin to be our master. Slavery or bondage is broken when obedience to God comes from the heart. Sin has no hold on us when we stop obeying it. An area God is speaking to me about fresh obedience is in saying