The Learner

Good morning, My name is David and I live in Southwest Tennessee in the United States. I love learning and I love God's word. I have a wonderful family and my kids are rapidly growing up and moving out on their own. I have a passion for discipleship and am looking forward to this study. I'm excited about the weather here beginning to cool off and I am looking forward to the fall season. Thank you Pastor Ralph for your dedication to discipling others through these studies. David.

I think he could fear his physical enemies, he could fear failing, and he could fear the Israeli people turning on him and not following his leadership. I think being strong and courageous means totally relying on God’s strength and power and remembering that we are not alone, that God is with us. That anyone plus God is a majority. I think weakness is relying on self. Strength is relying on God. Fear is looking at circumstances. Faith is looking at God. Yes, I think you can be fearful and be courageous. Faith is trusting obedience. Trusting in the One who calls you to action.

Q1. (Joshua 1:3) In what way is God’s promise to Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot,” a conditional promise? What’s wrong with a faith that consists primarily of the philosophy: “If God wants me to have it he will give it to me”? What areas that God has promised you that you must press forward to receive? For Joshua, in order to "get" the place, he had to go and "set his foot." He had to physically go to the place and be there, then God would fulfill his promise. This is consistent, in my opinion, with scripture as a whole. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock..." Jesus offers his love and grace and mercy to all, but they have to open the door and accept. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have eternal life. There is a condition there as well. My problem with the "If God wants me to have it..." philosophy is based on my understanding of faith. A definition I like to have of faith is trusting obedience. I trust the One in whom I have faith such that I obey. That implies action. And the funny thing is that I can't conjure up more faith. Faith itself is a gift of God. So...it's not just that if God wants me to have it, it's that every promise has a premise. God might want me to have it, but he invites me to join Him where He is working in order to get it. God has promised many things. The one thing I have issue with is my trust in Him to care for my needs. I struggle with tithing. I have fear regarding finances. Yet He promises even to the point of saying to test Him in this. I should bring the whole tithe to the storehouse and see if He will not open the floodgates of heaven. I've seen it in others, yet I struggle myself.

I think this passage teaches me a great lesson on diligently seeking the Lord's direction and carefully listening to His voice beyond anything human wisdom would teach me. For me, it is easy to miss His voice because I listen to my own "wisdom" more quickly than I am inclined to pause and listen to the Lord. I think I have too high of an opinion of my own "common sense." Because of the fast pace of life (and admittingly, some of that is due to my own decisions) I am all too often looking for the quick answer to questions rather than taking the time to go into the prayer closet, humbly present the situation to the Lord, and then through prayer, Bible Study, and silence listen for HIs direction. I think another mistake that I make is to first seek "wisdom" of others before seeking God's wisdom. While it is critically important to hear what God is saying through His church it is more important to see Him first. My instinctive way of discerning is to look at a situation, problem, question, opportunity, etc...then think about which way seems right to me...then in some cases to check with fellow believers to make sure MY answer makes sense. There's not a lot of God in that. One of the things that my job requires is to identify and engage leaders. I am often quick to, as Samuel did, look on the outside when trying to identify leaders but I need to seek the Lord's direction and His identification of the hearts of leaders. I have a good example on how to learn how to listen to the Spirit. Practice, practice, practice. My daughter has played competitive soccer for the same coach for six years. Week in and week out of practices and games and coaching. She now plays for a different coach but her former coach often attends her games. He can simpy make a comment from the stands in the middle of the chaos of a game and she will turn and face him from the field because she knows his voice. As Jesus said, "my sheep know my voice, and they follow me." Practice - spend time in prayer. Practice - spend time reading the Word. Practice - spend time memorizing the Word. Practice - spend time meditating on the Word. Practice - spend time discussing the Word with other believers. Practice....

I am getting started a little late on this study due to some travel. For any who might read this post who are prayer warriors, pray for me to have the perseverence to push on and catch up in this study. Rebellion in its simplest form is me doing what I want to do. It's selfishness. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, or otherwise state, like having another god before the one true God because when I rebel I'm choosing to follow someone other than God...me. Rebellion is arrogant because when I rebel, I think I know better than the One who knows everything. It's, in small measure, like walking into a great banquet room and saying to the master chef's face that I know every ingredient and cooking method that the master chef used (and could do it better) even though I wasn't there when he prepared the meal. I think that the response when I find rebellion in my hearts is no different than any other sin. I need to examine my life daily, regularly, for rebellion and when I find it, immediately repent. I ask forgiveness of the Lord and ask for His guidance in how to act. In accordance with scripture, I confess my sins one to another. Hopefully I consistenly have someone in my life with whom I can be accountable that I can honestly confess this sin to and ask for prayer and accountability from that person to help me be walk as Christ walked. If I do nothing, my relationship with the Lord is broken and I have to face the consequences of my rebellion.

Good day everyone, My name is David. I am in my late 40's and I live in Southwest Tennessee in the United States. I am very excited about this study because I think that by learning more of the "man after God's own heart" I can in turn learn more about God. I'm looking forward to the journey.

I think that one reason God through John takes the time to encourage these three groups is to provide yet another example of discipleship within His word. None of us who are alive, regardless of spiritual maturity has "made it" or has reached the ultimate perfection of spiritual maturity. We are all still on a journey and we need encouragement. We are being negatively encouraged by the enemy and we need positive encouragement from our brothers and sisters and mentors in Christ, literally encouragement from God through these people, to press on toward the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ. John encourages by simply reminding these groups who they are, that they are strong in the Lord, that they know the everlasting One, that He lives within them. The negative encouragement from the enemy is lies about how the Lord doesn't care for us, doesn't remember us, isn't in us...it is filled with doubt. We need the positive encouragement and reminders of the TRUTH in this battle we are in.

Hate and unforgiveness, as sins, separate us from God. God is light, God's light directs our steps and our paths. Without God's light, we are in darkness, which is another description for being blinded. Often we think of being blinded as too much light, but it can also be the absence of light. If you have been darkened, to come back into the light you seek the source of light, which is God. To go toward God, what you need to do is remove what is separating you, which in this case is the sins of hate and unforgiveness. Confess your sins, and He will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness, removing that which separates you from Him, removing that which separates you from the Light.

I think if we really examine ourselves daily, even as we take up our crosses daily, we discover that no matter how hard we "try" to keep the rules and obey Christ that we always fall so dreadfully short. That accurate view of ourselves I think helps us avoid being judgmental. Simply knowing that no matter how good I am that I can't earn my way to heaven is also helpful. I think love and legalism differ in this...if I am legalistic I am following the rules for the sake of the rules; if I have love I am following the Lord for the sake of my love for the Lord and His love for me. I think we can be serious about obedience with love at the center if we look at what the Lord says was the most important commandment...summed up in loving God and loving others. The rest of that verse states that ALL the law and the prophets are based on these commandments. So, if we truly love God and love others, obedience to Him is a natural outflow of that love.

If we do sin, we have an advocate in Jesus interceding with the Father on our behalf. This is comforting because there is One who is sinless who is representing me. It makes me not want to sin because my Intercessor has already paid the ultimate price on my behalf.

Confession is agreeing with God that our sin is sin. Pre-confession He already knows it is sin, He already knows we did (or didn't) do it, it's me who just hasn't admitted the full picture yet. Keeping a short account is important. I've heard once that spiritual maturity can be measured by the length of time between sin and confession. From the passage in John confession leads to forgiveness and cleansing. God wants to mold our hearts; cleansing of unrighteousness is one way He does this.

For Christians to continue in sin is one variation of a the "frog in the kettle" illustration. The more that particular sin is committed, the less you view it as sin or even think about it as being sin to the point where you have totally blocked out the voice of the Holy Spirit inside of you telling you it is sin. Another visual would be those car alarms. When cars were first fitted with car alarms and you heard one, you at least turned your head to see what was up. Now they are so common that they are viewed as a nuisance, not a warning. Thus those who continue in a pattern of sin view the sound of that still small voice inside...as a nuisance rather than as a warning. The self-deception is that you are telling yourself that what you are doing isn't really wrong, or telling yourself not to think that it is serious, or not to think about it at all. If we walk in the light, we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from ALL sin.

Often we try to go beyond the surface level only to hit a barrier that someone puts up which says "you may go no further." Those barriers can be caused by fear or by pain from being hurt in the past. The enemy uses every tactic possible to keep us from experiencing koinonia, including busy schedules and other distractions, fear, distrust, mistaken narratives (e.g. "no one wants to know about me..."), etc. To take relationships to a deeper level, as simplistic as the answer may sound, we need to just keep on trying...understanding that to take a risk sometimes means failure, but without the risk there is no success. To add a simple answer to a simple answer, I think we need to start with prayer, prayer that the Lord would put people in our lives with home we can share the close, deeper-than-surface relationships and then look to Him to provide those people in our lives. I think that in my circle of relationships, it would take several things to go deeper. First prayer, that God would provide those people or confirm any that I already have a surface relationship with...and that He would provide the courage and opportunities to go deeper. Next, building the time into my busy schedule to allow those relationships to grow deeper...purposefully scheduling time with those friends. Then taking the risk at going deeper. Deep relationships described as koinonia involve a level of intimacy. I've heard that described as into-me-see.

Hello Tricia, I'm also in a Memphis suburb...Bartlett. Only lived here a couple of years, so I'm getting used to the area still.

Hello everyone, I'm 44 and am participating in this study from Tennessee in the U.S.A. I'm very far from being an empty-nester; part of my job is being a dad to four children ranging from an early teen to a 4-year-old. I've finished up one career and totally changed directions, moving from data processing to a ministry career. Looking forward to the study. The Learner

Hello everyone! My name is David and I live in the United States, in the western portion of the state of Tennessee. I am 42, married with a wonderful family, and eager to go deeper in my walk with the Lord. I have read several of Dr. Wilson's studies, but this will be my first time participating in the study on-line for an extended duration. Sincerely, David.