servant for Christ

He ask because he wants their love to grow for God. As their love increases in knowledge and discernment, they will be able to accurately distinguish the vital and worthwhile things in life from those that are not. The result will be a spiritual knowing in the heart, not merely head knowledge. It involves a personal relationship with God instead of just knowing mere facts about God. A knowledge that expresses itself in fellowship, obedience, life, and nearness to God. He wants them to be filled with the fruit that is righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ for the purpose of glorifying and praising God. The believer who is pure and without offense before God has divinely developed in him a practical righteousness or daily moral life that measures up to God's standards in character and conduct. The ultimate purpose for righteousness is to glorify God. Selfishness clouds because we think about self and not God. We can be so preoccupied with good things that we don't have time for the best, most important, most significant things.

Paul is convinced that the work of grace that God began in the Philippians at conversion will be divinely continued " until the day of Jesus Christ". That is, the Lord will keep working in these believers until Jesus returns to earth, at which point He will finish His work, bringing it to completion. This speaks of the Christian's eternal security. For God had a purpose in view when He began His saving work in the Philippians, and that purpose will neither be abandoned nor unrealized. The basis of Paul's confidence was God's faithfulness. We can expect God to do this for us because God has a purpose for us and because of God's faithfulness.

Out of the partnership we receive sharing, association, communion. and fellowship and joy. Other kinds of support we can offer is prayer, love, personal support, and to me the joy of giving and being there for someone is far better than anything I can think of.

The basic idea of slave is that Paul is solely committed to God and to do God's will for his life. The root idea of saint is being consecrated to God to be used for His service. In a Christian's relationship to God we have to be committed and dedicated to God in order to be able to do the service that he wants to do in our lives.

John's baptism was with water. The baptism that Jesus brings is a permanent one. This baptism was to be the sign and dynamic mark of the followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit would be poured out on them in order that they might carry on His saving work in all the world. Jesus' task of baptizing in the Spirit is His ongoing purpose throughout this age.

The title tells us that Jesus is the Lamb provided by God to be sacrificed in the place of sinners. By His death, Jesus made provision for the removal of the guilt and power of sin and opened the way to God for all in the world. He came to take every single person's sin. EVERYBODY! The ways in which He fulfilled Isaiah 53: He was despised, rejected, bore our grief, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastisement for our peace, by His stripes we are healed, we all have sinned and need Christ to die in our place, as a lamb to the slaughter, His grave with the wicked (died alongside) . It was God the Fathers will that His Son be sent to die on the cross for a lost world, travail of His soul, made intercession for the transgressors. Jesus Christ did all of those things for us.

In humility John, compared himself to a voice rather than a person, thus focusing the attention exclusively upon Christ. Each time John had opportunity to focus on himself in these encounters, he instead shifted the focus onto the Messiah. John went so far as to state that he, unlike a slave that was required to remove his master's shoes, was not even worthy of performing this action in relationship to Messiah. A person can be strong and remain humble if you keep your focus on the Lord. Yes, humility and powerful confident speech co-exist.

The Old Testament associated the coming of Messiah with repentance and spiritual cleansing. John focused attention on his position as forerunner of Messiah, who used traditional proselyte baptism as a symbol of the need to recognize those Jews who were outside God's saving covenant like Gentiles. They too needed spiritual cleansing and preparation for Messiah's advent. The baptism of John thus powerfully and dramatically symbolizes repentance. The Jews accepting John's baptism were admitting they had been as Gentiles and needed to become the people of God genuinely inwardly. The people were repenting in anticipation of the Messiah's arrival.

John was being hassled because they thought he was the Messiah or Elijah. John understood his mission because he was told that he would go before Christ dfas a forerunner with the spirit and power of Elijah. There was a lot of conflict. Some believed in Christ and some opposed him.

What it means it that all that Jesus is and does interprets and explains who God is and what He does. Jesus shares the substance of God's being. Yes, he does make a distinction between God the Father and God the Son, It helps us to understand that there are 3 God-head to the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

It is important because John wrote that God himself became flesh in Christ. Jesus' humanity and divinity were complete, not partial. The two ideas, Jesus 100 percent divine and 100 percent human form the bedrock of a Christian understanding of Christ. The Father's glory was now present in Jesus Christ. If He was only pretending, it wouldn't mean a thing. We would not be children of God, our sins not forgiven, no eternal life. I have experienced His grace in so many ways. Sickness, saying something or doing something that is wrong, getting angry. Praise God for His mercy and grace. His truth has changed my life from a doubter to a believer. In knowing His truth, I am set free from sin, I have His light shining in me. I know of His love and that I can fully trust Him.

To receive Jesus, who is the Word of God, means to acknowledge His claims, place one's faith in Him, and thereby yield allegiance to Him. To accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Those who receive Jesus, the Word, receives full authority to claim the exalted title of "God's children". Following the act of faith, there must be a continual action of believing which is a need of perseverance in believing. For John, to believe, saving faith is an activity, something that people do., True faith is not a static belief and trust in Jesus and His redeeming work, but a loving, self-abandoning commitment that constantly draws near to Him as Lord and Savoir. Those who do not, will not know the love of God, learning who He is, and the trust they can have in Him. The peace and joy.

John was sent as an eye-witness, a leading witness. Light is a thing which witnesses for itself, and carries its own evidence along with it, but to those who shut their eyes against the light it is necessary there should be those that bear witness to it. Christ light needs not man's testimony, but the world's darkness does. John was like the night watchman that goes round the town, proclaiming the approach of the morning light to those that have closed their eyes, and not willing themselves to observe it. He was sent of God to tell the world that the long-looked for Messiah was now come. I think my mission is the same as John's. I am to let Christ's light shine in me so I can testify to this lost and dark world that Jesus is the light, love, and hope they are looking for. I pray everyday for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me to reach someone that needs to know " the Word". John was killed because he spoke the truth, because he told of Christ and His love and that His light can overcome darkness. The same can happen to me. I could be killed, tortured, made fun of. To the people I have testified too, some have opened their eyes, some have turned away not wanting the light, the truth, the love.

Yes, Jesus is fully God. John begins his Gospel by calling Jesus " the Word." In using this designation for Christ, John presents Him as the personal Word of God and indicates that in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. The Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ is the manifold wisdom of God and the perfect revelation of the nature of God. Just as a person's words reveal his heart and mind, Christ as "the Word" reveals the heart and mind of God. Christ was preexistent " with God" before the creation of the world. He was a person existing from eternity, distinct from but in eternal fellowship with God the Father. Christ was divine, having the same nature and essence as the Father. It was through Christ that God the Father created and now sustains the world. In Jesus, God became a human being, having the same nature as man but without sin. Christ was not created, He is eternal, and He has always been in loving fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For hjis ministry, John used "the Word" that serves as a bridge -word to reach not only Jews but also the unsaved Greeks.

I make sense of these verses because Isaiah's words brought out the heart response of his audience. No, he was not called to an impossible mission because the Lord was ready to heal those who truly repented, but not those who merely wanted to avoid judgment while holding onto their sinful ways. It will make it worse because the people were so sunk in sin that when they heard the truth it did not bring them closer to God, but actually drove them away. It was spoken in Matthew 13:14 and 15. Yes, there was frustration. Yes, there is always hope in the Lord Jesus. If we keep preaching and teaching God' truth, pray for the Holy Spirit to deal with their hearts, and let people know that their hope is Jesus Christ, I think hearts will be healed and delivered.

Isaiah's reaction was he instantly realized his own imperfection and uncleanness, especially with respect to his speech. He also recognized the consequences of seeing God face to face and was frightened. God then cleansed his mouth and his heart and made him fit to remain in His presence as a servant and prophet of the Holy One of Israel. Only God can furnish the purity that He demands. The question that follows is " whom shall I send?" Isaiah's response was " here I am, send me". He was so overcome by the grace of God in cleansing him that he willingly committed himself to a lifetime of ministry. My response is " here I am Lord, send me."

Though Isaiah may have prophesied earlier, he now received a vision of God, was cleansed, and was given a specific commission to proclaim God's word to a spiritually blind, deaf, and insensitive people. This vision gave Isaiah a proper understanding of his message and call. It revealed that God's glory, majesty, and holiness demand that of those who serve Him also must be holy. Churches today likewise need a vision of God in their midst as the holy Lord and Judge of all. The recognition of the need for His sanctifying work in our lives will inevitably accompany such a vision. The result could well be similar to that of Isaiah: earnest confession, glorious cleansing, and powerful commissioning by God in regard to His will and call. The foremost characteristic of God revealed to Isaiah is His holiness, signifying His purity of character, separation from sin, and opposition to all that is evil. God's absolute holiness must be proclaimed in the churches as it is proclaimed in the heavens.

God wanted the vineyard, which was Israel, to be fruitful and righteous. The Lord gave the best care to his vineyard, preparing and nursing is as an expert agriculturalist. He watche over it with great attentiveness, planting the best vines, ones that had the potential for abundant sweet grapes. When all the rest of the world lay in common, not cultivated by divine revelation, that was his vineyard, they were his pecuilar people. He acknowledged them as his own, set them apart for himself. The soil they were planted in was extra ordinary; it was a very fruiful hill, the horn of the son of oil. He fenced it, took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his own eye, lest any should hurt it. He gathered the stones out of it, that nothing from without might damage it, so nothing within might obstruct its fruitfulness. He proffered his grace to take away the stony heart. He planted it with the choicest vine, set up a pure religion among them, gave them a most excellent law, instituted ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their acquaintance with God. He built a tower in the midst of it, the temple was the tower, about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet his people, and gave them the tokens of his presence among them and pleasure in them. He made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to which the sacrifices, as the fruits of the vineyard should be brought.He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reson he had for that expectation. God expects vineyard-fruit from those that enjoy vineyard privileges, not leaves only. A bare profession, though ever so green, will not serve, there must be more than buds and blossoms. There must be fruit. A good heart and a good life, vineyard fruit, thoughts and affedtions, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit, which is the fatness of the vineyard, answerable to the ordinances, which are the dressings of the vineyard, acceptable to God, the Lord of the vineyard, and fruit according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects from us, grapes, the furit of the vine, which they honor God and man, and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but righteous and very reasonable. When the crop came in, it was wild grapes.Not only no fruit at all, but bad fruit, worse than none, grapes of Sodom. Wild grapes are the fruis of the corrupt nature, fruit according to the crab stock, not according to the engrafted branch from the root of bitterness. Where grace does not work, corruption will. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter, and are so far from being pleasing to Godthat they are provoking. Counterfeit grapes are wild grapes. The Lord said he would destroy his vineyard, It shall cease to be a vineyard, and be turned into a wilderness, the church of the Jews shall be unchurched, their charter shall be taken away and the shall become not my people. They were no longer his people, so he took the hedge away. They mingled with the nations and therefore were justly scattered among them. They were no longer protected as God;s people, left exposed. He broke down the wall and removed their defences from them and they became easy prey to their enemies. They were leveled and laid to waste. What this parable means that God in a way of righteous judgment, denise his grace to those that have long received it in vain. The sum of it all is that those who would not bring forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is the punishment of the sin of barrenness.

God's rule will be established over all the earth. All evil, injustice, and rebellion directed against God and His law will be put down, and righteousness will reign. All nations, Jews and Gentiles, will worship and serve tehe Lord. This prophecy reflects God's final purpose for Israel and the human race; it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ Himself, who executes justice and righteousness upon the earth. All people, both the lost and the saved, need to hear God's truth proclaimed from the lips of those anointed by the Holy Spirit and committed to the righteousness of God's ways. The kingdom of God is evident when conflict and violence end, and it is always characterized by peace.

Judah had received God's covenant, His law, His temple, and His manhy promises, yet they lived sinful lives, disregarded that covenant, and failed to acknowledge God as the source of their salvation and blessing. The consequences for Christians today are the same. They would sufferf God's judgment. God accuses His people of a life of persistent wickedness. In this case, God charged the people with perverting his laws in order to practice violent injustice toward innocent victims. The people were defiled by their sin and the uncleanness of their sacrifices. Seeking justice means upholding God's standards of fairness and advancing the rights of the oppressed, orphans, and widows, those who are weak and marginalized in society. It is unreasonable because they have turned from God, not obeying God. He offered full forgiveness if they would only repent, put away evil, strive to do good, and obey His word. Those who refuse God's mercy and choose instead to cling rebelliously to their own ways will be destroyed.

I think Paul distance himself because others were saying that they got their teaching from the other apostles. He had to prove that it was from God. He writes of their approval because he was preaching the same as they were. To further his argument Paul told the Galatians that God does not show favoritism to any person because of his or her heritage, reputation, position, or accomplishment. God sees and evaluates the heart, the inner person, and His favor rests upon those whose hearts are sincerely turned toward Him in love, faith, and purity.

Paul's significance about Titus not being circumcised was that Titus and the Gentiles were admitted in the church without circumcision on the basis of their faith in Christ.

The factors in Paul's background was that he persecuted God's people and church. God used his being different to prove to others that God was real, that His word was real and true.That by faith we are a child of God.I think my background has helped prepare me for my ministry. The trials I have faced, I have been able to witness to someone else that has or is going through the same. God has helped me grow in him as He has taught and lead me in His way and truth.

Paul's gospel came straight from Jesus Christ. We know it is true because it is the Word of God. Anything that we teach or being taught does not conform to the Word of God is no good. If we do not check what we are being taught with the Word of God, we can be lead astray and start believinig in the way of the world and not God's.

It is dangerous for the Galatian believers because it was taking them from the true gospel, which is God's Word. The false teachers were teaching they had to believe in circumcision, works of the law, and keeping Jewish holy days. All is false, all we have to do is have faith in Jesus and believe on what He did on the cross. The same is for us today as Christians. We cannot believe in the world's way. It is wrong. Believe God's Word, that He will do what He says, and stand on our faith in Jesus Christ. He is true and faithful.