Greta

False doctrine resulted in the church believing myths instead of the truth, thus becoming confused. Also endless geneologies would (I think) cause the people to be in competition as to who could trace their ancestors back the furthest. This puts the church's focus on themselves and NOT on Jesus. Growth comes to an end when our focus is taken off Jesus. We need to be in relationship with Jesus. When the church is arguing, rebelious and full of meaningless talk, the Holy Spirit is hurt and will abandon them, and any mission they once held will be forgotten and abandoned. God bless, Love Greta

The early Roman Christians were persicuted dreadfully, eaten by lions, crusified, burned to death and many other dreadful things. Today, some Christians are imprisoned for their faith, some have been shot and murdered in other ways. Many are not allowed to hold public services and have to worship in cellars in secret. In England we are very fortunate to be able to worship freely, even in the market place. This passage is very reassuring because no matter what happens to our physical body, we know we will spend eternity with Jesus. How wonderful to stand before the throne of God, awaiting acusations to be thrown at us, and there is a heavenly silence instead. Like Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, "Where are your accusers? does no one accuse you?" and the woman answered "No one sir!" He replied, "Nor do I. Go in peace". We have victory in Christ, because He gives us the victory, praise Him. Bless you. Love from Greta

God is the one in highest power. He has the final say and if He says that we are OK, then we are - no matter what anyone else says, for 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' Who are our enemies? Satan is our No 1 enemy, and he often works against us through other people. But I think our No 2 enemy is ourselves. Especially when we listen to Satan telling us we are no good and we will never make the grade. Sometimes we are so full of self condemnation that the devil can take a holiday while we do his work for him. The evidence that God is for us is proven by the fact that He gave His only beloved, begotten Son for our sakes. We can also look around at the beautiful creation that He made for us. Through the times when we see something great happening in our lives at a time when we thought that all was lost. When He brings all things together for the good of those who love Him. As I read the question again and wrote my answer, it gave me a warm glow all over me. I know that in Christ, I am safe and I am welcome too. It gives me hope and confidence to move into realms I would not normally go into and do things I would not normally do. I think that 'He will graciously give us all things' refers to everything that is in His Will for us to have, and especially all the things He has promised us in His Word. There would be material things and also abilities to do things, deeper faith and spiritual gifts. Praise God! Love from Greta ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>

To be conformed to the likeness of His Son means that we are gradually changed, becoming more and more like Jesus. As we die to the flesh and turn from our old ways, God gives us new ways and a new Spirit life. We are literally changed - our thoughts, desires, deeds, even our sence or humour changes - but we are still the same person. It was once explained to me that God takes the old Greta, washes her down and pollishes her up, making a clean, bright, sparkling new Greta who thinks the same way that He does. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus. We have the same genes and God loves us all equally, (which always amazes me). Jesus, our big brother, is our role model. By looking to Him we see how we will become and he shows us step by step what we should do. We are so blessed to belong to such a wonderful, loving, understanding family. God bless all my brothers and sisters. Love from Greta x

God's promise is that in all things He works for the good of those who love Him and have been called to His purpose. It means that whatever happens in our lives, (good or bad), God will bring it all together so that it will be for our ultimate good. eg) Something really awful may have happened in our lives, but by learning to cope with it God changes us inside, and later we are able to help many other people going through the same kind of problem. The two qualifications for receiving this promise are that we must love the Lord and we must acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour and be obedient to Him. Verse 28 gives me hope because it shows me God is in control and that whatever happens in my life, He will use it as part of His Master Plan to bring glory to Himself. God bless, Love from Greta

When Christ comes to claim His bride we will be transformed into beauty and graceousness. Love will flow through us, into us and also out of us. What a wonderful day that will be. The suffering creation will also be transformed. God doesn't go backwards, but the nearest I can think of is that it will be something like the garden of Eden. Our mortal bodies will be healed, renewed, given new life and light will shine from us. Our spirits? - oh my goodness! - our spirits will be so overjoyed that they will throb and exalt with praise, worship and joy. I think that we will burst with happiness. We will see Jesus face to face. Hallelujah! God bless, Love from Greta

A person who has lost hope is depressed, negative, fearful, angry and without purpose. He will either be continuously striving at whatever comes along, going from one thing to another, or he will have 'lost heart' and will not bother to try any more. He will feel that the world is against him and that he just has to get along the best he can. Someone who has hope and expectation of a better future, will press on to overcome all difficulties. He will have a specil inner joy and confidence that there is something better in store for him. 'Christ in us is the hope of glory' and this is Christian Hope. It should motivate us to become more and more like Christ, and let more and more of our flesh life die.

The Holy Spirit helps us in all God's ways. He will never help us to do anything that is wrong. He knows what we ought to pray and helps us to do it, sometimes it is in groans that words cannot express, sometimes in our natural language and sometimes in tongues. The Holy Spirit shows us Jesus. He is the Spirit of Truth and we can rely on what He is telling us. He was there before the world began; He was also there when Jesus was crusified on the cross, and He brings the truth of Jesus' sacrifice to our understanding, and our spirit within us confirms that it is true. What Jesus teaches us of the Spirit's ministry in John 14:16 and John 15:26 is the same as we experience today in the person of the Holy Spirit. He fulfills all that Jesus said He would. Do we take the Holy Spirit for granted? I hope that I don't for He is a very special person. I know that without His daily care and guidance I would be lost. He enables us to do things that we could never do in the natural. We are told we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit and I think this is because He is a very gentle person. We must not hurt Him in any way. God bless, Love from Greta

During His life, Jesus was abandoned by His friends, treated like an outcast, whipped, ridiculed and crucified cruelly on a cross between two thieves. I think He suffered most when God turned His face away from Him because of all the sin that was piled upon Him. We suffer because of Adam's sin and also because of our own sin. Jesus, who is our Lord, suffered, and what He received, we also receive. All creation seems to be suffering because of Adam's sin. God said "The land will be cursed and all creation will suffer", and so it did. The end of the downward cycle of suffering will occur when Jesus returns in Glory. In this present life we look forward to Jesus coming back to us. We have to have hope - we cannot live without it. My hope is in Jesus. Love from Greta

We are told seven times in these verses that we are the sons and daughters of God. We are promised to be joint heirs with Christ and inherit all that Christ inherits. We are promised that the Holy Spirit will live in us for ever and He will help us in all things, especially in our prayer. Our future is with God, with Jesus as our elder brother. All creation is waiting for this to happen and is watching out for the 'sons of God'. Love and blessings from Greta

The Holy Spirit inspires us to pray "Abba, Father" because of the very special personal relationship we have with God. He lets us know we are loved in such an intermate way that it melts our hearts and gives us such peace and assurance of His love. If we don't have this personal assurance, we have somehow lost touch with God and we need to spend more time with Him, in prayer, worship and in reading the Word. Love from Greta

We 'put to death' the deeds of the body when (with the help of the Holy Spirit) we cease to do them. Every time we slip up and do the wrong deed again, it is like reserecting that deed again and it takes even longer to get rid of it. When we are being lead by the Spirit we are making the right choises and mortifying another piece of flesh. But - then - we slip up and have to go through it all over again. I am afraid that quite a lot of this is me, for I seem to make a lot of wrong choises. Then, bless Him, the Holy Spirit comes to my rescue again, forgives me and puts me back on the right road, giving me a good place to stand.

Wow! What a revelation! We DO NOT have to sin. We ARE NOT compelled to sin. We CAN live for 2 hours, 4 hours, a day, even a week without sinning. Where do we Christians get such a defeatist attitude towards sin? I think I got mine from the devil. When God said "All have sinned and gone astray", the words were in the past tense. I think the devil has fooled me into thinking it is present and future tense - like "Everyone will always sin and go astray!" I have only just seen this - Hallelujah! Please Lord, help me to remember this and to walk in it. I have been SET FREE from sin and death. But if I do happen to sin, I can ask Jesus for forgiveness and He has promiced, in His mercy, to do so. What a Saviour! God bless, and love from Greta

It is not possible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit residing in us. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit occurs when we receive Christ into our lives as our Lord and Saviour. The fullness of the Spirit is when we are baptised in the Spirit (with fire). We speak in tongues and are full and overflowing with praise and worship. We remain full of the Holy ~Spirit by asking for a fresh infilling every day. Worshipping the Lord in toungues is a sure way to become, and remain full of the Spirit. God bless you all Love from Greta

To set your mind on the things of the Spirit is to think as the Holy Spirit thinks, - as Jesus thinks, - as God thinks, for the Holy Spirit brings to us only the things of God. How can we do this? By spending time with God and getting to know Him and His ways better. The Holy Spirit will always help us to do this. We must read and meditate on the bible and spend time in His Presence, in prayer, always worshipping with thanksgiving in our hearts. When we set our minds on things that relate to the sinful nature, we will find that we start to feel (and be) rebellious, or angry, or fearful - full of doubts, and we sometimes want to seperate ourselves from God and 'do our own thing'. Sometimes we do this deliberately, and sometimes an old habit comes back and tempts us into it - and sometimes we do things we think will be OK but then prove not to be - ouch! - we have not listened properly to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit plays a big part in us 'walking in the Spirit' by encouraging and guiding us into His ways. We cannot live right by force of our own will, I have tried it and it doesn't work. We will always need the Lord's help to do what is right and make right choices, and to have a right heart inside of us. God bless and guide us, Love from Greta

Even though the law is good, it is weakened by sinful man, so it is not powerful enough to save us. The fault is in us, sinful man - the weak link. It takes Jesus to save us, sent by His Father to do so. In Him no sin is found and He became a sin offering for us. God bless you, Love Greta

Romans 7. 'Is Paul referring to himself or others? What is your opinion? (We won't all agree here, but we'll learn what the issues are by taking and arguing for a position - - lovingly). I think that Paul is referring to all Christians, himself included. We are not spiritual all the time, - even our Pastors have 'off days' when they feel they cannot do right for doing wrong, and they too have to repent and be washed clean again. God does take us from glory to glory, giving us the victory over flaws in our characters, but it is only God In Us That Is Good, and only with the Grace of God can we do the Good Things we want to do instead of the sinful things we don't want to do. At times I have had to repeat Paul's words when my intentions have been good, but the results have not been good. Love Greta

Total Depravity is the fallen state of man as a result of Original Sin. By their nature, people are not inclined to love God completely as God wants them to. They prefer to serve their own interests instead of their neighbours and reject the rule of God. They are bad, through and through. Only God can change this by saving us. There may be a very little tiny amount of God's goodness still in us, but even when we want to do good kind acts, there is usually an ulterior motive behind it which serves our own purposes, and doesn't come from any goodness in our hearts at all. Modern man tends to believe that man is basically good because he is only comparing himself with other men. Only God is Good, so when comparison is made with Him, we fall far short.

The law does well in telling us what is right and what is wrong. It is poor in enabling us to change our course. The law is powerless to save us because it holds no grace. Even after confessing our sins and being foregiven and reinstated, we still have to have the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to change our course and 'get it right'.

Covetting was already a sin before we were told that it was. Now it has been pin-pointed and clearly shown to us, we can repent of our sin, ask forgiveness and ask God to change us --- OR --- we can rebel and covet all the more!! Not a good alternative.

By 'flesh', Paul is referring to our 'old sinful nature' that we obeyed when we were slaves to sin. It is all the temptations we fell into; all the ways we pamper ourselves like glutteny, laziness, etc., and our self-centredness resulting in spite, selfishness, envy and greed.

There is NO independent freedom apart from slavery to sin or to Christ. Sometimes we may want to tread a middle course, (not too good and not too bad), but this is 'sitting on the fence and is something that the Lord despises. I don't know why we hesitate so long before firmly taking sides and making our allegiance clear to all, but once we do decide, we feel the freedom of at last knowing who we are, and more important, To Whom We Belong.

Good doctrine shows us the right way to live and is also a good example to us. When we follow this good example and teaching, we are honouring the good doctrine we have received. We should be avoiding wrong teaching, that which does not agree with the bible.

Slavery is being obedient to someone. Acts of righteousness shows we are slaves to God because we are obeying Him. Doing bad things shows we are slaves to sin because sin commands only the evil in us. Such a bondage is broken when we wholeheartedly decide to leave sin and obey God. The bondage is fully broken by our faith and belief in Jesus and through our obediance to God. At the moment God is speaking to me about spending more quality time with Him, and not wasting my time on computer games. Praise God, He is making His point and I am hearing and heeding Him.

We are either in Satan's camp or in God's camp, and our characteristics are either sinful or righteous depending on which camp we choose. We obey (unconsciously) either Satan or God. (I put Satan first because we originally belonged in his camp). We deliberately offer ourselves to God when we put our trust in Jesus, so now we are cut off from Satan's camp, we have changed our alegiance and now belong to God. In our daily lives we will find that we are following Christ in all our ways, even though we make mistakes and need to be corrected.