Helen

It is most important to be aware of satan's existence because he is looking for people to devour. He is real and dangerous. We must be able to recognise satanic activity in our llives and others. What comes out of darkness (ignorance, Jesus said "Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing"!) into light (knowledge and Truth, the presence of Jesus who is the light of the world) has no power, as darkness has no power over light. Recognition is the first step in dealing with problems or giving them over to God.

A fear is a care, so we give the situation to Jesus, asking His presence and consequnce. Then we stand boldly for we are in His presence. He cares for us and wants to be called into every picture in our lives. He also has a purpose for every situation, to turn it for good to those who believe. Besides it's wonderful to ssee what He does with situations. We are to do it boldly (as before the throne of grace), and humbly. I had a care for the people of my area since my church was leaving the rented premises for a property some distance away. We had dedicated the building near me to God's service and prayer-walked the area. I prayed and asked God for the sake of the single mothers and unfathered children to bring into the area a church able to minister effectively to street people. I could do nothing, so I left my care with God, who moved an international evangelist and his excellent cohorts into the old location (rented). Plans are afoot for street ministry which is very much on his heart, and I am left astounded by His attention to my prayer! However, I'll continue to leave my cares with our mighty Father who cares!

ALL are servants. Without this understanding a person is too immature for any office. The higher the leader the greater his/her servant capacity or role. I was exceedingly distressed recently during a seminar. At her inconvenience the pastor's wife was summoned and she came urgently to my assistance. This is service/humility. People come first in our lilves, and we are here to serve and to bless, especially leaders. People do not go directly into leadership. They fulfil many roles on their way up there. As they do these other jobs, their attitudes can be seen. Do they see a job and do it? Have they set about humbler roles with joy and vigour (eg cleaning toilets, making coffee, setting up chairs and tables.) Are they a joy to have around the place? Do they complain? Do they need close supervision or are their initiatives viable? Do people like working with them? Are they growing? Are they good at listening to people and understanding where they are at? All these relate to humility. Failing to discern humility before offering leadership/responsibility is very foolish. Pride is the worst sin and separates its author from others - very divisive. Humility is pre-requisite to unity, therefore pre-requisite to any office within the delicate church community.

We need to stop powermongering before it starts by right selection of personnel for various roles. It is very important that a church select the right person. The attitude to service needs to be wel known. The criteria of a man whose family function very well (1 Tim 3:4) is probably the safest, as if his family do well, so will the church family. If there is a problem in the family it may well manifest in the church. Yet several brilliant pastors have had tear-away kids.His approach to accountability is an essential ingredient for the leaders of a church. They need to be those who regularly seek advice from mentors, who seek to learn from others, and are not content with their own view entirely. The board needs to be strong, mature, visionary people. All board members need to be people known to submit to the Holy Spirit. Then they will consistently pry for and seek unity and encourage the pastor in his plans. Personality clashes will be the danger. Pastors and elders need to be in agreement before bestowing authority. They all need to be men of humility and men of prayer and see each other as a team. They are adding appropriate people to the team. They need to be in agreement about who should fulfil a new role, to be really able to pray and discuss matters together. It takes time, prayer, and love to build the right church structure under God. The church needs to ascertain that the Biblical criteria of an attitude of enthusiastic service, teamwork (accountability), and the abililty to manage family life in an exemplary manner are maintained for all personnel.

If an arm has to be twisted for eldership, it is evident there is a lack of real enthusiasm and vision concerning the work. This means the church will not ssee those qualities in leaders, and therefore will lose enthusiasm themselves. They mey leave the church, or not put in the effort required in individual responsibilities, or start acting on automatic pilot themselves. Excitement, first love, enthusiasm will all decline as vision falls away. Services may continue bur little growth will be forthcoming. New Christians may not be discipled effectively, and some members may leave and seek a more dynamic home church. Leaders are produced who are "doing the church a favour", not taking seriously their responsibilities as shepherds, not putting time, prayer and thought into vision or people, and not inspiring anyone by their example, and generally having a deleterious effect on the congregation.

They are to "shepherd" the flock, means that they are to see that all the (real) needs of the flock are met, provision made. The pastor needs to be very aware of each person and their needs which means they must spend some time on each member. Younger lambs (Christians) will need more attention until they get onto solid food. Paul was encouraging from the point of view of an experienced fellow "shepherd", insisting on integrity in the work, with keen enthusiasm and diligence for it.

To know Jesus is to know God. Jesus shows us what God is llike. When we sin, God Himself suffers, but above His suffering is His love for us. His knowledge of what He has put in us, and His longing for reconciliation, and His willingness to pay the price of it as only He can. The price was to visit earth in the flesh, let satan do his best to defile it, (including taking His life) and to overcome that, to be greater than that, to create another Adam one who is victorious and wins back the dominion Adam originally handed to satan, so that, identifying with Him, Jesus, we might be saved from the curse of sin and returned to the fold of Heaven. Jesus is the physical (earthly ) expression of God's grief and plan for victory. No man other than the Son of God was free from the curse and able to overcome satan - lay down life and take it up again. ii I believe when Adam sinned, God suffered unbearable grief - unbearable without a plan (Jesus) to buy back the lost children. Jesus, the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief" represented to us this terrible suffering of God the Father. He also represented to us everything else about God - healing, joy, peace, wisdom, humility glory...... He was the way in which we could again catch a glimpse of God and come home where we belong. As Abel's blood cried out to God for vengeance, God, though angry, hurt etc, thought more of reconciliation than of wrath. Jesus being hurt represented God's hurt, and Jesus walking through death victorios is our way back, the great victory of reconciliation. He was God and knew exectly what He was taking on - every bit of it. He also knew the vision for reconciliation, which helped Him go through it all. iii Jesus had the vision for reconciliation of man with God. He was united with the Father and the Spirit in this, and a 3-fold cord cannot be broken! (satan has no three-fold cord!)

Salvation can only come to individuals - not to groups as such. It involves personal repentance and personal submssion of the will to Jesus, personal acceptance of His Spirit in our heart and personal decision/determination to follow Him in obedience. All this has to happen before we can become a member of the body of Christ. Since Adam, Noah and Abram, God deals with individuals who will receive Him. So Jesus' suffering (blood) cries for personal response from me - just as God heard Abel's blood crying out to Him for vengeance. We can only respond as individuals, not for or on behalf of another or others. Jesus suffered that I might live by faith and receive His promises personally, that I might intimately know the cleansing of my sin, and become increasingly sensitive and accommodating to His Spirit, growing in Him to my full potential, operating in all the good works that He has prepared specifically for me to walk in.

People need to see that we mean what we say about Jesus - some may be won for Him. Most are scared to die and are amazed that we put our needs aside for them or for Jesus. They respond to this kind of loving. If we are not committed to the cost of loving, then we don't know Jesus very well at all, we are ineffective in witness and probably bringing shame on Jesus if others notice at all that we profess Jesus. Others will see that our faith is unimportant to us, so it will become unimportant in their eyes too. No inspiration! If our commitment to Jesus is strong, daily, doesn't submit to persecution and delivers love in all directions, we will stand as a testimony of new birth and resurrection. People will notice, ask questions, poke fun, be converted etc - they WILL REACT! They will be confronted with Truth, Righteousness (we are the righteousness of God), Love, and things which are missing from their lives. They will have to account for what they"see".

Sharing in His sufferings makes me feel so close to Jesus because I am standing with Him and He with me. We are agreed and united in this. Also it's great to be with THE STRENGTH! I feel less of the need to be supported by people when I am with Jesus - less co-dependent with the unrighteous - FREE! Those who persecute are ignorant of the Truth, and I feel sad for them. In fact I am learning to plead for them as did Jesus on the Cross, urgently and with desperation.

The danger is that one is taking more notice of (paying more attention to) the world than to Jesus Christ. This way we can lose our first love very fast, then we could go right back into the world and even lose our salvation.

People, Christian or non-Christian, don't like the idea of being criticised, or having their plans interfered with, or feeling guilty. All this can be neatly avoided if they are not answerable to anybody for their actions. Having to give account of our actions should inspire complete integrity, both in financial matters (mammon), and in relationships (God affairs). We are to be sure that we enter into God's rest (Heb 4) which we cannot do if we are worried about disclosure of some secret sin. We need complete integrity, honesty, love, self-sacrifice, wisdom, understanding, discipline, knowledge (of God and scripture), humility and all the other qualities that God approves, so that any criticism of us as Christians will come into the category of persecution, and many will be inspired by our lifestyle to check out Jesus for themselves.

i You make them feel guilty if you don't. ii We want friends - we are made for community, so we want to please people iii We need to: Know God better Love God more than people (so He is put first) Know the scriptures use the scriptures as Jesus did, against Satan. spend much time with Jesus Spend much time with Christians talk about the scriptures and how to obey them all know our purpose when with non-Christians - to actively love them and show them truth.

To answer the second question first, I believe that Jesus' attitude was one of great love for His Father, and such a complete investment in relationship with His Father that made sin unthinkable because of the potential breakdown of that relationship - even to the point of "If possible take this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done". Now for the first question: If our relationship with Jesus is like His with God, we will value it above all things, and absolultely hate the sin which would tear it apart.

Yes, I have certainly pledged my faith in Jesus and promised to serve Him as His disciple. I was infant baptised, and as an adult wanted to express my own faith through the waters of baptism, which I did. This public profession of faith has a great deal of meaning for me - declaring (confessing) Jesus before men here and having Him confess us before His Father in Heaven, Beginning the way we intend to continue as separated out for God, understanding the teaching of death to the carnal self and living only for Christ, the sweet answer of a good conscience or a grateful heart to the death and resurrection of Jesus rejoicing in obedience to the Almighty and Loving Father. establishing the importance of pleasing God over and above pleasing men Making clear to the church my intention to serve Christ, and to be fully joined to the body of Christ. I think one could go on with this for a long time!

Reconcilliation is the exciting one to me. I'm so glad my sins and unrighteousness have been removed far from me, though I hate the thought of Jesus' suffering, but that is past and accomplished now. Reconciliation is between God and me, but He also wants reconciliation in families, parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, friends and friends. Imagine Heaven with no reconciliation problems? Also, isn't it wonderful that God places us in church communities so that those who have lost out on any part of family life can have it all within the church? Whatever you feel is lacking, provide it for others (do unto others as you would have them do unto you). It will return to you x 100 !

i We are praying earnestly to be of one mind, ie for unity. We are teaching on it as well.There is a lot of compassion. Love as brothers is growing in our new congregation, and courteousness is there. ii Returning blessing for evil seems a difficult one - people struggle witht hat. Being tenderhearted is and advaanced assignment when someone is bothering you iii What a brilliant question is this third one! We have shining examples in our pastor and his wife, who are balanced, no nonsense people as well as tenderhearted and compassionate. I think hospitality is important as a way of drawing close to people and encouraging each other in these qualities - the more they see them in action, the more they can imitate them. Hospitality to the weaker or new members of the church family is most important (I don't mean those who persistently learn nothing)

The long and the short of this question for me is that I caught a vision of a resplendant and beautiful bride, walking the earth as Christ did, going about doing good, humbly accepting ignorance and persecution, but bringing good news, hope, healing, jubilation to all who will give ear.. This church has branches in every part of the nations, affecting the operation of everything from government to schools to daily life and love - not by control and manipulation, but by demonstration of Truth in the power of LOVE. Sounds a bit much, but our nation of Australia had Biblical foundations for its legal system and to that extent we are developing a vision to revive that Biblical foundation for our land, as well as reaching out to others. On an individual basis we will serve both mentors and weaker Christians with great love and joy in the power of Christ (Truth) and keep the vision that Jesus had (that we, the church, should do even greater works that He) alive and flourishing on the strength of first love quality. This study did a great deal for me, and I thank you Pastor Ralph, very much.

As a leaf on a tree loves the tree and the branch that nourish it, so we (leaf) should love the church (branch) which is in Jesus (trunk!) They nourish us (with sap) and we them (photosynthesis, cf praise and worship). Yes, we are part of the church of God and like a fallen leaf, outside of it (the church) we are soon dead! We will certainly want to see that all parts of the tree, leaf (individuals) branch (church we attend) and Jesus (the root and foundation) are happy, well nourished and supplied with every good and valuable thing (wisdom, Bible knowledge, spiritual gifts, hunger for God etc., and in the case of the trunk (Jesus) enthroned (nourished) with praise in spirit and in truth. That way we grow amazingly, delightfully, wonderfully. Despising the church is like poisoning the branches with negative language, anger, cynicism. We certainly need to repent and take responsibility for building/nourishing the church.

The church is resplendent/glorious when we are walking in the works God has prepared for us to walk in (love, miracles etc) and thus reflecting Christ. When we are in receipt of "all the spiritual blessings in the Heavenlies" (Eph 1:3), walking in love, unity etc. this is a life so far different from that in the world, and the love makes it resplendent, and reflect our glorious God. Paul is talking very much in the present, about husband and wife relationships with each other, being like the love between Christ and His Bride the church. A husband who abuses his wife cannot get the best out of her, and make her bloom. Many wives pine for a husband who loves, understands and cares for his family with wisdom and self-sacrifice, and would give everything for him, and also blossom and reflect their husband's care.

The holiness of the church is its separation from carnal lifestyles and it's Christ-centred lifestyle. This is enabled bythe sacrifice of Jesus who then left earth and sent His Holy Spirit to us to teach, comfort and lead us. However it can only operate on those keen to be sanctified and set aside for God's work and purpose, and to co-operate with God. Holiness is love in operation. We are to come from a perspective of love, and setting our own agenda aside for the benefit of those we serve. Being legalistic and judgemental centres on self-aggrandisement/pride which is to be avoided at all costs. We are to bless people (ONLY) and leave the rest to God.

Christ gave Himself up for the church means that: i Jesus never considered marriage ii Jesus made a point of understanding people. iii He persisted with us even though totally exasperated at times. iv He saw His work as a whole work to be completed, and did not put it in the too hard basket ever (ie He stuck with the vision and goals He had received). v He was entirely motivated by our needs and attended only to His absolute necessities. vi He explained the principles of things constantly to His disciples and was patient, knowing they could not get it all at once. vii Even while suffering crucifixion, His thoughts and cares were with us - "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing" vii His love overcame the fear of the cross and also the pain of the cross. viii And heaps more. If we kinow Jesus then we know His Father and ours. They are one in commitment to us. This sacrifice was self-serving in the sense that God was achieving His own goals of building His church family. However, the sacrifice was entirely for our benefit. So perhaps there were both elements in it. After all, God is love, and loves Himself, and loves us no less that He loves Himself!

The meaning of baptism is the same, whatever the form - death to sin and the old life, and resurrection to life in Christ Jesus - born again in the spirit. What we can agree on is greater and clearer and much more basic than that upon which we disagree. We should strive for both unity and biblical understanding. Nevertheless, no-one has got every thing when it comes to the mysteries of God - God designed it so. God's commandment is primarily to love Him and to love one another. This is above all issues of doctrine. Relationship and people are God's priority and should be ours. Balance them by doing the loving thing, by preferring one another (although not necessarity changing doctrine, but caring for their interests.

One body, one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. I think the most compelling element is hope - the living hope of 1 Peter 1:3. This seems to be what people are most in need of when coming to Jesus. Thhis is the most elementary element. A person lacking hope is a dismal person indeed, and almost always people come to Jesus hoping for someting better.

The Spirit brings unity, we are to maintain it. Peace is to the body as the composer is to the orchestra - each individual has to get it all together for the benefit of the whole body. This would be a primary goal for individuals and for the church body as a whole.