| Author |
Message |
Lisa_boyldavis
Registered user
Username: Lisa_boyldavis
Post Number: 147
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 11:34 am: |     |
I am starting a Bible Study that is for the purpose of Discipling a Christian. The particular study is put together by a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ called Discipleship International. The questionnaire that the study starts with is very challenging and gets to the core of what needs attended to in allowing God to mature us in Him. Such a different perspective from what I eat or how I prepare for the Sabbath, etcÖ One of the questions in the study asks the way in which God is the Lord of my time, my daily schedule, the goals in my life, in my day, etc... The study is called Connecting With God. It seems when you are a Christian your whole life you know all the questions and answers, but this study goes over the basics and helps you identify how the Spirit effects our actual day to day life. No guilt trips on money, food, etc... I will let you all know how the study goes. I challenge you all to ask yourself if you've ever been discipled before to grow in Grace. I have never been, and most Christians I know have not been either. Somthing Jesus asked us to do... "go and make disciples". We do the baptism part, not the disciple part. Something to think about.
Lisa
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Riverfonz
Registered user
Username: Riverfonz
Post Number: 1189
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 8:43 pm: | |
You are right Lisa. After we are born from above only by grace, then as our response to that free gift, we are to respond in obedience. We are to take up the cross and follow Christ, and to preach the gospel making disciples of all nations. There is a tendency to talk only about one aspect of salvation, but our response is to be totally obedient to the law of Christ.
Stan |
Dinolf
Registered user
Username: Dinolf
Post Number: 31
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 12:30 pm: | |
Stan: Reading Matt 29:20 that text fore shure talkes about the law of Christ. Certanly it does not point to the ten commandments, but to the life of Christ and how it can give us a challenge as Christfollowers. But I'm curious - how do you define to be total obeident to the law of Christ?
/Dinolf |
Flyinglady
Registered user
Username: Flyinglady
Post Number: 2223
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 2:44 pm: | |
Dinolf,
These are only some of the texts I read when I define God's commandsments.
2 John 5,6 And now I beg of you, lady, not by way of writing you a new command but instead the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And this love consists in our behaving in agreement with His commands; this is the command, that you walk in love, as you heard from the first.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love springs from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
v. 18 Love has no fear in it; instead perfect love expels fear, for fear involves punishment.
When I lived as an SDA, I was fearful because I could not make myself perfect and obey the 10 commandments at all times. "Perfect love expels fear" as it says in 1 John 4. Read all of 1 John 4. I hope this helps.
Diana |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 3259
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 9:37 pm: | |
Great texts, Diana.
Dinolf, we can't even be obedienct to the law of Christ without surrendering to the Holy Spirit's teaching. Romans 8:1-4 talks about living by the law of the Spirit of life instead of by the law of sin and death. We have to be willing to listen to and obey the Holy Spirit who seals us when we give our hearts to Jesus.
Colleen |
Dd
Registered user
Username: Dd
Post Number: 627
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 6:59 am: | |
Dinolf,
You asked, "How do you define to be total obedient to the law of Christ?"
For me...it's about surrender. Giving myself completely over to God. I think Galatians 3:19b, 20 states it best...
"I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (NLT)
It's those times that I try to resurrect myself (after dying or surrendering to Jesus) that I find myself in trouble...my old selfish nature gets in the way everytime!
Give me Jesus!
Denise
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Seekr777
Registered user
Username: Seekr777
Post Number: 377
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 2:34 pm: | |
Denise, thanks for your post, that text in Galations 3:19,20 is awesome. I agree with your comment completely
richard
rtruitt@mac.com
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Riverfonz
Registered user
Username: Riverfonz
Post Number: 1206
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 4:45 pm: | |
Dinolf,
The simplest statement of Paul on the law of Christ is in Galatians 6:2 "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
That is it in a nutshell. There is another sense in which the law of Christ includes the entire Bible, with the law of God contained in the Decalogue given to Israel, applied in a new and exciting way when Christ came. Paul claimed to get his revelation directly from Jesus. In all of Pauls's epistles, the message of grace is presented in such a magnificent way. Then, after he presents grace, then he presents how we should then live. We obey in context of the gospel--that by grace we have been saved! The miraculous change of heart from stone to flesh that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit leads us as new creations in Christ to walk after all he commands.
It is interesting to me that the subject of obedience in the Christian life does not generate near the excitement on discussion boards that other topics do. But discipleship and following Christ, and making disciples is what our calling as Christians is after we are born from above.
Stan |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 3264
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:45 pm: | |
Stan, interesting observation. I think the reason "obedience" does not generate much excitement among many fomrer Adventists is that we were taught "obedience" meant obeying the law.
When I realize that true obedience from the perspective of being already saved by grace means giving myself to Jesus on an ongoing basis so my body can be a living sacrifice for Him (Romans 12:1), the word takes on completely new significance and joy. When we are saved, obedience is something we do "From Victory" (as Clay Peck says) instead of as something we do to gain victory. We respond to the Holy Spirit who reveals and requires more from us than the law did.
The New Testament clearly reveals how true Christians are to live (and it shows us in living color how the OT commands are to look)óand we are to live with a sacrificial care for each other that is humanly impossible apart from our new identity in Christ and our new resurrection life which is ours when the Holy Spirit seals us for the day of redemption.
You're right, Stan--we don't hear much excitement about obedience, but in the context of already accomplished victory, it is a most amazing and surprising part of our being given new life!
Colleen |
Tealeaves
Registered user
Username: Tealeaves
Post Number: 269
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - 12:27 pm: | |
Colleen... you said it perfectly. Obedience to Christ, unlike obedience to law, IS exciting and freeing.
Letting Christ use my life, listening to Him, and being active in His work when and where He calls me to be IS exciting. I can't think of anything I would rather do than His work.
Christ blesses me with time, money, and relationships on this earth, and I freely give them back to Him, that He can use them any way He desires for furthering His Kingdom. Having come to the place where i have given all that back to Him, He has blessed me in ways I never imagined. I wish I could share with my SDA friends just how exhilarating and freeing it really is. They just can't conceive it, can't understand it.
-tanya-
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