Bible Discussion Replies PAGE 212

Hello again Mother Mac.

Yes, those two Scripture verses are well worth taking seriously. We all should hope to stand before God humbly asking for help in overcoming sin, character flaws, and be shown how we are out of sorts with the truth of God's Word. I pray to remain teachable, hungry for the things of God, and to grow as a listener. Be blessed tonight.

Cody, I am so sorry for this diagnosis for you. You are so young!

I will certainly be praying for you and your health as you treat this condition.

Thanks Chris for your thoughtful response.

My focus in this series of posts was to highlight the state of unregenerated mankind. I hope I have done well with this topic.

I will be speaking to the topics you mentioned in time. I am trying to let the Holy Spirit guide me as to the order of the topics presented. I do not have a hard and fast plan here, but will get to topics that seem to spring from and connect the previous topics.

I know S. Spencer and you have questions for me. I hope you both can be patient in this process I am going through. Please know that I mean well in all of this and do not wish to stir up any contention or acrimony among people here.

For me, this endeavor is helping me really get at the meat of these topics for myself. I may change my mind on some, for sure. I have not arrived in any way at a final fixed viewpoint yet and may not in this life. But diving into Scripture and learning as I go is worthwhile to me. I hope others may be helped in some way. This is not to elevate me in any way. I am on a journey and sharing that with people here. So, anyone can chime in and speak on their take on the topics I bring forward. I know I have much to learn and ways to grow in the Lord. This present journey is part of that for me at this time.

Talk to you soon.

Thanks GiGi for presenting this very important topic of 'Mankind's spiritual depravity'. You have certainly given the matter excellent treatment showing how detestable our sinful condition is before a most Holy God. And yet, He has not abandoned us, but given us a way of escape from this entrapment, in & through His blessed Son. He has done it all, for He knew we could not do any of it for ourselves - not one iota. However, I will withold comment on some of your other parts (you will know which ones) till you address the matter of Election (where this would be more fully dealt with I'm sure).

All I would ask, as I've read through your submission here, is if you would in due course define your understanding of 'Regeneration' (for I suspect that we are not on the same page with it); and the matter of God's Love for all, yet His determination (according to His Will & Purpose) to save some & not others. So, I won't bring it up in this part of your postings. Thanks again, reminding us of our once awful state before God & His renewal work in us to bring about a complete transformation in every area of our lives.

Dear Mother Mac,

Thank you for your response.

John chapter 16 verse 22 is an awesome verse , one of many I know , but it specifically feels like it's talking to me today . Thanks to God for His Word of life , peace and comfort in these crazy end days .

God loves sinners?

Agreed. Christ is soon to return to earth.

Why put water on the altar?

Because the drought, water was Very valuable.God wants you put your most valuable thing on the altar:your soul.

Reply to "DEPRAVITY" by Gigi

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject. It has certainly stirred up my "reasoning."

Two scriptures that came to mind as I was reading your post was Psalms 19:12 & 13, where we pray to the Lord to make us better.

Thank you!

"keeping of them there is great reward. 12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. 13Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. 1" KJV

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 10

Because I have believed in God, the gospel, and Jesus all my life, my life experience of living in God's favor clouded what I thought was the true Scriptural state of fallen man. I was granting far more to man in fallen state than is true because I have lived my life as a regenerated elect child of God under His grace, not as a vessel of wrath but one who God made a vessel of mercy early in my life as long as I can recall. In my immaturity and ignorance I held to a skewed view of humanity as being able to choose for or against God depending on one's will to cooperate with God or not. But my reasoning was not reflective of what Scripture truly taught. And when I seriously searched Scripture to find out what is true on this matter, I changed my belief to align with Scripture, not just what I had been taught or exposed to over time nor according to my lack of mature understanding of Scripture truth.

GOD'S RIGHT TO EXECUTE HIS WRATH AND JUSTICE AND TO GRANT HIS GRACE AND MERCY TO WHOM HE CHOOSES

God's perfect holiness and righteousness warrants His condemnation of sin and evil. He is just to condemn all humans and the sinful angels to eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. All sinful beings deserve this judgment. It is just for God to judge this way. Humans may find that the exercise of His wrath, justice and eternal punishment incompatible with His love for sinners. But in God's infinite greatness both His love for sinners and His hate wrath for sinners are both true of Him. He does not make mistakes or act unholy and unrighteous ever. So, as humans, it is important that we accept this truth and not defame God's name by accusing Him of being wrong for having humans experience his wrath, judgment, and punishment. He is just and righteous in ALL of His ways. .

I will stop for tonight and pick up posting the rest on this topic tomorrow.

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 9

Note: the Got Questions excerpt begins with this:

This statement, "all have sinned," is found in Romans 3:23 ("For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God") and in the last clause of Romans 5:12 ("because all sinned"). Basically, it means that we're all lawbreakers, because sin is the violation of God's law ( 1 John 3:4). Sinfulness is the general characteristic of all mankind; we are all guilty before God. We are sinners by nature and by our own acts of transgression.

and ends with this

"The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God" ( Psalm 14:2). And what does the all-seeing God find? "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (verse 3). In other words, all have sinned."

To continue with my thoughts:

Some of Arminian persuasion do agree that fallen man needs God's grace to turn to Jesus, but tend to avow that God gives just enough grace for one to be free to make a choice for or against Jesus and His salvation. But my studies, especially in Romans, Ephesians, and Galatians, convinced me that God gives grace in full measure to His elect, not to only be freed to make a choice for or against the gospel, rather He grants His grace that ensures that the elect will repent and believe unto salvation. I will discuss this more in the next section. But for now, I think that when I came understand and accept the truth about man's depravity and inability to come to God before regeneration I can become so gladdened and thankful for what God has done in my life as one of His elect. These truths to me have become glorious as I came to the conviction that God's will is so much better than my own and His saving nature is supreme over my sinful nature. Therefore, I came to trust God more and more and surrender more and more of my reliance, reasoning, logic, and trust in what I thought was man's strengths to God.

See Pt. 10

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 8

No one can make themselves vessels of mercy, as it is not by the will of man, but by the election of God that any are saved and made anew into a vessel of mercy through the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, who alone wills our redemption and turns us to God through grace and mercy alone ( Rom. 9:15-16; Jn. 1:13)

God did not look ahead into time to see who would freely choose Him when He predestined those who would be saved because no one would choose Him without His regenerative work. No, we bring nothing to God in His sovereign will to elect any person. Salvation is not dependent on anything we do, because in our depravity, we are impotent to do anything to merit God's favor.

Many believers struggle with coming to grips with these truths, especially if they tend towards Arminian beliefs. I struggled with these, especially Romans 9, when I thought that surely God elected those who He knew would choose Him and desire to be saved. But when I took to studying Romans 1-11 seriously I could no longer believe along Arminian lines of thinking.

These chapters in Romans make it quite clear that man is absolutely unable to choose God and salvation in their own depraved will, in their unregenerated state. And I had to break from the error that unregenerated man could in any way cooperate with God in regeneration. For Romans 9 clearly says that God has mercy on whom he has mercy and that it is not by any will of man that one is elected. I had to come to realize that God is free to save whom He wills to save and does not save any whom He does not will to save. This realization took a long time for me to come to accept. But now that I understand it so much better, the truth of man's inability to come to God on His own unless God has already elected them and regenerates them.

See Pt. 9

(oops-I forgot to insert where the Got Questions excerpt ended! So sorry! I will find that break point and post it.)

DEPRAVITY

PT. 7

They do not submit themselves to God or to His righteous standards for they lack a new holy nature that makes then able to prefer God over sin, to believe in Jesus over self-rule, and to see themselves as in need of salvation that is only in Jesus by grace. Unregenerate man invariably think that they can establish the terms of righteousness for themselves instead of honoring God in His perfect holiness and morality as the only one who can determine what is right and wrong. Every fallen man relies on what is right in His own eyes as his moral standard as opposed to what is right in God's eyes. ( Pr. 12:15; 14:12; 21:2-3; Jdg. 21:25; Dt. 12:8;Is. 53:6; Rom. 1:21-22) Fallen man calls evil good and good evil (Is 5:20).

Unregenerated humans think that they are basically "good" people with some faults, but not thoroughly corrupted by sinfulness. But humans are not basically good, we cannot do one good thing in this life. ( Rom. 7:18). Gen. 6:5 describes the state of unregenerate humanity as continually sinful, inventing new ways to sin against God, always inclined to sin and habitually pursuing evil. How wicked are we in our unregenerated state!

We are not just a little bit sinful, but wholly sinful, and God cannot "look on us" in our sinful state ( Hab. 1:13) in the sense that He must turn away from evil though He remains fully aware of all sin and evil as it occurs. Hab. 1:13 reflects God's hatred of sin and its total offensiveness to Him. In our sinfulness we are an abomination to Him and deserving of the eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.

See Pt. 8

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 6

We are hopeless without God's direct intervention of regeneration. Only as new creatures in Christ are me made able to respond to God's call and will to believe because the grace that regenerates us also implants faith in us to believe the gospel and desire fellowship with God.

Our depravity stays with us throughout our earthly life and, even as believers, it continues to affect us. As believers, we battle against our own sinfulness continuously and only have victory over sin due to the Person, work and power of the Holy Spirit in us. Though we have been born again and have a new nature in Christ that we did not have prior to regeneration, we still retain our sinful nature in this present earthly life.

Every human will sin because each of us are sinful. Our human nature is sinfully oriented to evil because of Adam's sin. Only a new holy nature is able to overcome the sinful nature day by day. Without this new nature, we could not desire to war against our sinful nature (the flesh, as Paul calls it).

Unregenerate humans choose to commit sin because they believe they will be happy if they choose it. They believe that the happiness of sin is better than being in Christ Jesus who is the best, richest, most profound, and most satisfying treasure and pleasure any human can have. But sinful humans do not want the treasure and pleasure of God in Christ. Sinful humans do not wish to spend eternity in heaven with God.

Sinful humans love their freedom to sin at will and enjoy being hostile to God. Sinful humans want to be autonomous, self-determined creatures and the only authority they need to have is themselves. Believing and accepting that God is sovereign and the determiner of one's eternal destiny is not what they will accept.

See Pt. 7

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 5

Before being regenerated we obey our sinful nature, which we are slaves to and we disobey God, who we do not wish please nor can we seek Him, desire Him, call on Him, or do any righteous act while aliened from God as His enemy and our stubborn resistance to believe Him, though we know He exists, as He has revealed Himself to humanity. Humans cannot please God for every aspect of themselves that contributes to their decisions, even to do good to others, is tainted by sin. Any actions we may consider to be righteous can never erase any of our own sin nor can we be reconciled to God by our own acts of righteousness. Romans 9:32 says that humans try to establish their own righteousness before God by obeying the law, but God does not accept any of it. This is because, as James 1:2 says, that if one obeys all of the law except one time disobeying one requirement of the law that person is guilty of breaking all of the law as far as God is concerned.

So, then, every one of us are guilty of all the law before God because we resist Him in our ways, words and work to circumvent His authority and sovereignty continually. We are at enmity to God and will not submit to His rule and reign in our lives and hearts, nor can unregenerate flesh do so. ( Romans 8:7)

Fallen humans are without God, without hope, without righteousness, without redemption, without the ability to contribute anything towards their salvation. Fallen humans are lost, worthless to God, alienated from Him, separated from Him, unable to come to Him unless God chooses a person to be saved by election, by God's sovereign choice. ( Romans 9:16)

Scripture makes clear in so many passages that unregenerated cannot, due to lack of ability, and will not, due to preferring sin to obedience, effect a remedy their fallen state before God. It is a sovereign free act of God that saves anyone. We cannot compel God to save us, neither can we choose Him in our unredeemed state.

See Pt. 6

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 4

I wish to use this excerpt because it explains this topic so well and identifies so many Scripture verses.

Excerpted From: Got Questions:

What Does It Mean that All Sinned?

Romans attests that in Adam, all sinned. Theologically, this has been called "original sin" over the centuries. Original sin does not mean that we are guilty of Adam's sin, but that we inherit a sinfulness that is transmitted from Adam to all humans. No human is exempt from being sinful and corrupted.

Humans are driven to sin, enslaved by this sinfulness to continue to sin and to rebel against God, as these Scriptures say:

John 8:34

Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.'

2 Peter 2:19

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

Titus 3:3

For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures-living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Romans 6:16, 17

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Romans 6:20

For when ye were the slaves of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Romans 3:10-12 quotes Psalm 14:2-3 and Ps. 53: 1-3 saying that no one does what is good, not even one, no one understands the things of God (spiritual matters) because the god of this world has blinded us so that we cannot see the glory of Jesus in the gospel.

Paul also says that all humans are hostile to God, at enmity towards Him, His enemy, dead in sin, and enslaved to sin, we do not seek Him nor can we please God nor submit to His law. Elsewhere we are told that it is man's pride that keeps Him from hating his sin and submitting to God.

( Romans 2:1; 5:10: 3:10-18, 8:6-8; Eph.2:13; Ecc. 7:20; Ps. 14:2; 36:1-2; Is. 53:2)

See Pt. 5

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 3

Another view is that the statement "all have sinned" refers only to personal sin arising from our sin nature. After clarifying in Romans 5:13-17 how personal sin is imputed and then spreads, Paul explains why "all die," even if they have not committed personal sin. The reason all receive this "death sentence" (5:18a) is that, through Adam's disobedience, all were "made sinful" (5:19a). The verb made means "constituted"; thus, the sin nature is an inherited condition that incurs a death sentence, even in those who are not yet guilty of personal sin (5:13-14). This inherited condition inevitably spawns personal sin when conscience matures and holds a person accountable as soon as he chooses to knowingly transgress the law (2:14-15; 3:20; 5:20a).

We are all sinners because Adam passed on his sinful condition that leads inevitably to our personal sin and death. All share Adam's death sentence as an inherited condition (the "sin nature") that is passed down to and through the human race and that every child brings into the world. Even before a child can be held accountable for personal sin, he or she is naturally prone to disobey, to tell lies, etc. Every child is born with a sin nature.

"The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God" ( Psalm 14:2). And what does the all-seeing God find? "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (verse 3). In other words, all have sinned."

See Pt. 4

DEPRAVITY

Pt. 2

As far as our relation to God and His holiness and righteousness, man is wholly depraved. He is comprehensibly and entirely affected by Adam's fall. This term speaks of lacking the perfection in holiness and righteousness that God is, not just by a little bit. Rather, Adam's sin produced in every human a corruption of the good, sinless, and God centered life Adam was created with in such a way that no human can return to this state Adam had in the beginning in their sinful state of deadness.

It also means that with Adam's sin, death (the penalty for sin) comes to all humans. Death is at work in a human being even from conception. David says that he was sinful from his mother's womb and conceived in sin.

Ps. 51:5

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me."

This does not mean that David committed sin while in the womb nor that it was sinful for his parents to have relations that led to his conception. David is testifying to his awareness of his corruption by sin in his entire being from the moment his life began and that the sinful nature was at work in him from his conception onward.

It means that in Adam, because of his first sin, all humans are conceived as sinful beings.

"Augustine explained Adam's transmission of his sin to us with a theory known as "federal headship." Augustine taught the concept of "inherited guilt," that we all sinned "in Adam": when Adam "voted" for sin, he acted as our representative. His sin was thus imputed or credited to the entire human race-we were all declared "guilty" for Adam's one sin.

See Pt. 3

Good evening.

We are getting snow here it the Pacific Northwest. It is lovely.

I am ready to post the next section in the series I am working through: The Condition of Fallen Man. May some be blessed by what I present and certainly check Scripture to against what is give here. I do not have all the answers for sure. Please respond if you feel led to do so.

MAN'S UNREGENERATED STATE BEFORE GOD

In this section I want to address what many call "man's depravity" (as it is commonly termed). I prefer the term "pervasive or comprehensive corruption". By this term, it does not mean that humans are as evil as they could ever be. This is obvious in the way interhuman interactions can be loving and helpful and caring. Rather, in relation to God, humans are corrupted in all of their being by sin. There is no part of a human that is unaffected by the sinful nature. Therefore, all of our thoughts, motives, words, emotions, impulses, choices and actions are tainted by sin.

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities."

Isaiah 64:6-7 Says that we are not basically good and that everything we do that we consider good is like filth to Him because our hearts are so wicked we are not even aware that our motives and purposes are sinful though we will to do good. Even our flesh, blood, bones and all of our organs and systems are corrupted by sin. Therefore, as soon as we begin to live we begin to die. We become ill and are diseased to some degree. No one has perfect health or soundness of body and mind in the way God first created Adam and Eve in their flesh, blood, bodies and mind.

See Pt.2

Hello Brother Spencer,

You are very welcome!

(Ephesians Part 10):

Ephesians 5:1 - Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

The word be is literally become. And the word followers is the word imitate. What is special about this word is that MIMETAI in the Greek has to do a mimic, a person who performs mime. In those days, the mime would express himself through facial expressions and through actions on a stage in order to produce the story.

Paul picked up on this phrase. He mentions it three times in his letters about imitating him. It doesn't mean follow him. It doesn't mean to copy him. It means to have the same expression in your life that Paul does, same story, same spirit, and same life. Therefore become mimes of God as dear children.

Ephesians 5:4 - Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

Just to share with you a summary statement of the technical expression in Verse 4, what he's saying is the evil that is lived out in the world, you should not make jokes out of it.

There are people who are dying in their sins. And sometimes we play the role of the drunkard, or the person on drugs, and we have a good laugh about it. But we're making mockery of someone that is losing their soul because they are involved in those kinds of practices.

So, all these things, the immorality, and all uncleanness and covetousness, not only should it not be named amongst us that we are doing it, but we should also not make jokes about it, about sexual immorality, uncleanness, or covetousness!

(Ephesians Part 9):

Ephesians 4:14 - That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

That we henceforth, or from now on, be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried around by every wind of doctrine, and that's happening today. Young believers are being tossed around by every wind of doctrine. And by the sleight of men. The word sleight, KUBEIA, and you can kind of hear it in the word (cube), and it's the word for dice. By the gambling of men, and cunning craftiness, which is one Greek word that means to work every angle.

Whereby they lie in wait to deceive; Now that's a nice verse, but that's not exactly what the original says. It says whereby they methodize the error. They make a system the error. They take the error and systematize it and say that the end justifies the means, and anything goes, just as long as we get the job taken care of. And they gamble with people's souls.

Ephesians 4:31 - Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, which means yelling, and evil speaking, which is the word BLASPHEMIA, slander, let all of this be put away from you, with all malice: Malice means human hurt.

Ephesians 4:32 - And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Literally become kind one to another. The word kind is the word useful, which is described for us as tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

(Ephesians Part 8):

Ephesians 4:3 - Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The word endeavoring means top priority. Tolerate one another in love and make it your top priority to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:12 - For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

These apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor teachers are for the perfecting of the saints. The word perfecting, KATARTISMOS, means to mend. It's a medical term that has to do with the mending of broken bones. It's also mentioned about the disciples, that when Jesus called them, some of them were mending their fishing nets.

The word mend is the verb form of KATARTISMOS. There are different views as to what perfecting of the saints is. Some translations translate it equipping of the saints and they say that you take people into a classroom, and you equip them and teach them how to be salesman for Christ. That's not what it means. It means the first thing a new believer needs to do to be on track is for their life to be mended.

Second phase: for the work of ministry. The word ministry is DIAKONOS which means service. Before people can be involved in the work of the Lord, they must be far along in the mending process. Churches take young believers, and they put them to work, while in private, their life is falling apart, their family is falling apart, their marriage is falling apart, and they're trying to find an answer by staying busy at church. That doesn't change anyone!

So, number one, for the mending of the saints. Number two, for the work of ministry. And thirdly: for the edifying, or development of the body of Christ. The word edification is a construction term that means to build a house. So, after a person is mended, and after they've been serving the Lord while they continue to be mended, they are then capable of participating in the growth process of the body of Christ.

(Ephesians Part 7):

Ephesians 4:1 - I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

He says, that you walk worthy of the vocation, or calling, wherewith you are called. None of us are worthy from a human standpoint. But the Greek word for worthy means balanced, or equal. You go down to the marketplace and put an item on one of the balances, and you would put money on the other side until it equals out. And that's how much the item is worth, and that's how much you pay for it in the marketplace. He's saying live worthy of your calling.

Ephesians 4:2 - With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

With all lowliness, which means a humble frame of mind, or a lowly frame of mind. With all humble mindedness, and meekness, which means openness. With longsuffering, or slow in human reaction towards others. Longsuffering is exampled by two participles. Number one, forbearing, or supporting one another in love; It can even mean to tolerate which would fit in better with longsuffering.

(Ephesians Part 6):

Ephesians 3:19 - And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

We're complete in Christ. We're not lacking anything. We have all of Christ. Now the word filled, without getting too technical, because even in the book of Acts, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit leaks out and you got to get filled up again.

PIMPLEMI is the Greek word for "to be filled," and it has to do with having your human senses taken over by something. In other words, Christ is in me but sometimes people see me as just myself. Other times, the Holy Spirit fills my human faculties, and He uses me to speak or to understand, or something. He takes over my human faculties. That's what it means to be filled. I always have Him in His fullness. But Paul is praying that His fullness would become full over me and in me in all of my living of life, that I might be filled with all of His fullness that's already there.

Ephesians 3:20 - Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

He says, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. You can't piece together words like that in any literature better than that. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think!

All that I'm complaining about, all that I'm asking the Lord about, He's doing much more. And He knows so much more. And it's according to the power that is working in us. The word working is the word energy. According to the DUNAMIS, the power that is energizing in us.

Hi GiGi. Firstly, warm(!) Christian greetings & belated wishes on the occasion of your recent birthday. Trust it was a good one, even to have a little welcome snow around you to help brighten your special day. Where I am in Aust, we get no snow at all, but we certainly enjoyed the snow very much when visiting friends in Colorado several years ago.

Actually, until this discussion on the Lord's Body & Blood and its relation to the Bread & Wine, I always believed that if you belonged to the RC Church then transubstantiation was understood & accepted without question; and if not part of that Church, then those elements were simply emblematic. So, it has been great reading & of interest to me, to read that even amongst the non RC, there can be views that are somewhere in-between (as also evidenced by some of the early Church fathers). So I will bear these things in mind & see what further help I can gain, if any, from the Lord's Spirit. Thanks for your input - with blessings & sincere wishes once again.

Dear Sister,

I will be praying or your requests. Thanks for sharing them with us. May you and yours be so blessed with the work of God in your lives.

Thanks Brother Jesse, great study!

On to Ephesians!

Thank you , John chapter 13 took me back to Leviticus 8 especially because of verse 9 where Peter says : not my feet only , but my hands and my head . Leviticus chapter 8 verse 23 : And he slew it ( the ram of consecration ) ; and Moses took the blood of it , and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear , and upon the thumb of his right hand , and upon the great toe of his right foot .

Matthew chapter 10 verse 14 .

With regard to humility , it's not something that comes naturally to most of us , we have to actively work on putting others before ourselves and not looking to impress the world or the people of it , but rather be conscious of the absolute fact that God sees us . All day every day , and he expects certain behaviours and attitudes from us , 1st Timothy chapter 6 , the whole thing , is very good at reminding me what I am , what I am not and what is expected of me . I don't always do the right thing but I ask God to always let me know when I haven't . You can't repent of your sin if you are not conscious of it . We must never forget that we are sinners by nature and without Christ in our lives , we would remain estranged from God because of our sinfulness . How much must God love us and want us close to Him in that He has devised such a pure and perfect means to reconcile us to Himself . Love is all , His love for Jesus ,His love for us , Jesus's love for God and Jesus's love for us . Jesus's obedience to God's Will . All we have to do is believe and trust and rejoice in God's love and mercy .