james 3:1-2 teaching and the tongue

Dcmc asked me to be a Sunday school teacher...

To be a teacher in the church.

Is not something to be taken lightly.

Because those who do take up the responsibility have a higher standard to uphold.

Is it necessarily a bad thing? No. Life, without its struggles,  cease to be worth living. An easy life is not the way to the narrow door.

Thus, guard your tongue. Start there. The words that we speak out, audible.  Has to come from our minds and hearts first. Let a guardian angel stand at the doorway of our lips, so that wahtever passes through is edifying and glorifies Jesus.

Whatever is gossip and unholy, let it die In our thoughts, as we submit it to God in meditation and quietness.

galatians 5:19-21. evil and good behaviours

Galatians 5:19-21 NLT

[19] When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, [21] envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.19-21.NLT

Christians don't follow laws for the sake of it (read earlier verses of chapter 5)..

We just acknowledge that certain behaviours are just results of listening to the devil

As well as doing the hard stuff like loving and forgiving is of the Holy Spirit.

That's why we need His strength and help to do so. By human means, some things are just impossible 

Romans 14 condemning others

"what kind of Christian are you to act like that????"

When that thought comes to mind.

Sigh.

A Christian is still a human, they still get angry, they still get frustrated and vent out all the dissatisfaction of life...

They're just being authentic. And we have this condescending thought that they shouldn't be acting or saying or doing something like that.

God save me.

I am in much more need of reprimand than the other person in my mind.

I am wretched.

Self control, is not for others that we should judge them if they have it or not. The only person we are accountable for this is ourselves towards God.

two sides of the coin. jesus the source of love

To love a higher power (God),

Is how we find the ability to love others (wife, kids, family, friends, enemies).

Jesus is the source of love. 

Find the source, 

And the well spring of life will bubble up flowing forevermore.

Life is all. 

I this world of experiences. 

The dark and the down trodden parts. 

The fights the anger the pain the sorrow. 

There will be no joy or peace, 

If we never knew war or sickness. 

Thank God for the good times. 

Remember Him in the bad ones. 

Holy jealousy Romans 11:11&14

Jealousy...

Always thought that that word had a negative connotation. The only line in where it is used for holiness is:

Our God is a jealous god.

But here in Romans, we read that Paul and God are trying to incite the isrealites (and anyone that has fallen away) to become jealous of those that have accepted Christ and is in God's grace and mercy.

So it is okay to be jealous... For the right things. To hunger and thirst for righteousness.

That is the thing we should strive to be jealous about.. Not others fancy car, house or family... But others obedience and walking in step with the Holy Spirit. That is something worth desiring, a life intune with God, grafted into a holy vine. 

Romans 8:5-8

There's only two wills:

God's and the sinful nature.

Whatever is not of the Holy Spirit,

Is of this world and the flesh.

There is no such thing as the flesh doing anything to please God. Whatever is good, it has to come from God.

So everything else that is no of God,

Is sinful.

There is nothing holy,

It things outside of God.

There is no such thing as pleasing God,

By doing things of the flesh.

Choose the Holy Spirit,

Follow God's will.

Die to one's own self 

Romans 3:31

We don't forsake the law because our salvation is by faith in Jesus. But in fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.

There is no way to follow the law perfectly, by human standards and strength alone. The one and only way to fulfill it in all it's fullness is to believe in Christ first, then only are we able to do what is required by God.

That is what the law was originally for.

It was what God wanted for us.

Is what God wants.

That's why we have the law.

It's not for us to achieve a communion or to reach God's standards or access to Him or something arbitrary like that...

What's the reason we have the law?

It's because that is what God wants.

But by our human standards we will never ever achieve it.