Ministry Ethics Course - Part Four

(To complete this course, you will need to read the previous posts. It is required that you comment after each posting, answering posed questions,to receive a certificate of completion from HCI.)

Submission is NOT an Old Testament concept. In today's world, individualism has been expanded to include total independance and the freedom to "do your own thing," but this is not a biblical definition. We are born individuals, each having personal gifts, abilities, feelings, thoughts,and bodies. We are individually significant to God, our families, and the world. Yet we are forever connected in relationship, evolving from the same Father and sharing His same love.

Though times, styles, and worldly ways have changed, God ways remain the same. The New Testament is filled with examples of Biblical submission that are applicable today:

Read: Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 1:26-33

Mary submitted to God's Word; His authority even when she didn't fully understand it. Can we do the same?

Read: Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus submitted to water baptism, a seemingly insignificant religious rite, in simple obedience to his Father. Are we willing to do the same?

Read: Luke 4

Satan submitted to Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus always had the last Word in every conversation. Every sickness and disease submitted to His Word. Demons fled at His Word. Unlike Adam in Genesis 3, Jesus used His God-given authority and spoke the Word. What are WE doing with the authority we have been given?

Read: John 5 & Matthew 8:5-13

Jesus submitted to His Father in everything He did and spoke. How submitted are we?

Read: Isaiah 50:4-7, Isaiah 53:7, & Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus submitted Himself unto death. No cost was to great in His determination to do the will of His Father; in His love for the lost. What cost are we willing to pay?

Jesus was able to exercise God's authority because He had placed Himself under His authority. When we are trying to exercise spiritual authority and seem to be failing, we need to evalute if WE are living in submission to our Authority,Jesus Christ.

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