The Gathering of Wisdom: Reflection
Passionate about sharing the love of our gracious God, Pauline Walley Ministries is a nondenominational ministry with deep roots in the community. Since our first gathering in March of 2008, we've aimed to set a spiritual tone and be examples of how to live a Christian life. And having grown our congregation along with our spiritual strength, it's not hard to see the work we do is guided by God and the principles He set forth.Here, we intend to share with you some gems from our Bible study and the wisdom of various people in our study group on Diverese Biblical topics.
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TOPIC:Understanding Salvation
Tuesday 26th May,2020
Vivian Nematovu
May 26, 2020
I have gathered so much wisdom during PWEM Bible Study. It includes dedication to Jesus Christ, the need to examine ourselves, and ask for the Holy Spirit’s confirmation before we do something. The act of salvation that we need to take seriously is: confession of sin, repentance of sin and forgiveness of sin.
I have also learned how salvation can be compared to marriage relationship: The stage of dating, courtship and engagement.
Confession of sin: Cleaning up and identifying who you are and what you have done.
For example - my name is Pauline. Where are you from: New York.
Confession is like when you are traveling by air and you go to the airport, the travel agent will ask you some questions. They will ask for your name, what is in your bag, and where you are going?
There are areas of relationship we tend to hide. So we avoid answering questions and get offended when questions are asked. There are questions that are supposed to be answered.
It is a confession. It helps to identify who you are and what you are doing! It is the ability to identify who you are and what you used to be.
For instance, there was a woman who used to wear tight pants to show off her body in order to attract men. Since she surrendered her life to Jesus Christ, she no longer wants to wear pants again. That is confession. The things I used to do I will not do them no more.
The enemy wants to interfere with you. He is jealous of you.
Confession is a place where you identify what is going on in your life. So you confess your sins.
The first part of confession is to identify Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Lord means the controller of your life. The leader of your life. The guide of your life.
It is to say that, today I’m letting go of my sinful ways.
Lordship is like when you want Jesus to tell you whether to eat bread or rice for breakfast in the morning. That is how Jesus is Lord and Savior of ours.
Jesus has saved us from our old ways.
He is supposed to lead, instruct and direct our lives.
He is the author of our lives. He is the leader and teacher.
We no longer have control over our lives.
We have to start our morning by worshiping, giving Him thanks and reading our Holy Bible.
Then we give Him the legal Authority of our day.
Jesus is our Lord. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
He speaks unto us that we are the light of the world.
He delivers us from all evils.
Dr. Pauline told us that when she was younger, she used to hear the voice of the Lord through the scriptures. Whenever she was about to do something wrong, the scripture that she had read will correct her. Also, when she wanted to make a decision, the word of God would speak to her and direct her. She still experience that up to date.
Tich White
May 26, 2020
Brianna Wolf
May 26, 2020
This week on Dr. Pauline’s weekly bible study we focused on confession and what it really means to confess. I learned that without proper understanding of certain things it’s impossible to correctly apply them. So here’s somethings that I took away from this week’s bible study.
Salvation is a process of
1. Confession
2. Repentance
3. Salvation
The first level of Confession is that you must first recognize that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.
Lord: means he is the authority over your life, teacher, instructor
Confession (in prayer) is simply your transparency to God. It is your ability to tell the truth about your lifestyle, what you’ve done, and who you really are.
There are foreign entities that want to control your mind and push you away from the things of God and make you feel as if what you want to repent about is nothing big, so you won’t do it.
Foreign entities want to cause you to resist confession by engaging you in simple thoughts while your mind is idle. They begin to bring doubt and lies and untruth. Foreign entities want no good for you, they are jealous of you. Those entities are not a part of your saved soul.
Every morning you must read your bible to give God legal ground over your life for that day. It is your daily feeding from the Lord. Remember Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. He is the bread of life.
I learned that dating in Christ is getting to know Him and is one of the beginning stages of having an intimate relationship with Him. Salvation will cause a change of attitude. For example, the way you dress, the way you say things, the way you think and etc. Salvation will change your motives!
When you’re in the dating stages, you’ll begin to make time for God, and not for your selfish desires. Don’t be so spiritual that you miss out on your blessing but be sensitive to the Holy Spirit! Salvation is developing a relationship with the Lord Jesus, desiring to hear the voice of the Lord through the word of God.
In addition, when you have a relationship with the Lord there is courtship. You can’t serve two Gods!! You can’t proclaim the word of God and then go out in the world and fight or make conflict with someone. You cannot sit with God and dine with the devil!!!! When you begin to walk with Jesus Christ, you’ll go from one stage to another. Salvation is a process!!!
Grace Tackie
May 26, 2020
Salvation is likened to a relationship with a significant person.
You have the dating stage where you are writing to know the person and in salvation, we are getting to know Christ. We start going to church, praying, accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, and we start going to Bible study etc.
In the courtship stage, we go more into the things of God. Our character changes, our desires evolve to want more of God. We start to invest in the Word and prayer, and even serve in church. We are committed to Christ and work toward making heaven where we will be married to Jesus Christ.
Also, we learned that when we receive salvation there must be evidence in our lives and that is demonstrated by 1. Our lifestyles and 2. Our commitment to the things of God.
Our lifestyles - the way we dress, talk, treat people, handle adversities are few areas of our lives that must reflect Jesus. We can no longer be showing our bodies off in a manner that is seductive, no more cursing and fighting people. No more allowing the enemy to speak depression into our minds and walking in hopelessness.
When we receive TRUE salvation, our fruit should look and be different from pre-Christ days.
Our commitment to serving God must become priority. We now choose to make God priority and stop giving excuses as to why we can't serve in church and fulfill our responsibility.
We become non-negotiable about our dedication to the Lord.
We begin to shut down and stop entertaining secret sins, because they act as open doors to the enemy to interfere in our lives and cause distress.
Naa-Afi Tackie
May 26, 2020
During our Tuesday Bible Study, we have been discussing the topic salvation. Salvation is a process, not a one-time thing. This is why Paul said in the book of Philippians 2:12, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” This means that we have to always work on ourselves and develop ways on how we can better ourselves with the fear of God, which exemplify salvation is a process. Salvation is not complete until you have developed your relationship with God, and our relationship is constantly changing for the better.
It is important that we do not backslide in our walk with God. Dr. Pauline compared salvation to The Ten Virgins. Of the 10 virgins, 5 of them were wise, while on the other hand, 5 of them were foolish. The 5 foolish virgins did not take enough oil for their lamps. Later on, they realized they did not have enough oil for their lamps. They went to buy oil for their lamps after they realized their oil was running out. Upon returning, they began banging on the door for the marriage feast because the door was closed. However, they missed their time. We should not be foolish in our salvation and walk with Christ, because Jesus is coming back to collect his brides.
We also need the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins. Without conviction of our sins, our salvation is incomplete. Conviction is the place where you are rebuked and chastised. When we are chastised by the Holy Spirit through our leaders, we should not rebel against our leaders and leave, even though offense may come. The chastisement is only to make us better and stronger Christians. The example Dr. Pauline gave was “The Teeth and the Tongue.” If you accidently bite your tongue with your teeth, you do not break your teeth. This shows that offense will happen, but it is up to you to accept the offense or reject it.
We have to put God first and put the things of the world behind us. A term which Dr. Pauline uses is “Divine Arrest.” This is when the Holy Spirit is in control over your life. Through this, our attitude begins to change, our language begins to change, and we are able to bring others to Christ.
Min. Felicia Asongwe
May 26, 2020
The first week the scripture came from John 15:1-6.
We discussed about the Love of God for Mankind which is his affections, that Love is the predominant theme of the book of John.
⁃ The Vine and the Branch.
⁃ The branch is connected to the Vine. Every branch that doesn’t bear fruit is taken away. For instance, the branch that is not supportive and not in agreement with God’s plan.
⁃ The branch that bears fruit is purged.
⁃ The purging here means correction. The Lord corrects and chastises those he loves so that they would become useful in His kingdom.
⁃ The abiding fruit: It is to be permanently connected to our God. The fruit as described is that juicy part that comes out from the Vine.
⁃ Psalm 92:12-15 where the Psalmist said those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish and produce fruit even in their old age.
◦ The Palm tree in Psalm 92 as we are told can be used in so many ways, which was also linked to Galatians 5:22-23 talking about the fruit of the spirit that we must cultivate.
Salvation:
-Scripture is from 1 Corinthians 6:9-20.
Salvation is a call to repentance from sin and to accept Jesus Christ as Lord through His redemptive work on the cross of Calvary.
⁃ It is doing away with our worldly characters and behavior in order to embrace the character of Jesus Christ.
⁃ It is a call to a marriage with Jesus Christ which starts with dating, courtship and marriage.
⁃ Staying in courtship with Jesus and getting to know him through our engagement in the services in church and ministry.
⁃ Desire for closeness and wanting to be like Him and knowing him.
– To prepare our hearts to meet Jesus.
⁃ Salvation again is a place of Conviction where the Holy Spirit will nudge you of sin.
⁃ Acts 2:38.
⁃ It is a changed of life style. A strong desire to be with God. Putting God before anything else.
Examples were giving like, if you have a man or a woman you love. You will want to be with that person, talk with him or her all the time.
⁃ So when we come to Jesus, there must be a change in our character and language, also in our dressings.
⁃ Scripture was given - Psalms 1:1-2.
⁃ In this passage we learnt about who is the ungodly, the sinners and the scornful.
⁃ The ungodly are those who know the truth but do otherwise.
⁃ The sinners are those who deliberately turn away from the truth.
⁃ The scorners are these are despisers - those who mock the truth.
Salvation is likened to the process of Marriage. Matthew 25:1-10 (The five foolish virgins and the five wise Virgins.)
Salvation is like a marital relationship:
-It starts with dating: In dating there is not yet a place of commitment. It is a place of studying one another, developing interest and wanting to know more.
-When dating matures, it becomes courtship. In this process You become interested in the activities in church like - baptism, choir, intercessory prayer, ushering etc. Your desire for Jesus Christ increases. You also engage in reading, meditating and eating the word of God. Now your life style and language is changing.
How do you respond to the Message of Salvation?
Salvation is in stages like when a child is born. The child becomes a toddler, a teenager and then an adult.
- Salvation is a process of developing a deeper relationship with Christ, and desiring to be like Jesus Christ.
You have conversations with God in reading the word and praying.
Your interest develops and grows deeper when questions are asked during Bible Studies to seek meaning to life.
Salvation is a divine arrest when you or a person is taken out from the camp of the devil into the light of Christ.
Sharla Duncan
May 26, 2020
Topic: Salvation
Often times Baptism is thought of as salvation. However, this is not so. It is an outward representation to show that one has taken the step to become a born again Christian, and to serve God; While Salvation is accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is also a personal walk with God.
How can one achieve Salvation in Christianity?
Salvation can be achieved through hearing the gospel and receiving Jesus Christ into one’s life. When someone has Salvation they must be able to take correction without an offence. As the walk of Salvation is a process.
Comparison of Salvation and Dating
When you meet someone that you are interested in, you date the individual.
Why? This is done to get closer to the person, to know and understand them. It is also during the dating process that ''you" check the person level of maturity. What are they comprised of? In the process of dating, you are not yet committed.
Now you have gone through the dating process and if the end results are good, you move to courtship.
At this moment there's a sense of security and comfort from that individual.
Similarly, when we obtain Salvation we begin to date Jesus. We go through the dating process with Christ
Just as with an individual, when we get to the courtship phase with Christ … hahaaaaa!!! We are excited about him by attending church regularly, eager to meet friends and to study the word. You start getting involved. There's a divine arrest where you are taken out of the physical into the spiritual. In other words we have to grow in Christ. If you are not convicted of sin something is wrong with your Salvation. Check yourself.
The five (5) foolish virgins and the (5) wise virgins was used as an example.
How do you manage your salvation?
With reference from the Gospel of Matthew 25: 1-13:
The wise virgins prepared themselves to meet the bridegroom by ensuring they had oil in their lamps to receive him (Prepared); While the foolish virgins went to meet the bridegrooms but had no oil in their lamps to see him (Unprepared).
This parable was used to explain that in order to enter the kingdom of God we must be like the five wise virgins and be prepared. Hold on to salvation for we don't know the day or hour when Jesus is coming.
What is the Evidence of our Salvation?
Lifestyle: Separate yourself, come out from amongst.
Example of Lot's wife was used. She kept looking back. We should not have the properties of the devil in our possession.
Emphasis on Song: “Goodbye World I'm No longer with you...my mind.”
Revelation 6 was used to explain the worldly lifestyle. Neither cold nor hot lifestyle is not acceptable. We need to have consistency.
We should check ourselves. What secret lifestyle are we living? (Need to be careful).
Salvation is our passport to heaven:
Relationship - We need to be committed to serve God, this is mandatory (dedication).
If we are not careful, unwanted spiritual windows will be opened to interfere with some areas or aspects of our lives. These spiritual windows are troubled gateways.
Instances of the gateways that the enemy uses are - academicals, emotional, financial, and marital issues.
Why? These are the foundation of our lives. If our foundation is not strong, our lives will is shaky. Therefore, we must have self-control.
For instance, the sound of phone calls should not control our mind and emotion. Do you ask God to reveal if you should answer a specific call or not, or do we assume that we must answer every call?
(Examine your emotion when the phone rings).
How we handle phone call is something that affects our relationship with God:
Distraction – untimely responds to phone calls, certain television programs can become an issue of idolatry.
Unfaithfulness and lack of commitment
We must all repent!
Passion – What is our desire for Christ - Whose bride are you?
Gospel of Matthew 3:1-8 - John said, “repents and are baptized”
For instance is the case of Job - how he was dedicated and faithful.
Don't be scared to do the right thing. God will send people to help you, he will not let you suffer and die. Don't Despise God's Covenant!
Rev. Althia Rowe
May 26, 2020
What is Salvation?
I learned that salvation is being born again. It is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior after having been convicted of our sinful life. It is to be redeemed from our sins.
Redemption is deliverance from sin, through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Salvation is not baptism.
Salvation is to be convicted of our sins when we hear the word of God, and then accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It takes place after hearing the word of God, and having the desire to want Jesus to come into your life. The conviction then makes us to surrender to Jesus.
Baptism is the public show of our confession of Christ. It is to show that Jesus is our new Lord and we are ready to walk with him.
Salvation is very important to our Christian life. Salvation makes you want to get close to Jesus and the things of God. Whenever you come in contact with sin there is conviction. The conviction of the Holy Spirit sometimes brings a funny feeling on you and makes you uncomfortable. If you heed to the conviction and correction you will have peace, if you resist it, it will bring confusion.
Salvation creates a hunger and thirst for Christ in us. This hunger makes us grab the Bible and read. It is not the type of hunger that wants you to eat physical food.
Sis. Grace also added that hunger for Christ makes you grab the Bible and jump in. As we read we would realize our hunger was not for rice or vegetables, but for the word of God. Also, as we read we develop a deeper hunger for the word and the presence of God. Whereas if we eat physical food, we will be full, yet we will be uncomfortable until we eat the word of God that gives peace and make us feel light.
Dr. Pauline asked, “How do we serve sin?” Using Galatians 5: 16-21
Idolatry: is idolizing earthly things. Maybe you are worshipping a mundane god because your passion for Christ has shifted. Where our greater passion is, that’s what we worship, because it has now taken the place of God. We may not see it as that and we may get angry when our attention is brought to it.
Covetousness walks with envy and jealousy.
Here sis Sharla brought out the comparison of idolatry with the Coved Virus. She said Corona virus is the respiratory infection, but Covid-19 is a strain of the respiratory viruses. Dr. Gwen and Evang Sarah confirmed it.
We must remember that people who are able to influence us through envy, jealousy, and strife will try to weaken our faith, and draw us out of the body of Christ.
Sis. Roslyn expounded on what Dr. Pauline said of Idolatry. She noted that it is not just worshipping an image, but if we are fixated on a thing that takes up the majority of our time, that is idolatry. If 90% goes to that thing or person and 10% to God that’s idolatry. If we are so passionate about what are focusing on, so that we become distracted from God, we may backslide. Unless we are doing tithing then 10% is for God.
Sis. Grace also made an input that when something occupies our mind; it takes our attention from God. It steals our relationship from God. Our commitment start to dwindle and our faith become weak.
Sis. Briana asked a question, “How do we fix our thought.”
Dr. Pauline said there is a standard for correction, which should bring conviction through the word of God to the situation. So we should not be afraid of being corrected. One should have the desire to speak to a leader in the church. Find someone you trust to speak to before it becomes too overwhelming. Also get in the word and use the word to counteract the thoughts that are negative.
Rev Peace said we need to be where we can be corrected. She made reference a testimony that Dr. Pauline shared about a girl whose father bought her a car for church. When she started college she got distracted from church and starts going out with friends who were not committed Christians. Although she was born again alright, but friends distracted her from Christ.
Dr. Pauline said there is a place of tiredness and fatigue. To refresh yourself you would go to the church, a movie or a musical. If the influence around you is ungodly it will take you out of the presence of God.
How do we correct Christians?
Dr. Pauline said we do not condemn those who have fallen, but pray for them and encourage them to come to Bible Study. We correct and keep teaching.
She continues to say that salvation is a change of lifestyle. Things we use to do we do them no more. We develop our relationship with Christ. Dr. Pauline compares our Salvation walk with a marital relationship. She said, “When we are married to Christ we surrender to Him. We have a strong desire to be like him. We become involve in things in the church. We must surrender our life to Jesus. And develop our relationship with Him. She made reference to 1Corinthians 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:16-21, that instructed us that we must put off the old man which is our old life style. Rev. Peace added that we must also change our language
Dr. Pauline compared our Salvation walk with a marital relationship. We can all relate to the development of a relationship. Be it a friend or a love relationship.
1. The getting to know you phase: It was awkward at first but then you are attracted to your new experience. You have heard the word, and you were convicted. You have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. And you want to get to know the man Jesus.
2. Dating: is really getting to know your lover. Reading the word is really wanting to spend time in the word. Going to church enables you to know people in the church as well as the pastors and ministers.
3. Courtship: is the time when you have made a decision to get involve in Bible Study, and Sunday school. You have started getting involved in some activities like cleaning the church, doing little things that make you feel a part of the new community or family you have come to join.
4. Marriage: You then become baptized and began telling others about Christ. You also introducing your family to the church
Dr. Pauline also said we must be alert to our season in our salvation walk. Even though we are getting to know Christ there is no guarantee that we will stay. That’s why Paul says work out our salvation with fear and trembling. So we must be alert and aware of yourself and our environment as we are taking the journey of salvation.
Dr Pauline compares our walk with Christ with the wise and foolish virgins. We must be prepared for Christ. Our odor must be appealing, so that others will be attracted to us and our Savior Jesus Christ. That the lamp we are carrying is well oiled and lit. As we get deeper in Christ our desire gets deeper in the word and prayer. We grow by becoming involved in things of the church. To be divinely arrested in our character, attitude and behavior. We must be prepared to be the bride of Christ. If we are not being convicted of our sins then we are not walking in salvation.
Viviane added, “Let our perfumed be sweet and endeavor be attracted to things of Christ.”
Question: Sis Briana; What if you go back to the sins of your past, does that mean you were not saved?”
Dr. Pauline explained that:
It means we do not understand the new walk.
That means we are double dating with our past and new life. It is a situation of going back and forth with Christ.
It means you have not made a true commitment to Christ.
It means your relationship with Christ is not developing.
The enemy can use our past love to lure us back into the past, so we need direction by getting into the word of God. This is very important.
