Kind: Notes

short content: a post or status update with just plain content and typically without a title

Posted on
by

Resources:

Notes:

  • In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells wives to be subject to their own husbands, even if they don’t believe in God. Peter says wives who hae accepted Christ as their savior can influence their husbands to do the same.
    • Peter tells Christian wives to cultivate their beauty from the inside out by developing a gentle and quiet spirit.
  • Peter then tells Christian husbands that they must give honor and respect to their wives.
    • Peter reminds husbands of their wives’ equal standing with God – wives are co-heirs of God’s grace.
    • Peter warns husbands that their prayers will be negatively impacted if they do not honor their wives.
  • Peter then tell all believers to be unified in our faith. We must refuse our instincts of seeking revenge when insulted or treated poorly. We should give blessings to those who hurt or insult us.
    • God’s people have always been called to live set-apart lives, influencing their culture even through suffering. It may be God’s will for us to suffer because we are doing good.
    • Those see us behave in this manner will be confused by how we can be hopeful in the face of bad circumstances. We must be ready to explain to them why – specifically about how we came to be redeemed by God through faith in Christ.
    • If we continue to do good to those who insult or mistreat us they will be ashamed of their behavior.  We need to follow Christ’s behavior here – he prayed for God to have mercy on those who tortured and crucified him.

Notes on the video:

  • When Peter tells wives to be subject to their own husbands he doesn’t mean husbands can dominate their wives. Wives should respect their husbands and husbands must give honor and respect to their wives.
  • 1 Peter 3:7 : Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
    • God will not listen to us if we don’t love, honor, and respect our wives.
  • Husbands and wives can submit to one another when we have a living hope.
  • People see Christ in you and the way you behave.  You have the opportunity to lead others to Christ if you try to behave like Christ.
  • He didn’t have time to cover the rest of the chapter (verses 8-22).

Group chat:

  • We all struggle with taking offense to things when people think differently than we do.
    • A comedian was joking about not saying “Merry Christmas” to avoid offending people – saying instead “Thank you Lord for the birth of my savior”.
    • Christians shouldn’t get caught up in debates over wishing someone Merry Christmas. We need to follow a different example and not get sucked into the world being offended over Christmas.
  • Christ is the reason for the season. But was Jesus really born on 12/25? Is it even important when He was born?
    • It’s not worth being offended by someone else being offended.
  • One member of the group talked about his office encouraging everyone to celebrate Diwali (Indian holiday) in October but being discouraged from openly celebrating Christmas in December.

Posted on
by

Resources

James Chapter 4

  • James Chapter 4 discusses why we should live by the wisdom of God rather than the ways of the world.

Discussion:

  • God doesn’t want our sacrifice, He wants our heart.
  • Focusing on the sin is missing the mark.
    • The tragedy of habitual sin is not the issue – it’s the mindset that enables us to commit this sin.
    • This is what is meant by “our behaviors follow our desires”. If we make our desire to be aligned with God’s will then we will be less likely to commit sin (avoiding the mindset that enables us to commit sin).
  • This is the key behind Matthew 7
    • Matthew 7 is about Christ saying “I didn’t know you” to people who were performing good works in Christ’s name.
    • We need to focus on building a relationship with Christ, not just avoiding sin.
    • We avoid sin because it would damage our relationship with Christ.
    • Example: how do you show your wife that you love her?
      • Not spending any time with her yet telling her you didn’t cheat on her. Is this really showing her how much you love her?
      • This is the same as building a relationship with Jesus.

Notes from Vince Miller’s video on James 4:

  • Why don’t men change?
    • if pain or incentives are high enough men WILL change
  • There are plenty of Christian men who want a change – this chapter shows how we can change through 2 essential actions:
    1. Pursue new desires (our desires determine our direction)
    2. Bring our desires under the will of God
  • People want to stop something (cursing, smoking) or start something (reading the Bible and praying daily, working out daily)
    • permanently redirect your desires and the behavior will follow
  • Submit yourselves to God and the devil will flee from you.
    • sin is fought with the supernatural activity of submission to God
    • submission is resistance, leading to the changes you want
  • Bring our desires under the will of God
    • we don’t know what tomorrow will bring
    • our short term desires don’t align with God’s will for us
  • We ought to say “if the Lord wills….we will do this or that”
    • We should preach to our desires frequently – proclaim God’s will to our desires
    • Focus on God’s will, not mine
    • Changing this to your focus can transform you
  • Behaviors follow desires
    • Our will should be aligned with His will for us
  • Say this phrase to yourself everyday this week: God’s will, not mine
    • This will impact your behavior and help align you with God’s will

Notes from the Revival School video on James 4:

  • James is written to a group of Jewish believers (“carnal Christians”)
  • v1-2: You will begin to wage war with each other
    • What is the source of wars among you? Not following Christ’s teachings.
    • We fight with others because we’re too focused on ourselves and we always want more
    • Keep your eyes on Christ so you will not be waging war with one another
    • John MacArthur: differences among believers is usually related to materialism
    • John 2:15-16 tells us not to love the world or things that belong to the world because none of it is from the Father
  • v3: You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives
    • We ask for things that are focused on our own desires
    • We’re praying for the wrong things – we should be prying for God’s goodwill for our lives
    • Many times God doesn’t respond because it’s not going to benefit our relationship with the Lord
    • God is not obligated to answer our prayers at all
    • Anytime we seek to further our own interests (material things) we’re asking for the wrong reasons
  • v4-10: Waging war with God
    • Friendship with the world is hostility towards God
    • Maybe we’re spending too much time on social media than spending that time with the Lord
    • Example: The Steelers do not have cheerleaders but they do have a band
      • This is because the Steelers don’t want anything to distract their players and fans from the game
    • Beware the world, the flesh, and the devil
      • The Holy Spirit wants to move in our lives but we need to ignore our old nature
    • God is jealous for His people
    • God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
      • The enemy is constantly trying to distract us with things in this world
    • Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before a fall (destruction)
    • The Israelites were seeking success, taking their eyes off God – they were trying to control their environment, not allowing God to intervene.
  • John MacArthur defines ten steps to follow if you’re feeling the weight of society:
    1. Submit to God (resist the devil) – surrender everything about yourself
    2. Draw near to God and He will closer to you
    3. When you have a relationship with God you will not want to continue in your old ways
    4. He will cleanse your hands
    5. He will purify your hearts
    6. Lament
    7. Mourn
    8. Weep
    9. Grieve without laughter
    10. Humble yourself
  • When you recognize the sinful nature of your life it should bother you because it’s getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord
  • v10: Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you
    • When you go through this process of leaving your old life behind and giving it all to God only then will he exalt you.
  • When you give it to the Lord Christ will set you free of your sins
  • v11-12: self-exaltation
  • v17: It is a sin for the person who knows what to do but doesn’t do it


Posted on
by

In a recent MIT experiment, three student teams were asked to write software code in Fortran, a programming language none of them knew. The results were pretty interesting:

The team using ChatGPT finished the fastest
The team using a specific AI coding assistant (Code Llama) came in second
The team using just Google search finished last, breaking down the task into comp`onents and solving it the old-fashioned way.

However, when tested on their ability to recall the solutions from memory, the situation was reversed. The ChatGPT team remembered nothing and failed, while half of the Code Llama team passed, and every student in the Google Search team succeeded.

The conclusion from this experiment is simple: there is no substitute for hard work Don’t just rely on AI tools; learn to code, crash, debug, and repeat.