X. How Can I Express My Gratitude to Jesus     

 Christ for His Love and Sacrifice for Me?

            As the Garden of Eden was given to Adam and Eve complete and perfect so is the gift of GOD'S salvation given freely to sinful man—complete and perfect. There is nothing man can do to improve what GOD has accomplished “in Christ.”  Therefore, GOD calls all mankind to come to Him, “without money, and without price.” Isa.55:1.

1.   Is it true I cannot truly serve GOD without His drawing

     from my heart the needed love and affection?

Jeremiah 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with _____________________  _______  ____  __________  _______.

John 6:44  No man can come to Me, _________  _____  __________ which hath sent Me ________  _____: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Psalms 119:32  1 will run the way of Thy commandments, _______  ______  ________  ______________  _____  __________.  

Isaiah 26:12   LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for ______  ______  ______  ______________  _____  _____  ________  ____  ____.

Isaiah 57:19  ___  __________  _____  __________  ____  _____  ______; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

2.  What can I think upon to help maintain my sense of

gratitude and peace?

Philippians 4:4-9  Rejoice in the LORD alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (v.5) Let your moderation [or gentle patience] ____  __________ unto all men. The LORD is at hand. (v.6) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by ____________  ______  _____________________ [or earnest petitions] ______  _____________________ let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (v.8) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are ________, whatsoever things are ____________, whatsoever things are ________, whatsoever things are ________, whatsoever things are ___________, whatsoever things are of ________  ____________; if there be any ____________, and if there be any ___________, think on these things. (v.9) Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, ____: and the God of peace shall be with you.  

3. What acts of kindness bring joy to the heart of Jesus?

Matthew 25:35,36  For I was an hungered, and ____  _______  ____  _________: I was thirsty, and ____  ________  ____  ___________: and was a stranger, and ____  ________  ____  ____: (v.36) Naked, and ____  ____________  ____ : I was sick, and ____  ___________  ____: I was in prison, and ____  ________  _______  ____.

Deuteronomy 15:7,8,10,11  If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: (v.8) But thou shalt _______  _________  _______  _______  _______  _____, and shalt surely _______  ______  _________________  ______  ______  ________, in that which he wanteth. (v.10) Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall ______  ____  ____________ when thou givest unto him: because for this thing the LORD thy God ________  ________  _______ in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

            How a man treats his fellow man is the greatest evidence of how he relates to GOD and His government, as it is written, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar” I Jn.4:20. 

Micah 6:8  He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to ____  ____________, and to ________  ___________, and to _______  ______________ with thy God?

4. When hard times come, what Bible lessons will disarm

     my frustration and the temptations to give up my faith?

Job 1:20, 21  Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, (v.21) And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD ________, and the LORD _______  ___________  ________;  ___________  ____  ______  _________  ____  ______  _________.

            Lessons drawn from Job outline every hardship a man can face in this world.  Job’s trust in GOD stood every test, as GOD’S words testified that he was “a perfect and an upright man” (1:8).

Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that ____  ___________  ___________  ______  _______________ (boundaries of righteousness).

II Peter 1:3-8  According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  (v.5) And beside all this, add to your faith _________; and to virtue _______________; (v.6) And to knowledge _________________; and to temperance ________________; and to patience ____________________; (v.7) And to godliness ______________  ______________ and brotherly kindness __________ (or self-sacrificing love). (v.8) For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ____  _______  __________  ____  __________  _____  __________________ in the knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ.

5. What is the result of an increased knowledge of the truth

     “as it is in Jesus?” (Eph.4:21)

Ecclesiastes 1:18  For in much ____________ is much ___________: and he that increaseth _____________________ increaseth ______________.

         It is important to note that with the restoration of our minds to Heaven’s sympathy towards the suffering of life the more we see the war between good and evil, truth and falsehood, love and hate, loyalty and betrayal.  As we become increasingly aware of this painful reality, the more we appreciate and rejoice in the salvation of GOD through our LORD Jesus Christ.  It is GOD’S purpose for the last generation of Christians to view life as Jesus viewed it that they may stand in “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev.3:10).

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: ___  ________  ____________________  _______  _____  _______  _______  _____  ______  _______________________: his praise endureth for ever.

John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that ___  ____  ____  _________  _______  _________. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but ___  ___  _______  ________; I have overcome the world.

6. What did the Bible have to say about our thankfulness for

     GOD and His salvation?

Exodus 15:1,2  Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, ___  ______  _______  _______  _____  ________, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Judges 5:1,3  Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying, _________  ____  _____  _______ for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, 0 ye kings; give ear, 0 ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

Psalm 69:29,30 But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, 0 God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will __________  _____  _______  __________________.

         The work of the Gospel is the restoration of our heaven-born sensitivities.  While society is sheltered to a great extent the threats that exist, GOD desires from His children the permission to “take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them an heart of flesh.” Eze.11:19.  The seriousness of life’s dilemma must be understood because mankind lives with a nature that is fundamentally immoral, as GOD said, “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen.8:21).  Add to that the accumulated degradation of life over earth's 6000 year history (The age of the earth as verified by the 76 generations of mankind from Adam to Christ, found in Luke chapter 4), it becomes instantly obvious that man’s course is headed to oblivion.  An example of this is seen by examining the shift of social values from one generation to the next.  The preceding generation typically views a degradation of moral principles in some form or fashion. But while the ethical conduct of a society may change for better or for worse, the ethics of godliness are everlasting and are as sure today as they were when Jesus promised Adam and Eve that He would rescue their family from the death-sentence caused by sin: “to save them that believe” (I Cor.1:21).  This promise is as sure as the Ten Commandments are written in the permanence of stone, as it is written, "Neither death nor life…shall be able to separate us from Christ." Rom.8:38.