lighthouse2014

To meditate on God's word means to ponder, think about and consider his word. Christians meditate in God's word by pondering, studying and considering his word gives us wisdom and helps us understand who God is. Eastern meditation wants us to assume a lotus position and clear our minds of all thoughts, so we can merge with the great beyond of nature, universe etc. God's work through his word helps us to renew our minds, getting the old world of things out and his will in our heart and minds.

The things that Joshua may fear if his faith is not strong enough are that the people will not approve of him, that he may fail in his duties as leader and that God will let him down. To be strong and courageous means that with God's help we will not fail in our abilities to fulfill his will for us. In Joshua's situation the distinction between weakness and strength is that in his human wisdom he will fail his duties, but with God's promise to be with him he is strengthened to go forward. The difference between fear and faith is that in fear we are afraid of failing and making fools of ourselves. With faith we know God is with us and he will help us in our time of troubles. It may be possible to be courageous and fearful at the same time, because having fear of what lies ahead of us things that can physically hurt us and having the courage to go on in faith proves that in our faith in God, regardless of the out come, we go forward to what ever he has commanded us to do.

God's promise to Joshua is conditional because God tells him every place he sets his foot will be theirs. This of course is provided that they defeat the people of that land. The faith that consist of our philosophy, "that if God wants me to have it he will give it to me", has taken most people to believe anything they want without any consideration as to what God wants for them. This phrase usually turns to greed rather than what God wants for us. The area that God has promised me is that through faith in Christ I will inherit eternal life with him in heaven. This is a hard promise because we must be obedient and trust in Christ. With everyday problems especially with married couples with children, it is hard for society presses in at all sides.

God would not be just if he did not punish sin, it is disobedience to him. Rehabilitation is the changing of one's character and moral values. Retribution is paying back for the wrongs one has committed. A Christian's rehabilitation takes place when they accept the Lord Jesus as their savior for the forgiveness of their sins. A Christian's retribution takes place when they accept Jesus as their savior and the payment he has made for their sins. This suffering and death God the Father accepts as full payment for their sins. As Christian's we ourselves can not balance love and justice. Love has never balanced justice. We are to love God and our neighbors. God administers the justice that was and is needed for the disobedience to him and our neighbors and fellow man.

Persecution, pressure and stress help us to persevere in our faith. The Lord helps us in these situations and by prayer for his help we are strengthened in our faith because we witness the Lord's responses. Without testing of our faith we would not grow in faith or ever come trails and tribulations. We would never learn to lean or trust the Lord.

To the insecure Christian of his assurance of salvation tell them that 1 Thessalonians 5:24 that "God himself, the God of peace, may both sanctify through and through. That their whole soul, body and spirit be kept blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ". Also Philippians 1:6, that "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ". A person who has no assurance of salvation is most likely not truly a spirit born person. Having a false assurance of salvation, the person has not truly been informed of the word of God.

Some or most churches today prohibit prophesying . The main reason for this is because they believe that the gifts of the spirit were only for the apostolic church, when they first got established. They have come to believe that gifts are no longer needed. To keep prophecy healthy in the congregational church, the Apostle Paul commands them to first reflect on the prophecy, then search the word of God. If it is profitable and scriptural they are to be edified by it. If it is not scriptural or of evil content then they are to ignore it.

A person can rejoice and pray continually by taking every moment of time we are idle as in breaks and lunch times at work, during driving to and from work or doing errands. praying in evenings when all work is done and before going to bed or getting up in the morning. The times when we should not give prayers to God is when we are working or when we need to give our entire time and devotion to our job, especially were safety is concerned.

People who are revengeful to those that hurt them are themselves miserable, selfish wrecks. They are not happy unless they pay back all evil for evil. They usually have no friends and are rude in public. When they do not forgive those who hurt them they are usually very unhappy, selfish people. A leader who is unloving and feels superior to outsiders, these are very unhappy and selfish people. With attitudes as mentioned above their personalities do not display a Christian way of life. Contrary to Christ teaching of love, patience and forgiving reflects a bad example of Christ and usually drives people away from him. It would most likely be very hard for a congregation that has had a bad reputation in the community to bring people to believe they have changed. With outward displays of love, no longer being revengeful a congregation can rebuild it's reputation as being followers of Christ.

If congregation or person does not respect leader, the congregation will become disobedient and disrespect will result. The leader will no longer be able to teach, preach or edify others. As those filled with disrespect continue to spread their personal opinion, eventually the whole congregation will diminish in number and lose all respect for thir church and community. Getting rid of a leader will not rectify what is going on in the congregation. Only a few spreading their disrespect and gossip can tear down a whole church if they are not stopped. These people should be admonished and in some cases may have to be disciplined. Now if the leader is in deed at fault then the church elders or council should remedy the problem.

Believers who await for Christ second coming should be alert, self controlled, watchful and put on the armor of God, faith, hope and love. To be sober or self-controlled illustrates we are to be alert as in sober which is free from mental and spiritual drunkenness. Self controlled which is calm and collected in spirit, temperate, not being impartial, cautious and precedent in our lives. Being alert and watchful, we pray continuously expecting Christ return at anytime. We are to remain sober, not in mental or spiritual drunkenness. These warnings differ from our normal Christian lifestyle because as Christians we become complacent with our routine lifestyle. We know not when Jesus will return but we can determine spiritual blindness in society and sinfulness that continues to grow before he returns.

According to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, upon Christ return there will be no warning, he will come as a thief in the night. The meaning of coming like a thief means if we knew when a thief were coming we would wait for him and subdue him. But we know not when a thief comes, so Christ will come as thief, we know not when. Be ready at all times.

In the context of giving to receive the promise of God has made us is that it must be for the use that God has for it and must of all out of love for the Lord and our fellow brothers and sisters. There is no limit in the promise from the Lord. He will open the floodgates of heaven and bless us to over flowing. The promise God has made to bless our offering provided they are given in good conscience and he will bless me as well as others

The Philippians have credited to their heavenly by the fact that they have been the financial support for Paul while he did the world of saving souls for Christ. Their generous giving also gave them temporal blessings because Malachi 3:10 reads that the Lord should be tested by them in their giving. In return he will open the floodgates of heaven and give them such blessings they will not be able to contain it.

Christ when he returns will bring with him all those that died in his name. Their spirit and bodies will be reunited to form a glorified body just as Jesus had after his resurrection. Those that will accompany Christ when he returns will be all the angels.

Daniel's prophecy of the Son of Man receiving authority, glory and sovereign power over all nations and people's, they will come to worship him on that day. The prophecy as seen by Daniel is of the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God, who has received all authority and power in heaven and earth, because of his obedience to the Father, even unto death. God raised him up bodily and he will return to judge the living and the dead. Jesus in light of prophecy used the title Son of Man because he was born of a virgin, lived a holy life, was crucified and buried and God raised him up on the third day, he later ascended into heaven. If he had used the title Son of God, which he was, he probably would not have been able to fulfill prophecy. Crowds would have wanted to make him king over them instead of Rome. This would have not allowed Jesus to suffer for our sins, die on a cross and be glorified by the Father.

The bases for Paul's contentment is that though he has been in every life struggle for survival or prosperity, he had learned to trust Christ for all his needs. This contentment did not undermine Paul's ambition. He loved Christ and knew the Lord would be his strength in all situations. The thing that is necessary for us to achieve Paul's type of contentment is to imitate his commitment to know the risen Christ in all his being.

A prosperity doctrine can threaten a ministry because simply put, prosperity was not taught or encouraged by Christ. This can ruin a ministry because the ministry is deceiving itself and others. The congregation then believes that a wealthy world is for those who follow Jesus. When trails come the members are totally unprepared. In fact Christ taught the opposite of prosperity, as telling the rich man to go and sell all he has and give to the poor. To us the prime motivation of a prosperous life in Christ appeals to the greed and pride of our worldly fleshly desires. The bible teaches a balance about poverty and riches. For those that are rich, they should give to the poor especially the widow and orphans. Christ even taught that the rich man should sell all he had and give to the poor. For the poor they should work and not beg for food. The exception being a lame or blind person. We should see to their needs but also encourage self support.

Paul mentions severe punishment for sexual sin because for one, these new Christians came out of a society and culture that allowed such practice. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are now part of the body of Christ, they are to be holy as he is holy. They should know the penalty for sexual sins. These punishments are a sin against their bodies which are part of Christ body. Other sins are against God and society such as lying, stealing and worshiping idols. The warnings of these sins of sexual content should teach us that we are to give up the natural things of the bodily nature and discipline ourselves morally, physically and spiritually.

Controlling one's sexual desires is probably one of the most difficult fleshly desires to control. However, with help of the Holy Spirit it can be possible. Even though it can be possible to control one's sexual desires, it is difficult. It becomes an animal instinct to fulfill one's own selfish desires. If we do not control our sexual desires in marriage we will cause a rift in the marriage, which will cause pain, mental anguish and most likely divorce. Plus, what God has bound by our covenant between him and our spouse was to be a covenant till death. Because of immorality in the marriage, resulting in most cases divorce, it also destroys the children's moral guide that parents should provide. Children no longer have the love and respect of parents and vice-versa. Our own spirits have become bound by the conviction of sin, our faith languishes and relationship to God fades. We may even become ashamed before our family and friends. Our bodies could contract diseases which could affect us for the rest of our lives.

Mind control is necessary for success because dwelling on problems will only cause anxiety and depression and will keep us from having hope and faith in God. Mind control will help us from being mentally depressed and keep our spiritual peace. The best method of mind control I have is to stay focused on Christ, whether through thought, prayer or song. Songs from a church service or listening to praise and worship on the radio. This method stated above works well with me, keeps my mind and spirit free from worry, tempting situations and situations that may involve other peoples problems from burdening my mind and spirit. Pray, speak to the Lord Jesus to guard your mind, spirit and situation. Pray, sing, praise or worship, it works well with me.

To be sanctified means that we are in the process of being made holy, being set apart for God. In the sense that we are now holy, is that as believers in Christ we are one with him, as he is holy so we are holy. We are in the process of being made holy day by day because each day the Holy Spirit brings us closer to him by experiences to the likeness of Christ. By being holy we are to bring our bodies under control, especially avoiding sexual immorality, we are to be honorable in our lives and to others.

The difference of conducting our lives by rules that are man made or God's rules is the following: obeying man mad rules is just that. We will never achieve following Christ or gain heaven by these rules. They man's idea of pleasing God. Conducting one's life to please Christ is showing the love we have for him. We honor and obey Christ because he ha paid the price of our salvation. Through our faith and love for him we live our lives as he has modeled for us and his commands for life. Paul explains his authority in Christ for the basic instructions of living for Christ. Paul uses these instructions given to the Thessalonians for pleasing God in their lives.

Making our request in prayer to God will build our relationship and trust in him because we trust God to bring a peace to us. This peace confirms God's assurance to us of our answer. God's part in the promise of peace is that he will guard our hearts and minds confirming his answer to our prayers.

A request in prayer is altered when we pray with thanksgiving because we are thanking God for the answer to our request before we receive it. By giving thanksgiving in our prayers and supplications to the Lord we are building our faith in God. We already know he has answered many prayers in the past and so our faith tells us he will answer them in the future.