JoanG

People that are able to work but do not are a drain on society as a whole. They cause more problems than they offer solutions. We as Christians are to support those that can not take care of themselves. However, we are not to support those that are able to work but refuse. We are to let them suffer for their own idleness. We are to give people a hand up not a hand out.

Employers need to be fair to all employees. They need to lead by example. There has to be fair pay for work done. Church boards are especially to act as trustworthy employers. They need to be fair in all of their decisions. I think a just wage is one based on an average of the going rate in a locality where the job is held. You can not compare a very rich neighborhood to a ghetto type of neighborhood.

Christian employees should have their heart and soul into their work. They should be able to take pride in all that they do. they should be honest in all of their actions. Once we realize that all of our actions are to bring honor to the Lord not just our employers, we can handle things with love and understanding. We can always keep in mind that everything we do needs to be pleasing to the Lord. Difficult situations will seem to lessen and lessen. We will be more open minded to ways to handle every situation that comes up. We will not act irrationally.

Parents can cause a child to lose heart if they constantly belittle them. If the parents are over critical, the child will feel like they cannot do anything right. There are also parents that favor one child over the others. Parents who want to raise up their children the right way will use the bible as a guide book. They will read it together everyday. They will explain it to their children. They will pray together and attend worship services together.

I believe that adult children need to follow their parents rules as long as they are living in the parents house. However, the children should be mindful to always follow the teachings and rules of the bible first and foremost. Parents are not perfect, however, the children should honor them for giving life to them and also they need to be able to forgive their parents for any mistakes the parents might have made in the past.

Jesus did not condemn this lady even though she was guilty. Nobody could be a fair witness to what she had done. And the law stated that she could not be charges without witnesses. But Jesus told her that she needed to change her ways. She needed to repent for her past actions. She needed to turn her life around and to try to sin no more. When we do not emphasize the need for repentance, we are actually taking away the true meaning of the gospel. We are allowing sin to become a common occurrence. We are allowing people to have no remorse for their actions. We are in ways saying it is okay for you to act that way in a society that has lost its morals. A person has to be sorry for what they did, and they have to ask for forgiveness and there has to be a willingness to change their lives in order to have salvation.

I believe that Jesus wrote on the ground just as God wrote on the stones that were given to Moses. I want to believe that Jesus might have used the Mosaic Law to prove his point. I feel that these words diffused the situation and caused the people not to challenge him. He was able to make his point without having to say a word. He caused the crowd to examine their own heart and soul at that moment.

Jesus knew the hearts of men. He also knew that there were no righteous witnesses to this act. I feel that verse 7 of this lesson makes the guilty feel that other people do wrong things so they should not be judged at all. Their actions mean nothing. I do not believe Jesus is looking for a person with no sin in this case. He is looking for someone who can honestly say that this woman is guilty. He is looking for one true witness. Jesus told us in Matthew 7:1-5 that we need to view ourselves before we could fairly judge others. We needed to see if we had an ulterior motive for pointing our finger at someone else. We need to make sure that we are judging others fairly and for the right reasons.

The Pharisees felt that they had Jesus in a trap. No matter what he tried to do, they could have him arrested or seen as a fraud. To have her stoned by the Mosaic Law, he would have been going against his own teachings of love and forgiveness. He would have lost his followers. However, to go against the law of the land, he would have been arrested on the spot for causing a riot and trying to be above the laws of the land. And at the time, these were also considered the laws from God.

Hezekiah was not trying to change God's will. I feel that he was simply showing God that even on his death bed, he was still praising God. He wants God to remember him as a just and holy man. He is putting his house in order and I feel he is basically saying good bye to his God. Because at that time, they did not have the promise of everlasting life. as we do now. I feel that I see this sentence quite differently than the text has suggested. God does provide for us on a daily basis. To me, when I request something in prayer, I am asking for a special treat or a big favor. I feel that I need to be extra good in order to receive that gift from God. I also know that my prayer might not be answered in the way I wanted or when I wanted it. God knows what is best for me and he knows the future so much better. I might be asking for something that I want right now, but it might actually be harmful to me in the future. So just maybe God will not give it to me to protect me. There is a really big difference between what a person wants and what a person really needs.

Hezekiah was a descendant of King David. However, he had no children to give the throne to upon his death at that time. There would not be a true heir in which the Messiah would be born if he were to die at that moment. God does not go back on his promises. He is greater than that. So God gave Hezekiah this chance to pray for his life. It allowed him to show his love for the nation of Israel above himself. And God responded accordingly and allowed him to live.

The openings of both prayers tell of the greatness of God. They show how powerful he is. They hold him above all that is on this earth. When we believe in the greatness of God, we know in our hearts and souls that he is capable of doing anything. Nothing stops us from taking all of our thoughts and concerns and prayers to him. God knows that we truly trust in him. God can see into our hearts and souls and he knows how much we trust him. He knows how we really feel about him. It shows how much we adore and love him as our heavenly Father.

Hezekiah believes that he has done all that he could. He has prepared for battle. But the enemy wants to fight God. He has challenged God himself and Hezekiah just gives it over to God. We have to let God do the work. We can only follow orders. We can only do what is in our own power. We can only pray for God to pick up the fight and to defend us. When we try to play God, all chaos will happen and we will lose everything.

We must stand strong. We must believe that God will not allow us to be harmed by the wicked. We must remain true to the word and teachings that we have from Jesus. If we stop believing, we will be condemned. We will lose our salvation. Our salvation is based on the fact that we believe in Christ Jesus as the Son of God. we have been given God's grace for the forgiveness of all of our sins. We have it made. We will be seated in heaven with our brother in the glory of God as long as we hold true and believe.

People only see what they want to see. I think that they will see the easy life that the antichrist offers and they will be eager to follow that way of life. This is just another test to see who has what it takes to follow God. We have his word, we have his grace and we have his love. We just need to be faithful to him and we will be okay. When people open up their hearts to these teachings, they to can be free to love and live. Their hearts and souls will be alive and no one can deceive them at that time.

He will be above al the laws of God and of man. He will take on a holiness all to himself. He will sit on the throne of God in the temple. He will go against all gods and all religions. He will create a religion to praise himself. He will be in control of the earth for a short period of time.

The Thessalonians feared that they had missed the second coming of Christ. They feared that those people that were true believers of Christ were already taken up to heaven. The truth is the antichrist is going to come and rule the earth for a period of time before Christ comes back to defeats him for good.

Judah is turning away from God at this time to do things for themselves. They are forgetting all the promises and they are forgetting all of the lessons from the past. They should have turned to the God of their fathers for deliverance from their enemies. God saved his people in the past and I am sure that the would have done it again. Shebna was a very self-serving person. He only looked out for himself. He did not care about the people of God at all. He did not respond to the path that God had laid out before him. At times, I have been more concerned about my own needs and disregarded the needs of those around me. I followed my own path with no thought about how it would affect others.

For three years, God wanted Judah to realize that they could not trust Egypt to keep its promise. This was to let them see how their lives would be in the future if they turned themselves form God's will again. God was trying to give them an in your face reminder every day. For once Judah actually listened to the will of God and things turned out okay for them. I believe that I would have had enough faith to actually do that as well. I strongly believe that God does not ask you to do something that he is not ready to help you accomplish.

The heart of the ruler in this passage, tells that the man thought that he was better than God. He felt that his strength and power were able to out power the Lord himself. I think that the only thing that refers to Satan is the use of the title Morning Star. I have opted to follow my ideas and plans over those of God a few times. I felt that I knew better what I needed to do than what God wanted for me. It really was not any different than rulers in the past. It caused hurt and hardship to others. We need to pray to God and acknowledge our sins and to pray for help and forgiveness in all of our wrong doing.

The glory of Christ is all empowering. There is an internal light that radiates into every pore of a person's being. The radiating light would be too much for an unbeliever. They would fear the intensity that pierces into them like a million knives. The outer darkness would somehow be a comfort to them. They will be able to hide their souls and hearts again.

Unbelievers will live in the torments of burning fire forever. I believe the worse part of this is that we will be shut out of the presence of the Lord forever. We will not be able to feel his love in our hearts or souls again. I would never be able to feel his kindness again. I would be able to know the feeling of joy again. That seems to be the worse things that I could think would happen.

God needs to punish for sin. To not punish sin, God would be unjust and unfair. Retribution is a repayment for a wrongful act. People can give money to someone to repay them for a wrong that was done to them. Rehabilitation is the act of teaching someone a new way of living. It is a serious of lessons and guides to help them improve the way they live on a daily basis. A sinner will have to pay for his sins when he is judged by Jesus on the very last day. This is when the great judgment will take place. There is a very fine line with love and justice. A person needs to set limits for others. There has to be consequences for wrong activities but these need to be handed down in a very loving way. It needs to be fair; the punishment must fit the crime. You cannot take out more than is right from a person.

When we are under extreme test of faith, we can either turn from God and join those that persecute us, or we can make a stronger stand in what we believe. We learn more about Jesus when we take a stand with him. Without these tests, we would never be able to grow. We would be like a pool of stagnant water. We would be frozen in time and space. We would never really grow. We would never really know what we stood for. We would know the right words but we would never have to use them.

People will flock to the messiah in droves. They will come from every corner of the earth. These nations that are talking about all are the people that believe in the Lord. They are the ones that were saved by the Gift of salvation from the Lord himself. They are the people that have the Holy Spirit that dwells in his heart and soul. This prophecy will be fulfilled when Jesus returns to rule the world in great peace and harmony. This will be at the end of times.