Eilen

Jesus, as human, was completely and totally dependent to the will of his Father. He was on earth to do what His Father wanted Him to do : to bring salvation to mankind, heal the sick. Jesus had to empty himself of His Godly power so that becoming humble and obedient, he could be guided by the Holy Spirit to do His father’s will and not His own..

Jesus’ core identity as the Son of God was revealed first to Mary by an angel then to Joseph in a dream. The Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove, a symbol of peace and God’s voice proclaiming Jesus as His son at his baptism by John also identified Jesus as God’s son. The Holy Spirit is God with us guiding us on our journey as his chosen children

In Joel it was prophesied that God would pour out his Spirit on all who believed in Him and will thus be saved. All believers, those who believe in God, spread His word, obey His laws, would be recipients.

One promise was that the Holy Spirit would indwell in the Messiah who was going to be a descendent of the house of David. The Holy Spirit will cause Jesus to bring justice to all. He was going to be our comforter, redeemer, healer, and counselor. He will spread the word of God to all. These were fulfilled by Jesus being born in the form of man and dying on the cross for our redemption.

Primary purpose was for them to perform a specific task ordained by God. It was not permanent. The Holy Spirit brought them closer to God. It caused them to have a personal relationship with Him to accomplish said task.

The 70 elders were able to lead the people because they had received the Holy Spirit . They were able to prophesy when they received the Holy Spirit and were able to help Moses to lead God's chosen people through the wilderness. Moses longs for the Holy Spirit to come upon all of God’s people so that they can honor God, know that He is their Lord and Savior through whom all things are possible.

Malachi teaches that marriage is a covenant between man and woman and that it should not be broken. It is the spiritual joining of 2 people and must be treated with respect. Marriage makes a man and his wife one in body and spirit. God regards marriage as means of believers producing godly off springs.

Priests are God’s disciples, responsible for spreading the Good News about the Lord to members of their congregation and to non-believers. I think that ‘serving as messengers of God’ is most vital. I think that priests, through their Sermons, Bible Classes, should spread the Good News of Christ.

I think that in the Old Testament, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God and eternal death, which is eternal separation from God. For the believer, the fear of God is reverence of God, the hope of sharing in His Father’s kingdom. Since, they are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, they should be thankful, and worship God with reverence and awe. Our love of God gives us a great affection for God which is based on trust. We open ourselves to Him because we have great confidence in His care and guidance over our lives. We are willing to take risks because we trust Him, knowing that He is always there for us.

The people were disrespecting God because they were not offering as sacrifices to Him their best livestock. They were offering as sacrifices, livestock that were not healthy and those that were not worth much. We disrespect God in our attitude. We do not honor His commandments; we do respect His Holy Sanctuary and there is often no respect in our manner of worship. . To worship correctly we must be humble and penitent in attitude. Worship should cause us to think about God's greatness and our own weakness. Our attitude in worship will help determine whether our worship will be acceptable to God. When our attitude is right it will cause us to become like the God we worship. Our worship is an expression of love and awe to the God that gives us more than we deserve. Our attitude must be about us submitting ourselves to the desires of God, as expressed in His word. One characteristic of God often ignored by us in general today is His holiness, and His requirement of us to be holy as well. We must approach God with reverence to be acceptable before Him. Today there is no reverence or respect for the house of God. It is time we treat God as holy, and never regard His will with anything less than careful consideration and obedience. God is saying that I am responsible for respecting Him and all that are His and see that others are doing the same.

I think that one should not be discouraged but be patient, continue to love, show mercy and continue to administer to them. Treat them with love and encouragement. Continue to seek quiet moments with the Lord. Talk with Him about your discouragement. Look to Him for guidance

Definitely for leaders since their actions should be exemplified for others to follow.. When leaders become corrupt, laws are broken, people become disillusioned, and do not follow God’s laws. They also become corrupt. Sin affects our fellowship with God. It affects our communication with Him and our usefulness in doing his will. If God shows us our corruption within, we have to confess (recognize our sin) and repent.

God’s compassion is emphasized strongly in Egypt’s history, since He was leading them to the promised land. He always forgave them their inequities, for not obeying His commandments, for worshiping other gods during their sojourn in the wilderness. God is a merciful, loving, forgiving God. He always forgave the Israelites their evil, wicked ways. At the same time He did not hesitate to punish them constantly for not observing His commandments and believing in Him despite the wondrous things He did for them.. He had them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, but He was always there with them. God is a loving, merciful, compassionate God. He sacrificed His Son, Jesus, so that our sins may be forgiven. Jesus was willing to take our sins upon Himself by being crucified on the cross. Jesus was compassionate in giving his life for us sinners so that we may have eternal life.

The people were sorrowful on having just understood God’s laws and how their forefathers had rebelled against God, not having kept His commandments. Scripture reading is important since it keeps us focused on God being our shepherd who is always loving, merciful and forgiving. The spirit within believers allows them to be a channel of God’s word, love, joy and peace to others. God is our refuge. He is the one to turn to in times of distress, anxiety. He can always bring us joy once we have faith in Him.

Nehemiah enemies wanted away so that they could kill him and stop the building of the wall. They felt that since prophets were supposed to be men of God, they might be able to get him to listen to them and do their bidding. They were trying to get Nehemiah to enter the temple so that they could accuse him of breaking the Mosaic Law and thus discredit him among the Jews. He was not a priest and therefore could not enter the temple.

Nehemiah did not wait because he was appalled at what was being done to the Judeans. They were being exploited. This was against his principles. The poor, children should not be exploited and made slaves.This was something that had to be taken care immediately for the welfare of the people. The chief motivation was to suppress the Judeans and keep them from completing the wall. Nehemiah was governor and called a meeting to openly reprimand the wealthy who through their actions were taking advantage of the poor. They are quicker to deal with the wealthy because they are the large contributors to the church. They do not want to alienate them. Church leaders today are greedy. The wealth of their church motivates the church leaders today.

Nehemiah had faith in God so he prayed to Him for help and ignored his enemies’ ridicule. Nehemiah is very concerned about the military threats and made certain that he had 24hour guards at the vulnerable parts of the wall. He also armed the workers working on the wall. The creation of 24hour guards and the army of workers slowed down the building of the wall since he had to pull workers to stand guard 24 hours and some workers found themselves half working on the wall and half guarding it. He reassured the workers that God would see them through. He tried to boost their courage by telling them not to be afraid since God was with them and would keep them safe. He also reminded them that the purpose of the wall was a means of protection for their city and their family. I read the bible and pray.

It is great to be back. Nehemiah had to build the wall quickly because he did not want the enemies of Jerusalem to sabotage the completion of the wall. He did not want the enemies to appeal to the king of Mesopotamia to stop the construction as was done before. Nehemiah knew that the wall had to be built as quickly as possible. There were many teams so that by allotting different portion of the wall to a team it could be built quickly. This helped with the team leaders overseeing what was allotted them than for Nehemiah himself overseeing so large a project. This allowed no one team to be overwhelmed with the constructing an extremely large portion of the wall. The more teams there were, the faster the completion of the wall. The teams are motivated since they all wanted to see their forefathers ruined Jerusalem rebuilt. Many teams were responsible for the construction of portions of the wall surrounding where they lived so their rulers pooled their resources. We saw that in some cases even women worked on the wall. They also knew that the wall would make their city and keep them more secure. It had to have been a huge task for Nehemiah to oversee 41 teams. He had to recruit a leader to head a team, maybe one who had funds to recruit others to work on his team as well as to fund the supplies for the wall. He had to be a mediator of members within a team. He most certainly had to solve logistic problems, ensuring that materials, funding were available to each team to complete its section of the wall. .

Today a disciple has to consecrate himself through prayer, fasting and confession. Before the Lord's supper, we should confess our sins, asking God's forgiveness for what we did and should not have done, for breaking His commandments. . To serve God with purity, we have to pray, fast, revel in our faith and block out the sinfulness of the world. We have a Christ-like life.

We forget that God is always there us and answers our prayers. We forget that our faith is being tested. One characteristic is to zealously put God first, be steadfast in faith knowing that God will see you through all adversities.. Another is abiding by God’s words, His commamdments and preaching them to everyone. Another is to show love for all fellowmen.

The Samaritans who offered to help were not followers of God. They had their own pagan form of worship and just wanted the opportunity to not have the Temple constructed. Their help would have tainted God's teachings and possibly the Jews' faith. It would have been an abomination; why were the nonbelievers involved in rebuilding the temple.

No. I think that I really need to talk daily with God. I do not mean just reading my scriptures daily which I do. I need to do really ponder over what I read. I need to feel God's presence. I need to study the bible more ( I am grateful for these bible study sessions) and do what God wants me to do.

I suppose those who were born in Babylon felt no need to go back. They had built another life in the country their ancestors were exiled to. Those who returned were the ones steeped in their ancestral customs and were desirous of rebuilding the temple in their ancestral city. Those who returned were deeply rooted in the culture, religion of their Jewish ancestors. They were aware of their ancestors' exile and knew that God was in control and had now prepared a way for them to return and rebuild His temple. Those who did not return had most likely given up on their ancestors’ beliefs and culture. They probably looked on themselves as havingwith no ties to Jerusalem. Also maybe they did not want to leave so wealthy a city. They believed in God their Savior. They wanted the prophecy to be fulfilled, that they return to their country after their period of exile had ended. True disciples are those who spread the Good News about God and His Kingdom. They are the ones who believe in Him and are ready to make sacrifices for Him.

That God will restore us making us strong is most meaningful to me. I need God to heal my body, mind and spirit so that I can take up the cross and be a true Christian.

We must have strong faith and we must pray. We have to be strong spiritually not to succumb to the temptations of the world and the persecution by non-believers. We have to be spiritually pure and always vigilant for Satan. We must rely on God’s power, not our own. He will fight our battles for us. As Psalm 62:2 says: ‘Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.’ Our only hope of survival against Satan is the Lord.