Bambi Girouard

What is the power of a leader’s signet? Ancient kings used signet rings to designate authority, honor, or ownership. A signet contained an emblem unique to the king. Official documents were sealed with a dollop of soft wax impressed with the king’s signet, usually kept on a ring on his finger. Such a seal certified the document as genuine, much like a notary public’s stamp today. The ring sanctions Zerubbabel to be God’s official authority in the raising of a new Temple. How does listening to God’s Spirit make you effective as his agent? It is with the heart not the mind that one listens to the word of God. If we listen carefully to the word of God and take it to heart our perseverance will yield much for His honor and glory (Luke 8:15). In what ways are you authorized to speak and act for Jesus?` If I would have the same spirit of faith that is mentioned in the scriptures than I would be able to speak with humility concerning that faith in God. Faith and God’s grace helps us to be confident of victory in the face of destructive forces (2 Corinthians 12-18). There are many destructive forces today trying to destroy the Christian faith. Where are the Peter’s and Paul’s of yesterday defending it?

Q4. (Haggai 2: 10-14) What kinds of things defile a disciple today? The same things that defiled a person in Jesus’ time: “It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.” (Mark 7:22-23) What is the danger of acting as if doing church work somehow makes us holy by association? How a person thinks may not be reflected in what he does. Some people believe that they are self-important, good and spiritual just through a show of being good, or looking holy but their motives are far from honoring God. They seek earthly honors and material benefits – you and I can make them feel good but to live in such a way is to deceive themselves. How does a believer deal with spiritual defilement and sin? Facing their sin a person of faith humbles themselves before the Lord in true contrition and prayer, repents, confesses his sin and, where possible, makes amends. A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise (Psalm 34:18).

Q 3. (Haggai 2:1-5) Discouragement is a common experience. What command does God give Joshua the high priest? What assurance does he give? God tells Joshua to “be strong” because I AM with you wherever you go. WOW! To deal with your own times of discouragement, what would God’s command and assurance be for you? How would you implement them? When I am discouraged that’s when I storm the Heavens with prayer. I ask God to help me to see positively through the challenge. I need all the help I can get to rise again and proceed without being negative. What assurance does He give me? He draws me closer to Him and gives me strength just like He gave it to Joshua.

Q2. (Haggai 1:6, 9-11) God sometimes disciplines us through hardships and circumstances (Hebrews 12:7-11). Sometimes through us not having all that we need. What is such discipline intended to do in our lives: Are you experiencing hardship? What is God trying to say to you in the midst of it? My attitude about life is that Life-Is-A-Classroom. I am not disciplined, but, I am taught and given tests to pass. Sometimes I pass the tests I am given and sometimes I flunk. If I passed every test that God handed me I wouldn’t be here because I would have completed all the grades and graduated (with honors) into Eternity. The hardships He sends are opportunities to overcome if only we can see these occasions as such. I buried a son who taught me about dying. I am at an age when living on SS can be a challenge. I have been through hell and back and I know that God loves you and me.

Q 1. (Haggai 1:8) God wishes to “take pleasure” in the temple, but the people have stopped working on the project. It is interesting to note that history says for all the magnificence and splendor of Solomon’s Temple it was destroyed, as was several other Temples built after it’s destruction. So, we are beginning to see that the enduring Temple man is to build is not a material structure, but the temple of the body which Christ came to transform. From this idea I am reminded of what Paul tells us: “Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received him from God. You are not your own property; you have been brought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). When is God displeased with you? When I fail to listen to His Word. When I lose the courage to stand up for His laws. When I fall in line with the material world because it is easier to live that way. When does he “take pleasure” in you? When I realized that God truly loves me, and that it is in the little things I do that pleases Him. If we serve Him out of love, He puts up with all the blunders, sulkiness, frailties etc. that we have. What is keeping you from serving Him deliberately and joyfully? Attitude, a lack of Awareness and Trust keep us from serving God. However, the nearer my soul get to God the more I feel like a sponge pitched into the ocean surrounded by the waters of His love on every side. The love of God can fill your heart and help you to see the positives in your life. No matter how bad things are – He wins in the end or so the Bible reassures us.

Q5. (Ezra 6:20-21) What do repentance and separation from the sins of our culture look like for a disciple today Discipline –And discipline is all about the heart and not about laws. The Bible tells us that we are not slaves to sin – we can change. If we have love for one another we will not take advantage of one another we will instead care for each other thus abiding in God’s law naturally. Paul tells us to: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” And just like Paul we need to be imitators of Christ. We need to tell stories of our own struggles and success with personal discipline. Most of all we need to cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance and grace. We must admit and accept that failure is part of the process in understanding God’s law. No one is perfect! How should we prepare ourselves to worship Jesus in the Lord's Supper? Prayer is the best way to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s supper. It is a time to ponder the tremendous mystery of Christ’s self-giving love for us. At the Last Supper Jesus became our nourishment. His divine sacrifice assimilated into our life in order to make it one with ours. How should we prepare to serve him with purity day by day? Become the example of what it means to love. This is no easy chore. Love starts with forgiveness. We need to forgive ourselves and everyone who has ever harmed us. It is a great leap of faith to be a love finder rather than a fault finder; to choose to be a love giver rather than a love seeker. Like St. Francis we need to ask: “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is darkness, light and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

If you can march 1,000 miles and not feel tired, you are undefeatable", so says Sun Tzu in the Art of War. But in times of severe adversity, am I willing to go the distance longer than my adversary. Christ went the distance and gave His life for us. When called upon to do the same many of us are unwilling. It is much easier to “give in.” As Christians we are called upon to overcome, to endure and to transform a sinful world into the love of God and our neighbor as ourselves. Do I have the capacity to endure suffering in order to bring this about? The only way I can truthfully answer this question would be to live through this situation. One can always “talk the talk” but to “walk the walk” is another story. The word “disciple” means follower. In Jesus’ day it was customary for a teacher to travel around while his students literally followed him. They would ask questions and dialogue as they walked along with him. Thus, a disciple is one who follows Christ, who walks in His ways and seeks to imitate Him.

Today (9/14-17) I heard on the news that the city of Maryland in the U.S. is going to allow non-citizens to vote for elections in this country. How do you think these non-citizen will vote? I believe that they will vote for their own ends and our defeat. We have everything to lose. They have everything to gain. We are living in a society that is forcing us into becoming an inclusive society. What does that mean? From the internet comes this definition: An inclusive society is a society that over-rides differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, and ensures inclusion, equality of opportunity as well as. capability of all members of the society to determine an agreed set of social institutions. that govern social interaction This means that the common denominator for how we live will be chosen by people not God. We are being told that history is irrelevant. That the common sense of the Bible is no longer common sense. In this “new age” of denying God we have, somehow, become more enlightened. Today the Christian community is being called “backward.” Our worship has become people and things, and our preaching has become secular oriented. This is all leading us to anxiety and chaos, but, unfortunately, we don’t see why? We need to get back to Jerusalem our spiritual roots and rebuild what is being lost in our culture. We need to prove by the way we live that we have really turned from our sinful ways back to God (Matthew 3:1-17). To be productive for God, we must obey His teachings, resist temptation to follow a sinful society’s pull, actively serve and help others, and share our faith more openly in spite of counterattacks. This is what the Jewish nation, of old, did to rebuild their faith.

To have a sense of humor about life is important. A soldier in a campaign is not astonished if he is wounded or worn out with fatigue. I win some battles and lose some. I have my work cut out for me in the New Testament. Jesus is my coach and teacher. He has offered me life and has shown me how to live it. The more I come to understand that God is present everywhere – that He is within all – that I am always in His presence – the more easily I come to prayer. The object of prayer is to LISTEN because He does speak back to us.

When we live in a society outside our belief system it is easy to become comfortable with its allure – especially if it allows us to act without any moral or social responsibility for our actions. It is interesting to note that Babylonian worship was celebrated with the most disgusting and immoral practices. But, within 1000 years, Babylonianism became the religion of the world, in one form or another, and, it rejected the Divine revelation of Jewish tradition. Faith played a very dramatic role for those who returned to Jerusalem, and, doubt must have played a role in the decision for those who stayed behind in Babylon. The Bible says that doubt is a destroyer of life. James 1:5-8 tells us that when we ask God for wisdom, we are to ask in faith, without doubt. Those who follow God in the journey of Life follow Him because they trust Him. That trust comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). God gave us the Bible as a testimony of His works in the past, so we will have a reason to trust Him in the present. “I will remember the deeds of the LORD. I will remember your miracles of long age.” (Psalm 77:11). In order for us to have faith in God, we must study His word in order to know what He has said. It also takes prayer. We must learn to talk to Him and listen to His Word. For the true believer life upon earth is a continual warfare, and an experience in conflict. St. Paul (1 Timothy 4:7-8) tells us: “… nourish (yourselves) on the words of the faith and … sound teaching. Avoid profane and silly myths. Train yourself for devotion, for, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future.” St. Paul likens the spiritual life to a game – a race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). He uses the image of the race as an example of spiritual life which requires discipline.