Paula Price

our thoughts are not God's thoughts and our way is not God's way... We are to trust and wait on Him ... that is what we promised him we would do...complete trust...He is God Almighty.... it is His will and His way, however long it takes.. they that wait upon the Lord... teach me Lord how to wait....We do not understand the mind of God and we are not suppose to.. it is not required...He did not say for us to understand what He does... He said do what I say do.... obey me whether you understand or not.. All the we have read of God we accept as true we believe.. so if we believe ,why question Him??? He has already done everything He said He would do.....so we can believe that there is more he will do....God has a time for the whole world to hear his word ... He knows when that is and it is not for us to know...we need to just be ready and to do what He is asking us to do.....Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess the He is Lord......when ever He say so....

The importance of this verse Is that Abraham believed that God would do what he promised to Do.. And because Abraham accepted God's word and believed in Him shows true faith... It is what God requires or ask us to do... to trust Him and to obey Him...that Abraham does... that is what we are to do....

God is preparing the way for all mankind to receive the promise and how it will be done. God tells Abraham how His covenant will be fulfilled many years from then.. not by the blood of animals but by the blood of Jesus, God's only son who will be given through the linage of Abraham.. the promised Messiah... Abraham does not understand this but he is faithful and obeys God every command. Abraham wants a son of his body and God is promising him a son and through his son the whole world will be blessed.. Abraham will be the one to teach is people what God requires, and they in turn will teach the world. from the beginning God has always had a covenant with man. In the garden when he made Adam and Eve, as long as they obeyed God they were protected and provided for. When they broke that covenant they were casted out of Eden and God had to prepare another way of redemption for mankind to receive His blessings, for He created man for His glory....Obedience, Righteousness was always required from God to receive His blessings. So He is preparing Abraham on how this will be done according to His specifications and His will.. God wants His people to depend on Him only for all their needs...We worship and honor Him as the only one true and living God when we do His will. When we do this He has promised us to live with Him in Heaven... that is the promise and the blessing of Abraham....

God wants us to believe in Him and serve Him.." We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them". God created man to worship Him, and in doing so, He promises to protect us and meet our every need...When we repent and are baptized, that is our covenant with God to walk with Him, to serve Him, to do His will... His promise to us for doing this is ETERNAL LIFE....Here on earth He leads us and guides us to remain holy and righteous, living our lives according to His word , and Christ Jesus... He provides for us and meets our needs when we call on His name and ask in prayer.... that is His promise to us. We must believe just like Abraham did....and be as righteous as Christ is, for it is not our righteousness, but it is the righteous of Christ in us that God accepts.. Jesus is our intercessor to God, it is through our belief of His righteousness that we are forgiven of sin... when we call on His name everything changes and we are transformed through the power of His holy and righteous name... Jesus....the blood of Jesus... we need to stop saying that we are not worthy and we are sinners ....Jesus died on the cross so that through His blood we are worthy,,, God does not see our sin for it is forgiven when we ask for forgiveness...What would be the point of Him dying on the cross for our sins if we keep calling ourselves sinners? Either we believe in His word or not....Faith...if we have Christ , there is no sin...for God does not abide in sin only in righteousness...

First and most important is that Abraham made a vow to the LORD that he would not take any spoils from this king... secondly , Abraham does not want to be a part of evil or sin..."Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring every word into judgement with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil"....:those who live right, respect God, but dishonest people hate Him,". "an evil persons house will be destroyed, but a good person's family will do well"...."evil people will be paid back for the wrong they do and good people will be rewarded for the good they do..." good people will defeat those who are evil and the wicked will be forced to show respect to those who live right"....."whoever works to do good will find love and loyalty. It is a mistake to work at doing evil"...."the wicked will be defeated by their evil, but good people are protected by their honesty".." stay away from fools, there is nothing they can teach you"...

Abraham has made a vow to God not to take anything from the spoils of his war with Sodom.The king of Sodom is evil and Sodom is a place of sin.. Abraham does not want to be a part of sin for that goes against God .He did not enter this war to gain the spoils of war but to free his relative from bondage. Had Abraham taken what was offered him, he would have sinned against God. He would have broken his vow to the Lord..

Now this is a question that I have been studying and have some different insight into.. Perhaps some one can help me in understanding between tithing , which is what God demanded from the people in the old scriptures or Testament and the way in which God commands us to give today, per the New Testament,...Jesus fulfills the old testament so we are not under the law any more...Tithing was what God required then...Under the New Testament we are to give generously as God has purposed us....a tenth of our earnings is not required...but we are required to give as God has blessed us...whatever we give we are to give with a cheerful heart, not sparingly .. not with regret but cheerfully from our hearts....whatever the amount is. When Jesus was teaching the Jews in the temple and they were accusing him of healing on the Sabbath Day, He tells them that He has come to fulfill the law... We learn that Jesus is teaching a new way of worshipping and a new way of forgiving of sin and a new way of doing the will of God....As I study and come to understand... We who live under the New Testament must live and worship God according to the way Jesus teaches. For He is the mediator for our sins... we are accept by God only through His son, Jesus the Christ...who died for our sins so that we may have the right to God and eternal life....So the New Testament does not teach Tithing, but giving as God as purposed, cheerfully....We are still required to give. THINK::: Does God accept a persons giving who gives 10% grudgingly or a person who gives less than 10% or all they have with a cheerfully heart?? Abraham blessed Melchizek with tithing because it was what was required from God as a way of being thankful for delivering him from the hands of his enemies. as always Abraham is being obedient to God.

This incident tells us that Abraham is a man of God and that his only reason to fighting was to gain the release of his relative.. He wasn't fighting to show his might or to obtain riches,,, only to rescue his family.. He is loyal and faithful to his own. Abraham proves to be wise in military matters as well and although he did not have the military might or men to attack a strong army, he trusted in God to deliver him from all evil.. We too, such put our trust in God and call upon His name when trials and tribulations befalls us.

Abrahams material wealth does reflect God's blessing on him because God promised to make him rich and he promise to bless him with wealth. That is why the kings he deceived showered him with material things.. They were the tool that God used to fulfill His promise of wealth to Abraham. Material wealth is not always a promise from God.. He provides the needs of His followers as He sees fit. It is His will to bless us according to His will, not ours. We need to be more concerned about our spiritual needs because to be blessed spiritual is more important then material wealth...When we are spiritually blessed we have a sit in the kingdom of God and that is the whole purpose of receiving God's blessing, for being with God in heaven is the ultimate promise and the ultimate blessing from God. the earth and all there in shall pass away....but the spirit lives on .... so only the spirit who lives according to the will of God and not the material things that we have acquired shall see God... We will take nothing to heaven with us.... Let us not forget, that Satan has the power to give material wealth also....he lives to confuse the children of God, to cause chaos and to kill steal and destroy... so material wealth is not always a reflection of God's blessings but that of Satan also so we need to be able to recognize the difference and to be aware of how we perceive our blessings.. Jesus walked the earth and had not a house or a home or any material wealth... What He did have was the joy and the promise from God his father that he would provide all needs, physical as well as spiritual...There was never a time that we read where He asked for anything for Himself but always for the benefit of others ....He was never concerned as to where He would sleep or eat or how He would get from one place to another.. We can all inherit eternal life whether we are rich or poor. God wants us to choose Him over anything and everything else we may see as important...He wants us to trust and obey Him, to walk with him and to do His will. When and if we do this He will keep His promises to us...and the riches and the BLESSINGS He gives is ETERNAL LIFE with Him in heaven... that is the PROMISE.... that is the BLESSING.

God hates sin...there is no big sin little sin...more than or less than sin.. Sin is sin...there are kinds of sin but they are all sins as far as God is concerned. We are forgiven of our sins through Jesus who died on the cross for our sins so that we may still have a way to the Father....When we ask for forgiveness and repent in Jesus name we are forgiven, and that is what God requires...He requires us to live holy and righteous as He is....

God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation and that He would bless him; God promised to make Abraham famous and he would be a blessing to others; God promised Abraham that He would bless those who showed him favor and curse those who wronged him and that all the people of the earth would be blessed because of him and through him. Sarah's abduction was the catalyst that God used to fulfill This promise...In each instanced, God revealed Himself to the kings and the people who were affected by Abrahams and Sarah's deception.Those people learned of Abraham's powerful and living God and came to fear Him.. they made Abraham rich and wealthy with more possessions and land which is to say they blessed him, and no doubt they spread the word of Abraham and his God making him famous throughout the lands. Let us not focus on what Abraham and Sarah did but rather on how God manifested Himself and made His presence known because of what they did.. God did exactly what He promised to do...HE made Abraham a great nations...HE made Abraham famous. HE made Abraham blessed and HE made Abraham a blessing to others...HE made Abraham rich and famous....MOST of ALL... HE made His power and presence known to a land of unbelievers and idol worshippers....He showed them that HE is God and that there is no other...HE is the only true and living GOD....

THE EMBLEM OF A KING, CLOTHED IN MAJESTY, LET ALL THE EARTH REJOICE--HE WRAPS HIMSELF IN LIGHT AND DARKNESS TRIES TO HIDE. AND TREMBLES AT HIS VOICE- "AGE TO AGE HE STANDS AND TIME IS IN HIS HANDS, BEGINNING AND THE END-.THE GOD HEAD THREE IN ONE. FATHER, SPIRIT AND SON-THE LION AND THE LAMB" HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD AND ALL THE WORLD WILL SEE--HOW GREAT HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!" God is revealing Himself to a world of darkness, to a sinful people, to a sinful world. This is God proving to the world to a people that HE IS GOD!! God is showing His supremacy in all things. Abraham is just the instrument that He uses to fulfill His purpose. Man can not stand in the physical presence of God, for no one has seen his face, but he wills his power through the spiritual part of man. the heart, the mind , the body .those are the parts that man can identify with. .At this point the world is in darkness, full of sin...God is reaching out to save them from themselves and bring them back to the light and the love he is offering. Everyone God deals with in these scriptures will spread the word of a powerful, awesome God, who can do wonders and miracles. They have never witness a god such as this.. Abraham's God.. The only true living God with power and majesty unknown until now .. This is about Abraham's faith in being obedient to God and doing what God has told him to do. But the main point is God!! Showing the world who He is so that they will see and witness and believe!!! Everyone will believe a king who is in power over them when he tells them of his experiences with the God of Abraham!!!...God used them to make Abraham wealthy. They unknowingly helped fulfill God's promise to Abraham.. " MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE COMING OF THE LORD, HE IS TRAMPLING OUT THE VINTAGE WHERE THE GRAPES OF WRATH ARE STORE, HE HAS LOOSED THE FAITHFUL LIGHTING OF HIS POWERFUL SWIFT SWORD, OUR GOD IS MARCHING ON..GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH, HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON.. "EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS KING".

This is my response to questions 4 and 5 . I do not want to dwell on whether Abraham and Sara were right or wrong.. What I do want to focus on is What and How God dealt with their actions. I believe God used these instances to show his glory and might to people who did not worship Him or know Him.. They were pagan Kings who did not know of the one true and living God that Abraham and Sarah worshipped. They did not believe in God and had no covenant to keep with Him...They worshipped other gods.. They considered themselves a god...these kings that were in the land that God promised to Abraham....Egypt was a land of pagans..... their kings were not chosen by Abrahams God... God made promises to Abraham to make him rich with lands and riches...This is one way he fulfilled that promise...He also introduced Himself to those kings by coming to them in dreams and by making them aware of His glory and His might and His power... Until this time, these kings and peoples had not witness such power of presences from the gods they worshipped! In each instances, the kings returned Sarah and let them both leave with their lives and a great big fortune...These kings feared Abraham's God!!!! They had no such fear of the gods they worshipped...their gods did not have power as Abraham's GOD!!. I am sure that rumors were spread through out the land of the God of Abraham and how powerful and mighty He Is to make them treat Abraham the way they did when they found out his deception... anyone else until then would have been put to death no doubt...No one else would have had the nerve to lie to the king, in fear of what would happen to them when they were found out... God is using Abraham and Sarah as instruments to establish Himself in the land and a world who does not know of Him.....He is using Abraham, to show the world that HE IS GOD, THE ONE TRUE LIVING GOD, and that every one will come to know and fear Him..... We are not to judge Abraham or Sarah, that is not what God is trying to teach us ...Whether they were right or wrong,, is not the question....what they did or said is not for us to judge... but we are to take from these lessons is the might and the glory and the power of God to make believers of all people and to show them who HE IS and that no one else can compare to Him... WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE!! GREAT AND AWSOME! The old Scriptures are God's word on what He requires of us....We are to fear Him We are to trust Him We are to obey Him. .We are to have no other god before Him.... He is faithful to His followers and true to His word...He is a forgiver of sin when we repent.....He loves us even when we are not perfect.....

I want to address this question while it is fresh on my mine. I usually finish my study before answering my questions but this one is heavy on me.. We tend to try to interpret what we read as "physical" rather then "spiritual".. I mean the bible....Most of us read with images in our minds of what God is saying...In this lesson on Abraham, God has made promises to him that were full filled over a vast period of time...which all these things promised were "physical"... The old testament is God's written word on how He wants us to worship, trust and obey Him, in order to receive the promises he has made to us.. We were created In His image to worship Him...our whole existence is to glorify God and to do His will... God choose a people in the old testament to be the ones to show us how He wanted it done. They are our examples to follow....The old testament teaches us Gods way to salvation. The promise He made are fulfilled through Abraham.."the blessings of Abraham"... When we choose to become Christians and follow the footsteps of obedience that are outlined in the scriptures , we are inheriters of these blessings which is eternal life, through Jesus the Christ....which was fulfilled in the new testament... for all people who accept Him as the Son of God and are baptized and repent of sins and walk in the word and the will of God. The old testament teaches us of a faith of a people who believed in God who they could not see, yet those who obeyed, were blessed. the new testament gives us the promised Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who fulfilled the old testament and was the sacrificial lamb, crucified for forgiveness of our sins, so that we might have eternal life through Him. So when we study about Abraham or any of the old prophets and kings and leaders that God chose to lead His people, we should focus on their obedience to God, on their doing the will of God, whether they understood it or not, rather than the "physical" or material things that we see are given to them because of their obedience. We may experience different things in our lives, in our walk with God, but the one thing we all have in common is the promise of Eternal Life, which is the promise to all who trust and obey the will and the word of God.

I think Jesus was asking Peter this question 3 times to symbolize Peter denying Him 3 times. He is showing Peter that as many times as it takes to forgive, we are to forgive. Jesus is demonstrating to Peter that although he denied him 3 times, he is still worthy of Jesus's love and trust to do His will and to teach others. Jesus is showing Peter that he is still in the favor of God and that he is still accountable to do what he has been chosen to do. Jesus is teaching Peter that there isn't anything that he can do that will separate him from the love of the Father, as long as he continues to abide in the teachings of Jesus and his word. Peter is still loved and a trusted friend and disciple. When we sin, God forgives us when we ask for forgiveness and turn from sin,,,,, His mercy and grace is so great... His love for us is so great.....He wants us to show the same compassion to each other.

Jesus is setting an example and teaching the disciples that there isn't anything that he wouldn't do for those who serve and follow and love Him. They can depend on Him to provide their needs and to take care of them . That is how we show love, by doing for others. I believe that Peter missed Jesus so much that he was excited to be in his presence again. Until the crucifixion, they had spent every day and hour with Jesus. Being away from him created a void in his life, I believe and he missed Jesus and the time they spent together. Peter was always the one to show his fiery spirit. He was always the one who was quick to angry or aggressive in his behavior and words. So upon seeing Jesus on shore he was so excited that he couldn't wait for the boat to carry him , he couldn't get to Jesus fast enough!. We are all excited to see loved ones after being away from them for a period of time. Especially the ones we are with 24/7, day in and day out.

Jesus is teaching His disciples to depend on God to meet each and every need. He asked if they had caught any fish and when they replied that they hadn't, He instructed them what to do in order to catch them. This teaches them to trust and obey , and when they do, He will supply all their needs. It is a lesson for them to look to God for their needs and to depend on God in all thing...

The evidence of the resurrection in this passage is the stone being rolled away, the grave clothes neatly folded in place and the appearance of Jesus to Mary and his disciples . This is important because it is the requirement to Salvation. We must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. We must confess with our mouths and belief in our hearts that He is risen and we must tell it wherever we go. Romans 10: 9-10. This is what God requires from us in order to be part of is Kingdom. He has prepared a place for true believers. We were made to praise him and to do His will. "Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring every word into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil".... " For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them"....

Mary's emotional state was confusion and shock and sadness. Before recognizing Jesus she was shocked and panicked to see that the tomb was opened and Jesus's body gone. Once Jesus makes himself known to her she is so excited to see him that she wants to throw herself in his arms and hug him because that 's what we women do!!! (we are huggers and so emotional). She too is unaware of the spiritual nature of Jesus so he tells her not to touch him because he has not yet returned to the father or that he is no longer physical and he is not to be touched. Perhaps he needed to prove to his disciples first, because he knew she believed in his presence without touching him and needed no proof of physical touch. He tells her to go and tell the disciples what she has seen.

The position of the grave clothes in the tomb was to show that Jesus was not stolen or that the grave had not been robbed. It was a deliberate statement to show a miraculous miracle, not by man's hands, but by God. It fulfilled the prophecy. Peter is still learning who Jesus is and was. He had witnessed the physical Jesus and now is being introduced to the Spiritually Jesus. The things Jesus taught Peter and the disciples, they witness with their physical senses, but they as well as Peter were still living in the physical and did not understand the things of the Spiritual nature that Jesus spoke to them of and now that He is a spiritual being, they must believe in the spirit of Jesus as well as the physical Jesus that they have been walking with. Peter is still learning. He hasn't yet fully believed because he is still trying to comprehend with is mind and not his heart.. Now that Jesus has been risen and returns to the Father, the disciples lessons will be in spiritual teachings from the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to leave them, to help them understand and to continue on with their teachings and learning and with the spreading of the gospel of Jesus the Christ.

Mary Magdalene was a woman whom Jesus cured by casting out her demons. She was a follower and devoted believer in Jesus as being the son of God. I think that women were more devoted to Jesus during this age than men. Women have a nurturing spirit and do not carry the burden of being responsible or in charge as men are. I am not saying this right but we all know that a woman's love and protectiveness is different than men. Women were not recognized as being leaders and in charge during this time. I believe Jesus choose women because of their mothering nature. The women who were healed by Jesus and came in contact with him , were faithful followers and did not doubt who He said he was and who they believed Him to be. They did what he asked of them without questions or doubt, unlike the men especially the disciples. Mary Magdalene was a true believer and a sincere follower of Jesus. He trusted her to tell the disciples exactly what he instructed her to tell them. She was faithful and loyal to Him. This is the kind of faith Jesus wants in His disciples.

The peace that Jesus is speaking of is the Holy Spirit which he has given to live within us. He said He would not leave us comfortless. Although we live in this world, we are not a part of it, for we have been chosen to be His family of a royal Priesthood. We are holy and righteous, as He is, and are not of this world.. Knowing this gives us peace, not the kind that the world gives, if it even gives any, but the promised peace and gift that comes form God... the peace in knowing that we are saved and will be with Him in heaven... the joy in having that peace which sustains us in living in this world full of sorrow and darkness. He gives us His own peace.. John 14:27.

Jesus had no sin, He is pure, therefore there is nothing for Satan to hold over His head. Satan uses our weakness to control us, because we still feel sorrow for them. We are giving in to our fear and not trusting in what we have confessed to believe. When we ask Jesus for forgiveness and repent of our sins, we are to trust in Him completely and not sin again. We can not serve two masters. Either we believe that we are saved by grace and live accordingly or we allow Satan to enter our hearts by fear and destroy the trust we say we have in Jesus... There has to be a change in our way of thinking and our way of living. Jesus has already done what He promised by dying on the cross as payment for our sins. We are already freed from bondage to Satan by this act of love from God. How much plainer can it be.?? Why do we crucify Jesus over and over by doubting, when Satan tries to tempt us??? We have the same power as Jesus to say to Satan.,,"get thee behind me".... Jesus gave us that power.. He has said so... and we need to believe it. If we don't, what is the point of Him dying?What is the point of believing?? If we believe in Jesus than we need to show some sign!! Live a life that reflects our belief. And do not allow Satan to tempt us into sinning. It is like a drug, a choice to take or not. Just say No !! I am standing on the promises of God and Satan you have no power over me.!!! The Holy Spirit lives within us and gives us the power to resist the devil.. " for my strength is made perfect in weakness",....." for God has not given man the power of fear.. but of love and a sound mind".... " whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."...........I will trust In the Lord and He will fight my battles for Satan has already been defeated!!! Thank You Jesus!!! thank You Lord!!!

"If you love me , keep my commandments". Love is required for obedience. Obedience is required for salvation. Salvation is required to achieve Heaven. This is the will of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and the light, the life,. It is belief in Him that eternal life is possible to those who BELIEVE. This is the promise of God.

The Paraclete is the third person in the trinity..... the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He is the one Jesus promised the disciples who would be with them to guide them in all things holy and righteous when He returned to the Father. He said he would not leave them comfortless. He would not leave us comfortless. Jesus was the inital Paraclet sent from God. The Holy Spirit replaces Him in all things. The Holy Spirit is who is with us when we pray and do the will of God. He replaces Jesus in our hearts since Jesus has returned to sit at His place at the Fathers side. The Holy Spirit gives us comfort and guides us in all things holy and righteous. He is our spiritual connection on earth to heaven by way of our righteous hearts.