Francina

To be holy is to be complete and perfect - devoted to God. To be blameless is to be without sin.

Predestination means God determined everything about us before we existed. What is scary is what will happen to me if I do not iive my life as God planned. What is comforting is that God knew everything that will happen to me long before I was born. So, even when I encounter some problems lm comforted by the knowledge that God is not surprised by them and He already have solutions. Paul wants us to understand that God is all powerful and all knowing . Nothing is impossible with Him. He is always in control because He planned everything in advance.

To be in Christ is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and to live according to His instructions. It is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It implies that I should be guided by the Holy Spirit in every aspect of my life. It also means that I must be guided by The Word of God in everything I do.

Both the rich and the poor may suffer from greed. The rich may not be satisfied with what they have and continue to want everything for themselves, even stealing from the poor. They may also not want to share what they have. The poor may also be greedy by stealing what does not belong to them . The book Malachi states that we must tithe but in most cases we don't do that. We give very little to the church although we have more. People are only concerned about themselves and do not care about the church We must obey all the commandments that are given in the Bible. We must not only say we believe in God but our actions must show that we have repented.

God ordered the slaughter of all people in Jericho because of the sins they committed. If they lived they would influence the people of Israel to sin like they did. I'm devoted to the Lord with all my heart. I know that my body is the temple of God and I respect it. The fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross make me realize that we were bought with a very high price and need to do all that is pleasing to Him. To deny ourselves means we must put aside our selfish desires and live according to His Word. We belong to Christ and we must live to serve His purpose. The power of sin over us died with Christ on the cross and we should always avoid sinful desires that keep us from following Jesus.

Debate and argument play an important role in evangelism. By debating you are able to convince your listeners about the truth of the Word of God. It is imperative to study scriptures so that you can base your arguments on what on what the Word of God is saying. If you base your arguments on scriptures you will not be deceived by those who are using God's Word for their own benefit. I always read my Bible so that I can understand the truth about the Word of God.

Persecuting the church is the same as persecuting Jesus because Jesus is the church. He is the head of the church and we are the body of the church. There is a strong relationship between the church and Jesus. The bond between Jesus and the church is very powerful because Jesus is the foundation of the church It is important that we show reverence to the church because by so doing we will be glorifying Jesus as the head of the church. We will be showing respect and love to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Phillip 's preaching which was accompanied by miracles and healing of the sick convinced them to believe in Jesus. I think the Holy Spirit did not fall on them when they were baptized because God wanted other apostles to come so that more signs and miracles could be shown and more people could be converted.

The Holy Spirit and the knowledge and believe that God is always with us enable us to give thanks in all circumstances. The short term effects of Saul's persecution was that people were scattered all over the places but continued to spread God's Word in those places. The long term effects was that God's Word reached many countries as people continued to be witnesses wherever they go.

Stephen meets all the requirements of a good leader. He is wise and that is shown in his argument with those who were opposing him. He is very powerful in his preaching and he is also filled with the Holy Spirit The ministry that combines the Word with miracles is powerful because it shows the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that is working in the preachers.

The root cause of the problem is the unfair distribution of food among the Greek speaking and Hebrew speaking Jews. Such a problem can cause the disciples to concentrate more on the tension and thus compromise the preaching of the Word which is their primary function. If that happens the spiritual life of the congregation will be affected negatively. The apostles solved the problem by delegating the distribution of food to other people. They selected seven people to deal with that duty. So far we do not have such a problem in.our congregation.

It means they were all filled with the presence and power of God that enabled them to speak in tongues. They were already filled with the Spirit .It means the power they were given was renewed every time they prayed.

They prayed for boldness because they needed to have courage to continue preaching the Word of God even if they were strongly opposed. The circumstances they were facing as they were spreading the Gospel were dangerous because those in authority were against it. Thus, they needed to be bold and without fear to be able to go on spreading the Good news. Praying for boldness indicated their strong faith in God. They believed in the power of God and they also trusted that He will protect them against those who were persecuting them. They had a strong character and could not be easily discouraged by negative talks.

The implications of believing that Jesus Christ is the exclusive way to God are as follows: If you don't believe in Jesus you will not be able to enter the kingdom of God because your sins are not forgiven. Only those who believe that Jesus died for their sins on the cross will be saved. If Jesus is the only way to God then people must know the truth about the Word of God. For that to happen the Word should be preached to all the people and all nations. More people should be involved in spreading the Good news and in this way evangelism will be energized.

Repentance is necessary to experience personal times of refreshing because your sins are wiped out and forgiven. When we repent God doesn't only promise to cleanse us of our sins but He also promise to bring spiritual refreshment. We will have peace because of the knowledge that God is in control our lives. The time of ultimate refreshing will be during the second coming of Jesus when we will be judged .

It is the power that comes from God and that power will only work if you believe in Jesus. Many believers conclude their prayers"in Jesus name, Amen" because they believe that it is only by the power that is in the name of Jesus that they will receive what ever they have asked for. John 14:13 confirms this. Praying in Jesus name relate to praying in God's will because by so doing God will be glorified. Jesus is the Son of God and if one believes in Him it means he also believes in God. If you pray in Jesus' name you acknowledge the power that is in God. It is possible to misuse praying in Jesus' name if the motive for our prayer is wrong. For example asking for something for our own gratification and not for the glorification of God.If the motive for our prayer is selfish then we will be misusing Jesus' name in our prayer.

They were praying together in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Yes, there are times when we gather in one place and pray together especially if there is something important that is going to take place or when we are facing some difficulties. It is very important for us to pray together as fellow Christians , we motivate each other and our prayers become more effective.

With the Holy Spirit in us we become effective witnesses of the Good News. it gives us power to spread the Word of God to many people. Acts1:8 servers as an outline of the book of Acts because we see the disciples and everyone who received the Holy Spirit being able to preach the Word of God to various people in different places. Indeed the Word of God reached people not only in Jerusalem but also in Judea, Samaria and.all the nations of the world. We must also spread the Good News in our communities to fulfill Acts 1:8

They should wait for the Holy Spirit to come and empower them so that they are able to witness with confidence to other people and nations. The Spirit's coming represents a filling, a baptism because they are going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and this will enable them to preach the Gospel with power and without fear.