Gann

Q3. (2:9) What actions and attitudes should this idea of being part of God's own people inspire in us? This should really lift us up and give us great cheer praising and singing praises and thanking God for loving us enough to have chosen us to be His people. We should be on our knees bowing before Him daily for His wonderful Love. Always thinking about ways to magnify His name and telling others about His wonderful Love.

We should offer our Praise with all our Heart, soul, and mind, with everything we have in us we should worship and Praise the Lord. Jesus came to this earth and gave us all that He had and even died for us that we should have life. He has set us an example that we should follow Him in our life offering our bodies up as a living sacrifice to God for this is our reasonable service.

The mindset of a Priest is to offer up sacrifices unto God, giving all they can spiritually to God through sacrifices and praises and songs. This also inspires me to offer up sacrifices of praise and worship unto the Lord for all of His goodness and mercy. For the Lord has already done so much for me I just want to give all I can to Him and I realize that the most I can give Him is praise and worship and telling others about Him.

There has been times in my life when I felt that my life had no value or worth, times when I was younger and somewhat a loner and it seemed like no one wanted me around them, I just felt shut out and alone like my life wasn't worth anything. When I found Jesus and according to 1Peter 1:18,19, I can now see and understand and know that there is great value in my life with God and that means everything to me. For the Bible tells me that I am more value than silver and gold or any thing in this world and that's just wonderful. For God loved me enough that He gave His only begotten Son to die for me that I could have eternal Life. So God gave the very greatest for me and that lets me know that my life does have value in it through Jesus Christ. This word assures me that if I will trust in God then all my needs rather financial or any other need He would provide for me. For if He would give His Son for me then I feel like He will take care of everything else. My investments is a life long commitment to trust, serve, and follow Christ with all my belief, all my heart and all my strength. To submit myself to God and His service. I will do this for the hope of having ever lasting life, being with Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven for ever.

People of this day are so caught up in themselves that they can do no wrong and better not any one judge them for what they are doing. But I believe the main problem is that they know that they are doing wrong and convictions hits their heart and then they get offensive and upset. God has showed His wonderful love for the world when He gave His only begotten son to die for us that we might be reconciled back to Him. Therefore that love is what is going to judge us in the end. That Love should draw us closer to Him everyday. Jesus took our judgment up on the cross of Calvary, therefore He is all the hope that we have in eternal salvation. For without Jesus Christ final judgment would be totally on our own head and we would have no hope. When final judgment is left out or ignored then is Jesus also left out and ignored and our sins remain on our own heads. For Jesus died for our sins that we could be set free of sin. So without final judgment then there is death.

To me holiness means living for God looking for his coming at any given time. Striving to do those things that are good and right that we are taught in the Bible, which can only be done by the Holy Spirit working in us, (a life without willful sin). I can only be Holy by the Grace of God, from the time that I surrendered my life to live for Him and do His will and except His Spirit in my life to lead me and guide me through my daily walk. A full surrender to Christ. You must be completely obedient to His will in your life to become Holy, opening yourself up to His guidance in everything you do. The biggest struggle with being Holy is when I allow myself to get in the way and try to do righteous things on my own without allowing Holy Spirit to guide me. Self is always the one who gets in the way.

Knowing that Christ is coming back after His church that is pure and holy should really make us stop and think about where we are in our walk with Him. For we know neither the hour or the day when He will return so we should be ready at all times. To be ready means living our life for Him in holiness. We should all be inspired by the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for we believe that when He comes we shall go and be with Him for ever in the Kingdom of Heaven where there is no more pain or suffering or death. If we are not looking for Him to come at any giving time then we just might get caught up in the things and cares of this world in this life and not be ready when He does come.

The basis of christian joy is through faith trusting Jesus for our salvation, that no matter what we may go through in this life we can rest assured that there is a better day waiting. Even though we may can't see Him in the physical now we still believe through faith that He is always with us. Human emotions come and they go but the joy we have through faith will never cease or fade away. Sometimes our emotions get us carried away in ourselves looking for happiness just to be let down latter by disappointments, but when we receive Christ as our Savior our hope or joy in what lies ahead will never die. True joy can only come from complete trust and faith in Jesus and when we have this even when we are sad and discouraged and tried we can still have joy knowing that we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. Where some people say they have joy in their heart with the Lord but when the trials come and hard times happen they seem to lose their joy and start focusing to much on the circumstances,when this happens they just need to draw closer to Jesus for true joy and happiness.

There was a time that the Lord was working with me and I just wouldn't submit to Him until one particular time in my life that I had to go through a very difficult time in my life. For my daughter had to go through surgery for about twelve to fifteen hours, which really got my attention and brought me to my knee's and changed my life forever. Since that time I have submitted to preach the gospel for our Lord and serve Him by serving others. There has been many other difficult situations in my life since that has even made me stronger and brought me closer to the Lord. Even a time such as my son being diagnosed with Leukemia at four years old which I was Blessed to see the power of God to Heal Him, Amen,. There are so many things we go through in life that we struggle with but we don't have to go through them alone, praise God. Even though trials are hard, when other people see you go through these trials and see how you trust in Jesus to get you through it can change there life just as it has yours and that brings glory to Jesus Christ when we can lift Him up before others.

God calls us and then He keeps us in His hands to the redemption of our souls that we may spend eternity with Him. All this is through God's mercy and grace which keeps us from the penalty which we deserve which is death. Our part is to trust Him and keep our faith even through the trials we go through and not give up or lose our faith because of the trial. We must truly understand that because of our sinful life we are headed for destruction and that it is only be the mercy of God that we can be saved, and through realizing that we turn to God desiring a new life with Him. Therefore we hold on by faith even to the end.

Forgiveness and Obedience comes together as a package because if we understand that we need forgiveness we must be willing to forgive. For Jesus said in Mat. 6:14,15; "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you." So in order for one to work you must be willing to do the other. To think that we can have one without the other we are just fooling our self. For it is very selfish to just want all the time and not be willing to give something in return even though the world is a lot that way with God now days. But how can we understand what Christ done for us and not be willing to follow Him in obedience. For Samuel told King Saul that it is better to obey than to sacrifice. (1Sam.15:22). If where not willing to obey how can we expect anything from God. Obedience is not what saves us it is just a natural act of love once we receive Christ into our hearts. For Jesus said "If you believe in me the works that I do you will do also and greater works will you do because I go unto my Father".(John 14:12). If we truly believe in Christ then are we changed and become a new creature, a creature of Obedience. So the works does not save us they are just the sign that we are saved. For the scripture says "You shall know them by their fruits".(Mat.7:16).

I feel like one that identifies more with this present world than his heavenly one is like a wanderer going about not knowing where he's going usually not ending up any where secure. Yes, I have caught myself doing this in times past. Then I have to remember where I need to turn to find my peace. In order to get our spiritual priorities straight we must seek the Glory oh God and surrender to His will and not our own.