Darleen Nelson

The thing that most impressed me was the absolute freedom and joy in the worship. Things we find in our worship services are: falling down and worshipping the Lord, laying down all crowns before Him, praises constantly going forth, reading of the Word, weeping, music, prayers, worship in the Spirit, God on the throne, candles, surrender, giving honor and thanks, shouting for joy.

The above posted answer was not entered under my name. Didn't notice that I was not signed in as it is usually automatic. Anyway that is me.

Worldly interest are given too much importance in many churches. Programs and activities take the place of inspired preaching and intensive Bible study. Numbers and the quality of the members take precedence in the minds of the church leaders and the members. We must keep our hearts and minds on the message of the gospel and grieve over those who have not accepted God's gift of salvation. We must seize any opportunity to witness both in deeds and words.

When your beliefs and your life's work are so entwined that one effects the other your choices will lean to what is best for your job becuase this is where your physical livelihood is centered. As long as one doesn't interfere with the other you can stand strong in your faith, but when your personal needs and comforts are effected choices become more difficult. How often do we excuse missing church because we worked late or extra hours and neeed time to rest? Do we really take a stand about working on Sunday? Do social activities connected with your job effect your church attendance or the time you spend with God in personal devotions? Do your fellow wokers encourage you to compromise your beliefs in order to be one of the crowd? If any of these things become important to you you have lost your effectiveness as a witness to your beliefs.

As with so many things being constantly put in contact with things you do not naturally accept as a Christian you become more acceptable of them and the shock originally felt becomes less and less. If you are not on guard you not only accept these activities as bieng normal but you can be drawn into taking part. The manl place where I see this affecting me is in TV and movie watching, books I read, the language I use, and the music I listen to. Books that would have been considered scanculous and never read if anyone would find out you had read them are now almost innocent when compared to present day best sellers. Language that was once considered very offensive is now heard everywhere. Movies and TV leave nothing unshown. Music speaks of personal things as common knowledge and even encourages rebellion against family, law and society. Maintaining your Christian attitude among such things is becoming more an more unacceptable among the general public who do not want to be reminded of how far away from God they have gone. It becomes more and more important for us to maintain our Chrisitan values and to speak out about them when we have the chance whether we feel comfortable doing so or not. This is our witness.

The local congregation can lose its "first love" by letting the message of the Bible be lost in activities and organizations. The attempt to make God's message more acceptable to the people by watering down what God says to keep others from thinking being a Christian is too hard often becomes a problem. The signs of genuine love are shown by the attitude of the people toward the other members of the congregation and their desire to bring sinners into the family of God. It is so important that visitors are made to feel welcome and wanted or they will never come back. Disintrest in those seeking God, no matter how many times they have attempted to find Him will show a lack of God's love within the church membership. Exclusiveness which eliminates new-comers, pride in the membership and their accomplishments without giving credit to God for whatever these might be, and self-satisfaction over what the church has accomplished. all show the lack of love for others. A congregation can regain its first love by remembering the Great Commission and making it uppermost in what the congregation does.

The significance of Jesus walking among the lampstands means He is communicating with the people. This shows He is among us even now interceding as needed. He brings reassurance that through the trials that must be faced He is with us. He brings His presence among us rather than sitting off somewhere on His throne waiting for judgement day.

Jesus is here shown as the mighty son of God. He is depicted as being wise and having a divine nature. He is in place to judge evil and is revealed as the High Priest who is entrusted to plea for forgiveness of sinners. He is portrayed as having great powers. His appearance reassures us that He has access to God's power and we have nothing to fear. The power Jesus has been given is available to us. All power over death and the grave is ours through belief in Him. We are restored and will be resurrected into a perfect relaitonship with Him.

According to one source I read last year 150,000 Christians died as martyrs , chiefly outside of the USA. This commentator compared the persecution of Christians to the persecution of the Jews in Germany prior to World War II. It was done slowly and without anyone realizing where it was heading. There are many inroads suggesting what is to come. In Houston a woman was told by police to stop handing out Christian tracts to trick or treaters who came to her home. She was told this was against the law, which it is not. An attempt is being made now to have a monumnet removed which has an open Bible as its emphasis. The entertainment industry depicts Christians as being vultures only looking for money, or simple-minded social misfits. Recent examples of anti-Christian activities have occured in the USA. As a result teen-agers and even younger children are showing more and more signs of being led away from Christian beliefs and conduct into showing signs of violence and disobedience to any kind of rules. Basic beliefs concerning the establishment of our country on Christian standards and beliefs are being made light of and completely denied. How wonderful it is to read Revelation and learn the end of the story. Through faith in Jesus Christ we shall triumph and Jesus will be Lord.

The Father is the Lord from beginning to end--eternal. Without Him there is no beginning and no end. He is the beginning and end of existence, wisdom and power. jesus is the one who gives us power to overcome anything. He holds the key to death and the grave. He has set us free from Satan's control. We must understand that we need to place our life in Jesus' hands and in this way we receive eternal life.

Revelation proclaims Jesus' final victory over evil and assures believers of eternal life. It keeps doubt over the future from being important in our lives and offers encouragement in time of discouragement. Revelation reaveals completely who Jesus was and HIs positon in the future life. I feel we are so comfortable in our status as "Chrisitians" we don't want to risk the possibility of losing our status by coming off as being different even though we are encouraged to be strange and peculiar people.

This study has brought forward the importance of the Church to us as individual members and also the world=wide Church. Jesus told the disciples to "go into all nations and bring them the good news". That is the way Jesus ' mission for the Church is fulfilled. My local Church is my contact with Jesus and my hope of a future home in Heaven. Through the resurrection of Jesus we are given the power to be like Him but in order to keep this close fellowship we must find a local body to give up instruction and fellowship. The Bible tells us not to forsake meeting together as it is important to our spiritual welface. People feel they can be tuned into God and not need fellowship with other Christians. We all have times when we need support of others and to be sure we have God's support we need to go to other Christians. If you don't need help right now be available for those who need help. We are God's messengers on earth and need to operate through a church. The world-wide church unites a world af vastly different people and lifestyles to a common group with a common goal which is to go into all the world and spread the Word.

We as members of the church are one in body with Jesus Christ. The church also is holy because of her union with Christ. We must love with the agape love of Jesus and when we do this we will walk, act, talk, as Jesus did. We cannot achieve this level of love on our own but must love through Jesus in order to love in this way. We must see people as Jesus did and love them as they are. Only than can we be His representatives on earth. If we see the church as Jesus does we will see her as a glorious church and act like she is.

Glorious means radiant or in splendor. It means in not an ordianry form but in perfection. Paul is talking aobut the present church seen as Jesus sees it. We must learn to see the church as Jesus sees it a glorious church.

The Word of God shows us what expectations God has for us as a church. Through His Word we have all our sins washed away in baptism. The Word of God should be presented as God's Word and used as a standard for all teaching under the church's name. If the Word is presented in love, the presence of hellfire as a viable alternative, and if everyone in the church seriously reads and studies God's Word, the church will remain clean in the eyes of the Lord.

Holy means consecrated, dedicated and sanctified. Holiness was established by what Christ did but it must be maintained by the members through them being in close contact with the Lord. If we use the agape love of Christ to govern our actions we will not be judgemental or legalistic.

Christ gave up all of His kingship to come to earth as a human baby. He suffered just as we do and He did this willingly. Our salvation was more important to Him than any of the things he left behind. His sacrifice was to carry out the plan of salvation God had formed ages before.

Paul seems to consider submitting as a verb meaning to become subject or subordinate but on a voluntary basis. It is a way of surrendering one's own rights and will. In our personal relationship with Christ we are to allow our Chrisitian beliefs to be the deciding factor in what we say and do. A congregation truly submitted would have none of the problems of disagreement between members if they were all submitted to the Lord. If Christ is head of the church all of us should be striving to follow His guidance and walk in His steps.

The purpose of ministry is to build up the body of Christ, Unity must be established as this is what gives strength to the body. It can only happen as each part of the body uses the gifts God has given them to the best of their ability. Each part of the body must function at its peak to make the body more effective.

Everyone must be involved in the equipping of the saints. As we have stated earlier in this study, each person has been given special gifts from God to be used in the building and maintaining of the church. Everyone has a part and the better each takes care of their individual part, the more effective the whole will be. Equipping the saints is exactly what Jesus did for his disciples so they in turn could help others become equipped.

The pastor is the leaderof the church whose responsibility is to care for the congregation. There is so much difference in the pastors and the activities they consider a part of their ministry. We recently had a change of pastors. Our new keader us a wonderful speaker, an accomplished musician but complains often about the driving they have to do with gas costing so much. He has to drive a ways to church but so do a lot of our members. I was ill last Sunday and didn't go to services. Our former pastor and his wife would have been down to pray for me after church, brought lunch for me as I live alone and called at least once to check on me. We are a very small church of about 20 active members. The present pastor or his wife did not call and check on me or even let me know the evening services had been cancelled for Sunday. Big difference in their apporach to the office of pastor. We do have a woman in our church who can be considered a pastor. She taches the adult Sunday School class and also the mid-week Bible study which the pastor and his wife do not attend. Once again the cost of gas. They only have a twenty mile drive to the church.

Local evangalists are strong Christiand who consistantly share the teachings of the Lord with others both new Christians and htose who have been walking with the Lord longer. They are an important part of every local church.

An apostle in the early church was one sent with Jesus' personal outhority to establich "His Church". Jesus certainly is sending people today to establish His churches. How else will all of the people of the world be reached with the Good News? There are many who have established strong churches and, as Pope John I, have taken strong roles in teaching and leadership. I have my personal opinions of those who might be considered apostles but won't enumerate them in order to keep peace on our board and prevent disharmony. I do believe God operates through prophets. My first experience with a prophet brought me an encouraging message that concerned a matter no one present at the time knew anything about. It was an answer I had been desparately praying for. I feel a lot that passes as prophecy is not from God. Prophets must be tested to determine the accuracy of their phrophecies before they are accepted.

In I Peter we read that God gave us gifts so that they can flow through us. We are God's instruments on earth and if we don't spread His message it will not be spread. God gives us each special gifts for us to use to spread the Word mor easily. Be sure you learn what your gifts are or you will be ineffective. If you can't discern what your spiritual gift is, ask God and look and Listen for His answer. You will receive. Verse 16 means that we must all use the giftt we have for the work of the body. If one part tries to do a different job than the one God has assigned it, it would be like one of our body parts insisting on filling a job which isn't the one planned for them. The body can compensate for the loss of a part. People who lose one of their senses find other senses are enhanced to take over part of the job of the missing part so the body can function. Sometimes artificial or transplanted organs perform the work of the missing or non-functioning organ. Artificial or transplanted members are picking up the jobs others are better fitted for and therefore they have to do more than their share or strive to do something they aren't specifically fitted for. If everyone would carry out the task God has planned for them things will operate much more smoothly.

I will strive to learn humility. I read somewhere of a plan to do something nice or helpful for someone every day, but this must be done in such a way that they have no idea who did it for them. This was such a good idea and I felt it would be good for me to practice this as I love doing for other people but want appreciation and perhaps payback. I do not have contact with a lot of people as I am retired so sometimes I do not have a chance to have contact with many people but I have found out that I can always pray for a special blessing for people or mention a need they might have to someone else who can do something about it. It is a form of humility for me to be able to do things without anyone appreciating or even knowing what I did. I must remind myself often that the things I do every day and even the strength to do them and the ability to do anything comes from the Lord and His protection and His love.