randi

Leaders must be obsevered and tested before hand for many reason. If you put a new convert into office this could cause a pride problem for them. They may think they have arrived giving them a false sense of maturity which is needed to lead. An immmature Christian will not be able to handle the problems he may face in a proper manner. If they are not people friendly this can cause a really problem with the members, they must be sincere and genuine. In this day we live in it it is very important to check their background some, too many times people who have been child abusers have been placed in these positions. This is a most serious position(leadership), you are shepherding God's people and leading for the Lord. When looking for a delegate for leadership you should look at the persons character. Are they mature, sincere, hospitable, respected, trustworthy, with good management ability. Their wives should not be tailbears or gossipers, which could cause much trouble in a church. We are not to look for popularity or just willingness when filling this position. Many people are popular but not always caring and sincere. Many are willing for the wrong reasons. This filling of officers takes time and judgment, it should not be done overnight, once one is in office it is too late than.

I believe that what Paul was speaking about when he said a "husband of one wife" is that he was not out carousing around. Believe he had to be a person that was faithful to his wife and only one wife. I do not believe he was speaking of someone who had remarried because of death or divorce. It is important that he can lead his family well. If he can't lead his family how is he going to be able to lead a whole church family. He must be a man who is respected by his own family. The children should be obedient unto him. I must add that if they are 18 and not living at home he no longer has control over them and therefore it would not be appropriate it hold him responsible for their life now. To lead your family well you must be a person who takes care of them and has their best interest in mind, not a dictator, but a loving, patient dad.

I believe basically in men preaching the Word and I believe that if women are given the gift of teaching than they should use that gift. God gives to us gifts that we will use them. In today's world too many men have turned from the responsibilty of being the spiritual leader and the women picked up the ball. God wants for us to spread His word and if the men aren't doing it I see nothing wrong with the women doing it, if they are filled with the Holy Spirit and have the gift to do it.

Q4 This kind of dress, immodestly, hinders the brethren from worship and causes their Christian sisters to become jealous distracting both from the worship service. Now in the 21st century it is still the same, we should dress modestly not because it is depended of us but in respect to God, ourself, and to fellow believers. In order to glorify God we must fit what His standards are. We are not going to impress others, if we are we might as well stay at home.

The problem in this congregation was that the men were engaged in disputes generated by the false teachers. You must have a pure heart when praying to the Father, if you are praying with the opposite in your heart the Father will not listen and your prayers will not be answered.

I believe that Paul emphasizes the role of mediator and ransom because we were separated from God by our sins. There was a great gap between God and us. God is a holy God and therefore hates sin, our sin kept us separated from Him. We needed a mediator that could reconcile us back to God, but that would not be complete because we needed a pure blood sacrifice ( a ransom) for our sinful lives. Jesus was our mediator and our ransom because He alone was able to reconcile us with God and He alone was the perfect blood sacrifice that we needed. He came to serve and to save, which He did on Calvary. He is still our mediator pleading our case before God and bringing our petitions before God. He is still interceding for us. When satan goes before God with accusations against us, Jesus is there proclaiming that we who have accepted Him are His. This gift of salvation is open to all who will believe and except His gift.

Paul emphasizes salvation of all mankind in this letter, because God desires for all men to come to the saving knowledge of Christ and His work on Calvary. God created hell for Satan and his followers but had to enlarge it for men. God desires for no one to go to hell. I think the practice of evangelism in Ephesus was confused, the false teachers were teaching that salvation was only for the Jews and Paul and Timothy knew that it was for all mankind that would repent and accept Jesus as their personal Savior.

Paul reminds Timothy of prophecies spoken over him so Timothy will be reminded of his calling, his spiritual gifts and to us them. Don't be afraid because if God gives you a calling He will be with you to provide which you need to carry that calling out. " fight the good fight" We have to remember that we are new creatures but we still have the old sin nature to deal with daily. There is always battles going on inside us, therefore to fight the good fight we must not give up and quit. We are called with a purpose and must continue on even when many things come against us. You may get knocked down, but you must get back up and continue on. Paul is telling Timothy to stay focused on Christ and the " good news" by doing this he will stay on task and keep his own heart pure.

We learn here that God is eternal ( always was and always will be), that He is immortal, invisible, the one and only TRUE God. What we learn about praise is that God likes for us to spend time praising Him and thanking Him for who He is and what He does. We are giving Him recognition for being a God of Love, we show reverence and respect to Him. He gave His only begotten Son to us as an atonement for our sins, by praising Him we are thanking Him for what He has done for us. He is here with us and we are in His presence when we are praising Him. The speaker finds spiritual devotion as he speaks. It reminds Him of what God has done for Him which strenghtens his faith as he helps and encourages others.

Let's first take a look at the words Grace and mercy: GRACE - being given something that we don't deserve. MERCY - not getting what we do deserve. Paul tells of his own life after a paragraph on the law, because this was Paul's life in the beginning. Paul lived according to the law of the Old Testament. He was out torturing and killing Christians because they believed in faith in Christ and his atonement to set them free from sin. Paul wants the people to know what a sinner he was before he meet Christ that day on the road. Many people have the impression that what they have done is to bad to be forgiven and Paul wanted them to know that God will forgive you no matter what you have done if you repent and ask for forgiveness and accept Christ. He shared this with Timothy and the church to bring encouragement to the ones that were feeling God would never accept them. It was also encouraging to the whole of the congregation that it truly was by Grace and Jesus shed blood that we could become a part of the family of God. This sharing that Paul did helped the church to get back on track of what the church was about: to worship in unity, to fellowship and lift up other believers, and most important of all to show who Christ was and spread the good news.

The results of false doctrine in Ephesus church - There was a leadership crisis because some of the deacons were teaching false things. People had a desire for wealth. These false teachers had no knowledge of the truth, they had their interpretations of scripture. They were trying to combine the law with grace, therefore they were making it a case of works and not grace. They were full of pride which gave them the air of not listening to anything. There false ways brought confusion and controversey. God says He is not the God of controversey or confusion. How this hurts the spirit of the church - The true Christians could not grow in Christ, but they stayed immature. It was causing the destruction of faith instead of building the faith up. There is so much speculation that know one was learning the true gospel of Christ. The church has no peace or unity. There has to be unity in order for something to grow. With false teaches among them there faith is weakened because some try to make it about works not grace. Keep churches from mission - The mission of any church is to lead people to Christ and His work on Calvary. It is by grace we are saved not by works so that no man can boast. If the church is not bringing people to Christ it is of no value. In a church that has false doctrine all about people will begin to compromise. There is no compromising when it comes to our Lord and Savior.

When we ask thy kingdom come we are asking for power from the Holy spirit to lead and guide us into the Father's Kingdom way. That we would be like Jesus and do His will while here on earth. We should ask for God's will because He knows best. This prayer should make us more aware of how we are living. That we should acknowledge Him in all our ways.

We must recognize that God's name is holy. He is above us. He is a holy and righteous God and this demands our respect. He is over all. When we use His name in vain it dishonors Him. We should be very careful to only use His name to bring honor to Him. When we pray to Him we must recognize who He is and that He created us. He is the creator and we are the created.

I must be centered and focused on Christ. I must be a believer in God and have a personal relationship with Christ. I must be a giver. We get according to what we give. There is NO limit to this fulfillment. God is limitless. This promise means to me that even though I was not called to go to a mission field I can still participate in missions and in seeing souls saved.

The Philippians by financing Paul's work were partners with him. They may have not been called to go but by helping to make it possible for Paul to go they became a part of his ministry. Paul labored, they financied, therefore they would share in the reward. For every soul saved they were a part of leading that one to Christ. Temporal blessings were from God. The Word says give and you shall receive. You will receive according to how you give. In the church I attend we are part of a program called Faith Missions, we pledge once a year to give a certain amount to missions every week or month. I have been doing this for three years now and never once have I ever not had the things I need. When we give God will supply all our needs. Not all our wants but all our needs.

Paul did not look on outward conditions in life. He looked at the inward, the heart, he was focused on the Lord and heavenly things. No, this does not undermine ambition, it just changes our reasons for doing things. The Word says to do all things unto Christ. Paul relied on God alone, He totally trusted in God for all circumstances. He drew his strength from Christ alone. He knew that as humans our strenght has limits but with the Lord there are no limits of what can be done.

First off preaching a prosperity doctrine is a false doctrine that must be seen as false. This is a threat to Christian ministry because it can lead ones to feel if they don't have wealth they must not be being faithful. They may feel as though the are not following God, because if they were they would have many worldly goods. This doctrine would be a selfserving doctrine not a giving doctrine and we know Christ was concerned with giving He gave His life for us!! Thios kind of appeal would cause some to be come greedy. Going to God for what He can give and not for who He is. The balance in riches and poverty is to rejoice and thank God no matter where you are, whether in the low bracket of income or the high. Riches are not bad in themselves they become wrong when we put them before good. On the other hand if you have all the riches in the world and lose your soul, what good is it.

We have to have control of our mind or we open the way for the devil to get control. In the Bible it says to have a renewed mind, one that will focus on the good things, pure and honest things. When I get all stressed over circumstances I try to run to the Bible and get me some Scripture to concentrate on. I will confess I am not very good in this area. I have been accustomed to worrying all my life. But I will continue to strive to break free from this sin of worry.

God says when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, therefore when we bring our request to Him we draw near to Him. As we go to God with all our needs and thanksgiving our relationship grows because we are spending time with Him and trustng in Him. God will bring peace that passess all understanding if we pray with thanksgiving and deliberately trust Him.

God wants us to ask in faith and remembrance of what He has done in the past than He will reward our bahavior. [/b]It boost our faith because than we remember what He has done.

Rejoicing is a decisive action, we need to decide that we are going to rejoice no matter what. It is not just feelings! We must find joy in God loves us, Christ died for us, our names are written down in Heaven. We must think on Godly things. Rejoicing will bring blessings and power from on high.

One reason I believe Paul could be so bold is because he had been on each side of the journey. Before Paul was converted he was seeking out Christians to kill them. After his conversion he was totally commited to Christ and truly walked the walk, not just the talk. Paul was spending his life seeking to know more and more of Christ. Paul stayed single in order to devote more time to Christ. I believe we are hesitate to do this because we are afraid of making a mistake, but we are still in the flesh so we will make mistakes, but if we are truly seeking Christ our life will lead others to Christ. God's way is to use imitators to build disciples, first by Christ coming we are given a true example. Christ is our example and as others walk with Christ and live according to His ways they become examples to others. That is why God's Word says to tell our kids and to walk upright in front of our families, so we can be living examples. Your family is the first to imitate you and if your life is focused on the Lord they will want what you have.

To be called upwards by God is to be called to a closer walk with Christ. To press on in this journey always becoming more and more like Christ. Focus on the spiritual, not just the worldly things. God's call becomes dim when we are out of fellowship with Him such as getting caught up in the worlds cares, unforgiveness in our hearts, or just not taking the time to spend with Him. We can renew our hearing by confessing our sins and forgiving people we have not forgiven. By concerntrating more on Christ and less on the things of this world. SPEND TIME WITH HIM. The call is for service to Christ. It is a life time thing and we never finish until we are home with Him. Going on each day learnig to be more like Christ. Walking in the spirit.

The past keeps us looking back at our losses, failures and regrets, when we do this we can not stay focused on Jesus. We loose a lot of time looking backward instead of forward. The past can stop us from pressing on because we may be afraid we will fail again. Staying in the past does not allow us the opportunity to see what God has for us now. We change a little every day in Christ. We are not who we were. Yes, there are things I have trouble forgetting, but I try not to concentrate on them. I know God isn't finished with me yet and I am a work in progress.

To know Christ means you have a personal relationship with Him. You commune with Him on a daily basis. You don't just know about Him but you have a relationship with Him. When you have faith you believe the reliablity of the one you are trusting. You can not have a personal relationship with Christ unless you have faith that He exist and faith in who He is. You can't have faith and not a personal relationship with Him. I am at a personal level with Christ but I am still striving to know Him better and to love Him more. This will be a life time journey. Not until we get to heaven will it be complete.