RonS

Q3. Verses 11 and 12 both attribute various characteristics to God, such as glory, honor, and might. How might you begin to mention God's greatness in your own prayers? I try to start all my prayers with Father I honor you, I praise you, and I love you Father Where is this kind of praise found by example in the Lord's Prayer? I just copied this post from servant4life from the study of the Lord Prayer servant4life Praise the Lord everyone!!! Hallowed be thy name addresses the attention of the prayer toward God and reverence for His name and His person. Hallowed (Gr. hagiazo) means to be held in reverence and awe of holiness. God's name was so sacred to the Old Testament Jew that it was never pronounced by human lips. Thus His name is the expression of His very essence. The biblical usage of the concept of a name is a characteristic description of the basic character of the person whom the name is applied. Since the prayer is directed to our Spiritual Father, only a child of God who has been born again can rightly pray this prayer. What are your favorite songs that point to God's greatness? The Hillsongs are a modern view of Gods greatness.

Why is a person's attitude with regard to giving related to that person's attitude towards praise? If you think you earned things by your own effort, then you praise your self for your great efforts. If you admit that you are nothing and all things are a gift from God you will praise him for every thing in your life. Even the trials. Why does an attitude of possessiveness with regards to giving get in the way of worship? If you think things are mine you become selfish. Selfish people exalt themselves not the Father. Worship is the exalting of the Father. In what sense do all your possessions belong to God? He created them why should they not belong to him. What then should be your relationship to your possessions? Hold them lightly in the palm of your open hand. Always put your love for God and people ahead of things. If you grip them tightly they will control you and your decisions. How will these truths re-energize your giving? Your praise? You will have a kingdom view of life. When people see the word giving they think of money. But it is so much more then that. Giving is looking at all things you do through

In what way does praise exalt God? When we give anyone praise it raises that person up and humbles us. It is the same when we praise God. We put Him on the throne and we are the subjects bowing before the throne. Why should we exalt God? Because of who he is. Yahweh What does this exaltation do in us? It humbles us. What does it say about us? We are his subjects.

In what way do our prayers of praise "bless" God? What do we mere humans have that God desires in a blessing? God created this world for a home for man, and he then created man. Why did he do this? So he could have many sons that would praise and worship him. Then man sinned and was separated from God. To give man a chance to return to the relationship with the father He sent Jesus to make a blood sacrifice to restore the relationship of man with the Father. This is where we are now at, so look what He has done for you. If not for his mercy you would be eternally condemned to hell. So if you can think of nothing else to praise Him for, praise Him for his mercy and love for you. It blesses God when you acknowledge what he has done for you and you give him thanks for his blessing in your life. I would like to share a story I heard that impacted me, and the way I pray. A person was taken up to heaven. Upon his arrival Saint Peter gave him a tour. As he was shown around heaven he saw a big building with sign prayer room. He asks Saint Peter what is in there? So Saint Peter took him in for a tour. There were hundreds of tables with angles manning each table. The angles were all busy recording prayer of humans and sending back to earth answers. As he was shown around he seen a table in the back with an angle just setting there doing nothing. He asks Saint Peter what that table was for? Saint Peter told him that was the table where the prayers of thanks were recorded. He asks why the angle was doing nothing. Saint Peter said there was few humans who ever gave prayers of thank to there Father. Since hearing this story I try to never say a prayer that does no include thanks to my Father and praise Him for my many blessings. What are prayers like, that don't include blessing God? They break Gods heart. Why are we so selfish? All we want is to be blessed and never give thanks and bless the Father.

In his prayer does David seek to minimize his sins? No, he acknowledges his sin and says it his fault. David also acknowledges that he is total sinful and only by the grace of God will he be forgiven. To maximize them? His sin is always before him. He is sinful from birth. His sins are evil is the sight of his God. Why does an authentic prayer for pardon require clear, unvarnished acknowledgement of sin to be effective? All sins must be confessed to God with a grieving spirit before He will hear our prayers. Unanswered prayer is because of unconfessed sins. Is. 59: 1,2

In what way does a prayer for pardon require faith? We must have faith to believe that God will do what he says he will do in his Word. It is only by his mercy we are pardoned, this only happens because of His grace What is that faith based on? In believing what the Word of God says, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who speaks truth to us. How does a person gain the faith to pray this prayer in confidence? By studying the life of Jesus and seeing the confidence he had in the Father.

What does it mean to have a broken heart and spirit? To get humbly on our knees and ask the Holy Spirit to show us all our sins, as these sins are shown to us they must be confessed with a grieving spirit. This grief comes from knowing how the sin separates us from God and how it grieves his heart. Some of the main ingredients of repentance is brokenness and grief. Why is this essential in the prayer for pardon? In what sense is this a "sacrifice"? If we are not pardoned we spend eternity in hell. Our pardon cost Jesus Christ our Lord his death on the cross. What a sacrifice. Why do we tend to resist a "broken and contrite heart" in ourselves? Satan tells us that we don

Is it possible to have a pure heart? Yes, but it is not by cleaning up the heart we were born with. That heart is terrible wicked and does what is evil. We have a new heart when we become a Christian. It is not a changed life but an exchanged life. Exchanging the sinful life of the family of Adam, for the holy sinless life in the family of Christ. How does God bring about a pure heart? When we ask Christ to become a member of the Kingdom of God. Then we receive our heart transplant. What is our part in this? Ask and Repent.

Q4. In what way does Abraham show persistence? Why is persistence necessary in prayer? Have you ever experienced "praying through"? What was it like? Abraham keeps coming back to God with a smaller number. God want to know we are serious about what we ask for. I am in the middle of some prayers now I ask God to give me the faith enough to pray them through.

Q3. Do you think Abraham's boldness pleased God? Why or why not? What might cause God to take delight in your prayers to him? Yes. Because it is a demonstration of his faith. Humbly come to Him with bold prayer based on His Word. Also we need to have the mind set that we will pray for this till we see God

Q2. How did Abraham demonstrate his humility before God? Why must boldness be tempered with humility? 27Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the LORD, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 30Then he said, "May the LORD not be angry, but let me speak. 31Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the LORD, 32Then he said, "May the LORD not be angry, but let me speak just once more. Abraham knows he is nothing but dust and ashes and he ask to speak. He also asks that God not to be angry with him. This kind of boldness is by faith in our position in Christ. Not our confidence in our selves. Humility is because we know that this position is only by the grace of God.

Q1. What is the basis of Abraham's argument that God should spare Sodom? How does it relate to God's character? To me the most amazing thing about this passage is that Abraham is face to face with God and has the confidence in his knowledge of God

Can God answer a prayer for something outside of the scope of his will? No. We must pray with in his will if we want answered paryers. We know his will by knowing God's Word

My answer to question #2 is also my answer to this question. It is all about our training. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" Does effectual fervent prayer availeth much to God or to us? I think it trains us to be more like Christ.

What had the people done that was so bad? They worshipped an idol How can a loving God be angry? If he would never get angry at sins I would think he did not care. Is God's sentence to destroy Israel and raise up a new nation through Moses justified? Yes

Did Moses

forgiveness vs unforgiveness Spirit vs flesh The human flesh does not want to forgive it wants to get even. The Spirit want forgiveness it wants to be free and have joy in the fellowship with the Father. This is why Paul says "Die to flesh daily" Paul also says "take up you cross" What does that mean? The cross is a exicution device. It kills the flesh. If the flesh is out of the way then the Spirit can operate. Forgiving and asking for forgivness is part of putting the flesh down. Try daily to keep your flesh down so your Spirit can shine. If your Spirit is shinning you are a reflection of Christ.

Why do we seek to be independent of asking anyone for help? Why do we seek to be independent of God? I think the answer to the these questions is the same. We are taught from the time we are little that we must be strong and independent. Get up, get to work ,get job and don't relay on anyone, be independent. This changes us for life, we have a hard time asking anyone for help in cluding God. Why should we ask God to "give" us daily bread so long as we can earn a living for ourselves? Earning a living by work is also a gift from God. All good thing are a gift from God. We need to talk to the Father daily, so daily ask for what we need for that day.

In what sense are we asking that the Father's kingdom should come? When we become a christian (ask Jesues to be Lord of our lives) we become a menber of the kingdon of heaven. At that time we change from the family of Adam to the family of Christ. Chist's family is the kingdom family. It starts here now not later in heaven. Why are we asking for the Father's will to be done here on earth? Our Father know the plan for our lives. We only see one demension of what is happening. His will is perfect and we will be blessed if we follow it. How should this prayer affect our living? We should be loving children, doing the will of our Father. Not our will but yours Father.

Q1. What about our lives and words "hallows" the name of our Father? I try to live my life so that it reflects Jesus. I think this would is the best way to hallow my heavenly father. What desecrates and besmirches it? My sin and trying to do things my way. How should we "hallow" the Father when we begin to pray? Having an understanding that we are nothing but filthy sinners and we will be in hell someday, but for his love. We are nothing compared to God, are best deeds are nothing but filthy rags to him. He created the world; the smartest man cannot even create a one-celled ameba.

Q3. (3:17) How can Paul be so bold as to ask others to imitate him? He could say this because he knows that it is not him but the Christ in him that people see. He has learned how to die to self. It is not I but Christ. If people imitate him it will be that they are imitating Christ Why are we so hesitant to do this? We know that we have not died to self so people will see us not Christ. Who is likely to imitate you? Your children will imitate you. It is convicting when you see them do things that you hate about your self.

Q1. (3:2-6) How does "confidence in the flesh" show up in your congregation? Have you ever struggled with it? I think all people and every church struggles confidence in the flesh. I will use Pastor Ralph's list of boasts Paul could of use, and put into words for today Circumcision -- I was baptized. Citizenship -- I am a member of this denomination, or a member of the biggest and best church in town. Genealogy-- My family has be members of this denomination for 4 generations. Family Heritage -- My farther was a pastor and my grandfather was an elder. Orthodoxy--We follow ever rule of our denomination. Zeal --We never miss a service, we come Sunday morning Sunday night and every Wednesday. Righteousness-- I am proud of the righteous life I live. We as humans do not want to humble our self and come to the foot of the cross and admit that we are nothing but filthy sinners.

Amen to the reply by Josa Rivera and Helen Spaulding The slave has no mind of his own only the mind of the master. Another thought along this line. All people have a master. There is two Spirits waring to be master of our mind. Jesus want to be master of your mind, also the Devil wants to be master of your mind. One wants to take you the heaven the other wants to take you to hell. Who is your master, where are you going???? The road of life has a y you mush chose to follow one or the other. The path of which master do you travel?

This study has caused me to ask, am I the person that God wants me to be. Am I living a Holly life? Is my heart pure? Will I hear the words from Jesus, well-done good and faithful servant. Thank you Pastor Ralph Wilson

Q4. (5:19-20) In the light of James' emphasis on active faith vs. dead faith (2:17), why is the role of finding and bringing back the wandering sheep so important? If God put something or someone on your heart, pray and believe that God hears your pray. I always liked the saying That you can't steer a parked car. If you faith is active God can direct you. If you fear God you will listen more intently for his voice and when you hear his voice you will obey. Jonathan Edwards is his sermon "Sinner in the hand of a angry God" said that humanity hangs by a single spiders web over the pit of hell. With a flick of God's finger and we would all be in hell. Ask God to help you pureify your heart. God Bless