Mayjoy

Q1. What is the word used in the Bible instead of "rapture"? When will the resurrection take place in relation to Christ's return? In relation to judgment? In relation to glory? (This is NOT the place to debate various theories of the rapture and the millennium.) In I Thes 4:17 word used for rapture is "caught up". They will not see death but will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. At the return of Lord, while he is in the clouds, the trumphet will sound and all the saints will be gathered all though out the earth, the dead will rise up first and will be ressurrected, and then those who are still alive will be raptured and meet the Lord int the air and will live with the Lord forever with uncorruptible bodies, and then after these the judgment will come and judge the dead according to what they have done.

I believe the disciples have no motives of stealing the body of Jesus, as we could read in the bible they were all gone, lost and afraid., even Peter, one of the apostles denied Jesus which only shows that they didnt want to be recognized as followers of Jesus fearing for their own lives. For the Romans and Jews, maybe their motives to steal the body is total destruction of body of Jesus so that He will no longer be remembered by His followers, and as for the Jews, they knew the prophesy about the promised Messiah, and the redemption, maybe halfheartedly they believe but afraid that it might fullfilled, but these are just opinion, overall we as Christians believe the truth that He has risen and He conquered death, no one stole His body,

All Christians not only the Christian scholars do efforts on seeking the truth, and these liberal scholars might be seeking more proof of the reality of Christ resurrection basing on practical ideas and within human level of understanding - but these are just ideas which they cannot prove as well. If we are truly believers of Christ, and believers of bible, our FAITH and the HOLY SPIRIT will work on us to give us wisdom to understand what happened in the past and the reality that is working in our lives today.

Daniel knew from the scriptures that God has spoken to Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem will last for 70 years and he has faith that God will be fullfilling his promise and this is the reason why he intercede for all the people of Jerusalem for forgiveness of sin. Daniel is a man of prayer and he brought everything to God. He knew that sin is a transgression to God, He also have faith that God will listen to his prayer and forgiveness will be granted so the scripture will be fullfilled

What does it mean to have a broken heart and spirit? Why is this essential in the prayer for pardon? In what sense is this a "sacrifice"? Why do we tend to resist a "broken and contrite heart" in ourselves? To have a broken heart and spirit means to be sorry for the sins that we did and we take full responsibility and ready to face whatever consequences God will bring to us. It also means a heart full of sorrows and repentance for what was done and ask for God's forgiveness and cleansing We tend to resist a broken heart in ourselves when we live in pride and when we deny our sins and instead we give reasons for the wrongdoing or sometimes putting the blame to other people or to God Himself . In this case God cannot work in us, our hearts are hardened by our own desires and reasoning and we cannot hear whatever He is trying to tell us.

Is it possible to have a pure heart? How does God bring about a pure heart? What is our part in this? Yes, it is possible to have a pure heart, this is also what God desires to us. God brings about a pure heart when He washed away our sins when we repent from our sins and let Jesus dwell in our hearts, If we continuously live our lives away from the sin and let God direct our lives and live a holy life, we could say that we have pure hearts.

In his prayer does David seek to minimize his sins? To maximize them? Why does an authentic prayer for pardon require clear, unvarnished acknowledgement of sin to be effective David didnt seek to minimize or maximize his sin, instead he confessed his sin whole heartedly and ask for forgiveness. Authentic prayer of pardon require acknowledgement of sin because this shows that we are truly sorry for what we did, and we know that this separate us from God the reason why we repent and ask for His forgiveness

In what way does a prayer for pardon require faith? What is that faith based on? How does a person gain the faith to pray this prayer in confidence? Prayer for pardon requires faith that God will hear the prayer and God's forgiveness will be granted after confessing the sin and ask for God's grace for forgiveness. The faith is based on the truth that God loves us and He will grant forgiveness to those who truly recognize their sin and humbly come to Him for forgiveness. The person gain faith to pray this prayer of confidence when he really know who God is and have personal relationship with Him. We are living in this world and we are susceptible of committing sin even we really want to live a holy life, but we should always remember that God sees us and his mercy is always there, all we need is to come boldly to Him and ask for forgiveness and He will cleanse us and forgive our sins

Abraham prayed persistently to God and didnt stop from asking about the destruction if there are 50 righteous down to 10 - but God didnt also stop in replying. We can see here that persistency gets result, as long as we are in tune to God and always ready to listen, God will be always there to answer our prayers, Praying through get results because the communication with God is open and He could be able to talk to us freely. We also need to be persistent.

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, God was pleased with the boldness of Abraham because of his faith and humility. God will be delighted if we always come to Him in prayer and tell Him even the smallest things of our lives and live according to His will

Q2. How did Abraham demonstrate his humility before God? Why must boldness be tempered with humility? In his prayer he debased himself - completely humbled himself before God saying that he is nothing but dust and ashes - and even saying that may the Lord be not angry for what he said - This shows the complete submission and reverence of Abraham to God, and recognizing his position being the creation asking his Creator. It is so important to be humble before God, so we know where we stand, that we lay aside all our pride and listen and submit to what God will tell us

With the prayer of Abraham and the way He talked to God it only shows how near he is to God that he could boldy ask these questions repeatedly just to make sure that God will show mercy to the righteous dwelling in Sodom, Abraham knew very well that God will do whatever He say. The basis of Abraham's argument is that : will God destroy the sinner together with the righteous - ?? and God boldly said He wont- for the sake of the righteous. This shows that our God is just - He will judge us according to our ways, He give grace tot he righteous but will able to punish and bring destruction to those who choose to live in sin.

I believe that when God answers our prayer, it is always within the scope of His will, unless, we are hard headed that we make our own move contrary to what God is instructing us or do it the way we want to and we committed sin in order to let it happen/or answered - so - this is not within the scope of God's will. God never plan to harm us but always give us the best - whether the answer is yes or no, God has always something better than what we think is good for us

Luke 11:9 - And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. - the response of God is dependent on how we do our part and if we are living our lives in God's direction, living a holy lives, which God wants us to be -, and we are submitting ourselves to Him, we are certainly sure that God will hear our prayers - it is also written in James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Moises prayed and pleaded to God and intercede for the people of Israel. We could see here that Moises prayed within God's perspective and not want he wants - he reiterated the promises of God and God was moved by the prayer of faith of Moises looking forward the fullfillment of what has God already promised. We need to learn to pray within God's perspective and submit to His will, and how can we know His will? by reading and meditating to His words., - we do not see God physically but He could speak to us by His words thru the bible, we need to open our hearts and go to the flow of what God is showing us - and we will receive answer to our prayer.

What had the people done that was so bad? How can a loving God be angry? Is God's sentence to destroy Israel and raise up a new nation through Moses justified? The people worship the golden calf, and made it their idol and made sacrifice to it, as if it is the idol who brought them out of Egypt. God was angry and disappointed on how sinful the people were, that inspite of His protection and power that He showed them as they flee from the land of Egypt, people were still longing to worship other god other than Him. Face to face - the people committed blasphemy and rebellion against God , which God was so much displeased, - the reason why He told Moises that He will destroy them. God meant whatever He said, and without the pleading of Moises, maybe God will really destroy them all as He already did during Noah's time and on Sodom and Gomorrah. Whatever God did or will be doing they are justified as He is the Creator and He rules and have all the power over all His creation.

We need to continually ask for forgiveness because we are human, and sin is a human nature, in our everyday living we are susceptible of doing something wrong, whether in action, or in our mind. To be able to come to God in prayer, we need to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness and His cleansing power will transform us so we may able to come boldly in His presence and our prayer will be acceptable to Him. If we have an unforgiving heart, how will God forgive us, He could see us through and He knows what is in us. It is His commandment that we love one another, and this love also manifest how we love God. If there is unforgiveness in our heart, our mind and spirit could not reach the glory of God instead the bad things that happened always linger in our minds and occupy our thinking and our flow of communication to God is being blocked, and there are times that God is speaking to us but be could not hear Him, because we are pre occupied, and we miss the blessing and opportunity of communing with Him.

We seek to be independent of asking others for help as we try to do things by ourselves, it is also a way of proving something to ourselves, whether we do it properly or not, at least we learn from it, sometimes, though we need help, we dont ask for it, because we are ashame to ask, afraid to be turned down or sometimes because of pride. We seek to be independent to God during those time that we have not yet submitted ourselves to Him, doing things by ourselves, and all our times, ambitions and wants are all focus to ourselves, but when we had the personal encounter to God all these were change, be became fully dependent to Him in our daily living, the reason we are praying give us this day our daily bread. We might have good job, earning much for ourselves, but it is a blessing from our God.

In praying "Thy Kingdom come" we give honor to God and acknowledging Him as the Ruler and King of the earth and heavens, We are living with a heart full of hope that the time will come where He will reign althroughout the earth, and there will be peace, no more hunger, no more war and all will be praising and honoring Him as the living and Almighty God. In praying " Thy WIll be done" we are totally submitting ourselves to God , and enthrusting our desires and wants in life to Him and let it happen in accordance with His plan. When we learn to live in God's will, we develop to have a thankful heart, and anything we received we always give the glory to God and not to ourselves. Living in God's Will is living selflessly, desiring what will benefit not only ourselves but also others, and acknowledging Him for all our successes and failures, and accepting whatever befell, whether good or bad, God is always there and always desire to give us the best.

when we are praying to the Father, we pray with all reverence and respect to Him, we humble ourselves and submit ourselves to God, We besmirch and desecrate this if we come to God unworthy and if we merely pray by words and not coming from our hearts, which may be due to many reasons such as unconfessed sin, rebellion to God as a result of unanswered prayer, or our lives are preoccupied with many things of this world.