Helen Williams

The author is using the word "Son" in a literal sense. Jesus is truly the Son of God. He came to show us who God truly is. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus knows God, He was with Him from the beginning. He has always been. Remember when it was said, "Let US make."

Similarities: Jesus died and were buried, disciples were not prepared, empty tomb, Mary thought the body was stolen, etc. We see an agreement among the accounts. They all agree on the resurrection. Even with the difference and the similarities the outcome is still the same. Whether we believe or not Jesus who was dead had been raised from the dead. We worship a true and living God.

I think we can get so caught up in all the differences that we forget the facts about what really happen. We all can all look at the same movie at the same or different time and might come differ in some of the events, especially when retelling the movie. One true fact is that there were witness of Jesus' resurrection. Back to the movie, the fact of the story is the bank did get rob. The fact is there were witinesses to Jesus' death and the tomb was empty. He did rise rise from the dead!

I believe they began to think and remember what Jesus had said. Maybe in a way they believed and maybe not. They did not to damage their status in the community. We are still that way today. If we actually believe we don't want others to know; afraid of what might be said. So to keep all of this from happening they wanted to secure the grave and post guards. They claimed they did not want the disciples to come and steal the body or say it was stolen. Whether they expected Him to rise or not, they expected something to happen. They tried to cover their back. Didn't they know God is the God of truth. I don't think that His followers grasped His resurrection until afterward. Some still today don't believe in the resurrection. HOW SAD!

"I am the resurrection and the life"...He is the power that opens every grave, give life to the sleepers, and calls them forth to a new existence. Jesus resurrection was done for humanity and in Him humanity has won victory over death. Whoever believe in Jesus will never die, having eternal life. This is available to all, no matter who you are or what you have done. Jesus is ready to forgive. If you are reading this and is not saved, except Him today as your Lord and Savior.

The results of resurrection for the righteous will be a time of blessing and reward. No more troubles of thei world. Our reward will be eternally. Waht a reward! We will rise to live and not die.

It seems to be that the Jews didn't believe in the resurrectio. Job seem to differ. It appears the he had insight to life after death. Job believe after all I am going through or have gone through there is life after death. Not only after death but Job experienced a resurrection in his life before death. He received more than he had before. What a blessing to know our redeemer lives.

Fathers/mothers do not want to cause embitterment when training their children. We are to train with love. Children learn from example. We cannot let wrong behavior go without being corrected, but as I said correct in love. This is an on going processs. We want our children to grow and deal with their children in a loving manner. We also have to watch how we speak, beacuse language can be abusive. We don't want to provoke our kids. If we follow the greatest example of all and that is Jesus then we are on the right road. God want us to train them up in the way of the Lord.

God has told us to obey and honor our parents. We are to do this until death. This is also for our protection. We are prayful and hopeful that they are not going to tell us to obey when it causes us to disobey God. When God tells us to do or not to do we can rest assured that it is for our good. I losted my father on April 6, 2007 and we often talk of the things he told us. When we are younger there are a lot of theing we don't see and don't know, it is our parents that are keeping us alive. Just think how many holes we would have stepped in if we had not listen and obeyed. When we did not obey we had to suffer the consequences. I know the rod was not spared. The exception would be when we are asked to do something contrary to the word of God. This should be in every area of our life. We are to respect and forgive just as we want to be respected and forgiven. They will forever be our parents and we should do all we can do for them. Respect and Honor them while we have them. I think of my dad often and wish he was here. But I am okay because I obeyed, respected and love him while he was with us. Cherish all the moments, they are precious.

Our attitude should be one of praise, honor and glorifying God. Jehovah God should be our main focus. We are to build, lift up and not tear down. We should always be thankful in all things, even when we are trouble. Even more so when we are going through. We might just praise ourself right out of our problem. Singing is worshipping and praise. Singing is also a ministry; singing in the spirit. We want to worship in the spirit and the truth and not just from the lips.

WE WANT TO BE HIGH ON THE SPIRIT! Drugs and alcohol lead to debauchery. It also stops us from taking advantage of every opportunity. We are to be high on the spirit that leads us in all truth. The spirit is intelligent and will not lead us into temptation or to error from God's word. When we are tempted, the way out is always provided. The spirit will lead us in that direction. The decision to follw the spirit is our choice to make. We pray we are wise in our choices.

Some opportunties come once in a life time. There have been times in all our lives when we should have taken advantage and we didn't. We have had opportunties to witness and we let them passed. Forgive us Lord Jesus! We have opportunities to shine daily and be a light. We are living in dangerous and evil days, so let us be watchful in out daily living. We resist because we are fearful, what might be said to hurt our feeling, and there might be time you might hear what you use to do or be. We must keep an alert mind, be prayful, ask God to give us strength to make the most of every opportunity.

God desire is that we are all saved. This was His puprose for coming. It is up to us to accept Him or not. God wants us to be holy because He is holy. Our sexual sins will keep us out of the kingdom of God. This is a serious matter. Sexuality is a part of our spiritual life but according to the word of God. The point being stressed in the passage is sexual SINS. We are to be in control of our flesh in a holy and honorable way. We can not have the mentality of the world. It has gotten that any kind of behavior is apporiate. all our action and choice have consequences whether they are good or bad. Let us be obedient to the Word of God. AMEN AND PRAISE GOD!

No one likes to be hurt or even dissappointed. We feel when we are hurt, we want the person responsibe to hurt. In order to get it right you have to be in Christ and have an understanding of what true forgiveness really is. Even then it is hard. We have the flesh and the spirit at war. The flesh just wants to get even, but we know this is not about the other person. Forgiveness is about self and being able to move on. We may feel the person does not deserve our forgiveness. There may be time we might say they have not even earned my forgiveness. God's forgiveness can't be earned, but he forgive us freely. He is the ultimate example of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We have to have love for people, a giving heart, be Christlike and have compassion.

We say things that can make others look small in the listener eyes. If it will hurt, tear down and not build up, we should not speak it. The three guidelines that Paul gives us to measure the value of what we say are: (1). Is it helpful for building others up? Most of the time we are concern about making ourelves look good. (2) Is it according to the hearer's need? Somethings should not be said, maybe the timing might be off. Is this really what the hearer need at the moment? (3) Is it beneficial to the hearer? Some words spoken are not helpful but can do more harm. Always speak in love. What is slander? Slander is when we make other look small in the eyes of the hearer. When this happen we are trying to make self look important and bigger. This can be very common among christian. Remember when the desciples was wondering which one would be the greatest in the kingdom. The greatest is the least, we are all servant. We can avoid this by letting the Holy Spirit guide us. We should taste our own words before we speak them. If they taste bitter to us, we know they will taste bitter and not sweet to the hearer. We have to stop being selfish and start thinking of our fellowman in love.

Everything that God made was good and very good. God gave us the emotion of anger to be used in a positive way. When we see injustice in the world, we can react in a control way to bring about justice. This is an area we need to be very careful about. Anger can be dangerous when it cause us to act in a very negative way and cause harm to others. When we recognize the symptons of anger, we can control it. We should recognize our anger for what it really is and control it. Anger in itself is not a sin, but if we don't do anything about it, it soon results in sin. Let us all think before we react.

Our age seem to be no different than the non-christian mindset in the study passage. They have made a choice. God has already told us that there would be those that would perish fron a lack of knowledge. Everything that looks good and feels good is not good for the flesh nor the soul. Satan come as an angel if light, until the picture truly unfold. In this time and age it seems as though everyone think they have their "right." In some cases yes, but what about the life that God want us to live, one that is pleasing to Him? The world gives a picture of you can have it all, but never showing or telling there is a high price to pay. We can't get caught up in the ways of the world even though we live in the world. We need to keep our mind on the things above. These are the things that are everlasting, all others or temporal. Jesus is the true light, and he will show us the true path to follow, if we listen and be obedient.

We can see a combination of gifts administred by one person in a congregation without have an official position in the church. There are time we can lose sight by focusing so much on man's title. We should have our focus on those called and ordain by God. Let us not let our rules, titles and etc. get in the way of what would have us to do. According to our standard the senior pastor might not have the spiritual gift of pastor but who are we to judge. The point is what has God called him to do and that should be formost. We do not want to get caught up in title because we are all servants. Let us all go forth and be obedient to the word of God and do what is pleasing in his eyesight. Sometime this will not please man.

We have to express and instill to members the importance od saving souls. This is a matter of life or death, eternally. It is still okay to tell others that the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life. The love of God comes to mind and God wants us to have this kind of love for our neighbor. This type of love will prompt us to action not just lip service. We can build up and encouarage each other. The prayers of God's children can cause thing to happen in a postive and life changing way. When we come together touching and agreeing, God has told us He will be in the midst. Guess What? It only takes two or three. So come on and make this united effort and join together in prayer and stir up the gift of evangelism in each of our congregation. We can do all things through Christ that strengthen all believers. Just think of the power we have in Christ. PRAISE GOD!

I believe the function would be no different than the twelve. We have an unchangeable God, even though we live in a changing world. Thank God the WORD doesn't change. They are to preach the Good News and prepare God's people for service, so that the body of Christ can be built up. Today we are still in need of being taught the word of God. We can't grow spiritually without the teaching of the word. It is through the word, meditation and prayer that will enable us to detect false prophets that try and change themselves to look like apostle. It is a matter of time before they will have to come out of those wool clothes and the word show them up for the false prophets that they are. God will never let his people be lead astray by false prophets. HE LOVES US TOO MUCH!

God give spiritual gifts. It is He that has wonderful made us. We are all unique in our special way. This is what make us so beautiful, variety! Spiritual/talents are a part of us all. God has instilled spiritual/talent in us and it is all working together for the good of the body.

It is necessary to expend all the energy necessary to have christian unity. Can you imagine no peace or unity in the body of Christ? We MUST do all we can on a personal level to keep unity. If each person would be responsible for keeping unity then I know God would be pleased. This is not an impossible situation. The bond of peace is what keep, perserve and hold us together. WE can't even entertain argument and dissension. A little leaven can spoil the whole loaf. We can make a committement to keep the unity of the spirit and it has to be done in love.

Patience and humility is very impotant to preserve unity. We can start by looking at self and realize that we all have faults. Even with our faults and imperfections we can have patience and humility. LOVE can make this possible. We should love each other especially in the household of faith. Jesus was humble and we should be also. We are here to win souls, not turn them away. Are you a peace maker or a peace breaker?

Since we are prisoner of the Lord we are not at liberty to do as we please, even though we have freedon in Christ. We are to live a life that honor and glorify God. If we are who we say we are (christian-Christ like) then we should be like Him. Saints are to let their light shine before men so that we may glorify the Father in heaven. This is our calling. We just can't talk a good talk, we have to walk the walk also. Let us do all we can to do our best and let our best honor God.

If we are out of touch with what it means to be lost then we are interfering with the process of how to be saved. We do not want to be a hinderance. Being lost can lead to eternal destruction and God wants all of us to be saved. He has prepared the way for this to happen. If we are out of touch then let us get intouch and tell others that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. This gift is offered to all regardless. The spiritual condition of a person that do not know Christ is dead. God wants us to know Him thru His son Jesus Christ . We can be alive in Christ. Christ is the way to Jehovah God. We need to tell the lost about the Good News of the Kingdom. We also need to pray that they will receive the Good News and not let Satan steal it. Regardless of who we are we all can come boldly to the throne of grace. As long as there is hope there is a chance.