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The mystery that Paul is talking about is Ephesians 3:2........the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: KJV It is important to the Gentile Chrisitans in Paul's day to know that they are accepted by God and would be fellow heirs

It is my understanding that the word Christian means Christ like. I think Paul is careful to be humble about his call because he recognizing what Christ has done for him and that it isn't anything good within himself.We as Christian should always be humble people and mediatate on the love and mercy of God. If we stay focused on Christ more and what he has done for us we will always be a humble people. It is only when we take our eyes off of Christ and put it on ourselves that causes us not to be humble. Review the story of Peter bidding Christ to come when he was allowed to walk on water.

We all know that God is every where, but the significane that my congregation is made to be a dwelling place for God in the Spirit is that the Sabbath is a special day santified and holy. This day is so special and the dwelling place, my congregation is a place where God can come and visit with us each and every Sabbath and we can worship him and thank him for his loving kindness for keeping us safe from one sabbath to the next. What hinders that from being fully experienced is when we as believers refuse to come together and meet to worship God and receive the blessing that he wants to give us. To help this become more fully experienced and apprediated I would like to encourage people to come to church and seek the blessing that God has so graciously bestowed upon us his children.

What exactly is faith? The best way for me to describe faith is that it is somehing that you know is there. For example I have faith to know that if I put enough gas in my car it will take me to work without running out of gas. Maybe this is a silly illustration but I can't think of any other right now. The point is faith is something that you know will happen as the result of something else that has been put in place. I wouldn't say we could take credit for it , the credit comes in choosing to have it or not based on our relationship with Christ. Can we be condemned forlacking it? Yes because we have a choice to have it or not. Defing faith in terms that a 10 year old could understand. When one rides a bicycle do you know whether it will go when you get on it. You have to have faith to believe when you get on it and paddle that the bicycle will go and you will have a ride.

The best way that I could explained the word saved is that I have commited my life to Christ. I was a losted person and Christ by shedding his blood as a gift for me saved me from my sins. Sin is trangression of the law, we all are sinners saved by grace. The gift of salvation requires two things acceptance of the gift or rejection of the gift. We ones accepts the gift then that person is a saved individual. We must choose to be saved and we have to do this individually. Through acceptance of the gift of salvation one will live eternally with Christ. This is a better choice that not accepting for which one will be destroyed, but the choice is ours. As Joshua said Choose this day who you will serve.

When we truly understand the character of God it is not hard to understand grace. We much understand the great controversy in this world that we as God's children are involved in. The spirtual warfare that we are in.In my opinion the common held life principle that is demolished that you can do anything and God will forgive you not truly being aware that one day probation will close for us and that we will have to be judged by a holy God for the deeds that we have done, trusting that God's jugement will be fair to everyone. At some point we should be overcomers. I had a friend say to me one day oh you can always ask God to forgive you, I know this is true but the way she said it and the context she said it in, during the conversation was, just keep on sinning and sinning don't worry about getting the victory over your sins. I think this is being persumptous. An example of grace for a 10 year old child to understand would be this: One day in the neighborhood someone threw a ball on purpose and hit a neighbors window, the person was angry and did this to get back at the neighbor (they had some days earlier had a disagreement.) AFter it was discovered through several witness who the child was. The child became so afraid and was deeply sorrowful for what they had done. When the child went to the neighbor and confessedn their sin to her. The neighbor forgave the child but stated that the child would have to help her work in her garden with her for 3 weeks , 3 hours each day, 3 days a week for a total of 9 hours each week. Maybe this is not a good example but it is the best that I can think of at this time. We as Christians much realize that yes God is love but God also requires judgment some day. He will forgive us our truly confessed sins but we will also have to suffer the consequence of our sins. Look at David in the bible, yes God forgave him but he also suffered for the consequences of his sins. I think God is merciful toward us. What if we had no forgivenes and no mercy. Yes God is a God of love but we much remember that he is also a God that judges too.

Our non-believing friends neighbors, and relatives are dead because they have not accepted the gift of salavation that our God so freely gives . They chose to follow the ways of the world through disobedience. The difference is that we chose to accept the gift, wereas we were once dead also. Trough acceptance of God's gift of salvation we are now alive. We were no different until we made the choice to follow Christ. We should live righteously before our non believing friends continue to show love toward them and pray for them. We should not be pious are think that be are better than they are. Trough love , continued prayer we may encourage someone and trough the Holy Spirt win them to Christ, remembering the battle is not ours but the Lord's

People can be deceived by the enemy if we do not study and search the scriptures and know what God says in his holy word. God can blame us if we don't take advanage of the opportunity to study and get to know him through his word. For example I am behind in my study in Ephesians who's fault is that? It is not God it is mine because I have let other things take up my time.

Words that describe God's motivation and characrter are Chose,, Love & Predestined He chose us before creation ,(in love he predestined us through Jesus Christ) Verbs that describe what has happened to us in Christ holy & blameless and love Pastor Ralph this was a hard question, it really made me think deeply about the love of Christ. I found that the words to describe God's motivation and character could also be verbs to describe what has happened to us in Christ. Sorry I was late in answering this question.

We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms means, to me, that the same way God raised is son Jesus from the grave and he ascended up to heaven, God will do the same for those that choose Christ as their savior; and we will all be together one day. This says that God's grace is sufficient for us to overcome anything that we may face here on earth. Our spirtual authority comes only from Christ, provided that we are obedient to him. This knowledge should affect our prayers and our boldness in that we have the right to claim the promises of our savior, and we should anticipate that our prayers will be answered according to Gods will, because he knows what is best for us as his children.

We are powerless sometimes when we let our guard down. For example when we neglect to spend time with God by studying his word. I know there is a difference in my daily walk with God, paricular when I don't spend time with him. If one is not praying and studying and keeping connected with God, sure one will feel powerless. For example Depression is of the devil not of God. Often times when we feel depressed or down it is a tool that satan uses to instill doubt and to hurt God's children. When we feel powerless I think it is a an inadequacy with our faith. The source is always available but we much choose to stay connected wtih the source. God will always be faithful he is the source of our strength. The miracle-believing faith disciples are connected and stay connected with God. The whimpy faith disciples are not strong in their faith. This can be changed with a full commitment to God to study and spend time on a regular basis. There is power in God's word if we want to stay strong in the Lord we much fully commit to him and him alone, and not have a divide heart.

Well I guess it would affect my life now in that I would anxiously be awaiting the day I get the inheritance, provided I lived to receive it.(the $10 million) The expectation of an inheritance in God's presenece temper my present day concerns in that I know it will come to past , not might come. My present day concern would be to live according to his instructions, so as never do anything that would cause me to walk away from my inheritance from him. God will not force us to serve him he gives all of us a free will to choice. How will other know that we are christians? When we have love for one another. Anyone can claim to be a Christian. We should show it through our action. We as christians much walk the talk. By doing this we are letting Christ be our example.

We have the hope of the inheritance of eternal life. This hope should motivate us in our present day lives in that we know through Christ that we have a reward waiting for us. This hope should effect our decisions and lifestyle in such a way that we should be obedient to Chirst so that we will not have ourselves seperated from him through disobedience. The non-believer has no hope because he or she refuses to accept the gift of salvation; if however they come to a knowledge of the saving grace of Christ and become a believer and accept him. They will have same hope that the believer has. The hope of glory and life eternal.