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Our destiny includes reigning because HE has given us power and authority even now to tread on serpents, to heal the sick, to recover sight to the blind, cast out demons. To take authority over spiritual wickedness. To seek and save that which is lost. To do warfare against hell. We are rulers NOW! When we get to heaven we will have even more power given to us by God and more authority. We become part of God's Kingdom the moment we give our lives over to HIM. God being KING and we being rulers and leaders.

Because HE was slain and redeemed us to God He was the perfect sacrifice, pure and holy, God's Son, who willingly gave himself a living sacrifice to redeem us. Whithout this perfect sacrifice we would still be allienated from God for Christ was the ONLY one worthy. He didn't have to do it but HE did! Praise God!

bowing to the Lord Worship through giving giving of praise crying music prayers singing adoration lying prostate before HIM glory honor Thanks giving humility

Desiree Im sorry for the loss of your grandmother Our prayers are with you Songs are: HOLY HOLY HOLY Oh FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES SHOUT TO THE LORD God bless all

The lessons of this chapter are for our edification. The Word shows us where our sin lies and often where our loyalties are. Encouraging to love and to become strong and steadfast. Showing us there are penalties for sin and slothfulness and rewards for doing what is right and standing up a daring to be the Christian God wants us to be. They were praised for their loyalty and faithfulness - criticized for sin and laziness. If we will take these lessons and apply them to our church today we will become more God oriented and less self absorbed. We will become a church of great power working the great works of God.

We become apathetic when we loose our 1st love. When God is no longer 1st in our lives. The old saying is 99 and 1/2 won't do gatta have a 100 to make in on through. This is so true. God is a jealous God and will have no other gods before Him. He wants us to love Him with all our heart soul mind and spirit. When we refuse to give Him all, we compromise and become apathetic. It becomes easy to take a back seat and let others do the work and the praying and feel we've done God a favor just by showing up on Sunday mornings. Havn't prayed all week, or read our Bible all week, and haven't been to any services all week, but we will grace the church and God with our presence on Sunday morning. Then wonder why things aren't the way they use to be. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. If satan can keep us in a cold ineffective state then he has won the battle. So many times the cold and indifferent Christian is the one the the sinner sees and says I'm as good as they are and I'm not even saved. Pray and read the Bible. Seek the face of God. Get involved with the local church and become committed.

When we compromise our beliefs for opportunities to increase our wealth that lets us know where our hearts truly are. If we compromise our beliefs for any andvantage or pleasure then those things must be more important than our beliefs. Our beliefs must not be very strong if we feel it is ok to compromise them for any reason. When the opportunity comes our way to compromise, we are being tested to see if we truly believe, and long for, the truth of God's Word. Todays society is really not much different than those of the Bible. We compromise for promotions on the job, for money, for friends. We become men pleasers instead of God pleasers. We even compromise for religious reasons - to be with the people that we think can promote our church or our ministry. If we hang with the right people then others will know that I am spiritual. We look to other things and people to promote our ministries instead of trusting God to put us in the right place at the right time. Some will preach to please the crowd instead of to please God. Many times we are required to preach a hard word - a word that cuts to the heart - but many wont do it because they fear upsetting someone in the congregation. Even in the church people feel they have to be "politically correct" instead of preaching the Word that God gives them then and letting God take care of what happens afterward. Dont get me wrong I believe the Word must be preached in love but not in compromise. We cant always preach what pleases people but we must preach the word and the word will challenge us to grow and be better all the time.

Any time we conform to something that is contrary to the Word of God our faith becomes weaker and our testimony less effective. Compromise should be taken out of the Christians vocabulary for it is a weapon that is most effective in todays society. We become weak and ineffective when we compromise or conform. I thank God that I live in a culture where serving God is acceptable, but I know for many today it is with a great price that they even speak His name. There was a time on my job when I first got the position I am in now, that I was concerned about how my supervisor would react if she knew I was a preacher. I did not really pubicize it, not because I am ashamed but because people act differently if they know you are a preacher, and I wanted to know them as they truly are. Since I've been in this position and it has become public knowledge that I am a preacher, I have been asked to speak at several different functions at my job. Thank God for divine favor!

I think you loose your 1st love by becoming too busy with other things. The other things are not necesarily bad things just things that keep your mind too busy to meditate on the Lord. You also loose your 1st love by looking at all the problems around you and not looking to the problem fixer. There are numerous reasons why we fall out of love with Jesus but basically it is because we start looking at other things rather than Jesus. If Jesus is not the center of attention in the church or an idividuals life we soon loose that 1st love. Signs of genuine love for Christ is a people who will worship Him freely, who want to take care of the widows and orphans, who are out in the highways and byways seeking those who are lost and who spen quality time alone with the Lord in prayer and study. Lack of love shows up with irritability with one another, a lack of concern for the lost and the hurting. Lack of love shows itself in selfishness instead of self less ness. We must repent and have a made up mind to spend time with the Lord. This would be a good time for the Pastor (or the individual) to call for a time of fasting and prayer.

Jesus in the lampstands to me is Christ walking in the churches. He loves & cares for the church. He is still today in the midst of the churches speaking to His people the things that He wishes the church to know, and to change, and to be aware of. He loves the church and is even now lifting it up and edifying it, and wants it to be all that it can be.

Christian are being persecuted everywhere, even here in America The comfort would be in knowing that this present suffering is temporary and also that others have gone through this also. Knowing that Christ Himself suffered persecution and is now at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. He sees and knows our pain and will comfort with His spirit.

Every time we stand and speak forth the things we are passionate about, the things we believe, we become even more passionate and steadfast in our beliefs. We become a little bolder each time. We are also required to tell the good news of Jesus Christ and His redemptive power and Healing power! If we can't do this then perhaps we are unsure or even ashamed of Christ. Jesus preached the Word, healed the sick, cast out demons, performed miracle after miracle, raised the dead. He knew it would cost Him His life. The Word says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death. If you are truly passionate and sold out to Christ - then we know that we will pass from this life into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ! The problem I think is that we think to highly of ourselves. We need to be sold out 100%! We are too concerned with what people think of us and what effect it will have on our lives professionally. Commitment is a hard thing to get out of people these days. Even the Church lacks committment.

It tells us that we will be resurrected. Where ever our bodies are and in what ever state our bodies are in, God, in His awesome power, is able to call forth every molecule to come together and to live, in a glorified state. incorruptible, glory, power, spiritual,

We are with Christ immediately after death. We pass from this world and are ushered into His presence. We wait for the resurrection in heaven. If we pass from this life into the presence of Christ we must be in heaven for that is where Christ is.

To be caught away Christ will appear. The trump will sound. Dead in Christ shall rise. Then we which are alive and remain. Then the judgement. Then we will enter into His glory.

Our resurrected bodies will be like Christ's resurrected body was. He was flesh and bone, able to eat, to touch, to come and go supernaturally at will. Walked through locked doors. He was able to reveal or conceal Himself at will. I think we will have resurrection bodies so that we will not be bound and limited to the physical world. We will be busy doing God's work, ruling the nations, and we will need resurrection bodies, glorified bodies, to do that. Sometimes we need glorified bodies now! Besides this glorified body will have to last for eternilty! Thats a long time. resurrection bodies will be a must!

At our resurrection we will be lilke Jesus. God will be making all things new, a new heaven, a new earth. Death will be swallowed up in victory, it will be a new beginning. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the glories that await. Thats alot to look forward to. I really don't believe that the rapture and the resurrection are preached much these days. I really don't know why it isn't preached. Maybe because there are so many unanswered questions surrounding it and often we don't want to teach or preach what we are not very familiar with. Also I think most Christians are so consumed by just day to day living and trying to stay saved, that their focus is to just get to heaven and then we will have made it. More teaching and preaching and pray that God stir our hearts. We need to pray that God reveal these truths to our hearts and not just our heads. Head knowledge is wonderful but when it gets into our hearts and spirits it becomes life. The difference in rhema and logus.

Steadfast and immoveable means that no matter what - this is what I believe. If I have to stand alone (and many times I have, and will again) I will trust in God and in His Word and His power. If I believe HIS word, then I believe in the resurrection. Nothing is going to change that. There is nothing to turn back to and nothing to give in to that campares to the promises HE has given to them that love HIM and keep HIS commandments. Faith is Forsaking All I Trust Him Bottom line. I trust God. The Word says "do all that you do as unto the Lord." Everything I do - whether any one ever acknowledges it or not, whether the result ever come forth the way I want them to - I know that HE sees and hears. HE is a rewarder of them that diligently seek HIM. Nothing I do, or give, or say for the Lord is ever in vain because He is watching and keeping track of the good (and the evil) that I do. His Word also says to not be weary in well doing for in due time we shall reap. sometimes it seems that we stay in "due time" but the harvest and the rewards are coming. My goal in life is to hear HIM say "Well done good and faithful servant". That is what I live for, and that is what I will die for. AMEN

When we are baptized we are immersed in water - buried with Christ - then when we are lifted up out of the water - we are resurrected just like Christ was resurrected. We become new creatures. Clean and fresh. The power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power that works in us to make us new creations. It is the Power of God working in us that changes us and cleanses us and creates in us the desire to be like HIM and the desire and ability to change a lifetime of sinning and riotous living into a life of service to and for God. What can wash away my sin? NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS! HALLELUJAH!

The resurrection gives proof to our salvation. If there had been no resurrection, then our salvation and the faith we have and use to be saved would be useless. Because He lives we know that we too shall live!

None at all. He would have just been another teacher or another prophet. Certainly nothing more than that and in some circles He would have been a heretic, and a blasphemer. The resurrection was God's approval in that no one else had ever been raised from the dead. This was a supernatural event for a supernatural person.

The most compelling for me would be seeing Him and eating with Him and talking with Him after the resurrection. Knowing He was dead and now speaking and seeing Him again. of course the empty grave and the undisturbed grave clothes help alot too. As for the friend who isn't sure of the resurrection, I would use any means necessary. I would include every proof. I would use my own experience and I would have them pray that God would reveal the truth to them.

The disciples were totally devastated. Their hopes and dreams had just been crucified and buried. They felt lost and alone after having followed Jesus as they did. They had no sense of purpose. They were also scared. They had no presense of mind to deceive anyone or to steal the body. They were just as shocked as any one else (maybe more so) when they went to the tomb and found the stone rolled away and Jesus' body gone. Still they could hardly believe their own eyes. Thomas had to see and touch before he would believe. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the disciples were also resurrected. Resurrected in their faith and beliefs. Resurrected to an abundant life. Resurrected to boldness for their savior and a dedication to Him that would eventually cast them their lives. What a difference a day makes!

If the disciples had taked Jesus' body it would have been to make people believe that He had been resurrected The Romans and or the Jews would have done it to implicate Jesus' followers of stealing the body and have them arrested or put to death Joseph of Armithea maight have taken the body to bury elsewhere more private where there would not have been all the commotion. However, none of these motives makes alot of sense. Jesus' resurrection was real and that in itself caused alot of commotion! Praise God He is still stirring things up today also!