Ah~Lizay

Q4. (Hebrews 2:3b-4) In what way has the truth of salvation been confirmed to you? The truth of salvation has been confirmed to me by the wondrous feeling of the holy spirit. when he pays me a visit, I know GOD is near. I can speak of the lord and despite being my saved for 8 months now, still cry. Even when I fall, I want to get back up, the idea of burning in the pit is unbearable I want to see GOD. Like Bebe and CeCe Winans said "they say streets of gold, can you imagine somewhere where life will never end; no one ever grows old, oh, my brother please come with me. It's what I live for, a place where love will never cease. Willing to die for, heaven is where I want to be." Can I get an amen up in here; becuse that's what my salvation means to me. Its that important. Would signs and wonders help or hinder establishing the truth of Christ's ministry today? I think it would help; but then again Jesus denounced the unbelievers who saw miracles and still chose not to belive (Matthew 11:21-24). So maybe the mere fact of our having faith is good enough, for blessed is he that has faith.

Q3. (Hebrews 2:1) In what ways are we not immune to drifting away from the gospel? As is customary in this day everyone reading a statement can come up with their own ideas on that statement based on their own interpretation of the statement's meaning. I could read a statement that says John is tall, he likes beans. Where one person may interpret this as saying John is tall because he likes to eat beans, beans are what you should eat to grow tall; another person my interpret it as saying that he is tall, and conversely he likes beans also. It is for this reason why the author states "We must pay more careful attention...". He is telling us that anyone could drift away and that we are not immune. I guess the evidence in today's society of the possibility of drifting is the repeated manifestations of sin, or alternatively the many persons that "back-slide"; the fact is that although we have a genuine love of GOD and are Christians, we too can drift. According to the author, how can we successfully resist the tendency to drift? The first part of verse 1 is applicable here again "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard..." it is through doing this that we can succesfully avoid drifting, by paying close and careful attention. How did Jesus describe this phenomenon of "drift" in the Parable of the Sower? Jesus used the different soils to describe the phenomenon of drift in the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path illustrates to us that if we do not pay attention to the word of GOD, satan can easily snatch us up and fly away with us. The birds are satan. The seed sown in the shallow soil shows us how the initial learning of the gospel, and its understanding, can easily be destroyed if we do not play careful attention. The mere fact of paying close attention (to in this case the word of GOD [namely the bible]) we save ourselves by watering our seed to new growth and further development, without the water that paying attention brings we shall soon fall to our death as we drift away. The soil with the thorns gives us an insight into the many distractions that could stifle the growth of a young christian if they do not pay attention. The lack of attentivenes can lead to us being choked to death in the vise grip of satan, and lead to our ultimate lack of attachement to the word of the lord. The final soil reiterates what the authour has been telling us, that we need to pay attention becuse when we pay attention we are like the seed in the 4th soil "...the one wwho received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. he produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown" (Matthew 13:23) "he who has ears, let him hear" (Matthew 13:9)

Q2. (Hebrews 1:2-3) What about the author's description of the Son makes you think that the Son described is himself divine? In Hebrews verse 3 the author states that "...the son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representationof his being..." This alone gives credence to the divinity of Jesus, he is so powerful that he is like his father in every way and as such gives of the same luminescent beauty that GOD possesses. The author also satiates the reader with this idea by stating that the son (Jesus ) is the heir, and that it was through the son (Jesus) that the universe was made What role does the Son have in doing the Father's will according to these verses? Again in verse 3 the author shows us the answer to this question, the author states that the son "... after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven..." The son's role was to purify our sins so that he could assume his rightful position.

[size="2]I feel the author was using the word son in the bological perspective. He wanted people to know that Jesus was more than someone who came to the earth to preach about the word of the lord, but rather was the flesh and blood incarnation of the messiah foretold of by prophets before. I feel that his intent was to show the readers of the bible book that there was more than on reason to listen to Jesus's words. That what Jesus had to say was more than inspiration, but directly from the mouth of GOD. [/size]