Beadie

If we act condescending or superior toward our children, this can cause resentment. Resentment can lead to rebellion. Too often parents build up their own self esteem by putting down or overly criticizing their children. Constant criticism can cause a child to become discouraged and give up on learning. All criticism should be constructive and supportive if we are to achieve the intended results. Training and instructing of the Lord involves teaching a child about Jesus and God and the Bible. It also means teaching them about the expectations of being Christians and being God

Even adult children should obey any requests their parents make of them unless it is illegal, immoral or endangers their own family. However, adult children should always honor and care for their elderly parents. This means to show the proper respect to them and to be sure all of their needs, emotionally and physically, are provided for. The idea of respect and forgiveness are implicit in this relationship. If we respect our parents, then we can not only forgive any wrongs done by them towards us, but to recognize any wrongs we did and seek their forgiveness. There is a mutual requirement to recognize the need for forgiveness, seek it, give it and accept it. This formula should flow both ways, from child to parent and parent to child. God requires this of us and He sees and rewards our obedience to His command appropriately.

Christ is our husband individually as we respect, admire and love Him. We willingly submit ourselves to Him individually as our leader and guide for life. The church as a body submits itself and its works to Him as gifts that we offer of ourselves out of love and respect for Him as the head of us all. He gives the church its guidance and meaning as a husband should give the wife guidance and meaning to her life. We, as both individuals and as a church body, should be willing to give up everything and follow where Jesus leads us. Christ

In a marriage, each partner serves the other. This was especially true during Paul

Being in the role of the head of the family means that husbands must carry extra responsibility for the family

All social institutions, and society itself, need some sort of structure and someone to make final decisions for the good of the group or there will be anarchy. This is also true within a marriage which is after all a social institution. Someone must be the final authority and take the ultimate responsibility. According to Paul, this is the husband

When we sing, we make a

The primary temptation of drugs and alcohol is that of a high or relief from all our worries, cares and troubles. Intoxication is a form of escapism. Unfortunately, however, we must return at some point and all the problems and ills are still there and are sometimes worse than before. We feel left to our own devices to deal with these problems. Being filled with the spirit can also makes us high and can give us the feeling of being free from all our troubles and worries. But, this is a true freedom as being filled with the spirit means that we don

We are exhorted to use every chance we get to shine for God because it is so important to lead as many as we can to Him. This is our great commission and it is much better served in practice rather than in word. We may never see the result of the life we lead, but we can trust that good or bad, light or dark, our lives will affect others. Unfortunately we resist being an example because in doing so we make ourselves unpopular and different. We are hated by those who follow society

Paul warns so strongly against sexual sin simply because it is so tempting and can cause us to be led astray so easily. This is especially true in today

We find it difficult for to forgive for lots of reasons. We can

We Christians are sometimes too quick to criticize and we do so for selfish reasons and not to aid the hearer in anyway. Sometimes our criticism is not even called for and when it is we don

God gave us anger so we would react to cruelty and injustice in such a way that we would not allow it to exist. We need to allow anger to cause us to speak up and try to correct wrong doing when we see it. However, we must be careful that we do not allow anger to cause us to sin. If we let ourselves become bitter then we harden our hearts and allow all of the temptations to enter in again. We must keep our eyes open to any anger in ourselves and check to be sure it is justified. If it is, then we should act on it. But, we must act in such a manner that we don

The mindset of the non-Christian Secular world of today is egocentric. Please yourself, if it feels good do it. There is no concern for consequences except possibly to oneself, but certainly not to others. Live for today for tomorrow may never come. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the tangible here and now that they lose sight of the intangible, spiritual later, that nothing matters but our own greedy wants now. Because of the shrinking world due to communication and internet and other modern conveniences, instant gratification is the goal. Patience is a virtue no longer valued. Everything is me, me and me. “If I don’t take care of myself, no one else will.” That is today’s justification. Unfortunately, too often in this world, it is true. Other Christians may care about you, but not the secular society. It is so easy to justify our actions based on social acceptance or the letter of the law. "We are not hurting anyone" (at least so it seems) is our byword. Feeling good is our goal, but we lost the idea in the translation that we are supposed to feel good ABOUT OURSELVES and living the sensual life does not normally acheive this goal. We need a spiritual feel good, not a sensual one. Just because everyone does it and it is "socially acceptable, doesn't make it OK with God. Also, to try to battle these temptations when it is an upstream fight can be tiresome and we weary easily. We must be committed to winning the battle and constantly pray fo the Holy Spirit's strength to discern God's way and follow that path or the devil will win as we succumb to the temporal, feel good life.

In order to stir up the gift of evangelism we need apostles and good preachers. We need prophets to awaken us to the needs and apostles to show us how to meet those needs. The preachers can teach us what we need to know and inspire us. People who love to tell others what God has done for them and their faith story are quite often those gifted with evangelism. People who are not self-conscious and are outgoing certainly have traits that would be helpful in evangelism and those who can handle rejection well also have a trait which might come in handy. We can ask the entire membership for suggestions on where we might need to send an evangelist or an area that needs service that could also benefit from evangelism. Once we find that area, we need to bring everyone