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

Modern day apostles would be visionaries and possible very charismatic orators. These leaders would guide us in being sure we followed the correct paths and fulfilled the great commission of making disciples of all the world. However, we must be careful that we are following a true apostle. A false apostle can be recognized by his teaching and his leadership. If his teaching is not in line with God

When God formed us we were given certain natural qualities

We need to apply all of our energy that is necessary to keep the peace which is what is needed for unity. Discord is what causes dissension and it cannot be allowed to exist. It is wonderful when peace exists since that would allow more of our energies to be applied to the service and call we have been given in His name. Peace bonds us together just a discord breaks us apart. To keep this peace requires us to put all our focus on God and pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us into peace. However, we need to apply ourselves to accomplishing this goal and not rely on the Holy Spirit to do all the work. The more like Christ we can become, the more peace we can achieve. If we are in disagreement, we must prayerfully work to discern what is right, but loving acceptance can exist even in the face of disagreement and this is most important in achieving the bond of unity through peace. Jesus told us that peace, His peace, would bond us together as His chosen disciples.

Without patience and humility, we will lose unity. If we are not able to be open to other people's thoughts and ideas, we will cause anger and strife. These lead to separation and discord, and cause conflict and divisiveness. Right doctrine with arrogance invalidates what we profess. We are not being either humb le or kind and that is against the right doctrine Jesus taught. Right doctrine alone will never replace love and service, the doctrine we are called to follow. How we live and serve is our witness. We reflect Jesus to the world. Arrogance would reflect Jesus incorrectly, and make our profession of faith appear to be a lie; worse, it would be a lie. To fight the good fight, we must spread the word and bring in disciples. But, we cannot force our faith just because we know it is right, we have to show our faith with love and with patience. A froceful attitude can turn someone off to the truth. We need to pray and be patient. Don't give up, get a partner, the Holy Spirit. We can show our witness as well as teach it -- we were called to be humble to serve and to love: "By this shall all men know you are my disciples, that you have love for one another."

Jesus is to be the standard of our behavior. We are to be like Him in all we say and do and even think. And, this is to be at all times, every day, always. Not just on Sunday or when it suits us. As professing Christians, we represent Jesus here and now. We represent not just Him, but also what He stands for. We represent Him always -- we speak for Him in our words and our actions. This is our calling, to be Him to others. By this we are known as His. We must do this to the full extent of our abilities in order to bring Him the glory. We show the world who He is as a group, not just as individuals. If there is no unity among Christians, only conflict, then this is how Christiantity and Jesus are perceived -- as a series of conflicts with no truth to be revealed.

We close off parts of our lives to Him. We don

To me, the spirit is the Holy Spirit, one manifestation of the Trinity. Christ as the Son is another manifestation of the Trinity. At the same time, our inner person, being the spiritual, loving, feeling person, is the same thing as the heart in this context. The heart in ancient times referred to the center of all our emotions, including love and faith, and even today carries that connotation. As a result, in this context, the inner spirit and the heart are simply two different ways of referring to the same thing. Basically what is being said here in both passages results in asking that the Trinity dwell in us and infuse us with love and faith. The love and faith of the Son, given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit as children of the Father - Wow

We need to come before the Father having all faith in Him. We have freedom to come before him boldly because of our faith in Him. Because of this faith, we can also have confidence that He will hear and answer our prayers as any Father would. This faith is received through the Holy Spirit and through our acceptance of the gift of salvation given to us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He has adopted us and we can be confident that as His children, we will receive everything we ask for that is not detrimental to ourselves or others. However, if we don

Paul remembered what he had been before his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road. Only God could have loved him enough to change him and turn his life around. He was completely disqualified for the call he received from God. Only through God

The mystery was that God had included the gentiles in His plan since it was formed before all time. From the very beginning we were intended to be sons of His, co-heirs with the Jewish people, the chosen people. It meant that we were chosen also. We had every right and opportunity as did the Jews when it came to God