Robin D

I should give all my worries to God, because he cares for me. This should be done in prayer, asking humbly and with a thankful heart. I like to recite verses in my head when I'm faced with challenges in life. This can be a verse to recite when I am worried. Prayerfully, I will keep trying to completely give all my cares to God.

All Christians should emulate acts of humility regardless of their position in the church. I believe it would be important for leaders to show kindness, humbleness, compassion, love, wisdom, willingness, and eagerness to serve. We can discern a person's humility by watching and listening to them. If we fail to do this, we would hinder our service for the Lord.

I believe the church should pray that God will send the right leader for the needs of the church. If the pastor is called by God, and put in the leadership position for a church, there shouldn't be authority issues. The pastor is tried before bestowing authoriy through an ordination process. The Bible gives us specific guidelines on the qualifications of a pastor. The danger is in not following God's word.

Coersion is wrong because a leader must be willing to serve. The damage would be that the person would do the job half-heartedly. This produces a leader dangerous to the church because Christ said he would prefer we were cold or hot rather than lukewarm or he would spew us out of his mouth. This type of service would not produce fruits or honor God.

The responsibilities are to watch over the flock both spiritually and physically. What stood out to me as I consisdered this passage is the awesome responsibility involved with this position.

If we don't die daily, we are not truly committed to Christ. We must trust him fully so that we can give our lives to him. I have really prayed about this concept in our Bible study. Answering this question has caused me to realize that I need to be more mindful and prayerful about picking up my cross and dying for Christ each moment.

We do not stand apart from the world if we are not persecuted. People would view us with no special distinction. We should be happy to be persecuted because that means we're walking our talk. We should aslo feel priviledged to be persecuted as an heir of Christ.

I should count persecution as a joy and as a way of demonstrating my faith in Christ and my desire to serve Him because I love Him and should show that he is first in my life. I should also remember that any suffering I have in no way compares to the suffering Christ experienced for me.

The danger of trying to avoid persecution is not living for God. We also miss out on rewards and blessings. Yes, I have been distracted from what I should be doing, but I pray to God for forgiveness, and to quickly get me back on track. I have observed this in other Christians. I think it's difficult for anyone to experience suffering.

People who promote themselves often seek attention. They want others to validate how good they are. I believe God has given me the gift of teaching. Currently, I teach an elementary Sunday School class at church. I also believe God has given me the gift of encouraging others. I try to serve others by sending notes, cards, or making phone calls to check on others.

Non-Christians do not like the idea of giving an account of their actions because they want to live as they please. Christians don't like the idea, because it is scary to think of all the sins we have committed as Christians, when we know better. We should be inspired to continually live as if Jesus would come for us right now. We should have the desire to witness to others about Christ.

Non-Christians don't necessarily see what they're doing as sinful. They may try to get us to join in becuase it is their idea of having fun. We are tempted to do so, to be accepted, to fin in, and so we do not get ridiculed for loving Jesus. We can resist this temptation by stopping and thinking about how we can lose our influence on others and thinking about how God would have us to act.

The spiritual mind should help keep us from sin because we should remember the suffering Christ endured for us. We should also try to stive to live to the will of God. This attitude is one of living according to God in the Spirit.

Yes, I have professed my faith in Christ. This pledge relates to my own baptism because after I accepted Christ, I was baptized in the Black River by full immersion. Then, I was accepted into the fellowship of the church and became a member.

Each of these is unimaginable!! The aspect that God has most impressed upon me today is my unrighteousness. Daily, I struggle to walk in a way that would be pleasing unto God. It is amazing that Jesus would bear my sins as unworthy as I am.

It is hard to witness when we're persecuted because we have a tendency to become defensive, and react or reply in a way that isn't pleasing to God. In tough places, we often want to go with the flow or try and fit in. It is during these times, that we harm our credibility as Christians. I believe I am most in need of being ready to give an answer. I am a very inadequate ambassador for Christ.

Qualities most evident in our congregation are being like minded, compassionate, and affectionate as brothers and sisters. Qualities most needed are being grudge-free and full of blessing. To change the climate at church we need to pray and get what problems we have straightened out. We need to be more Christ-like. I believe it would help us to study and talk about these qualities that we are lacking. It would be good to have study lessons on these topics.

God will not hear our prayers.

A husband should use knowledge and wisdom as a means to give honor to his wife. This shows interest because the husband should try to be understanding and aware of his wife's needs. Both partners will benefit and build strong relationships. Men sometimes try to dominate their wives to show power, sometimes to appear smarter, or just to prove they can. Wives sometimes try to dominate their husbands so they can be in charge, because they don't like the decisions their husbands make, or they don't like being submissive to another perosn. Dominion of another person is contrary to God's nature because God is no respector of persons. We are all heirs of God.

I try to cultivate inner beauty by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my life. Being humble, gentle, honest, loving, obedient, and forgiving are all qualities that I believe are so important to have peace with God. Character is important and precious to God because with it, others might be won to Christ. Character can help a christian woman win her husband because he will want these lasting qualities in his wife. He also might realize the effects of these qualities in her life, and want the same thing for himself and his children.

We should look our best in a way that is pleasing to God and also our husbands, being cleaned and well groomed and dressed nicely. Our bodies are a temple. Trying to look our best in excess can divert us from God because God looketh on the heart, not the outward appearance. The balance is to not get caught up in our vanity. We are not commissioned to "Go ye therefore and look stunning!" We are commissioned to "Go ye therefore and teach all nations."

Submission is difficult for humans because we don't like someone else telling us what to do. Society teaches us that marriage should be 50-50. We know biblically, that is not the case. I don't think submission requires you to be totally silent. You can share your thoughts and ideas respectfully, with love. Ultimately, I believe the husband has the final say. I believe submission is wrong when something is against God's word.

Sin has so much power over us still because we let out hearts and minds stray form God. We allow the devil to come in and wordly things keep us from God. We can die to sin by confessing and repenting, keeping our nose in the Bible, and continually keeping our minds on God. Living for righteousness means talking and walking the Christian life. Everything we do should be to glorify God.

Jesus bore my sins so that I would become clean. Jesus has enabled me to have access to the Holy God!!! Some day, I will stand and give an account of the works I have done. I long to hear the words,"Well done my good and faithful servant!"

The sinlessness of Jesus in critical, because the sacrifice to God had to be without blemish. Jesus was the only perfect example that could be our mediator to God. Jesus became my sin. I can't even comprehend the suffering he endured for me. A man who knew no sin, became my sin!! There must have been so much anguish for him when God had to turn his back on Jesus as he bore all our sins. Jesus endured this to carry out the will of God!! It is just amazing!!!