patricia hopman

Without the Holy Sprits presence,the human heart is unable to respond to God. In our own nature we hate God and want to run from Him Will power will not accomplish the purposes of God. Our efforts can not do the work of the Holy Spirit-convincing men of sin. Miracles show that God is present in Pauls ministry, and provides a tangible way of proving it. Miracles would convince some, because of the Holy Spirits work, however, sadly, many would chalk it up to some other phenomenom, or coincidence. The body of Christ, in many churches , has been taught that miracles have ceased today.

When I pray this prayer,I am acknowleging that His will is perfect, opposed to mine at times. Weather in prayer or living my life, I must determine to find the will of God through scripture and prayer, and ask God for the grace to live it out. In some ways it is a prayer for sanctification in my life.Then the kingdom of God will come in my life more and more. We pray that God's will may be done throught the world JOHN 5:16 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we askanything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL,he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we have asked for!

All we do in life whether in word or deed, should bring praise and glory to our Heavenly Father. When we use his name as an expletive, or in a joke, it brings dishonour to our Father in Heaven.It brings our Holy God down to our level! We must recognize that God is Holy and perfect, worthy of our praise and devotion,and pray that our lives might bring Him the honor He is worthy of.

When I was not yet born again, I knew about Jesus, but had never really asked Him into my life. I lived by the law. ConsequentlyI did not have the Holy Spirit living in me. I made many bad decisions in my young life. I was far from God and did not even realize it. Praise God alone, that He showed me the only way to Himself! I immediately saw there was only one way to please Him, through Jesus and His sacrifice for me. Then and only then did I receive the Spirit of God. I was born again. Everything in my life looked totally different, and I wanted to serve Him. It was no longer a difficult duty, but a deep desire in my heart to please Him in every way. I fail in many many ways, but this is the true desire of my heart now! All glory to my God!

I can speak from my own experience of needing to trust God will indeed reward those who do not give up. I have a small home based business to raise money to support Gospel for Asia and also for Voice of the Martyrs. These are monthly payments taken directly from my bank account. Many times I do not have enough sales to cover these withdrawals. I get discouraged and feel like giving up altogether. Yet God has promised to supply my needs and I need to trust God that I will reap a harvest, if I do not give up. Please pray for Gods' blessings on this work! We must begin with believers because we are part of the body of Christ. If our physical body is weak we can accomplish very litle, we will wear out quickly, In the same way we must have a strong church body,that cares for one another, helping the weak and bringing healing wherever it is needed. As the world sees this, it will be a witnessof our love for one another.

Solange, it is wonderful that you are joining with the people of God on here! Welcome! Manuel, I have prayed for your healing, but even more importantly that you can rest in the knowledge of God's love for you and be able to rest in that incredible Love!

It is in loving our God and neighbour, that peace and joy come. We can have peace because we give all our cares to God, and then in joy watch Him work out our problems. For example, if I am striving to accomplish my salvation, or my sanctification on my own, peace and joy will flee. If I find myself thinking I can accomplish the love of God to my neighbour, without God' love poured into my heart, I will be constantly frustrated! However if I rest in the love of Christ, and His care for me, trusting Him with my insufficiency,joy and peace naturally follow.

Yes I have seen Christians act as if they were lawless. Often the church people treat the "sinner" with contempt, and so instead of bringing the sinner back by serving them with love and mercy, we bite and devour each other by our actions. This climate will tear a church apart. Rarely will a person feel compelled to return to fellowship in such an atmosphere of judgement and condemnation.This is not love.

How can observance of special days become legalistic for believers ? Having come from a legalistic church background, I indeed know what it is to be enslaved to this legalism. No shopping on Sunday, no crafts , no Sunday swimming no matter how hot it was, etc. I felt that I was sinning and not treating the Sabbath as Holy. After Jesus was going to heal a man with a crippled hand, and being asked by the Pharisees if this was right Jesus said "it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" Mathew 12 :12.

In approaching a Holy God by works and the law-we see how utterly sinful we are! We realize we have no hope of attaining salvation before such Holiness! Although the law might make us try to be perfect, it only leads to frustration, and shows us our utter unfaithfulness. Realizing this, humbly to the cross I come!

Eph 2:8 'For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -not of works, so no one can boast!' My baptism text. How wonderful, that salvation did not depend on my feeble efforts! Praise the Lord!

From personal experience, for a long while,I was taught a mixture of salvation by grace combined with works. I never had any assurance of salvation. The Holy Spirit taught me, through his word about salvation by grace alone. I am afraid this type of teaching is all to much present in the church today. To keep the dynamics of the church today we must have the gospel of our salvation , first and foremost! Then the Holy Spirit can be our teacher as He indwells the believer!

I can relate to Peter! I must confess I have the fear of man all to much in my life. It is a continual source of pain to me. Because of this I am a big hypocrit! I can relate to Barnabas, because I often want to be kind, and thereby compromise the truth I should speak in given situations! I realize my sin and pray that God will forgive me and change me,I cast myself on his mercy-"I have no other righteousness, I have no other plea-it is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me!" Please pray for me!

Pauls source of the Gospel was by the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself! Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. God has revealed himself through Christ Jesus, and this plan of Salvation is the theme of the whole bible. By not checking our doctrines by the word of God , we will be easily led into cults or dangerous error!