Peggie

Jesus said "I and my father are One". When the Holy Spirit was sent, we then had the trinity. When teaching children, I use an egg...it has a shell, a yolk, and an egg white. It is something kids seem to understand pretty easily.

Jesus is the only one worthy to open the book because He is the only one who ever completely obeyed the Heavenly Father. So much so, that He who was without sin bore our sins by dying to pay the price of our sinfullness.

The parts of worship I see are giving Jesus glory, honor and praise. Also, singing, praying, and falling down before him (as when we kneel to pray and simply falling down to worship Him! What a glorious day it will be!!!!!

Sorry, I am late getting my answers posted. The two hymns I can think of right off are "Holy, Holy, Holy and The Hallelujah Chorus.

When a small, new congregation starts out it is usually out of love for Christ....just like a marriage between a man and a woman, it begins out of love. As time goes on, just like in marriage, members of the congregation lose sight of what they started out for in the beginning, which is to love God, love one another and to bring the lost to Christ! I believe that many accomplishments are given too much human praise and not enough praise of the Lord. We do not always humbly seek His will, and realize we are His servants, and that Christ, not US are the head of the church. We tend to forget that we are only His instruments in the church and all glory and honor is to be given to HIM in worship. I strongly believe that too many congregations today are so afraid of offending someone that they will not stand up for the absolute truths of the Bible, and sweep them under the rug instead. For chruches to return to their first love, Jesus Christ, they need to go back to what Jesus taught which simplifies things greatly. If we love God with all our hearts and souls, we will put Him first, and if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will reach out to the lost sheep and truly share God's love with them. Fun and fellowship are wonderful and important for any congregation. But we must first get our priorities straight, then God will bless our activities and fellowship one with another!

This shows that Jesus is "The Light" that shines among the lampstands...the Light of the World.

I am a subscriber of Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter which I receive online and in the regular mail. Sometimes it is more than I can stand to read what is happening to our precious brothers and sisters who live in countries other than the USA. I figure if they can go through what they do, the least I can do is read about it for all it's worth and pray, pray, pray! Besides the middle east, it seems the the worst places for persecution now are Africa and Asia.

Jesus came the first time as a suffering Saviour. But He will return a conquering King....King of Kings and Lord of lords!!!!! AMEN!

This tells us that God has always been and will always be. Jesus has always been with the Father, but being sent to earth do die for us WAS dead, but now lives! And He is alive forevermore! Praises!

It is because of Christians witnessing and testifying that they ARE persecuted. If all Christians sat quietly on the sidelines, there would be nothing for others to persecute them for really. Testimony and witnessing to one another as Christians builds us all up, encouraging us to witness our faith to those lost in Christ. Sadly, we become afraid to witness because we may offend someone, or they might make fun of our faith in Christ. We tend to think of the "here and now", and no one likes to be looked down upon. BUT, we are commanded to count it joy when we are being persecuted for the sake of the gospel of Christ. A good word of encouragement in Rev. 1:5 is that we are reminded of what God has done in the past for those obedient to Him, and that He destroyed those who were unbelieving. In times of persecution, these are reminders we can cling to.

Access to the Father is important for our fellowship with Him, which includes our prayer life. We may go to Him anytime, anyplace and He is there for us. This is similar to diplomatic relations because we are free to tell him how we feel, say what we need to say to him without fear....knowing we are part of Him. We have gained this access through the blood of Jesus Christ who bridged the gap between sinful man and His Holy Father in Heaven. This fulfills the 2 greatest commandments because we cannot love someone with all of our heart, soul, and mind without access to them. It is God working in us that allows us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This power works in the believer. The quantity of power is given abundantly. This power is not more evident because believers pray on such a limited basis for it, thus not really having the faith needed to be blessed w/this kind of power. Exercising this kind of power through faith brings glory to God because unbelievers cannot help but see this. When this is applied correctly, God always receives the glory!!!

That Christ is head over everything for the church means that He is over the church, we are the body but HE rules over the church as head. This says that the church has unlimited power according the God's will and purpose for His church. That He enables us with all His power to accomplish what His perfect will entails.

The same resurrection power that God used to raise Christ from the dead is given to Christians. We have by grace been given the victory over death and sin. AND, we have been given the power to accomplish through faith all that God would have us do according to His will. This power is all ours, if we but will exercise the faith for it to be shown.

Paul is trying to tell the Gentile Chrisians that with Christ being seated at the right hand of God in the Heavenly realms, He is in complete autority over everything because in this spiritual realm, Christ rules over all. This teaches the Ephesians that Christ has complete rule over any and everything that they were formerly taught. The other spirit beings are "under" Christ, he rules supremely over all.

Paul wanted the Ephesians eyes to be opened because he wanted them to see things the way God see them....not from a fleshly viewpoint the way we so often do. Their eyes saw things the way the world sees things, not from a spiritual standpoint. This power operates in the believer which is handed down from God to those who will accept it. It was resurrection power Paul spoke of.

Hello Everyone, I'm Peggie from south Arkansas. I'm looking forward to and am very excited about this new study Pastor Ralph, as always I'd like to say "Thanks" for having these online studies!

The Lamb is equal to God and sits on the right of Him. Jesus told us that He and His Father are One.

The Lamb was the only One worthy to open the seals because He was the only perfect Lamb, the only Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world and who 3 days later rose again victorious, conquering hell. I believe it is important to remember here that no one "took" Jesus' life, he "gave" it. WORTHY IS THE LAMB!!

The lamb is Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God. Standing after being slain represents Christ's resurrection. The horns represent His power, which He was never without. The eyes represent that He sees all (7). The number 7 represents completeness.

The celebration of The Lord's Supper should remind us that we will someday eat at the table prepared by God for us in Heaven with Jesus!

This should make us sorrowful for many reasons. First, Jesus is the only one who ever lived who never did anything wrong, and yet it was He who took our sins, something He did not deserve. We should also be sorrowful because we are such a sinful world that it was necessary for our redemption. But the joy comes in knowing that He loves us so much that He was willing to pay the debt for sin that we owed, and that we will stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus instead of our own filthy rags.

Because we are told to forgive before taking The Lord's Supper. Unforgiveness and partaking in The Lord's Supper is a complete contradiction. The whole purpose in Christ shedding His blood was for the forgiveness of sins, when we drink the cup in remembrance, we must forgive those likewise who have sinned against us. If we are not willing to forgive those who have wronged us, God says He will not forgive us our sins.

The significance is that we are to remember the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for us. This was a radical idea for the disciples because the Jews were to never drink the blood of animals, and they did not fully grasp what Jesus was trying to tell them here. It should be a radical idea for us because Jesus said that as often as we do this, do it in rememberance of Him. As we participate in the Lord's Supper, we should always relfect back to what Jesus went through on that cruel Roman cross for us and how His love alone held him there.

I would say that there is a big difference in the meal itself. The Jewish passover meal included unleavened bread with bitter herbs, a fruit puree, and of course the wine. To my knowledge, most congregations today have a much simpler Lord's Supper consisting of a small wafer and either one tiny cup of wine or grape juice.