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The rejoicing in the Lord is a feeling, an experience when joy comes into your from the Lord. If we do not feel like rejoicing in the Lord we should pray and ask him to fill us with the joy he has for us. The effect of this rejoicing it is in fact joy. We are filled with the Lord's joy when we ask God to continually fill us with joy and peace that comes only from him.

The value of a special speaker or evangelist to return to a congregation is to see how they are received and if the congregation has grown in faith. They can impart a special message or experience to a congregation that a regular pastor may not have privilege to or experienced. An itinerant minister may have difficulty because of lack of funds to travel, unfriendly people or just unwelcome in various congregations. But, those that help and support an itinerate minister will most likely welcome the many glorious trails and experiences the person has gone through. They can help our faith by confirming the work the Lord is doing in the harvest of unbelievers.

Persecution often discourages Christians from active service because they know there will be those who oppose Christianity and will cause a disruption of witnessing. This persecution, if Christians endure it, will strengthen and embolden them to continue witnessing. just as a soldier is trained for battle they become more skilled in opposing the enemy. This persecution reveals our underlying motives to bring the gospel to those who are in spiritual darkness. God allows the "tempter" to tempt us because it helps us to rely more on the power of God's spirit and in turn helps us reject temptation. God allows Satan to tempt us because it hardens us against his temptations and also allows God to work around Satan's plans of deception.

Timothy's role was to strengthen and encourage those in Thessalonica because he is a brother in Christ and a true fellow worker for God. The Thessalonians have had been under great pressure from their fellow countryman. They had upset the commerce of the idol makers and the Judaizers were also trying to get them to follow the Mosaic law, thus many people were leaving the Synagogue. Timothy was not well known by the gentile and Jewish population of Thessalonica. Therefore he was able to sneak in and help the new believers in Christ. This helped Timothy for this assignment because it contributed to building his character in leadership. Delegating out ministry assignments helps the enterprise of the Kingdom of God, because it sends forth those believers who can help the church grow in their faith.

Our salvation is a gift (grace) from God, through whom his Son Jesus, who shed his blood for our justification. Through faith we do good works, our rewards for these works is justified by God for our service to the Lord. Christ rewards because those that are faithful servants have run the race of their faith, working for the furtherance of the gospel, helping our neighbors and any good works we perform for our Lord. This includes our brother and sisters in Christ, neighbors and to our community. The Lord does not reward works that are done out of worldly desires that benefit neither him nor the church. Showing accountability to our Master brings us pleasure because we are proud of the good works we have accomplished for him. These rewards should motivate us because of the salvation he has provided for us, these works bring glory to his name.

Realizing and affirmation of our citizenship and our allegiance is vital to our discipleship because we are alien's here on earth. Our country or home is in heaven with God. Realizing our affirmation should keep us from temptation that only worldly desires have which have no benefit to our daily Christian life. Temporal living in our church is a danger because we will loss our focus of living for Christ. We are to live a disciplined life similar to Christ and the Apostles, not one that leads to desires in the world's fleshly desires.

Paul's quest is to know God to the fullest extent, thus he calls others to imitate him. We become hesitant to follow Paul's example because we know we will make a mistake and are hesitant to go forward in living out our Christian lives. Others who see us make mistakes may say that we are not a good example to follow. God uses imitation in building disciples because this is the way Jesus taught his disciples. He taught them by the mistakes they made and the good examples he showed. By realizing their mistakes and correcting them they were able to go into a Christ life style. The only one's I know who may imitate me would be my family.

To be called by God as a witness for Christ is a call that is beyond honorable, but a hard call to accomplish without the help of the Holy Spirit. Just knowing that you are called upward by God is indeed an honor. I have experienced this because God has chose me above all people to come to the saving experience of his salvation and mercy for us. God's call can become dim in hearing because we may have persons in our life we need to forgive, even a hidden sin or habit that needs removal. These things keep our eyes from focusing totally on Christ. Renewing our hearing of his call can be through prayer, fasting and forgiveness. Making our bodies slaves for us helps conquer those hidden things we think we need to survive in the mental and physical state. The specifics of the summons of God's call for us is to realize what Christ has accomplished for us. To submit our lives to him so he can prune and trim those things in our lives that hamper us from serving him.

The past can get in the way of knowing Christ because if we look back at our lives and remember all our losses and failures we will loss focus of our quest for Christ. We will loss focus of our spiritual values and growth. What we need to forget is our losses, mental injuries and failures in our past lives. These keep us from truly following and serving Christ. There is probably some forgetting in my life that I may have to struggle with. However, because of childhood upbring there was much in my life to forgive, it has at one time made me very judgemental. The Lord seen to it himself that this forgiving and judgemental attitude was made right. This seemed to be a spiritual obstacle in my life I truly did not recognize.

The role of the word of God in molding disciple lives is that it changes their thinking and characteristics traits making them stringer in the faith. God's word has power all it's own, it sets us free from sin, it bolsters our faith and convicts the believer of sin in his life. The word of God seems to be an active and living truth. It divides between soul and spirit, it creates a fruit that will be visible to others which gives glory to God. As disciples we can guide new believers into the very truth of Gods word, whether by life experiences and trails, we can model and teach a congregation so that their faith may grow and flourish.

Fatherly roles are important in making disciples because they can encourage them in the faith and when they fail in some aspect of their Christian living. We can also share some of our trails we had as new Christians. I believe women can also adapt to these traits especially to other women. She can encourage them to strive in their trails and plead that their faith will become stronger.

The meaning of to "know Christ" for me is to know his love and for him to fill me with that love, even though it is unfathomable to even try to realize this love. To know his very heart and will for me. This also means that our understanding of him would be generally increased as he reveals himself to us. With all the above, it would be a personal relationship with risen Christ and know his power. it would be impossible to know Christ without faith. This faith begins when we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord. A personal relationship with Christ is not even possible without faith. Once we come to know the Lord and hid love for us, we would only want a greater relationship with him. I have a personal relationship with Christ, but everyday I pray to know him and his will for me greater than ever before.

Righteousness through faith which is given to us by God for our faith in Jesus Christ work on the cross. If we believe in Christ that he bore our sins on the cross, then through God's mercy and grace we are forgiven of our sins and we are justified. Righteousness obtained through the law depends totally on our works by observing the law. This is a self righteousness and does not give us eternal life. Righteousness through observance of the law does not infect our congregation. Our faith is in Christ and him alone. Societies view of Christianity in general see's the faith based belief as a false religion. Justification or righteousness by faith is hard to grasp. Most all religion's and beliefs in the world all depend on human righteousness to achieve eternal life or perfection. It is very hard for them to grasp that God send his son to die for us. Most all do not believe in a triune God.

Motherly nurturing qualities are important to growing disciples because new disciples need the care that a baby may need, not in a physical sense but in caring and teaching them the word of God. We are God's servants and we are to nurture those new to the faith. Male discipler's can adopt some of the traits the Apostle Paul explained in 1 Thessalonians 2:6b-8. We are to be gentile, caring and sharing one's own life.

The character flaws that are the greatest in the church today appears to be from what I have witnessed is; men -pleasers, telling people what they want to hear and flattery, appaling to peoples vanities. To prevent one of these character flaws from overtaking one is to remember that Christ is the one I serve, not my own interest.

Personal courage and boldness is an important character trait needed to preach the gospel. With the help of the Holy Spirit we should go forth and declare the good news, regardless of the ridicule we may receive. The lack of courage for evangelism will result in a loss of new believers to the faith of Christ. A lack of courage will also cause a congregation from being healthy, because the leaders may not eant to be offending anyone. In today's age society demands we become politically correct. God calls me to be a witness for the gospel for others to have eternal life with God. To overcome shyness I must depend on the Holy Spirit to guide me in the correct thought and speech to lead someone into the faith.

Because of Judaizers claim that one must be circumcised and become a Jew to be saved, Paul has told the Philippians that he has more to boast about then they do. Circumcision is putting confidence in the flesh instead of faith in God and the Lord Christ Jesus. Paul considers all things a loss because he has given up all material, customs and rituals to know Christ intimately. My original religious back ground was a impediment to my faith because I was taught to in order to get to Christ I had to go through another mediator, example a saint.

Confidence in the flesh will show up in our congregation as works of the flesh. I have never to the best of my knowledge, struggled with confidence in the flesh.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 teaches us that our faith is dependant on the belief that we are to wait for the Father's Son from heaven to return, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus who has rescued us from the coming wrath of God himself. All of these elements of belief are all important to our faith. None of the beliefs is of the least importance to our faith. The element of belief that appears to b the least important to everyone is the coming of the wrath of God. Most people believe God could not possibly send everyone to hell, surely he is a merciful and loving God they say, with no belief in the Son of God.

Being imitators of Christ is important in a new Christian spiritual life because Christ is our Savior. He was obedient to the will of the Father even unto death. If we are to be Christians we should try our best to be obedient to him. As he is so are we. The ministries that are most conducive to imitating Christ life are those of pastor's and leaders in a church. The leader is important to the health of a church because he must be an imitator of Christ and ensure that those of his congregation become mature in their faith. If not the congregation will be twisted or not have the straight truth of Christ. People who are not part of a congregation or resist being a member can not become steadfast in their belief. They refuse the church because they may feel the people are hypocrites or will take advantage of them. They feel their relationship to God is good and moral, but this is a total deception of Satan. They can not grow in their faith nor have the moral character that the Lord that the Lord gives. Our character is most important to our children because they look up to us for character and moral guidance. With out guidance our children will be fertile ground for SAtan, they will have a contorted view of life.

The working of the Holy Spirit is necessary for an effective ministry, because he gives the gospel power and convicts the unbelievers. When the ministry is by our own will power it loses it's effect because the Holy Spirit is not in it. The role of miracles in Paul's ministry is a tool of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate that the true word of God is being taught. To see miracles in our evangelical day's would have the same effect to unbelievers as it did in Paul's day. However, miracles can not always produce faith in God. Many denominations in our day down play the miracles or gifts of the Holy Spirit. this causes restriction of the word of God and the gospel.

There were several reasons for the Jews in the Synagogue to be angry angry Paul. He was making converts to the faith in Christ, because of this the Synagogue was losing it's congregation and this in turn caused them to lose their tithes. Some of the Jew's in the Synagogue did not believe in Jesus and this was causing an uproar, plus they were afraid of the persecution from Rome. Paul keeps preaching the gospel regardless of the persecution against him. He knows the Lord, he knows the truth and wants as many people as possible to know this truth and eternal life. A violent reaction to the preaching of the gospel should not deter us from proclaiming it. It is a Satanic attack that corrupts people, blinds their eye's and hardens their hearts. Satan hates the truth and will not stop his influence of hatred thus we must not stop proclaiming the gospel.

Bickering and dissension in the church of the Philippians was caused because they had a lot of mixed cultural believers, racial and social classes. They were encouraged to stop this and begin serving Jesus with a fellowship of one mind and unity. Paul's description of Timothy to the Philippians is that he was a follow worker with Paul and had proved himself a selfless servant of the Lord. Paul calls honor to men like Epaphroditus because they are dedicated servants not only to Paul but to the Lord. They are good ministers of the word and are leaders in the church.

We serve the Lord as a slave because it is him whom we love and worship. To do the work out of preference will not bring honor and glory to the Lord, only ourselves. The quality of service we give the :prd as his slave must be ti the best we can do and for him only, bring him honor and glory. Our commitment to serving the Lord must be with our entire heart and soul. Serving by preference instead of devotion to the Lord does not bring the Lord his glory and honor only for those who choose to serve for their own good will.

No one has come alongside to teach me, only the Lord himself. I have no idea which potential leader in our church needs someone to come alongside them. I have only my family to mentor.