JoanG

When we live according to the Spirit, we are showing our respect for God, Jesus and others. We hold all life in high reguard. We speak with honesty and love at all times. We curb our use of profanity and anger. We do not use hateful messages to others. We honor the fact that God is above all things. We approach Him in prayer and in total awe of His greatness. We are acknowledging the fact that we are not really worthy to use His name.

Our lives were changed the minute that we accepted Jesus as our savior and he entered into our hearts and souls as the Holy Spirit. He lives inside of us at all times. We needed to shed our old skin and be born again into grace that was never in our lives before. This means that we must give up our self-serving lives. We need to learn to put our egos aside. We need to learn to follow the path that Jesus puts in front of us. We need to give up all of our cruthches. We do not need them. We can now depend on Christ to be there for us. Christ loved us as sinners. he gav e up His life for us so that we might have a chance to become who He intended us to be.

If people insist on following the old laws of the Jewish faith, they are stating in reality that Jesus came for nothing. His death proves useless. To have a New Covenant with God, the people had to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. He is the only way that we can get into heaven. All believers in Christ have been give the same type of grace and forgiveness by God. One way of worship is not better than another. However, congregations can make or break a person's faith in God. Some places become stagnant and self- serving. They lose the heart of worship. They lose their faith, they lose their closeness to God. They lose the grace that God gave them because they start to rely on themselves and they start to inflate their egos. Some people lose everything that God gave us.

I believe that you cannot have love without wrath. You need to have a set of rules to live by. And you need to lovingly follow them. You need to realize that there are consequenses to all your actions. Jesus died so that we do not have to. However, we were given a list of parameters to live our lives by. If we do not live by these rules, we will forgo our salvation and we will end up in eternal death.

As a follower of Christ, I must allow Him to take control of my life. I need to let go of fears and allow His light to shine into my heart. I personally have immersed myself into the bible. I got a study plan and read the bible cover to cover over a few months. I opened up my heart and mind to Jesus. I reaffirmed my belief in Him. I allowed Him to become a major part of my life. I learned how to listen to Him. I opened my eyes and I was able to see a new path that He was laying before me. It is not always easy, and at times I do try to resist the change, but with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit my life has changed into a more peaceful existance.

I believe that we need to communicate with God on very open basis. I believe that written prayers are great for group or community worship. However, we need a more personal interaction with God. We need to pray to Him to let Him know that we are requesting an audience with Him. And once we speak, we need to take the time and listen to Him. We need to open our hearts to receive His message back to us. God knows what we want and need, but we need to give him the chance to make a responce to us. And I believe that prayer is the way to accomplish all of this.

Faith is believing in something that we can not see, touch or hear in traditional senses. It is grasping a concept of the intangible and holding it very close to our hearts. I believe that each one of us has to develope our own faith. I believe that faith is a seed that is planted into the hearts of all of those that have been saved by God with grace. However, it is up to us to fertilize the seed and to water it regularly so that it grows into a beautiful plant. Not all the plants blosom the same way. Faith reminds me of a poem by Emily Dickinson: I never saw a moor. This poem brought me to the understanding of faith when I was in Jr. High. I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; yet know I how the heather looks, and what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, nor visited in heaven; yet certain am I of the spot as if the chart were given.

Each time we partake in communion at the Lord's table, we are b uilding a stronger relationship with Jesus. We are reaffirming our belief and love and faith in Him. We are remembering what He did for us. And we are remembering that He is always there for us. When we share a meal that touches or heart and soul with either memories or the sharing of a joyous event, we grow streonger as a community. We have a strong common bond. Each time we approach the Lord's table, we should be looking to strengthen the bond we have with Him. We should approach with love and leave even more filled with His love. Our hearts should burst with extreme joy each time we eat and drink in His presence.

God created us to do His works here on earth. He gave us the skills, the talents, and the spiritual gifts that we need to excel in our life with Him and for Him. One can say that He groomed us to be His hands and feet here on earth. The difference is that in working for God we have His love and grace. When we try to do things to win God's graces, we fall short of what God wants us to do. We fail to show God that we are worthy of His grace. We fail to live our lives according to God's will.

When we pray in secret, we are not afraid to open up our souls to God for help. We are more honest with our downfalls, fears, needs and dreams. When people pray in groups, they are able to hide from themselves. They can look at others and feel that they are better than those around them. However, in group prayers, people are less likely to hear the soft voice of God talking directly to them. They get lost in all the flowery words and they miss the real meaning of the prayer. They can ignore what is really going on in their hearts. The words just become words to say every Sunday. They lose their meanings and their feelings in the hearts of men. There is no growth.

John the Baptist realizes that he has done his job well. He has started to open the hearts of men to a new way of life. He has helped people to face the reality of life as it was versus what life can be. I love to watch people shine. I love to see them open up and blossom into who they are to be. I feel that pastors get on an ego trip at times. They need to feel the adrenalin of competition. They need to have a reason to continue to grow and push themselves to higher limits.

People feel that their way is the only way to be saved according to God. They refuse to open up their hearts or minds to see that other ways might actually be better. I found this in the Catholic Church when the dictate was made that during Lent a person could not eat meat on Fridays. I found this very hard at times because of the places that I was living in. I believe that we need to just express what is in the bible. We need to allow people to teach us first before we try to convert them. We need to live with them and understand them before we can help them to change ot the person that Jesus is guiding them to be. We need to be very loving and very patient. We have to shower them with the love of Christ before we can expect them to try a new way of living. We do not need to change their cultures. We just need to change their hearts.

The Apostles were a representation of all the people who were going to be coming to Christ in the future. They were the ones that had to teach converts about the New Covenant. These men were the same as the elders in the Old Testament. Each time we partake in the cup of the covenant, we are reaffirming our covenant with God and Jesus. We are strengthening our faith and making the Holy Spirit stronger in our lives.

I feel that Paul wanted to clear the air in front of witnesses. Peter already had a reputation to being a hypocrite. And Paul did not want to become a victim in Peter's game. I am really sure that Paul had talked to Peter before and knew just what he was like. The Gentile Christians came to realize just how much Paul did care for them. These believers were not going to be required to have their bodies altered against their wishes. They were able to keep their dignity. I think that Paul was not relieved because his ministry was safe and his work was not going to disappear within the Jewish faith.

I have never had to deal with this. I am the one that has had to move on from certain churches because of their views, their priorities and their lack of Christian faith. I feel that churches that lose people lack what those individuals need at that point in their lives. Those churches, that blame other churches for stealing their people, are very closed minded. They refuse to take a look at themselves. They refuse to see what is causeing the people to go church-shopping and moving on.

I have been poor most of my life. I know what it is like to struggle. I know what it is like to be homeless and to live in a car with my kids for 10 days. However, I also know that God did take care of us. He kept us safe and helped me get out of it all. I still have a bit of a struggle but I am working very hard to get back on my own feet completely. I give praise for all the things that I do have. I do give to people what I can. I do share but I share with those that really need it. I really do not help those that don't help themselves. I go out of my wat to try and help them, but I will not do it all for them and I will not enable them to take advantage of myself or others. I am not sure if this makes me a horrible person but I have worked hard myself to get where I am and I expect others to want to work to help themselves.

In the New Covenant, individuals are forgiven of their sins. There is a direct connection with God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit that dwells in our souls. The old Covenant was not so personal. Only a select few were given the ability to have a personal relationship with God. God promises us that He will allow us into heaven and into eternal life with Him because of the fact that we believe in Him and His son and in the Holy Spirit that is in us. We need to live our lives now guided by the Holy Spirit and not the world. We need to acknowledge our inheritance of heaven. We need to honor God with our thought and actions.

Jesus gave His life to make sure that we are able to live. He took our punishment upon Himself to save or rescue us from the grasp of the devil. He offered us a way to get into heaven. He insured our safety with His own life. That my friends is what it meant by being saved in the Christian terminology.

Peter was a very reputation minded person. He was constantly concerned with the way people talked about him. He always wanted to be with the majority and did not stand on principals that he held in his heart. he should have learned that it was important to do what is right versus what the crowds did. I feel thaqt the apostles actually let Christ down again. They were more afraid of the letter of the law than they were of the heart of the law. I feel that people need to acknowledge what they do wrong. They need to ask for forgiveness and understanding. I have always tried to stand on my principals and morals. I really try to do what is right and not follow the crowd. I rather go alone than to go wrong.

Jesus knew that the only way the disciples could grasp what He was teaching was to with Him and to learn from Him. Jesus needed to give good examples for them. Today, we spend time with Jesus through the bible. We need to not only read the words but to meditate on them and make them a part of us. In this way, we too are learning from Jesus directly. I find that God will put people in my path to help me spread His word. I find that people will automatically start to talk to me about concerns that they may have. I am able to share God's hope and faith and love in their lives. I might just be the one to show them that they are not alone and that someone does care for them. I just might be able to put a smile on their face. I always try to let my actions speak louder than my words.

We are to only allow God know what we are doing. We are not to be boastful or to look for thanks or gratification from others. We need to bury our egos and only use our hearts to show God what we are made of. A lot of churches use public display to encourage others to give. They put up plaques in honor of the contributers. They have learned that if they stroke a person's ego, they can get more money from them. They have learned to use the materialistic life to produce more money. However, in this process, they also degrade the poor and those that can not give money. They overlook all the time that a person might give to the church instead of giving money that they can not affort. I find that in today's churches, many of them look down on the poor in the congregation. They close their eyes to the need of the people in their own place of worship.

We do not quite grasp the concept of grace as a gift from God. We keep trying to make ourselves worthy of it. We are not worthy of it. Even our good works do not make us worthy of grace. We fall short on so many aspects of life. We do not keep the covenant with God on a daily basis. To a 10 year old child I would say: grace is a loving and caring gift from God because we are His children. God does us a favor each and every day by giving us His love and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Even when we do the wrong things, God still loves us and shows us this love with the gift of grace.

The covenant between God and the Israelites was the Ten Commandments. The people stated that they would obey all of the laws that God put before them. They would do everything that God has asked them to do. As part of the covenant, the Israelites took young bulls and sacrificed them. The blood was drained and sprinkled on the alter and on the people. Then Moses and the elders made their way up the mountain and ate in the presence of God to seal the covenant.

Paul want the people to know that he teaches the revelation by Jesus not the apostles. He did not come to teach the Jews but to approach teh Gentiles with love and faith. He wants teh people to know that what he is saying is true. But that he is only going to work with them. The apostles were giving the same messages to the Jewish people. He has the blessings of the Apostles to give his message. He is the one ot answer their questions. They are not to believe those that are giving them false information.

Since the founding fathers of our faith had accepted a non-circumcised convert into their circle of believers, it was Paul's contention that you did not need to follow the Jewish law of circumcision. to have eternal life. The Gentiles did not have to subject themselves to the Jewish beliefs. They did not have to give up their uniqueness to believe in Jesus. God would accept them as they are.