JoanG

Chapter 43 verse 7: I must answer God's call. I must be open to hear his voice and he will direct me on how to fulfill his goals for my life. And I will show him glory by following him and his words. Verses 10 and 12: We have been shown the glory of God. We are aware of all of his powers. We are able to tell people of all these things. We can and should tell all people of this love and glorious powers. Verse 21: We can tell people how the love of God has changed our lives. We can tell people how getting to know God has taught us to love others and ourselves. We have been given a chance to sing to the glory of God. The obstacles I face are from within myself. I have a habit of giving into fear and not wanting to talk to people. I let my own self doubt take over. However, the more I pray and work within the guidelines that God puts forth, I am able to accomplish a lot of things. I feel that God is making more things possible for me.

Israel has seen the miracles of the Lord. However, they are prone to ignore them and ignore God. They are not seeing how God is there for them. They have started to take everything for granted. I must say that I was very spiritually blind in my past. I felt like I was dead inside of myself. I had no where to turn. I was alone and scared. I felt like I was truly useless. No matter what I tried I would fail. I had turned my back on any type of religion. I could never find the purpose that God had in mind for me. However, when I opened my heart and soul to God, I felt more alive. And when I started to once again turn to him for guidance, I have been able to find my way. Even though I have a long way to go, I can now be sure that I am at least walking in the right direction.

To be a light to the nation means that we set an example for others. We need to teach people how to live a life that is filled with love. we need to share all that we have with others that are less fortunate. We need to share the talents that God has given us. We need to work for the greater good of everyone. I feel that I am helping everyone that God puts in front of me. I try to live in the examples of Christ. I am working very hard to turn my life around.

The Messiah is going to be quiet and gentle person. He will bring justice to all people. He will take care of the weak. He will take care of those that are completely faithful in him. People can put all their hopes in him. He is going to be very consistent. He will be genuine. We should strive to be like him. Our lives should mimic his. We should care about those that are less fortunate than us. We should trust in him completely. We should be willing to turn our lives over to him.

Chapter 40 verses 3-5. We need to make ourselves ready for God. We need to change our bad habits. We need to increase our good deeds. We need to change our attitudes, and our hearts. We need to renew our commitment to our Lord and God. We need to be able to walk the path that God puts us on. Verse 11: God will provide all the things that we need. He will always be there to take care of us. He is there to carry us when we need him most. Verse 15-17: No nation can provide for us as God can. Material objects can disappear. There is never enough with material things or worldly things. Only God can make sure that we have all that we need. Verses 15-17 and 21-26: God is above all things. Yes, the material objects look great but they are like dust in the wind. They are here one second and gone the next. God is the only one that is a constant in this world. He is here no matter what. Verse 31: We need to have faith in the Lord. We need to do things at God's pace not ours. God knows what we need and when we need it, we must wait faithfully for him to provide it.

Every time I am going to partake in the Lord's Supper, I really look into my heart and soul. I try to remember and fix all that I have done wrong. I confess to God all that I have done in the way of sin. And I promise that I will try to be better. I never say that I will not sin again because we are very sinful in nature. But, I will promise to try harder. By doing this I am opening my heart and soul to receive God's graces in my life. I am once again taking control of my life and I am making a commitment to do better.

When we partake in the Lord's Supper we are proclaiming that we believe and remember that Christ gave up his life for us and our salvation. This proclamation is directed heavenly to God and Jesus. We are reaffirming our beliefs and our faith. We are talking directly to God and Jesus. We are praying to them When we take God and Jesus out of our worship, we are creating a chaotic environment. We are risking the survival of a congregation. We are turning to a more corporate church. We risk turning to a materialistically, worldly and godless places where people gather.

Christ became the ultimate sacrifice. Because of the blood that he so willingly gave, he ransomed our lives for God. He made it possible for us to get into heaven. He did away with all the other animal sacrifices that were once required by God's people. The Old Covenant meant that the Israelites had to follow the Mosaic Rules. God promises to take care of his people as long as they were faithful to him. However, due to sin, there was always a separation between God and the people. With the New Covenant, we are no longer required to be Jewish to be God's people. We just need to accept Jesus as our savior. We need to live in the ways that Jesus taught. We need to have faith that God will take care of us.

Christ's broken body and shed blood is our salvation. This was the only way that we are reunited with God. We can once again be called the children of God because our sins were taken from us by the death of Christ. To me, the bread is a representation of the body of Christ. It is a life saving bread that ignites the flame in my soul again. It fills me with love and a unique sense of grace. I feel that it is food for my soul. To me, the wine is a representation of Christ's blood. It is a cleansing agent that washes my soul clean. It helps remove my sins from me and it fills me with a new life again.

Jesus knew that his time had not yet come to pass that he should die. He still had work that needed to be done. HE still had things to teach his disciples. I do not feel that this was fear. It was more of Jesus picking the time and place that he would die. 13 miles was not that far that the guards would not have been able to travel there. However, I do believe that God shielded them from harm.

Caiaphas was telling Sanhedrin that the death of Jesus would lead to a much greater nation than just the Jewish nation. The death of Jesus was going to surpass all their imaginations. A new nation was going to be built that would be more powerful and more faithful and more spiritual than that which already existed. There was going to be an inclusiveness of all people under one name.

Lazarus and his sisters meant a lot to Jesus. They were close friends. He was upset because his friend died. Even though he knew what the Father had in mind, he was also human and had normal emotions.

Based on the gospel of Luke, Martha was the one that took care of all the work in the house. She had to make sure that the guests were well taken care of. The Apostles might have thought that she was a bit stand offish. However, Martha was paying attention to what was being said and taught in her presence. She might not have sat and done nothing like her sister, but she knew the truth. She just served the Lord's human needs as a great hostess would. I feel that Martha is the one that was more spiritual. She served the needs of others and she was filled with the truth and she believed who Jesus was.

Jesus is the Son of God. He is able to control people's death. He is able to bring them back to life. He is able to take away the sins that are killing them and to show them a new life. He is able to heal a person's heart and soul. He is able to make them better people. Jesus promises that those people who are truly one with the Holy Spirit will not ever be parted from the love of God. They will indeed have eternal life. We just have to really give our life to God and to live within the teachings of Jesus and to follow the directions of the Holy Spirit which resides in our hearts and souls.

Thomas is a very strong believer and friend. He is willing to lay down his life for Jesus. He knows that going back to Jerusalem would be suicide. However, he believes in Jesus and he knows that the Father wants them to travel back there. He knows that no matter what happens it is the will of the Father that it should take place.

Daniel wanted God to be glorified again. He wanted the return of God's people to be reunited to their God so that they could praise God again as God's nation and God's people in God's own temple. God sent his angel Gabriel to deliver a personal message to Daniel. God wanted Daniel to know that he heard him. Daniel was told that he was a very beloved servant of God.

Daniel knows that he personally has some faults. However, he takes on the sins of all the people. He feels that he has to be a responsible one. He hopes that his honesty and humility will win the grace of God for all the people. He was very selfless in his praying. Jesus had a true love for people. He wanted to show them how to live. He wanted them to have the best. But he saw the sinful nature that man really has. he knew that without his help, we would never find our way back to God. So he sacrificed himself to save us. He took all of our sins upon himself and took them a far way away from us. He opened the gates of heaven to us.

Daniel is very humble. He realizes that God owes him nothing. He sees his own failings and those of his fellow country men. He fasts and humbles himself even further. He wears a sackcloth and is covered in ashes. He is telling and showing God that he is no better than the dirt under his feet. He was asking a great favor from God and knew that God owed him nothing. I feel that we must make sure that our own hearts and souls are right with God before we can ask him for anything. We need to make sure that we have confessed our own sins and that we have asked for forgiveness first. Only after that would I feel comfortable to go to God and ask him to help someone else. I would want to make sure that my prayers has the greatest chance of being heard.

Daniel realized that the 70 yrs of prophecy has almost ended. He has been faithful to God even though his life was in danger. He was always ready to die for his beliefs. Daniel realized that now might be the best time to turn back to God and to pray for forgiveness and how that he could forgive Israelites once again.

Hezekiah asks for healing under the guidance of his heart. He did not know what was in store for him if he died. However, his faith was great that even if he were to die, God would remember him. If we give our lives over to God and if we do the best that we can do, God will hear us on a regular basis. He is our eternal Father. He wants what is best for us. And he is willing and able to supply all of our needs. However, if we are disobedient, God will not give us what we want. He will try to discipline us in a loving way. He will withhold things from us. He might make us face a period of chaos so that we open our hearts to him again.

Hezekiah was the last person in the line of David. He had no one to leave the running of the nation to. He had no heir. This means that the promised line of David would end there. There was also the fear that the nation would come to an end because of the constant threat of invasion. God never goes back on any promise that he makes. He heals Hezekiah and gives him an heir to take over.

They both give glory to God. They place him in heaven above all things. They are honoring his name and all the things that he has done with creation. To have faith means to believe in things that are unseen. We have never seen God on earth, however, we believe that he is the greatest and he can do anything. I believe that we need to have strong faith in order for God to answer our prayers. We need to believe that there is someone greater than us to answer our prayers. There has to be someone in control over all the earth. When we pray to God, we need to realize that we are giving power of our lives over to a higher authority. We need someone who is greater and more powerful than a human to help us.

Herekiah is telling the Lord that this is what is being said. He is telling the Lord that he has done all he could do, now the Lord needs to fight the fight. He was handing the problem over to the Lord. We need to hand things off to the Lord and God. We can not do it all by ourselves. We must give control over to God. We need to stop causing chaos in our lives. We can not play God with everything, We need to give up trying to do it alone. God is here for us. He is here to answer our prayers and to help us through our lives.

Paul used the analogies of an athlete to describe the hard work and determination that is needed to follow the path that God wants you on. You need to be fully prepared to give it your all. You need to be in top peak performance level at all times. Self-discipline is a standard practice for all who want to follow the teachings of Christ. We need to always be the best that we can be. We need to not give into worldly temptations. We need to have very strong habits that will carry us through the very tough times. We need to always show our best to everyone around us. Without self-discipline, we could fall into sin. We can end up making many mistakes. And we actually might end up being very materialistic. We would care more of the world's ideals than the ideas of God.

Paul wanted to show all men that they could give their lives to God and Jesus. He lived as they lived but he dedicated all his work to God. He went onto live with them daily to show them what their lives could be like. I feel that he was very authentic. He was not role-playing. He did not return to his daily routine after each encounter. I feel that God will let me know what I need to do to make my ministry successful. I am willing to do what it takes and what God needs me to do. For I know that God will reward me for all that I do in his honor.