Old Jerry

Zerubbabel knows that he is working directly for God. He will know that when he asks others to do some things they will know to trust Zerubbabel. The power of a leader’s signet ring to let people know that the words on the scribe is from him and his authority. When I listen to God’s Spirit it makes me an effective agent because I will know that I am doing the work that God wants me to be doing. I am authorized to speak and act for Jesus whenever I am I in sync with Him.

I think that the things that defile us today is the same as in the Old Testament days. We are defiled by disobeying the Ten Commandments. The danger of acting as if doing church work somehow makes us holy by association is that we don’t repent from our sins. We think we have repented by doing holy things. We sould go to God and ask for forgiveness for our spiritual defilement and sin.

The command God gives Joshua the high priest is to be brave and to get to work. I think that these commands are as good today as they were for Joshua the high priest. I would implement them be believing that God is with me all the time and especially when I am doing the work he wants me to and I would go to work.

Hardships is God’s way of bring us back to Him. He wants us to live for Him and obey him. God always wants us to do things His way because that is the best way.

I think that God is displeased with my when I stop doing the things that He wants me to. He takes pleasure in my obeying Him. I don’t think that there is anything that is keeping me from serving Him. I have found that if He gives me something to do He also provides the resources.

I would like to think that the repentance and separation from sins in our culture is the same as in the Old Testament times. The difference is that we are bombarded with our culture all the time through the internet, television, radio and many other ways. In order to prepare ourselves to worship Jesus in the Lord’s Supper we need to confess our sins and repent of them. The only way that I can think of to prepare to serve him with purity day by day is by prayer.

I think that the reason that, when faced with “insurmountable odds”, we give up so easily is because we hadn’t gone to God for help. The characteristic of a disciple who retains a robust faith in God in impossible solutions is that he is praying all the time. He will know God’s timing and will act on that time. He also knows that God is with him and will be protecting him.

The danger of letting people without a deep heart commitment to a close walk with God redesign the church’s image is that they will try to pollute the church with their kind of worship. They will start to worship the things that they had done to help and not give God the credit for their inspiration.

I think that my personal worship is what it should be but some of the foundations that I need to lay again is to get excited about God. When I first learned about Him I wanted to shout it out to the world. I wanted to try to convince my friends that they needed to start worshiping God. I seemed to have lost all that enthusiasm.

I think that only some returned to Jerusalem because the others were too comfortable and complacent to have to go through all the work that would be required to move back. Those that returned were those that were uncomfortable and were probably quite religious and wanted to go back and rebuild the temple in order to follow God. Some of us know that Jesus is the only way there is to heaven and want to do what he commands. We are looking at the future and wanting the best.

I think that the promise that is most meaningful to me at this point in life is to be restored. I have done some things in my life that I need to be restored from.

We are to stand firm in the faith. We know that there are others that are suffering along with us. We are to put in the armor of God and be ready for the attacks of Satan. These are the same instructions that Peter gave us.

It is important to be aware of Satan’s existence because we would think that anything we do is all ok. Knowing that Satan exist keeps us going to God for the help we need. That is the reason that this verse teaches us that the devil is real.

We are to cast our fears to the Lord. This is because He cares for us. He loves us and we don’t understand all the love He has for us. We should be casting our fears to the Lord through prayers. I have already applied this verse’s instructions in my life most of the time. I just need to do it more.

The church leaders must be able to listen to others and respect their comments. It is very hard to discern a person’s humility before putting him or her in a place of leadership. Sometimes they change after they have more authority. When that happens we have anarchy in the church.

We must make sure that the people that we put into those positions are not incline to be power-mongers. We need to evaluate them and look at their past to see if they meet the requirements of being a leader. We are to look for leaders that are strong and humble. But even when we do this there are still those who will be able to circumvent the system.

If you have to “twist the person’s arm” to get him or her to serve as a church leader then you are not getting the best person. That person is grudging to the job. He may not participate in the discussions and not look into the situation. This makes it so the church cannot be the best that they can be.

The responsibilities of an elder is to be a person that guides you in your spiritual life. The thing that stood out to me is that they should be older mature Christians.

The willingness to die is essential to healthy Christianity because we know that this is not the end. We know that we are going to heaven and there is nothing on this earth that can stop that. When we aren’t willing to die and follow Jesus then we are becoming more like this evil world. We are “committed” to our savior because we know that he is the way to heaven.

If we are never persecuted then that may mean that they don’t see Jesus in us. So the reason the persecution should make us happy is because they do see Jesus in us. They know who we belong to.

When I meditate on the ideal of partaking in the suffering of Christ’s suffering I can count on also partaking in his glorious kingdom.

If we try to avoid persecution and suffering for Christ we will probably go along with anything. We will let satin take over our lives. I have been distracted by persecution from what I should have been doing because I was concerned about what others would think if I didn’t do what they wanted. I have seen this in others.

When people are always promoting themselves and pointing to how God is using them I think that is saying that they are pretty proud of themselves. They need to realize that it was God that gave them everything that they are today. I think that spiritual gift that God has given me is one of serving. I think it is great when I get to serve other.

I think that non-Christians don’t like the idea of giving an account of their actions because they are embarrassed of what they have done. We Christians don’t like it because we are also embarrassed of what we have done and we know that Christ would not approve of some the things that we have done. The realization that we must give an account of our actions usually makes us think twice before we do something stupid. We should live with that attitude that we will have to give an account for our actions.

I think that non-Christians try to get you to sin with them is so that they can say that they are just as good as you are. We are tempted to do so because it look like it would be fun. It also might be adventurous thinking that we are disobeying our parents and getting by with it. We can resist this temptation be walking away.