Old Jerry

I think that Luke named the rulers because it gives us a reference point in time as to who was in charge at the time of Jesus’ birth. He wanted to establish that Jesus was a real person as well as being God.

Joseph accepting Mary as his wife says that he had an accepting character. In that day it probably took a lot of courage to do such a thing. The significance of the prophetic fulfillment of Jesus as a Son of David is that God told David that he would have a decedent as the king of Israel from that time on.

The prophetic concept of the virgin conception and the name “Immanuel” found its fullness in the birth of Jesus to Mary by Joseph adopting the baby Jesus.

The significance of the name of Jesus means that “Yahweh saves”. The angel gave the name to both Mary and Joseph independently because he wanted to make sure that they both understood what he wanted the baby to be named.

Except for the grace of God Mary didn’t have any options since she was pregnant and it wasn’t her husband’s baby. Joseph was a kind man and exhibited great compassion with his thoughts of deciding to divorce Mary quietly. He loved her and didn’t want to hurt her.

v Jesus, being a son of a carpenter would learn the business. This would expose him to people who would negotiate contracts and it would give him the skill of being a carpenter.

These titles are appropriate for Mary because she was the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary was an ordinary woman who believed in God and did as God had told her to do. So she should be exalted and “blessed among women”.

The essence of Mary’s positive response to the angle is that of one of submission. We should also submit to God and live the life that He wants us to live. The sense that Mary’s response was an “informed consent” was that she knew the consciences of her decision. When we respond to God we are consenting to follow Him because we know that He has our back.

The virgin conception teaches us that Jesus’ nature is that of God. No man was with Mary and so there was no jeans transferred from a man. The doctrine of the virgin conception is one of the main doctrines to the Christian message.

Mary’s “How” question was one in faith. She knew that she hadn’t been with a man and couldn’t haven’t gotten with child that way so in faith she asked how that was going to work. But Zechariah’s “How” one of disbelief was how he felt about the announcement. Mary was rewarded because of her belief and Zechariah was disciplined because of his disbelief.

The angel’s announcement said that Mary’s Child was going to be God in the flesh and that He was going to be God’s son.

The way that the persecution in the End Times will lead to many being “purified, made spotless, and refined” is that they will seek the Lord. They will know that the things that they had been believing in is no longer to be believed. As the saying goes “there is no atheists in the fox holes.” The Church in our day is in such need of this because we go to church to hear thing that make us feel good. We are not learning the things that we need to obtain eternal live. We can prepare ourselves for this time by thinking about what we will do when this time comes. We need to continue studying the Bible.

The way that I understand it, the persecution will last three and a half years during final tribulation. This is a time that we will be severely persecuted. This information was revealed to us because we are to know that just because we are Christians we will be persecuted but that God is still with us and if we endure to the end we will have a heavenly place to rest.

Those that are influential for God will inherit the Kingdom of God. They will shine like a star. God uses my influence to advance his Kingdom be giving me my spiritual gifts. I use these gifts by helping others. Even thou I use these gifts and don’t talk about the Kingdom while I am using them and I know that if I did I could have a greater influence for Christ.

We learn that when Jesus returns that there will be a resurrection of both the good and evil. This is in compliance with the New Testament. Those that are righteous will be shine like the stars and those that are evil will be raised to everlasting condemnation.

God’s people will be persecuted and all things will seem to be doomed. I think that this time is the same time as the “great tribulation” spoken in the New Testament.

The Antichrist figure is one mean person. He is going to destroy everything around him and take all the expensive things that he can. He is going to try to destroy all religions and he wants to be the god of this world.

The rehearsal of prophecy and history teaches us that the world rules are all going to be done away with and that our King Jesus is coming to take over the new world. I feel that the events of today are going on for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is but it looks to me that Jesus is going to be coming soon. It looks to me that some more of the prophecy is coming to being. I do believe that God knows and cares about the details of our country’s struggles and future because He is the one that is in control. He know the future and is guiding us to get there. I do pray for our country leaders hoping that they will change some of the things that is happening here and now.

General impression of Daniel is that the only way that he could have prophesized this was to have God tell him everything that was going to happen. No wonder he was weak after God had shown him these things. The Biblical prophecies that I can think of that has been fulfilled so precisely is that of the coming of Jesus. This teaches me that God is in control and as long as I have faith I have nothing to afraid of.

The angel messenger was unable to bring the message in a timely manner because he was delayed by a demon. So Gabriel had to come and help him fight that demon. This tells us that prayer does work and that we should keep on praying for those in power even if we don’t like them. The spiritual warfare is out there whether we can see it or not. Even if we don’t want to believe it, it is still there and we should be praying asking God for help us fight it.

The vision affects Daniel so greatly because is concerned about people of his culture. He doesn’t want them to be destroy off the earth. This had a devastating effect on him because he couldn’t eat or drink for three weeks. All he wanted to do is lay down and rest because he was so tired. I think that spiritual “work” is so taxing on us because we are exercising our brains and our spiritual power. The things that we talk about are not usually physical so we have to use our brains to picture such things. We don’t want to say something that will contradict the bible.

I think that Daniel’s visions and prophecies have been an encouragement to Christians because we know that no matter what we go through God is with us. We have something to look forward to because we know that is not all that there is and we have something better waiting for us.

I think that there are so many interpretations of Daniel’s vision of Seventy Seven is because we are trying to predict the end of this world as we know it. When they miss the end date then they go back and try again and move all the numbers around again. I don’t have an interpretation of the various parts of the vision because I know what will be or has been will occur or has already occurred and there is nothing I can do about it except to believe in my Lord Jesus Christ and be ready for the end of the world and Jesus’ return when it comes.

I think that people fight over the interpretation of difficult Bible passages because they want to prove that they know more about the Bible then the other person. Romans tells us not to judge others that God will do that. I think that God is going to do or has done what He pleases and if I have interpreted this wrong I am not going to try to tell God that He is doing it all wrong.

Jesus took away the sins of the world and because he took away the sins of the world He atoned for the wickedness and our righteousness is because of Jesus. So we have been sealed up for the His return to earth.