Old Jerry

“Fatherly” roles are so important to making disciples because they are the figure that is more forceful in the things that they do. They will look at a situation and try to resolve it.

The “motherly” nurturing qualities is so important to growing disciples because they the new disciples are needing to fed milk until they are ready to eat solid food. Mothers are great at convincing babies to take their milk. The way a male can effectively adopt some of these traits is to become more involved in the new disciple’s life.

I think that pride is the character flaw is the greatest problem in the church. We all like to brag about what we have done for the church and Christ rather than talk about what Christ has done for us. The way to prevent this character flaw from overtaking me is to humble and always recognize that is always God that is protecting me.

Personal courage is such an important character trait for disciple and disciple makers because our society will try to shut them down. This world does not want Christ in it and they are doing everything possible to take him out. So we have to have courage in order to evangelize. When we talk to people about Jesus all they want to do is shut us down. The lack of courage prevents congregations from being healthy because then the preacher will soften his words that God has given him and we won’t bet the full meaning of what is being preached. God has called me to go on mission trips and doing so is sometimes very dangerous.

Verse 10 teaches us Christians that Jesus is God’s son that He is going to return that He has been raised from the dead, that He is our savior and that we will be saved from God’s wrath. I think that all these elements are important. I think that if we don’t believe in any one of these elements that we probably aren’t a Christian. The thing that is underemphasized by the church today is the wrath of God. They are teaching that God is only a loving God and that there will be no wrath.

It is very important that we do imitate the Lord so that new Christians can know who we are imitating and they have a sample to follow. I think that ministries that are most conducive to imitation are that of being a servant. The character of a mentor or a leader is so important to the church because they are the ones that will try to correct you when you are not doing things that are in Christ image. They can keep you on the right track. People don’t seem to grow in Christ who is not part of the Christian community because they have anybody mentoring them nor correcting their misconceptions. My character in important to my family and spiritual children because I have caught them doing some of the things that I do.

We can say all we want to but it takes the Holy Spirit to move the people that we talk with. If the Spirit isn’t there then all we are saying are words. The thing that happens when the main power behind our ministry is will-power is that nothing gets done. It takes the Holy Spirit to move people to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. The role of miracles in Paul’s evangelism is that the people can see that the Holy Spirit is at work and they can trust what Paul is saying. We see miracles in evangelism in our day because look at all the great work that Billy Graham has done. If it weren’t for those miracles there wouldn’t have been as many people converted.

I think that the reason that there was so much opposition to Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica is because the Jewish synagogue was losing a lot of money when the people converted to Christianity. Paul keeps preaching the gospel even though there is a lot of violent reaction against him because it was his calling. For Paul there was nothing else to do. God had put it on his heart and therefore loved teaching others about Him. I think that a violent reaction to our ministry means we should continue on. It means that we are reaching the people even though they do not like it.

I think that the achievement that inspires me the most of Abraham is that of moving when he didn’t even know where he was going. To me that would have taken a lot of courage. The other thing that stands out is his faith in God. When he was willing to sacrifice his only son and acting immediately in doing so.

I think that it was great that this servant did say a prayer prior to finding the right girl and ask for something that couldn’t have been accident and made it easier the pick the right girl. We should all say a prayer prior to making decision on life. Yes the servant did find the right girl on the basis of his prayer.

I don’t see that Abraham’s faith in God’s promises is diminished because he had to pay dearly for this small property. We don’t know how God is going to fulfill his promises but this must have been one of the ways. He had given Abraham the ability to pay this enormous price. This tells us that we never know how God is going to do the things that he does. So just because it isn’t the way we would have done it, it is still God providing the means to do it.

Some of her strengths is that see could see a problem and would try to fix them. Sometimes the fix wasn’t in accordance with God’s will and it provided a problem. But she did show her faith by being Abraham’s partner all of her life.

The near sacrifice of Isaac helps me to understand the crucifixion of Jesus because Isaac was the only son of Abraham and all that Abraham went through while he was going to sacrifice his son shows us the human response of the sacrifice. We can only imagine what God went through when Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of the world.

I have learned to trust God to provide for me. He has done it in the past and is always going to do so. This thing that I am facing right now is just daily life and I know that He will provide that.

I don’t think that we can know God until we can trust him with our whole lives. I have surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. What that entailed since I have surrendered my life is I have changed the way that I look at things. I have cleaned up my language and go on mission trips. God has blessed me with all the friends that I have across this world. I have been able to get more out of the mission trips then I have put into them.

The effect that Satan want trials to have on my life are that I give up my faith in God and run amuck. The Effect that God wants them to have is to build up my faith in Him and that spiritual mussel gets stronger. I think that all my trails have strengthened and invigorated me at the end. I always want to get closer to God but during a trial I can see that I have. I don’t know if my trials have inspired others but I do know that some of the trials that I see my friends go through have inspired me.

Realizing that God is the Eternal God has affected me in the way that act and do my daily things. It has made me be more honest and my dealing and has me loved more than I did before. I know that these things don’t save me but that I am trying to please God because I do know and trust in Him.

God has blessed Abraham by informing him that it is Isaac that is going to inherit his blessing. There could have been a great struggle between Ishmael and Isaac if Ishmael would have stayed in the camp. Ishmael was not a friendly person. He was away going to be against anything that any man was going to do. He would have been very difficult to be with. Isaac was blessed when Abraham sent Ishmael away because he didn’t have to be defending what was rightfully his. God is always in all that is happening. It may not be the way that God wanted it to work but He is always doing things to work out His will.

I think that the motive for Sarah to demand Ishmael’s expulsion from Abraham’s family encampment was that she didn’t want Ishmael to share in the inheritance. I don’t think that she is right in this but God has a plan and maybe this was part of the plan. I may have tried to force my wife to act against her principles which could have caused the divorce but I definitely have been forced myself.

Sarah’s laughter in 18:12-15 was kind of laughter to herself. She was laughing because she didn’t believe that she could become pregnant. The laughter in 17:17 was one of joy and it was very public because everybody was laughing with her. God does have a great sense of humor but it is always for the positive of things.

Lot’s daughters turned to incest so that they could carry on the family line. It tells me that they values are a lot different than mine. They didn’t have the faith that would carry them through in order to find a husband and have children through them. Maybe Lot’s intoxication was a way of not facing what had to be been and that his faith wasn’t what it should have been. The lesson that I get out of this story is that I have to be careful of my decisions.

I think that Lot’s wife stopped and gazed back was she had an attachment to the place and she wanted to take on last look at it. Probably the thing that was in her heart was that there were a lot of memories being left behind. I do struggle with this in my heart. I look back quite often and see what could have been if I had made a different decision. The lesson that Jesus draws from Lot’s wife is not to look back at the past because there is nothing that we can do to change it, but to look to the future and give it all to God.

I think that Lot and his family hesitated because they were sure of what they heard was going to actually happen. They didn’t want to leave behind the good life and all that they had accumulated. I have hesitated when I should have been fleeing from danger. The lesson for us to see the danger and to act according.

I think that we should condemn as much as we do a sexual pervert. This is a sin and we are to hate the sin, but we are to love the sinner. That is a tough thing to do when the sinner is throwing the sin in your face. The church should never be silent about a sin but they need to teach us what the bible says about this sin and not elaborate on it anymore than any other sin.

I think that the ground that Abraham so boldly addressed God is that God expected him to be righteous and so Abraham also expected God to be righteous. God expects the same from us because we have been called into God’s kingdom and we are to be just and righteous. I think that Abraham’s intercession pleased God because He likes for us to come to him when we are in trouble so He can help us. I think that God wants us to talk to him and when we do that pleases him.