JustJeff

The best definition of the word slave and the root idea of saint will be understood when your are. As Christ's slaves we are His, bought and paid for, in order to do His good will. As saints, we have accepted this honor and all of His benefits, and live a life worthy of His name. He has set us apart for His use and equipped us with a holy calling to be beneficial to Him, others and ourselves.

God created us to praise Him and when we lift Him up He lifts us up. Our church lets it go with lots of music and song, with individual and group singing and dancing. Prayer is integral and the more that we do this in the spirit the greater the presence of His glory. We pray that every Christian will celebrate the praises of the King as David did; dancing, singing and making a joyful noise unto the Lord!

By knowing that there is no limit to what God can do is good stuff. By knowing that by the Holy Spirit in us we can simply call upon Him at anytime to deal with every circumstance is awesome. We have the power at our disposal and my prayers will henceforth be geared toward the Lord, through His Spirit, to teach all believers how to call upon that power when in need. If we should limit God by our own doubts we are short changing ourselves, depriving ourselves of all of His riches and the precious promises which He has given us. To get through this we have to pray our way through, study the word and exercise our faith. Without faith we are dead in the water.

All of the parts to Q.4 are synymous in that they all point to the same response. The Lord has used extreme declarations to cause us to make a committment. The committment is one of choice, the gift of a free will that He has given to each of us. We can come freely to Him and abide in Him and He and the Father through the Word and the Holy Spirit, in us. We can choose to be followers of Him, meaning to stay in His word and walk as He walked. We can choose to be Christians, Christ like. And, we can remember this committment each time we take His Supper or, we can walk away. The choice is ours.

I have to admit that I cannot recall praying specifically that a believer be filled with all the fullness of God though I have prayed that believers grow to the full stature and measure of what the Lord would have us to be. It would be simpler to accomplish that if we had all the fullness of God within each of us. To be perfected we will have to be totally as Christ is, and only He can make us so. To be complete one would have to have the full portion of God, by His Holy Spirit within us, continually. I believe that the prayers of Eph 5:27 and Col 1:28 relate to the time of completion, that we all get to that point.

Jesus knows the hearts of His children. On a good day the carnal person may have faith filled moments but when the desire of the flesh arises.... The Lord was so emphatic because it was a time of pruning, to separate the faithless from the faithful, the seekers of the bread for the belly from those desiring the man nu (manna) from heaven. His disciples were under His annointing. They knew who Jesus was and what He had made available to them, eternal life! That was the difference between the chosen and the called. We who abide in His word are free. Free from the guilt and pain of this world. Free from the condemnation and death of sin. Free to fight the good fight of faith. Free to walk with the Lord in the light, as He is Light.

The love of the Lord and that which He has for us is beyond our mortal comprehension. Paul prays that we grasp this love in the fullest spiritual sense. It is by the Holy Spirit that we can reach this level and only by desire will we get it. We need all the prayer that we can get and Paul knew it. Once you start to feel this great love you are no longer the same. All the fleshly ills start to dissipate; hate, anger, strife, revenge, grudges, etc. Life becomes joy, hope, freedom. There is no end to Our Saviors' love for us. The more we grow in Him, the more apparent that becomes.

As our Redeemer, Jesus offered Himself in our place as the atoning sacrifice for our sins consequently, His body is the "bread" given for the world so that we may escape the death of sin. In Luke 22:19b Jesus has us to eat the broken bread as a remembrance of His body, broken for us in sacrifice, to save us from our sins. The similarities in the two scriptures are not coincidental as our Lord knew exactly what His destiny would be and why He came here, to die and rise the third day,because of His great love for us.

It is one thing to except the Lord with your head and entirely different to except the Lord with your heart. The heart, our inner man, is our the center of our emotional universe. Our feelings lie within our heart. This heart is not the one that is the muscle that keeps us alive. It is our spiritual self and to this Paul was praying that we receive strenght. And the prayer was not just for those of old, but for all time maybe, even more so today. Today, it seems, we have plenty of brothers and sisters who except the Lord with their heads, but leave their faith on their lips. We should pray that we all be strengthened in our inner self where once received, grounding and rooting take place.

Eating the "Bread of Life" is to accept and believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, by becoming a disciple and , walking the walk. When one eats it is generally to become full, as in a meal. To nibble would be a between meal snack, perhaps to surpress your appetite. When you study the word, worship the Lord, sing praises to His name, pray without ceasing, celebrate His Supper, fellowship with other believers, testify and witness to for Him, work for Him, your are eating the full course. When you simply go to church on Sunday and pay your tithes, you are nibbling.

When you consider your faith consider a seed and the time and effort it takes to grow into the vegetation that God intends it to be. Then think of adding all of the best nutrients and perfect conditions for growing that seed and watch it grow so much more splendidly than had it been given minimal or no care at all. So is the revelation of the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead as that power in me. Essential nutrient, whew! God grows my faith by His word and knowledge of His word reveals His actions so, on my part I need to stay in the word for my faith to grow. I like to pray that the brothers and sisters hunger and thirst after righteousness that they may be filled.

The Lord has taught us that the second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourself so regardless as to whether it concerns another denomination or a non-believer, it should not be an issue. Our homeless shelter often brings people to the Lord's Supper, from all walks of life. If they are willing to be repentant and want to partake, so be it. I for one have learned not to question a persons faith as we will all appear before the judgement seat of God and give an account of ourselves. And, I love without dissimulation yet, I am cautious whom I fellowship with when it comes to doctrine and it's interpretation. The Apostle of Love, as John has been call wrote in 2 John about such an issue in verses 9-11. It does not however excuse us from loving one another, as God is love.

If we don not see Yahweh as Yahweh Jireh (Lord Provider) and cannot pray to Him as such, how can one possibly expect results? It would indeed be an empty and faithless prayer. Clinging to our God's precious promises of a glorious inhertitance is a motivating factor in my faith. I mean, we should all strive to win this race that we're in and the crown that we are promised at the end is the goal. Our prayers should reflect this, for ourselves and every believer. It's going to require wisdom, understanding and knowledge to attain the full measure of the person God requires us to be. We must pray that He equipts us all with such and, the strength and courage necessary to endure. Thus, as He replies, our vision of the glory awaiting becomes clearer.

Cliques seem ever present as different individuals are at different levels of growth. Those with common agreements seem always to find fault with others with greater or lesser spiritual maturity. And yes, this is common in my congregation. The sin may not be as that of Corinth but, sin is sin. The need for unity is of the utmost urgency. Without unity the church will eventually be doomed as congregants will leave in discord which we are seeing with the church as a worldwide body, in particular, the western world. Without a repentant spirit we are not worthy to partake in the Lord's Supper. If we attempt to take communion while we are bickering we are in sin, unrepentent and unworthy.

There is not enough time in a day to write down how Christian hope has changed my way of living. As a former addict/alcoholic, homeless person and so much more in terms of corrupt living, I am now a new creature, living life to the fullest as a servant of the Lord. Blessed with the Holy Spirit I can now see a time when all of the former things will be passed away and all things will be made new. The process has already started here, in this place and, will continue at the coming of the Messiah. A Christian who cannot grab onto this hope truly is not grounded in their faith for without the full measure of hope that we are entitled to we are like most men, empty, waiting to be filled. I can only pray that all of mankind receive the Holy Spirit. Then is when the knowledge of our blessed hope is assured as it will lie within.

What Paul teaches in 1 Cor 10:17 is that we are all one, unified together as the body of Christ, represented by a single loaf of bread. If I were to stub my toe it would be rather silly for my head to blame my foot and try to exact punishment upon it. Likewise, if a brother (or sister) were to offend it would be just as wrong to hold a grudge against that person, seeing that someone would have been in the flesh to offend or be offended. The one who is spiritual must be able to reconcile and clear the air. In order for God to hear our prayer then, we must both be spiritual and make amends before we enter into His courts.

By Paul's prayer to the Ephesians I have learned that we are bound to pray to the Father for our brothers and sisters of the faith, that we would all be blessed with the wisdom, knowledge and understanding necessary for each of us to grow into the full stature of what the Lord would have us to be. I believe that God depends upon us to offer the prayers that Paul has prayed, not only for us to exercise our own faith, but to show Him our love and concern for others. By doing this our faith is genuine and our Lord knows that we are trying to bring true Christians to fullness before Him. I don't believe that people would learn of Yahweh at all should we be faithless in this arena. We can only grow by truth and He expects that from us in prayer. No truth in prayer means no response from the Father, so no, He will not work in people as He could. Thus, this prayer is of great importance.

1 Cor 10:16 reminds us that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shed His blood and had His body broken on the cross that we would be set free of our sins. We have entered into a New Covenant with the Father and become elligible to receive the Holy Spirit which, gives us a fighting chance to spend eternity with Him, in heaven. By lifting the cup of the communion toward heaven we are blessing Adonai by proclaiming our remembrance of His great and painful sacrifice, and His undieing love toward us.

No, God is not a respecter of person so He would not give the Son preferrential treatment in sending an angel to HIm. He will do the same for anyone who prays in spirit and in truth.

At the Lord's Supper He reveals to us His innermost self, as the man and as our God. At a time such as this one can only feel intimate toward another. With friends what separates the casual from the intimate would be as to whether we discuss superficial matters like current events, sports, etc or, our inner thoughts about our relationships, feelings and the like. When put into the proper context, each time we partake of the Lord's Supper we should have spiritual moments that forever change us, pushing us from glory to glory.

When we submit ourselves to the will of the Father it is then that we are humble, broken and contrite so yes, the Father would have been pleased when the Son looked past His flesh and turned His fate into the hands of the Father. Rote prayer is not prayer at all. It is simply one doing what is considered obligatory and is mechanical and insincere, not heard by God. To be accepted by Yahweh our prayer must be in accordance with His will. If we don't know our bible, we cannot effectively pray as that is where He states His will. His will is that we approach Him with confidence yet humility. With certainty that He will grant our petition yet, broken and contrite. And, our prayer should always result in Adonai receiving all honor and glory.

The Apostles ratified the New Covenant when they drank of the cup representing Jesus' blood. This they did as our founding fathers, representing us and communicating the significance of Our Lord's crucifixtion and preaching the Good News to the world. And, when we drink of the cup, we are reminded of this, as well as once again accepting our role and responsibility in the body of Christ and, our personal commitment to walk as He did.

I have always felt that Jesus the man knew the suffering that He was to endure for the sins of the world, past, present and future. The man, weak in the flesh, tried to appeal to His Father to find another way but still, was obedient to the Father's will. God seems to communicate His intentions to us in 3's (Abraham's plea for Sodom, the Trinity, the Transformation, Peter's vision for Cornelius, et al). This seems to underscore the sobriety of His intentions. Jesus was serious when He prayed here. In the end, Jesus did obey (GLORY!) and the Father did send an angel to strengthen Him. Perhaps the man Jesus was resisting but the spirit man obeyed.

His New Covenant is not written in stone as was the Old. Through His blessed Holy Spirit, God has encrypted His law in our hearts, easily understood by the study and application of the Word. We have only to believe, trust, obey and excercise the grain of faith that He has equipped us with from the womb.

Our Lord knows our future (PRAISE HIM!) and He knew that the disciples would be shaken at His trial and execution. They would be tempted to run and abandon their faith. In such a time as this the prayer would be for strength and courage to continue on in the Lord. Unfortunately, they were weary in doubt and fear and fell asleep rather that pray. In the Lord's Prayer, we ask not to be lead into temptation, asking God to strengthen us during these times. Jesus taught us that in moments of personal prayer we were not to pray openly, but to go into our prayer closet to be at one with the Father. He was practicing what He taught.