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10: Worship from the Exile to the Restoration – Discussion Questions — 5 Comments

  1. Yes, dear Joyce, I'm sure that the hours and hours you spend in contemplation and prayer were a form of worship, because worship is built on the foundation of our helplessness and God's all-sufficiency. I suspect you felt rather helpless when you pleaded with God.

    I am so glad that the prognosis is not as bleak as you first thought. Your mind still seems pretty sharp. 😉 I will pray that the Lord will give you closer to the 25 rather than the 5 years of a clear mind that can point others to a view of our beautiful, loving Creator. 🙂

    I trust that others who read this will join me in this prayer.

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  2. Thank you Joyce may you grow healthier and lovelier as the years pass in Jesus.
    No. 1. Have we apostasized? The church as a whole or some members. Have we become "tired" of waiting and saying Jesus is coming soon? How do we keep this promise fresh in our minds and our childrens' minds? What is the difference in Noah"s time and ours? The only way is to remain close to Jesus build up the relationships daily, live, sleep, eat, dream Jesus as did Enoch. There will always be eliments of apostasy but keep praying for them. There is nothing here on earth that is worth losing Heaven over.
    No 2. Yes, and then hated myself for doing it over and over again, why? why? why? am I so weak and sinful.
    No 3. The spiritual reward is wonderful, then I wonder will we be strong enough to declare Jesus in hard times? do we get tested here until we can be strong enough?
    No 4. Whew! too close to the bone this one.
    No 5. We want to then fail, why, putting our trust in ourselves?.
    No 6, Yes we should and we must as we are all men of unclean lips, living in a sinful world, how I wish I had never sinned.
    No 7. Interesting and thought provoking.

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  3. Hi Joyce,
    I stumbled on this site this morning at 4:26am as I was wrestling with demons in my life. In fact, I woke up as I sensed in my thoughts that a dream I was having was evil and that evil was being done to me. I woke up and re-surrendered my heart to God. I once told God that whatever it takes I need him to ensure that I make it into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is also the prayer for my children and my husband. God is good and He is not willing that any of us should perish. So I came upon your story and found that you surrendered in prayer and supplication unto the Lord. This, God has revealed to me, is the only way to the heart of God. It is the only way to paralyze the occurrences in the spirit realm and gain the victory over sin and devil. I am glad God crushed the spirit of disease from you life. I trust him to do the same for me and my family. God bless you and remember to pray for me as I will pray for you. Pray that God will take away Autism from my sons' lives. Blessings to you my sister.

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  4. Hi everyone,
    In last week's lesson the author said something that troubled me; he wrote, "The church is for sinners." I do have a problem with this for the following reason(s):
    Whenever the apostles are referring to the brethen of the church they always refer to them as saints and not sinners "saved by grace." Read for example the salutations of all of the epistles. They are referred to as "saints", "the called of Jesus Christ", "them that are sactified in Christ", "the faithful in Christ Jesus" and so on. I am not saying that there are no sinners in the church; but rather it is a "place" where those who have renounced a life of sin go to perfect their characters in Christ to be fitted for heaven. When we say that the church is for sinners we are making it sound like it okay and no one should feel bad of sinning because we all do it. I am also not saying that church members will never sin (we do not have to, but if we do we have an advocate") but rather sin is not a part of their lifestyle; that life was given up when they turned to Jesus. Some people tend to think that because our bodies are sinful, that makes us sinners, but did not Jesus have the same body that we had? Rom 8:3 and Phil 2: 5 -..... God looks at the character because it is the only thing we have control over. God will change our bodies only after our chracters are changed. I could go on but I do not want to bore you all to death. Thanks. I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter?
    p.s. Look up the words sinner(s) righteous, saints etc. in the Bible

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    • Dear Scientist,

      I appreciate and concur with your concern. However, I feel that there are a couple of crucial points that need to be added to what you have said. One is the matter of the new birth. This mighty change, effected by the power of the Holy Spirit, is essential to the experience of those who wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It turns us from sin to holiness, giving meaning to the salutations in the epistles, and commencing the process of true, Biblical sanctification. We must never overlook how useless and hopeless it is for the natural man (not born again) to attempt to renounce sin or live a holy life. The context of those salutations makes it abundantly clear that the new birth is God's doing, and not the result of the will of man.

      From the foregoing, it should become clear just how deeply and pervasively sin has infected and deranged humanity. It goes far deeper than merely having a body weakened by the sins of the race. Those who understand this can never suggest that Jesus was by any means a sharer in our natural depravity. Make light of sin, and you make light of the Gospel. Take sin seriously, and you know that Jesus had no such tendencies or propensities as those with which we are born. Such a suggestion would indeed be unmistakably blasphemous.

      That said, "amen" to your main point! Jesus welcomes sinners, and converts them into "saints." Once the process of sanctification has begun, only then does church membership make any sense at all.

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