Thread: Weekend Catechism - Sunday School Lesson

Do you worry about being “relevant”? Not long ago, I though that only viewpoints, issues, cases, or statements were sometimes considered irrelevant. But things just keep changing, even language and the use of words. These days you hear expressions like, “He’s irrelevant”, “She’s irrelevant”. And that is usually a mark of disrespect, perhaps, deep disrespect. It used to be for a milder comment like “ignore him” or “just ignore him”. People generally hate to be ignored, and actually should not be, but that’s what we do when we want to disrespect (them or their views) or show them that we are superior. On the other hand, people scheme, undercut, jump the gun, replay or overplay issues just to get noticed, relevant, or win human approvals. That’s what most, if not all political aspirants do, for example.

But such should not the attitude of people of faith, those who trust in God for their promotion, approval, acknowledgement, and relevance, while they use every opportunity to serve him faithfully and diligently with their measure of ability, not because they have no ambition or desire to excel or be promoted. God chooses a fulfilling role for them to humbly, diligently, and contentedly apply their God given talent. Otherwise, it is really a vicious world of competition out there. Hence, the jostling, the positioning, the scheming, the classifications, and often times the trampling and the treachery, even in the church. You wouldn’t want to be vulnerable and helpless little child in such a world, irrelevant? You can’t come up to the stage to play and nobody sees or hears you, or pats you on the back!

Oh no, but you don’t have to be loud to speak for God, or interrupt those with mic (or megaphone) for Him to hear you, or trample your way up to the stage for Him to see you. He saw the shepherd boy David in the field where he was “abandoned” with the sheep, and summoned him to the stage to become king. The dreamer boy Joseph was left for the dead and forced into slavery by his relevant big brothers, and he had become their savior and the prime minister of the great Egyptian empire. So, child of God, stop the undercutting, the scheming and maneuvering for self promotion and relevance! It is OK to be like little children. God still asks us, Christians today, “What with all this trampling in My court?” Isaiah 1:10-19. Here and in the next paragraph, it appears God has a different view of relevance, Isaiah 55:1-9, and we can align our way and thoughts with God’s. Titus 2:11-15.

Went to Church yesterday and heard an extremely inspiring message about persecuted Christians in many parts of the world. Remember 'em in ur prayers

Please, visit this website, select a few countries, and commit to pray for the persecuted Christians in the country(ies) you selected. And may God bless you as you do that in Jesus Name. Amen!!
Persecution.com

Originally Posted by His Majesty

Do you worry about being “relevant”? Not long ago, I though that only viewpoints, issues, cases, or statements were sometimes considered irrelevant. But things just keep changing, even language and the use of words. These days you hear expressions like, “He’s irrelevant”, “She’s irrelevant”. And that is usually a mark of disrespect, perhaps, deep disrespect. It used to be for a milder comment like “ignore him” or “just ignore him”. People generally hate to be ignored, and actually should not be, but that’s what we do when we want to disrespect (them or their views) or show them that we are superior. On the other hand, people scheme, undercut, jump the gun, replay or overplay issues just to get noticed, relevant, or win human approvals. That’s what most, if not all political aspirants do, for example.

But such should not the attitude of people of faith, those who trust in God for their promotion, approval, acknowledgement, and relevance, while they use every opportunity to serve him faithfully and diligently with their measure of ability, not because they have no ambition or desire to excel or be promoted. God chooses a fulfilling role for them to humbly, diligently, and contentedly apply their God given talent. Otherwise, it is really a vicious world of competition out there. Hence, the jostling, the positioning, the scheming, the classifications, and often times the trampling and the treachery, even in the church. You wouldn’t want to be vulnerable and helpless little child in such a world, irrelevant? You can’t come up to the stage to play and nobody sees or hears you, or pats you on the back!

Oh no, but you don’t have to be loud to speak for God, or interrupt those with mic (or megaphone) for Him to hear you, or trample your way up to the stage for Him to see you. He saw the shepherd boy David in the field where he was “abandoned” with the sheep, and summoned him to the stage to become king. The dreamer boy Joseph was left for the dead and forced into slavery by his relevant big brothers, and he had become their savior and the prime minister of the great Egyptian empire. So, child of God, stop the undercutting, the scheming and maneuvering for self promotion and relevance! It is OK to be like little children. God still asks us, Christians today, “What with all this trampling in My court?” Isaiah 1:10-19. Here and in the next paragraph, it appears God has a different view of relevance, Isaiah 55:1-9, and we can align our way and thoughts with God’s. Titus 2:11-15.

You have to stoop to conquer ......gentle Jesus meek and mild thou was once a little child ......all goes back to the fruit ....we shall know them

Originally Posted by Obariba

You have to stoop to conquer ......gentle Jesus meek and mild thou was once a little child ......all goes back to the fruit ....we shall know them

See, OB, you and I can finally agree on something

When God created the Universe and all creations...it cost Him NOTHING. But to make YOU a New Creation...it cost Him EVERYTHING! Imagine - at the time of creation...He did not perspire one single drop. But for you...Jesus sweat great drops of blood!

As some of you probably knew already, our Sunday Refreshment has been extend to the Ghanaweb forum. And we thank God that these series have been ministering to people and provoking some thoughtful questions at the same time. Hence, today, I am going to share a couple of questions I received from Ghanaweb, with the hope some of us are going to learn one or two things from both the questions and the answers. And if you know anyone that visits ghanaweb, please, let him or her know about the Sunday Refreshment thread. The thread is posted in the Religion Forum of ghanaweb as well.

Question:
"Yes, God gave part of himself (His Spirit) to Adam, but unfortunately Adam lost the Spirit of God in the garden when he fell to satan's temptation. Hence, for a man to become a child of God s/he needs to be adopted into the family of God. And the only way to get the adoption certificate is by receiving His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior".

How does one receive His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior?

Answer:
Hi Kojo, this is a very important question. It is actually very simple for one to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal Savior. You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer

Prayer is talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:

"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

If this prayer expresses the desire of your heart, then you can pray this prayer right now and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.

Question:
The fact is that there are people who seem to be naturally tempted by a person of the same sex but such temptation is derived from the sin nature that all human beings are born with.

1)How did men "supposedly get the sinful nature? you said by birth,,,How did this sinfulnature get into my make up. is it through my parent or by God.

2)Where in the bible did God say that Adams offspring’s will have a sinful nature.....if you are not making this statement purly by conjecture?

The scripture testifies that man is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psa 139:14)…..not with some inbred sinful nature. We are made upright and in the image of God. If men are,born sinful apart from choice then how is it that Christ remained sinless when the scripture tells us he partook in the same flesh and blood like us?

Answer:
Kojo, man acquired the sin nature through the first man Adam. The injunction was "on the day you eat of it, thou shalt surely die." The death here isn't just physical death but also spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God. Hence, king David could say, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" Psalm 51:5.

To answer your second question, let me quote from the scripture, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" Romans 5:12.

Kojo, thanks for reading and may God bless you abundantly as you continue to study with us!

I will be out of the country for the next few weeks so will not be able to post our regular Sunday Refreshment. I apologize for the inconvenience and promise to be back with a bang, by God's grace, when I return.

Stay blessed everyone!

Yes, people..my apologies.

HM is getting kidnapped for a couple of weeks. Would return him at a 4.5M USD ransom.

Happy 2010 everybody. I have a special new year message for y'all. I apologize that I was not available to share my special new message. However, I think I still got something to share eventhough we're already a few weeks into the new year.

I am impressed in my spirit to share this message with you because I'm now persuaded that the world is about to witness the greatest move of God since the day of the Pentecost. I whole heartedly believe that the greatest spiritual revolution in modern history is about to take place, hopefully during our life time.

I am not sure all christians will be in on it, because it might be too "radical." It may be too "off-beat" Preachers may not look dignified. The gifts of the Spirit will function mightly, moving governments and frightening political leaders. God's Church will come alive just before Jesus comes.

So this is no time for harmless little sermons. This is the time for flaming messages, inspired by the Holy Ghost, moving people to tears and turning from sin to Christ. Am I communicating sense to you, all? In our subsequent series, I am going to get into more details as to how you can prepare yourself for this great act of God that is set to come.

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail - kings_kid12@yahoo.com

Originally Posted by His Majesty

Happy 2010 everybody. I have a special new year message for y'all. I apologize that I was not available to share my special new message. However, I think I still got something to share eventhough we're already a few weeks into the new year.

I am impressed in my spirit to share this message with you because I'm now persuaded that the world is about to witness the greatest move of God since the day of the Pentecost. I whole heartedly believe that the greatest spiritual revolution in modern history is about to take place, hopefully during our life time.

I am not sure all christians will be in on it, because it might be too "radical." It may be too "off-beat" Preachers may not look dignified. The gifts of the Spirit will function mightly, moving governments and frightening political leaders. God's Church will come alive just before Jesus comes.

So this is no time for harmless little sermons. This is the time for flaming messages, inspired by the Holy Ghost, moving people to tears and turning from sin to Christ. Am I communicating sense to you, all? In our subsequent series, I am going to get into more details as to how you can prepare yourself for this great act of God that is set to come.

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail - kings_kid12@yahoo.com

so whats ur opinion on Pat Robertson on Haiti ??

Originally Posted by Obariba

so whats ur opinion on Pat Robertson on Haiti ??

OB, Pat Robertson is probably a man of God but his comments on Haiti was definitely troubling. People should quit pretending that they know God so much b'cos when it comes down to it, nobody really knows the ways of God except the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, the Bible says that God's way is past finding.

And this brings me to something the LORD thought me a few weeks ago. The only personal Name of God in the Bible is the Hewbre word - YAHWEH. All the other names (Elohim, Adoni, El etc) you see in the scripture are titles. And the Word YAHWEH (Jehovah) is a verb rather than a noun.
YAHWEH = a continous unfinished action. Hence, even the angels in Heaven don't really know God enough. That's why they proclaimed "Holy, Holy, Holy...." as the majesties of God keeps unfolding before them.

Bottom line, Pat was wrong on this one. No one really knows why Haiti happened, unless God reveals it to you.

When what you have may not be sufficient for what you need, it may be a seed for the expected harvest, rather than meat for the present hunger.

Bread and Fish

Once upon a time, there was a great need in the congregation of Jesus. According to the 'specialists,' even "two hundred pennyworth of bread" (that is, a whole year's wage worth of bread in that day and age) would be an insignificant drop inthe ocean of the present need. In that great crisis of need, however, all they could find were a little boy's five loaves of bread and two fishes; hardly enough even for one grown up person.

To the boy who had that food, it was a meat; but to the multitude, it became the seed which brought forth the harvest that fed a multitude in which the men alone were about five thousand. Bread fragments alone from that feast amounted to twelve basketful. Thank God that Jesus was able to discern at that crucial point, that what had been found was not meat for the moment but seed for the harvest (John 6:5-13).

And this brings me to a plea I want to make today. Please, support the relief effort in Haiti no matter how small. No amount is too big or two small. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it for me. To support Haiti Relief effort, please, text the word "Haiti" on your cell phone to 90999 (a $10 donation would be added to your cell phone bill). Or if you prefer, you can donate online by visiting the White House website (spearheaded by the two former President - Bill Clinton and George W. Bush): Clinton Bush Haiti Fund**|**Home

And may God bless you abundantly as you do that. You will never lose your reward, the scripture says "He that waters shall be watered."

Amen

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail - kings_kid12@yahoo.com

Originally Posted by His Majesty

OB, Pat Robertson is probably a man of God but his comments on Haiti was definitely troubling. People should quit pretending that they know God so much b'cos when it comes down to it, nobody really knows the ways of God except the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, the Bible says that God's way is past finding.

And this brings me to something the LORD thought me a few weeks ago. The only personal Name of God in the Bible is the Hewbre word - YAHWEH. All the other names (Elohim, Adoni, El etc) you see in the scripture are titles. And the Word YAHWEH (Jehovah) is a verb rather than a noun.
YAHWEH = a continous unfinished action. Hence, even the angels in Heaven don't really know God enough. That's why they proclaimed "Holy, Holy, Holy...." as the majesties of God keeps unfolding before them.

Bottom line, Pat was wrong on this one. No one really knows why Haiti happened, unless God reveals it to you.

Interesting info ...thanks