Read Bible for Yourself

The Necessity of Shedding the Outmoded and Wrong Conceptions of Prayer MAIN READING: 1 Timothy 2:1-7 INTRODUCTION Prayer was crudely started by human beings in an attempt to seek spiritual intervention in the difficulties of natural life, but God has responded through the imagery of the Law of Moses and the sending of the Messiah to fully grant a permanent way out of sin and its consequences. It is however not strange to find people still stuck in the old crude ways of prayer rather than the perfect way provided in the Messiah. This essay identifies the three stages of the ‘evolution’ of prayer to demonstrate the worthlessness of sticking to the first two and why the third is the only acceptable way. A. BEFORE AND OUTSIDE THE LAW People have always prayed, figuring out how to reach God (and other spirits or deities) through a variety of means. Before God gave Israel the Law through Moses, a major means presumed to achieve this was making sacrifices....

Arise, Shine, Manifest His Glory (Be Used by God) Main Readings: Isaiah 60:1-5, 18 and Acts 9:1-15 When I asked the those in the meeting to write down five things they want God to do for them, and five they believe God wants to use them for, they were very swift about the first, and started chewing the pens and pencils when we came to the second. Classic Israel, Saul and us? The stories of Israel and Saul are ours who also receive the salvation of God. We are also prone to presuming that we must be special to God, and that we need to be protected against unbelievers and dangers at all cost, under the guise of protecting the Name of God. Inadvertently, we begin to “use” God, rather than allowing Him to use us. We set our own agenda and ask God to bless it, whether it is His will or not. We refuse to arise (declare the saving power of God), shine (show forth the superior character of Christ enabled by the Holy Spirit in us). Thus we fail to manifest Christ (show true hu...