"Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Romans 7:25
Unlike corrupt individuals who are “past all moral sense,” true Christians are pained by their sinful state. (Ephesians 4:19) They may feel as did Paul, who wrote: “I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members.” Then Paul exclaimed: “Miserable man that I am!” (Romans 7:22-24) Have you ever felt as Paul did? It is not wrong for you to be keenly aware of your imperfections, for this can impress upon you the gravity of sin and can strengthen your resolve to shun badness. But you do not need to be in a constant state of misery over your shortcomings. To his words of distress just quoted, Paul added the words of today’s text. Yes, Paul had confidence that Jesus’ shed blood could redeem him from inherited sin.—Romans 5:18. w 7/15/06 5, 6b
oh my goodness!! I feel so horrbbbbibbble!!! >_< I didn't come home til 1:30 am ish last night (or should I say, this morning), because Lucy, Kellie, Kevin, Hai, Truong, and I went swimming at the 24 hour fitness. Anyways... I'll post up yesterday's daily text. Here it is:
"If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake and continually follow me."
Matthew 16:24.
Dedication is an essential step that must precede baptism. It is made in prayer, in which we express the desire to give our life to Jehovah through Christ. (Romans 14:7, 8; 2 Corinthians 5:15) Jesus outlined three things that we must do. First, we “disown” ourselves. In other words, we say no to our selfish, imperfect inclinations and yes to God’s counsel and direction. Second, we ‘pick up our torture stake.’ In Jesus’ day a torture stake was a symbol of shame and suffering. As Christians, we accept our part in suffering for the sake of the good news. (2 Timithoy 1:8) Although the world may ridicule or reproach us, like Christ we ‘despise shame,’ happy in the knowledge that we are pleasing God. (Heb. 12:2) Finally, we follow Jesus “continually.”—Psalms 73:26; 119:44; 145:2. w 4/1/06 8, 9
Anyway, back on schedule (hopefully, haha), today's Theocratic Ministry School was amazing! I love how Brother and Sister Christiansen did on their part for the school. Jerry gave an amazing talk about courtship, and Phil Fletcher gave a nice 5 minute discussion and mentioned a scripture, which I really enjoyed. I'm going to meet him on Thursday @ 7pm for the second part to my Baptism questions. OOOH, I'm so excited! =D haha...Brother Falzone mentioned how the Sahara congregation has openings up for the school, and I reeeeaallly REEEEAAALLY want to join!!! Though I don't feel that I would qualify or be good enough to participate in such a wonderful opportunity, I must pray!! Mwahaha...
OK.. I'll just list some cooooolio scriptures here, even though it's not much, it's still gooooooot! :]
Ephesians 5:8, 9
"for YOU were once darkness, but YOU are now light in connection with [the] Lord. Go on walking as children of light, for the fruitage of the light consists of every sort of goodness and righteousness and truth."
In tie with this scripture, Phil Fletcher said that there's a saying goes that you should not walk ahead of the light or behind the light, but WITH the light. Follow the light, which is "truth". I loved how Jerry said light = truth.
Matthew 7:1-5
"Stop judging that YOU may not be judged; for with what judgment YOU are judging, YOU will be judged; and with the measure that YOU are measuring out, they will measure out to YOU. Why, then, do you look at the straw in your brother's eye, but do not consider the rafter in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Allow me to extract the straw from your eye'; when look! a rafter is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother's eye."
The latter part of this scripture is an example to support the first two verses. We cannot look at other's mistakes without knowing that we, too, as individual sinners that we inherited from birth, make mistakes. No one is perfect. However, this does not mean that we can acknowledge another person's mistakes and not help them or give them the correct direction (from the Bible, of course) and pray for guidance from Jah upon them. yep yep.
Ezekiel 33:11
"Say to them, '"As I am alive," is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, "I take delight, not in the death of the wicked one, but in that someone wicked turns back from his way and actually keeps living. Turn back, turn back from YOUR bad ways, for why is it that YOU should die, O house of Israel?"
Along with this scripture, I love how Brother Fletcher and Julia mentioned how Jehovah will always look at the good in us no matter what. Even when we are sinning against him, He will always look at the good in us. Wow, that was touching and absolutely amaaaaaayyyyyzing.. yeah, aMAYzing >_<
