TEN PONDERABLES

                               TEN PONDERABLES

#1 Are The Bones Of Saints Imbued With The Power And Presence Of God? > 2 Kings 13:20,21 > The bones of Elisha when contacted by a dead man caused the dead man to revive and stand upon his feet. > Are the bones of Saints To Be kept by the Church as Relics? Who is a saint? We are all called to be saints. We are all expected to be saints. But some believers acquire the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in this life. While some do not, or at least to varying degrees. > Saint in Greek is "Hagios" meaning "holy" or "holy one". Christ alone is perfect in holiness and we, the believers, are to be being "perfected in holiness" (2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:13).  >  2 Peter 1:4 says we are to become partakers of His divine nature. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says we are to be changed into the image of Christ's glory, from glory to glory, by the Holy Spirit. Joseph the Patriarch's bones were carried out of Eygpt by The children of Israel. > Joshua 24:29-32

#2 How was it that from the Apostle Paul's body were taken handkerchiefs and aprons that when laid upon sick people they were healed? Is the power and presence of God a tangible/mystical
 substance that can be stored in physical items and transmit that power and presence to those who come in contact with them? Acts 19:11,12

#3 What was it about Peter's shadow that people were healed? > Acts 5:12-16 > Or was it that if someone was in close proximity to Peter that the power and presence would come in contact with the sick and heal them? Remember when the woman with the issue of blood was healed by Jesus (Mark 5:25-34)? The crowd of people were pressing upon Jesus and He asked the Apostles, "Who touched me?". Of course they couldn't say because the crowd was pressing upon them. But Jesus had been touched with the hand of faith because He percieved that virtue/power had gone out of him when the woman had touched the hem of his garment. > Acts 10:38

#4 Are there two aspects to "speaking in unknown tongues"? Are these two aspects two sides of the same coin? One side being the "public" "gift of divers tongues" which requires the complementary "public" "gift of the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. 14:23-28). The other side of the coin is private or personal-devotional tongues (1 Cor. 14:1-6) which does not need another person to interpret. But the interpretation of your personal praying in tongues is given to you directly in revelations, in knowledge, in prophecies, in doctrines (1 Cor. 14:5). If you speak in your personal-devotional tongues in public you profit no one, but if you speak either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine (all of which are the interpretation of your praying in tongues privately) then you will edify the church. When you speak by revelation or by knowledge or by prophecy or by doctrine in a known tongue it is music to their ears (1 Cor. 14:7-9).

#5 Did you know that Philip the Evangelist (Acts 21:8) experienced a "quantum leap" the moment he came out of the water after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)? "The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more...but Philip was found at Azotus". "A quantum leap is a leap from point A to point B, without passing through any of the points between A and B". From the desert of Gaza to Azotus was about 20 miles!!! Philip was transported supernaturally.

#6 When did God run? And does He still run today? When the prodigal son decided to return to his Father in repentance, "while he was still a great distance away, the Father saw him, had compassion on him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him". This is what the Almighty Father God does when you turn towards home in repentance. The Father still runs toward all who walk toward him. > Luke 15:11-32

#7 Every generation is to call Mary "blessed" (Luke 1:48). We are not to worship her, or elevate her to a status of being equal to her Son Jesus. She is not a co-redemptrix as the Roman Church teaches. But neither should we ignore "calling her blessed" as most protestants do. Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit sings a prayer-song, now known as "the Magnificat". It is Luke 1:46-55. Worship is reserved for the Holy Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Veneration is for the saints, of whom Mary is the foremost (Luke 1:26-38). Mary's purity, unconditional obedience, and wholehearted devotion are to be emulated. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, in a loud voice proclaimed "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?". Mary is the mother of God (Greek = Theotokos = God-bearer). Our Salvation hinges on the Incarnation, ie, the coming of our God in the flesh. It is through the Virgin Mary that God became man. By ackowledging Mary's place in salvation history we proclaim that Jesus is God come in the flesh. The Angel Gabriel initiated the honor of calling Mary blessed, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed art thou among women". God himself chose to call Mary blessed.

#8 You will be given a new name by God in the age to come that no man knows except you, and God (Revelation 2:17). The inner meaning of your unique personhood will continue to be an eternal secret between God and you. The kingdom will be one, yet in the one kingdom each person finds his/her own special place and his/her own special work. Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you". > John 14:1-6

#9 Imagine this - The moment that Jesus died upon the cross, "crying with a loud voice, the veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom; the earth did quake, and the rocks split; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves, and after his resurrection they went into the holy city, and appeared to many". > Matthew 27:45-55 > Then imagine this - after Jesus' resurrection, (Luke records what Jesus did and taught for the 40 days between His Resurrection and His Ascension - Acts 1:1-11), "He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them for forty days, and speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" > Then imagine some more - Paul records the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-8), Christ dies for our sins according to the scriptures; he then is buried, and then He arose on the third day, according to the scriptures: THEN He was seen of Cephas(Peter), then of the twelve, THEN HE WAS SEEN BY MORE THAN 500 Brethren AT ONCE, and most were still alive when Paul wrote his epistle to the Corinthians in 55 A.D., more than 20 years after the Resurrection of Jesus!!! And He was seen of James, then by all the apostles, and finally to Paul himself. The Beginnings of the Church were not done in secret. The Faith of Christ, what we call the Christian Faith, has its foundation in actual history, in the testimony of more than 500 eyewitnesses to His resurrection!!! Glory to God!!!

#10 An age is a time period in which God has in mind a plan to accomplish His will > God has an infinite number of ages planned out for His creation, "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages, world without end. Amen" (Eph 3:21) > In each age God reveals to us more of His eternal mysteries > There will be an endless unfolding revelation of "the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:7) - One 10,000 year age will be followed by a 50,000 year age, followed by...Forever and ever, Amen > The Mystery of Christ, The unsearchable riches of Christ, once hidden in God, who created all things by Christ, can now be seen by us, and we can enter into the fellowship of this mystery > And it is by the Church that the manifold wisdom of God is revealed to the principalities and powers in heavenly places (Eph 3:1-11) > The Angels are awestruck by what they see (1 Peter 1:12) > We are called The Family, the Family in heaven and earth (Eph 3:14) > And this Family, which is "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph 1:14) waits patiently for the redemption (Romans 8:16-25) of the purchased possesssion, which is the church, the body of Christ (Eph 1:19-21), which will become one flesh at the Second Coming of Christ for his bride (Eph 5:30-32). We will share in His resurrected and glorified body (1 Corinthians 15:51-58; Philippians 3:20,21) - "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church".