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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Purpose of Prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | MissJW | 121451 | ||
Hi tgc, I believe you answered well. Remember the apostle Paul encourages Christians to keep up their fight of faith ‘while with every form of prayer they carry on prayer on every occasion in spirit.’ (Eph. 6:18) Every prayer, given either audibly or silently, has a point or purpose. Thus ther are various forms of prayer, for example, “intercessions,” in which the Christian prays in behalf of others, “offerings of thanks,” of asking blessings, prayers of “supplication” with regard to certain needs or problems. You mention the Lord's prayer. First we notice this is a model prayer to follow but not one to say repeatedly. We also notice that Jesus prays to the Father. That sounds reasonable to me that we would pray to our God who is Jesus' Father. Then what does Jesus pray for first of anything he could have prayed for? That his "name be sanctified, or made holy. Certainly then Jesus recognized the importance of God's name and was thus telling us the same. Do you believe that? Of course, God's name is Jehovah and our older Bible translations showed us in Ps 83:18. Just before his death Jesus prayed: “I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world . . . watch over them on account of your own name which you have given me . . . And I have made your name known to them and will make it known.”—John 17:6, 11, 26. We are not to believe that when Jesus said, “I have made your name known” or “manifest,” he referred to only the pronunciation of the divine name. His listeners were Jews who, reportedly with the exception of the high priest, did not know the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters making up the name. Then, how did Jesus, by more than pronouncing the name correctly, ‘make God’s name known’ to the apostles? Note the answer given by one noted Bible commentator: “The word name [in John 17] includes the attributes, or character of God. Jesus had made known his character, his law, his will, his plan of mercy. Or in other words, he had revealed God to them. The word name is often used to designate the person.”—Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels by Albert Barnes (1846). So, as Jesus ‘explained the Father’ by his own entire perfect life course on earth, he was really ‘making God’s name known.’ He demonstrated that he spoke with God’s full backing and authority. Jesus could therefore say: “He that has seen me has seen the Father also.” Certainly Jesus wasn't the Father but he was the Son of God so God’s “name” thus took on greater meaning to his early followers. Accordingly, an appreciation of it and the Personality that it stood for should be reflected in every aspect of our lives as Christians. MissJW |
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2 | Purpose of Prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 121627 | ||
Miss JW, Apparently you and the others of your faith are getting a lot of heat because of your background. I thought I'd try to help you and some others get to the actual root cause of all the controversy. You see, here at the Study Bible Forum, ALL of us believe in ALL of the Bible and the Bible's most emphatic point to us modern earth dwellers in this century is that Jesus Christ is the Living God in charge of this world. He came to this planet of sinful man for the express purpose of saving the souls of ALL mankind, past, present and future with His Perfect sacrifice of His own sinless body and life. IF a person come to the SBF to discuss and exchange views and ideas about all the above, it MUST be done WITH the acknowledgement of that previous statement being ABSOLUTE TRUTH. If we can't get that acknowledgement up front in advance from such a person, everything else is valueless and not really worthy of discussion by anyone, at least to those on the Forum. Now, I myself had absolutely nothing to do with drafting up the rules to the Forum but I try to abide by them. I know Hank and some of the others don't like it when I fail to cite book, chapter and verse when I make a statement but that's because I've cited it before in a previous post. Anyway, we ALL from an early age in life learn that we must play by the rules when we join an organization. Now your decision is really quite simple: either acknowledge the ABSOLUTE TRUTH of the statements above or refrain from posting statements of your own to the Forum. That of course DOES NOT mean that you can't read and enjoy the posts you see on the Forum. Also some of the folks on the Forum cite their own E-Mail address so you could attempt to communicate directly with them in that manner. Now the basic reason for this rigid requirement is simply to keep the Forum in some semblance of order and you know we're commanded to do that, 1 Cor 14:40. Without giving Christ His due according to His Last Will and Testament, we ALL do Him a serious dishonor and we would have to pay dearly for such an infraction at Judgment Day. There's one more subject of interest: Cults. There's been several questions back and forth about this and of course the word means different things to different people. But the one basic thing that it means to Forum participants is that a person who refuses to acknowledge the truth of Jesus as cited above would be considered to be a member of a cult. Now I realize that probably doesn't please you but I'm afriad that's a fact that's well reconized throughout the vast majority of Christendom. I do sincerely hope this clarifies the whole matter for you and the other participants of your faith. I really wish no ill toward you or anyone else. I'm afraid that's just the way things are done here at the Forum. I also pray God will bless you as you study Him AND His Son in His Word. Maintain an open mind AND an open heart to His Will. Pray often about this subject. --Rowdy |
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