Luke 1:59-66 Questions and Answers for “Unbelief….to Belief”

Luke Chapter 1 59-66 questionsLuke Chapter 1 59-66 answers_Page_1Here are the Questions and Answers  for Luke 1:59-66

If you want to see all the Questions and Answers for what we’ve done so far in Luke, click here.

Questions You Have Asked: Why Hasn’t God Answered My Prayer?

If you stop to think about it, there are many, many times in scripture when God waited a long time to answer prayer.  In fact, what strikes me is that most of the time God does wait a long time to answer!  Waiting seems to be the rule, not the exception.

That’s why Isaiah 40:31 speaks so directly to each of our hearts.  “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Waiting is normal.

But sometimes God hears your prayer, and says “No.”.

  •  God said “No.” to the people of Israel when they longed for the bread and meat pots of Egypt.  Learning to live as free people had turned out to be very, very hard, and they just wanted to go back to their old lives of slavery and quit trying to fight for their freedom.  God said “No.”  (Exodus 16)
  •  God said “No.” when a money-loving little prophet named Balaam wanted to do the wrong thing.  He asked God to bless him as he went about his greedy little business.  God actually spoke that “No!” to that prophet by the voice of a donkey!  (Numbers 22:22-34)
  •  Naomi, I’m sure, prayed for the Lord to spare the life of her husband, but God said “No”.  He died.  And then I’m positive she also prayed for the Lord to spare the lives of both of her sons.  But God said “No.”  They died.  Her bitterness rose up in her at what seemed to be the unfaithfulness of God.  But he wasn’t, was He?  His “No.”  was actually “Not in the way you pictured it.”  (The book of Ruth)
  •  Jeremiah prophesied and prayed for his whole lifetime for the children of Israel to repent and live wholeheartedly for the One, True God.  In Jeremiah’s lifetime they never did.  God said “No”…not yet. Jeremiah, but they will someday.” (The book of Jeremiah)
  •  Habakkuk pleaded with God to not send a horde of bloodthirsty Assyrians down to conquer Israel.  God said “No.”  And then God said “Stop asking, Habakkuk.  I am God.  I will do things My way.”  Habakkuk 2:10
  • The Apostle Paul pleaded with God to take away his affliction.  But God said “No.”  “My grace is sufficient for you.”  (2nd Corinthians 12:9)

So…what conclusions can we come to about unanswered prayer?

  • God always says “No.” to sin.  If you pray for the right to sin, you won’t get an “ok” from God.
  • Sometimes God says “No”, meaning, “Not in the way you pictured it”.
  • Sometimes God isn’t saying “No”, He’s saying “Wait”.
  • And sometimes He says, “Just trust Me.

We are called to pray.  And as we pray we grow in our faith.  Even when God says “No” we grow in our faith.

So if it seems like God is not answering your prayer, wait.   We learn, I think, to pray more and more according to God’s will, when we go through times of waiting and sometimes getting silence when we want answers.  We slowly begin to love to pray not because we think we can force God to do our will, but because we are beginning to love His will so much.

Why Hasn’t God Answered My Prayer?

Here’s the answer:  He is.

 

Questions You Have Asked: How Does God Want Us to Celebrate Christmas?

How Does God Want Us to Celebrate Christmas?

 

How do you celebrate Christmas?  Is it honoring to God?  Do you tell or read the Christmas story every year?  Are your traditions all about the Christmas Tree, ornaments, food, sparkle and presents?

I do wonder what God thinks about our Christmas-time activities. Over the last few years, my husband and I have made a conscious decision to spend much less money than ever before.  Is that what He would want?  I have friends who decided years ago to not even celebrate Christmas, but instead give gifts to each other at Thanksgiving time, communicating to each other their thankfulness for each one’s part in their lives.  Is that what He would want?

I think the best thing to do, if you want to re-think your Christmas plans and traditions, would be to go back to the scriptures which describe the 1st Christmas (in Luke 1&2 and Matthew 1&2) and just soak it all up again – what did they do?  How did they feel?  Then go from there – include a few new things in your Christmas which reflect the 1st Christmas.  Or, eliminate a few things which don’t seem to point to the Christmas story at all.

In light of Mary’s overflowing praise to God (Luke 1:46-56) months before the 1st Christmas,  at a time in her life when she was balancing between childhood and adulthood, tradition and a new kingdom to come, I think I’ll try to add more overflowing praise to my upcoming Christmas season this year.  Not exactly sure how yet – but I’m going to try.

There’s a new DVD and book out by Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales) which deals with Christmas and Christmas traditions.  Click on the following link to check it out.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQOWkvE_VY&feature=share

 

 

 

Questions You Have Asked: Why is it So Hard to Share My Faith? How Can I Get Someone’s Attention?

Why is it so hard to share my faith?  What can I do to get someone’s attention?

It’s hard to share your faith because your faith doesn’t make sense to the one who has never believed in Jesus.  It doesn’t make sense that anyone could just believe in Jesus and therefore be right with God.  Most people are convinced they have to do a lot of good things in order to make God happy with them.

What can you do to get someone’s attention?

  • Ask God to do whatever He needs to do in your life to give you the opportunity to share your faith.   Just like Mary, in the Christmas story, you may end up with a life situation hardly anyone would believe.  If that happens, look for encouragement from some other believer whom the Holy Spirit has placed there for you.  And then go live out your situation by trusting in God…and that will give you opportunities to share your faith.
  • Be intentional. Go where the unbelieving are. Sit in the smoking section.  Join a club.  Offer to cook a meal.  Ask if you can pray for someone’s needs.  Invite someone over to dinner.

Would you like a whole lot of other ideas for this?  Click here and read “151 Ways to Get Opportunities to Witness”.

Luke 1:39-45 Answers and Audio from Class

Luke Chapter 1 39-45 answers_Page_1Here are the Answers to our discussion questions for Luke 1:39-45.  

If you want to refer back to the original Questions page, here it is.

You can click on the link below to listen to audio of our class session.  

Hosea Bible Study – “Living For the Weekend”

boat rgbstockWe’ve started a new Bible Study on the book of Hosea.  You can view or download the Hosea Bible study here.  

Here’s what Hosea is all about:

For the Israelites living during the reign of King Jeroboam, life was good in the Northern Kingdom.   The economy was improving and most people had jobs.  There was rain for their crops.  Families were healthy.  The occasional tug on their hearts to live wholeheartedly for the One, True God came less and less often, mostly only when one of those crazy prophet-types was walking through one of their respective towns.   They were busy, happy, and certainly not interested in giving up anything in order to think seriously about God.  They were living for the weekend.

Hosea heard the call of God in his heart and was one of the very few who responded.  He longed to know God better, so he searched for all the truth he could find.  In his heart he learned to communicate with God as he worked and ate and even as he slept.  He realized soon that God was asking him to give every minute of his life to telling others about Him.  He heard the soft whispers of God in his ear and began to travel farther and farther away from his home – going from one city in Israel to another – beginning to preach and teach the words of God.

God was warning the Israelites to turn from their soft lives full of idols, and turn back to Him.  But they had no desire to hear such a ridiculous message from an obviously pathetic young man – who had no wife, no children, no future.  Work hard they would, but they were not interested in listening to an idiot, nor in giving up their fun – their weekends.  “God is a God of love,” they must have said.  “He would not ask us to give up all the things that make life wonderful for us!”

He was a young bachelor, and it did get lonely.  People were curious about him when they first realized he was a prophet, but before too long his audiences got smaller and smaller.

But there was no turning back from the call of God on his life…