Discussion board comments

Please follow the How to Look at the Bible document for the first two posts/comments: Respond to these two comments.

Thomas:

“If Christ is the central figure of the Gospel of Luke the Holy Spirit is the central figure of Acts. If Like’s Gospel was a record of the work of Christ that made the church possible, Acts is a record of the inception of Christ’s church through the work of the Holy Spirit.” (Cartwright, Guiterrez, & Hulshof, p. 21).

This quote means the the christ is emphasized for the Holy Spirit, where they must understand the Holy Spirit is not only as a figure, but also the soul of our prayers. It is a central figure of Acts, where there are biographies to consider as a view of our history of the church and the bible, not just something to debate the Christian philosophy, depending on the descriptions of our Christian beliefs. Sometimes it is considerable for the Church to made a work of our Christian philosophical values. When understanding the Acts, it is a record of Christ, made by God, along with the church and the bible. The ministries of the Christian churches have analyze of how the church works through the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts are the portions of the history of the church as well as the ministries, which symbolize faith and it also creates the regular period of Christian experiences with the faith of God, Lord, and Jesus the Savior. The commands are not controversial, they are the reminders of knowing God with the composition of praying and blessing with the Christian bible. The narrations tells how the church was created. By the ancient periods, the origins of the church became a purpose of praying, blessing, and reading the bible to understand God. The Holy Bible is the most important bible to understand the records of the Old Testaments, which indicates the history of the God’s commandants and the New Testaments, which indicates how Jesus became the savior to forgive for their sins and for temptations. The Gospel of Luke is all about the origins, birth, ministry, sacrifice, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Savior. Jesus was also the preacher of Christianity, because he has the knowledge of salvation. Christianity is only consider the existence of the fulfillment, which is considered an Abrahamic religion. God has been fulfilled Jesus for salvation, where the biblical history with humanity was originally based on the Old Testament. The New Testament consists of the extended historical perspectives of the salvation history in which God has a plan for divinity. It was a legitimate matter of the faith necessaries. It was also a form of freedom from sins. The Christian disciple represents the the identification of Christ, where Jesus was the Holy Spirit of Christianity.

POST 2:

Mary:

“In fact, the more we attempt to save ourselves, the worse we make things. This is because our self-rescue efforts highlight our belief that we are strong enough, smart enough, and self-sufficient enough to fix the error of our ways.” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.4).

This resonated with me because so many times people try to fix things without the help of God. We believe that we can do it on our own; therefore, why ask for help. The truth is that we always need God’s help, whether it is a little everyday problem or a life altering problem.

“Most of the spies feared the Canaanites and convinced the people that they could not take the land” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.11).

This stood out to me due to the fact that the twelve spies had changed the minds of hundreds of people simply because they were afraid. God had promised them that if they simply follow Him, He would lead them to the promise land. It is very easy for people to turn their eyes from God’s promise to fear.

“The closing of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament are divided by 400 years of silence” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.13).

I have never fully understood that between the end of the Old Testament and the Beginning of the New Testament, existed four-hundred years. That is a very large gap in history. We can only imagine what took place during those many years before the birth of Jesus. Did His children wonder if God had left them or was He angry?

“Whereas the rest of the Bible is often appropriately described as God’s Word to us, the Psalms are really written to God” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.25).

This sentence stood out to me because I did not understand that the book of Psalms was written for God. I have always understood that God, through the Holy Spirit, gave us the Bible. Learning that Psalms was written to God was something new for me. However, I still believe that all of God’s word is Holy Spirit inspired, in that God spoke through David as he was writing his letters to God.

“In other words, the statements of wisdom point you in the direction of truth without exploring every nuance of the subject matter” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.26).

I believe that this statement means that although Proverbs teaches us how to follow God and live wisely, it is not the whole picture. Meaning that there is always more to learn. It also means that only God knows everything.

” It contains much deeper and life-sustaining truths that last a lifetime—even through eternity” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p.29).

This resonated with me because God’s word is timeless. His word was true for our parents, it is true for us, and it will be true for the next generation. His word will even affect us in Heaven. The word of God calls for His children to praise and worship Him. This we will all do when we are called home to His glory.

“In his estimation, the Bible is simply another manual that will help him understand how life should work” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p. 30).

The Bible is so much more than a simple ‘how to’ book. Yes, it can demonstrate how we should live a blessed and full life. However, it also demonstrates how we can have a deeper relationship with God. I believe the word of God is not only a moral compass for our souls, but it is life and health to our fleshly bodies.

“We are actually unable to follow the instructions and keep the rules” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p. 30).

We try so hard to keep God’s commandments, yet we always seem to fall at some point. This is I believe, due to the fact that we are only human. God gives us a choice to follow Him or not. I believe it is an issue of free will. We are all created in God’s image, but it is our freedom to choose how we will walk out our daily life given the decisions that are placed before us.

“The narratives of God’s Word point toward God’s Son, Jesus Christ—not toward people.” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p. 31).

I believe this is true. We should not look at the negative or positive aspects of Bible characters but, that we should look only to Jesus. It is only through His examples that we can truly walk down the right path.

” They are testimonies to God’s redemptive plan to save the world through Jesus Christ” (Cartwright, Hulshof. p. 32).

I learned in this sentence that the stories in the Bible are testimonies of how amazing God is to all of His children. These testimonies describe how God will never leave us. He will always be there for us. The testimonies are also full of God’s prophetic word that either have been fulfilled or are yet to be fulfilled. They are a source of hope and inspiration for the believer as well as the unbeliever.———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————