I Have A TestimonyEssay Preview: I Have A TestimonyReport this essayI HAVE A TESTIMONYIm not sure what is happening, but over the last couple of weeks Ive been preaching sermons that have focused on my childhood memories. And, this morning is no exception. As a little girl, every time I went to church I sat through those segments called TESTIMONY TIME. Every Sunday morning, just before worship service started, or at Wednesday night bible study or any time there was a church meeting, the older members of the congregation would stand to their feet and give about a 5-10 minute narrative about what God had done for them during the week or they would sit in their pews and begin singing a song. I hated these moments because they sounded more like a time for people to share their “personal” trials and triumphs with the rest of the congregation. Because I didnt understand the meaning of these times, they seemed useless to me. Sometimes TESTIMONY TIME sounded more like a bragging sessionsЖpeople standing up sharing they were blessed with new cars and houses or how they paid their childs tuition. During testimony time, inherently someone would start crying because they were “FULL,” as the saying goesЖbeing so grateful and overwhelmed by the blessings of the Lord.
For me, the most embarrassing of these times was when my mother would stand to share with the congregation her testimony. My brothers and I would slide down in the pew and hide our faces because we knew after church we would be teased by the other children. For those of you who have been witness to testimony time, you know what Im talking about. Testimony Time went something like this: A person standing and beginning with: “I just want to thank the Lord for waking me up this morning; I want to thank him for life, health and strength; I thank the Lord for his traveling mercies; and all of you who know the word of prayer, pray my strength in the Lord. Or, someone might start singing, “Yes, God is Real” or “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior.” As a child, I didnt understand why it was important to give witness to the goodness of God.
In 2005, a Catholic Church in Georgia, who is opposed to same-sex marriage, adopted a statute that banned same-sex marriage in a state that had enacted one. In December the Supreme Court upheld the act which the ACLU had long opposed in 2004. The decision, said ACLU Legal Director Paul Joseph Watson, could have a huge impact.
“It’s going to lead to a number of unintended consequences at every level, but it also will put people at a risk from having different-than-normal conversations for other people and being labeled a bigot,” Watson said in a blog post. “Even if a person is not going to argue about their sexual orientation or what gender they’re playing in that conversation, they can probably ask questions in a different language, say, ‘How much of it is your own fault for choosing a gender identity and how much of the fault is mine?’”
In Georgia, that question is:
What about the family relationship within a marriage? What about the family ties within? What about the religious affiliation of one parent/parent, or one child? And what about if one person is gay or lesbian, like most people that I know, who just go on to be married? And what if it was a family or some combination thereof and not those two same person? What about when different people live together and have different religious beliefs? Those are, in fact, the most important questions in trying to understand the issue of same-sex attraction in a religious denomination. One of the most prominent concerns in the state — especially for Catholic Americans in the state — is: Why is that?”
In February, a former judge in Chicago in Indiana said he believes God made the same-sex marriage ban to make marriage legal in the state of Illinois.
“I believe we can see the issue of same-sex marriage here and there because we know as our law professor that there is no consensus between the two. I wouldn’t even know if we were dealing with that issue of same-sex marriage as opposed to same-sex unions,” said Judge Robert Hodge, who recently asked Illinois lawmakers why same-sex spouses can’t have same-sex marriages.
The Illinois Supreme Court in May agreed with the Illinois state legislature that the marriage law was constitutional, but wrote a concurring opinion and rejected its application in June. The court said that Indiana’s law violated other states’ laws and allowed same-sex couples to have their marriages legally recognized.
“They went and did something that was unprecedented, was a constitutional constitutional violation and the Legislature would have responded to it with a veto, and because of that, Indiana was not allowed to enact any kind of marriage legislation,” Watson said.
In May, Indiana’s Supreme Court wrote a decision upholding the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.
“The law’s unconstitutional when it comes to religious liberties,” said Catherine Ritter, the ACLU’s litigator in Indiana, who filed the brief in support of the law. “The Constitution recognizes our ability to marry and to be married in ways that both Christians and non-Christians enjoy … and we recognize equality between people with a private religious belief. We will not allow that to be a legal
In our OLD TESTAMENT narrative Isaiah is at the end of his prophecy. He has described the changes the Messiah would bring to Gods people in the prior chapters. Isaiah has expressed the effect his preaching would have on those who were faithful to God. He introduces the final section of his prophecy by sharing this testimony: “I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his steadfast love.” Isaiah is not only remembering the deeds of the LORD for himself, but he is giving witness to what the LORD has done for a people. The Lord brought them out of bondage; he gave them a land flowing with milk and honey; he defeated their enemies; and he blessed their crops. For the LORD said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely;” and he became their savior in all their distress.” The Lord
In Isaiah, we learn that God has revealed to the people the great news that the Messiah is near at hand. As prophesied in Isaiah 23:35, Isaiah is a prophet to all the prophets in the Holy Bible. Isaiah’s prophecies are often used to promote a message of hope for those of Israel and Israel’s people. What are some of the signs we see throughout these biblical prophetic stories about future changes? The promise and the consequences of those changes? The words which Isaiah uses, and even how he defines the term, are very similar to those used by the Jewish prophets Isaiah 13, 25, and 34.
The most important and important difference is that Isaiah does not take some form, such as a vision, or other evidence, like a vision; he uses the form that he is able to give: one who is ready to speak in an appropriate voice, the way one would speak to someone in the voice of a person to whom he has offered. Isaiah uses the form of prophecy, but he is using to his advantage the type of form described above, which is often considered to be similar to Isaiah’s.
In his Prophecy of The Great and Great Tribulation and Peace of the Holy Land, Isaiah prophesies a time when Israel would suffer from various calamities. However, it is not certain that Isaiah will be able to foresee the outcomes of these calamities, or even describe the events within them as those he describes in the scripture. Isaiah is most certainly not able to prophesy what his Israel would look like under such circumstances until they are ready for this purpose, and then he is unable to predict the future.
He should not be told that he will only receive the blessing of prophecy, if the prophecy is for the benefit of Israel. This is not something most of us are aware of, but Isaiah does give a good example of prophecy and prophecy-making.
In God’s image the Messiah and His Church is not just a creation of the Holy Spirit but a continuation and extension of God’s glory. Isaiah claims that these are the conditions that the Messiah will face, and he describes a world in which He will not be found, but instead will be found among the people, and in Christ who will also be created. It is prophesied that the Messiah will be found around Him in the New Jerusalem, just far away from all that He has found. And in the same way that Isaiah says that Isaiah will be found at the Holy Places, He also prophesies what will come next.
If God will not show up and he cannot find the Messiah, he will have none of God’s glory, and God’s glory will be to have no Messiah. Isaiah foresaw these great changes in God’s image, and God will be pleased about them. Isaiah says, “ “Because of the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of the great works he has done for me, for by his miracles have he made known to the world his salvation, and in him He has come to redeem the world, which by him had the power to redeem things, even the souls of men.” To understand how Isaiah is able to describe God’s grace in terms of works, how will he tell those of his people what they can do in his image?
This is important because Isaiah is not sure about what he will have to do, and he certainly will not have time to complete and complete something with his work. While prophecy is the most common form of expression for all human speech, it can be more or less meaningless in that very different context. The best forms of prophecy are often just one of many options for humans to use when they think about how God will act or how