Thursday Bible Study

  {pray} KINGDOM, POWER, GLORY AND PASSION_   Matthew 6:9-13   The final sentence of the Lord’s Prayer - “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever . Amen” (M att 6:13) - is not in the earliest copies of the Gospel of Matthew. In most modern tran slations (like the NIV) the verse isn’t included in the main text but appears in a footnote.   Most Bible scholars believe that these words were not part of the original prayer Jesus gave his disciples. So, should we include this last sentence as part of the Lord’s Prayer or not ?   One of the best outlooks is that we accept these final words for what they are – not the words of Jesus to us but the words of Jesus’ early followers in response to the prayer .   The prayer, as it stands, never really concludes; it just stops. It’s almost as if Jesus deliberately left it open-ended – as if he wanted to give us the opportunity to respond spontaneously to the prayer. The response of t...

  {pray} COSTLY FORGIVENESS & TACKLING TEMPTATION_   Matthew 6:9-1 5     The fifth request in the Lord’s Prayer is for forgiveness. Jesus knew that we would stand in need of forgiveness every day. And so we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven ou r debtors.”     [Read Matthew 6:9-15]     When you ask God to forgive you a sin or failure in your life, are you confident of His cleansing or do you have doubts?   Explain why you feel secure or insecure .     Christains believe that we receive forgiveness from God by grace alone. Why, in this request, does Jesus make it sound like our forgiveness of others is a condition for our forgiveness from God?     What price did God pay to forgive us?   What price do we pay when we forgive others?     Peter tried to impress Jesus one day with his willingness to forgive other people up to seven times. Jesus wasn’t impressed. Genuine forgiveness doesn’t...