All About Zakah for Muslim Americans - Dr. Main Alqudah [https://www.guidance...
God
2. What is Faith?
As used in the Bible, “faith” involves
firm belief based on solid evidence.
Someone who has faith in God is
confident that He will fulfil all of His
promises.
3. Noah Life’s Lessons
We learn from Noah that it is possible to remain faithful and
pleasing to God even in the midst of a corrupt and sinful
generation.
Surely it wasn’t easy for Noah, but he found favour in God’s
eyes because of his remarkable duty.
God blessed and saved Noah, just as he will faithfully bless
and protect those of us who follow and obey him today. Our
call to duty is not a short-term, one time call. Like Noah, our
duty must be lived out over a lifetime of faithful commitment.
Those who persevere will finish the race.
4. Noah
Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of
the earth.
In the world taken over by evil, violence and corruption, Noah was a righteous man.
However, Noah wasn’t just a righteous man, he was the only follower of God left on
the Earth. The Bible says he was blameless among the people of his time. It also says
he walked with God. Living with a society with sin and against God, Noah was the only
man alive that pleased God.
Noah did everything just as God commanded.
Since the wickedness of man had covered the earth like a flood, God decided to start
over again with Noah and his family. Giving very specific instructions, the Lord told
Noah to build an ark in preparation for a catastrophic flood that would destroy every
living thing on Earth.
Noah was truly a hero of the Christian Faith.
5. Moses
Moses was an early leader, the most important figure in Judaism. Moses is said to have talked with God.
Moses centred his life on God’s promises.
Now Moses had the opportunity to live a comfortable life in the luxuries of Egypt, but he gave up that
opportunity, “choosing to be ill-treated with the people of God rather than to have temporary
enjoyments of sin”. The Bible says that Moses “continued to be committed as seeing the one who is
invisible.
Moses never regretted the choices he made in faith.
Moses wanted to strengthen the faith of others.
Moses may have had little idea that God was about to part the Red Sea, thereby opening up an escape
route for the Israelites. However, Moses was confident that God would do something to protect His
people. And Moses wanted to fellow Israelites to have the same belief. Moses said to the people “Do
not be afraid. Stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will perform for you today”. By faith
they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land”. Moses’ faith benefited not only himself but everyone
who learned from it.
6. Moses Life’s Lessons
We can copy Moses by centering our life on God’s promises. For example, God
promises to care for our material needs if we give his worship the top priority in our
life. True, we may find it a challenge to resist on material things that is so widespread
today. But we can be sure that when we do out best to keep out life simple and
focused on our worship, Jehovah will provide all that we need.
He says “I will by no means leave you nor by any means leave you”.
We also struggle to help others to grow in faith. For instance, wise parents recognize
the tremendous opportunity they have to build faith in their children. As they
grow, children need the important knowledge that God exists and that he has given us
standards of right and wrong. They need to be persuaded that following his standards
really is the best way of life.
Parents give their children a precious gift when they help them to have faith that God
“is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.
7. Jesus
Jesus is son of God (the King of the Kings) who was a very humbled man. Now our Lord might have been
the son of rich women or the son of a king. He might have been born to a very important family. That
would have been a humble act for Jesus, because Jesus was really the Son of God.
But Jesus was actually the son of a poor women. We know that Mary was poor. Mary and Joseph came
to the *Temple with the baby. Mary and Joseph’s gift was the cheapest. They could only afford
that, they offered two birds. Jesus was the Heir of all things (God meant to give him everything). But he
became one of the humblest men. From birth he was poor, he lived in a poor family, Joseph was a
carpenter. Jesus served people all his life, Jesus worked and things did not always go well for him, he
also had troubles like our troubles.
Jesus left the glory of Heaven. He became a human person. He was humble enough to die on the cross.
He knew what he was doing. It was not some terrible mistake. Jesus himself said that “ I did not come
so that men would serve me. I came to serve other people. And I came to give my life for many people”.
Jesus served people all this life. He made sick better and he made worried people calm. The last time
the he ate with his disciples he took a towel. When none of Jesus’s disciples volunteered to wash the
dirty feet, Jesus himself took the job and washed the disciples feet, showing an example to everyone
that a proper way of being a leader.
He was like someone who did not deserve a proper house.
8. Jesus Life’s Lessons
Jesus did not come just to make some changes in the ways of the
world, he came to replace it. Jesus showed a different way to live. He
showed this to greedy people or cruel people with too much power.
He showed that a man could be humble. He could love and serve other
people.
God arranged that the time was right. It was also the right time in
God’s great plan. God had prepared for this, from the beginning of the
world. God was to come before Jesus. He was to tell people that Jesus
would come, Jesus himself was born. God’s power did all this, but in a
humble way. This should surprise us. It should impress us. God showed
his love for men. They did not obey him, he wanted to forgive
them, he showed this.
Everybody should trust him.
10. To find the real ‘Happiness in YOU’ you have to Serve Others you need help (your
neighbours or family)
Make a Difference!
11. How God’s faith important!
It takes faith to believe in Christ, it takes faith to believe that what God says is always right and true, and
it takes faith to trust and walk in that each and every day. However, if you’re faith doesn’t continue to
grow in your relationship with Christ, you won’t have the faith to see God’s kingdom come not only in
your life, but in the lives of those around you.
Whatever faith you have inside of you will determine the outcome of the faith level you’ll have for God
at work around you. If you don’t have faith for God to move, there’s a good chance you won’t be looking
for anything to take place.
Do you realize that the message of your life, is what you spend your time, money and energy on will
scream how much faith (belief) you have put in Christ?
Jesus loved and always responded to anyone that had faith. He loved it when those placed their full
trust in him.
Also, what’s so amazing is that Jesus said you don’t even need a lot of faith. Jesus said just a little faith
can do amazing things in your life and in the lives of those around you.
Jesus said our faith could be compared to a mustard seed. What’s interesting is that a mustard seed is
the smallest of all seeds. But it also is a seed. A seed is worth more when it continues to grow. You
water and feed the seed of your faith by giving it nourishment. We get nourishment by reading Gods
word, worshipping, praying. All those things feed the seed of faith in your life.
Speaks that we should have confidence, which actually means faith, to approach God’s throne of grace.
Saying you believe is one thing. Walking that out, day in and day out is another………Let break it
down………what faith is and why faith is so important.
Without faith it’s impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he
exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
12. Take a Walk with God…
God created man for the enjoyment of a walking relationship that involved
companionship, dialogue, intimacy, joint decision-making, mutual delight, and
shared dominion.
God longs to walk with you, which is why his arms of grace have been pulling
you into a closer walk with him.
If you do not have a close walk with the Lord, I hope that you fit into the
second category. Christian, you must walk with God. That is the purpose for
which God created you. You can walk with God.
But, you ask, how?
Well there are 6 steps that can take to help you have a fruitful walk with the
Lord:
13. 1. See yourself as you really are.
You cannot walk with God while you think of yourself to be more important
than you are. Pride will hinder your prayers from being heard and will close
your eyes to the truths of the Bible. Most people do not know God and do not
walk with Him because they are proud, self-centred, and self-dependant.
You must be honest and open with God. Admit things you have done wrong
(sins) and talk openly and thoroughly to God, there is no point hiding
anything, where he knows anything you have done wrong to anything you
have done good.
If you would walk with god you must humble yourself and see your flesh as
God sees it, corrupt and sinful.
Remember: God does not walk with proud people.
14. 2. See God as He really is.
There is a balance of closeness and respect that we must
achieve in our walk with god.
For example, consider my relationship with my dad. I do
not treat him as a private would treat a general, with fear
and curtness. I treat him as a best friend. But, I still show
respect for him, because he is my father. My relationship
with my dad is characterised by closeness and respect.
It is good to remind yourself of the greatness of god
before you come into His presence. Think of His great
power, holiness, glory and strength.
15. 3. Convince yourself of the need to
walk with God.
You will never have a consistent walk with God until
you have learned what a great privilege and priority
it is to do so. Walking with God is not very
important to most Christians. How do I know that?
Because most Christians spend more time getting
showered and ready for the day than they spend
with God.
You must deliberately convince yourself that you
need to walk with God, or else you will never have a
rewarding walk with Him.
16. 4. Purpose in your heart to walk with
God every day.
You must make a earnest decision to walk with
God every day. Priests are actually against
god, the priests wants to be teachers and teach
others about the Bible, but these are all against
God.
God is our only teacher, defender, friend and our
Father in Heaven.
17. 5. Choose a place where you can walk
with God.
Choose a quiet place where you will meet God
every day.
It will become a holy, special place, and it will
help you to walk with God.
18. 6. Be Patient and persistent.
It is never easy to walk with God, so don’t worry you have failed. Never
quit! You would eventually have to go through struggle to understand
God and who he really is.
Even the disciples struggled to walk with God, shall not we?
It is hard to walk with God, because walking with God is spiritual and
nothing spiritual is easy “spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”.
It does take a high level of spiritual understanding about God.
Sometimes you will wonder if God even hears your prayers, but god
will listen to your prayers. When you are praying you call God. For
example its like when you knock on a door and no one answers it and
you knock again, it’s the same thing when you call God in your prayers.
Never quit praying to God, never think its boring or anything.
Just Put God First Always and everything comes next!
19. Conclusion
The simple truth is that you will never be a joyful, useful and
fruitful if you do not learn to have a consistent walk with God.
Your personal life, your marriage, your children and your
career will never reach their full potential if you don’t walk
with God. You can walk with God, and you must walk with
God.
Those you walk with God, always reach their destination.
Will you?
20. To be in God’s Kingdom you have to:
1. Do not judge others
2. Respect everybody (as we are all a family)
3. Be Humble
4. Help everybody
5. Do not steal
6. Do not commit adultery
7. Respect and look after your parents
8. Smile at everyone
9. Pray to God when your struggling and happy (always)
10. Put God first, and the rest next!
21. My Life’s Experience
I am just an ordinary girl in the world like everyone else, I go to school and live a normal life and I am grateful for my life I have, I may not live my
life like others teenagers or kids get to do like go parties and stuff. I spend my time with my parents, family, myself and God.
My relationship with God has been something personal, but I feel that I want to share my experience so it could help you all too. I just started to
walk with God. To walk with walk I had to go through various or stages of struggles which was hard for me to handle. When you really get to know
God is when you struggle hard and with pain, you most want God, that’s when you need and get to know God better. As I started to walking with
God I feel much happier, before this happened I felt lost without God’s help.
I believe that I went to through lot of struggle, but I know God is making me stronger, when you go through every struggle in life you get stronger
and stronger, please know that God is making you stronger for a purpose, for a reason. I know that everything in life happens for a reason.
I pray to God everyday, I tell him everything, I admit to him that I have done things wrongs and I ask him to forgive me, like nobodies is
perfect, everybody do things wrong.
Also I told God about my Dreams and he listens to me everyday, I feel that, also I feel God talks to me through people.
Jesus is very important to me, he has died for me on a cross, went through brutal suffering to wash my sins and all of our sins. I Thank him every day
for doing this to me and I also Thank god for everything he has given me.
People nowadays don’t believe in Jesus or God, whereas I think it’s very important to believe in them.
Just put God first, thank him for everything he gave you, he is the one who give you air to breathe to food to eat to keep you alive and love and care
he only give you, and people don’t believe. God even blesses people who don’t believe him.
God Is Great! And I love my God for everything he has done for me and I also love my Jesus and all the great things he done for us, I am proud to
say this.
I just want everyone to see that.
Thank you my friends
22. Put God First
Respect Parents
Pray for others (suffering)
Help & Seek Others
Stay Humble!
Work Hard As You Can
Be Yourself – Your Precious Gift
Be the Change to world you want to see
May Your Dreams Come True