Review of Last Friday's. Romans 12:9-~13
How do we behave like Christians?
1) We have to love without hypocrisy. What does this mean? One definition of love is "the fulfillment of the law", meaning that "loving your neighbor as yourself, not coveting, not committing adultery and such is what love is. Second, Jesus Christ, who loved the Church to the point of death (Ephesians 5) is the ultimate example of what love is. He displays his love to his apostles, gentiles, his enemies, Israelites, up until his death and then his resurrection. (All the gospels). Actually, love and hypocrisy are like watter and oil, they just don't mix.
2) We have to "abhor" evil, aka SIN, and cling to what is good. I do not know about you, but this is constant battle that I go through daily, at work, home, basically everywhere. As Romans has shown us in the previous chapters, we are sinners by nature. As believers, we have a few weapons to help us accomplish "abhor sin". (It requires us to work daily on this) God's word. It's the only book who we can trust to guide us through daily life. The book of Timothy is a great book for younger Christians. The book of Peter is also great for direction regarding obedience, caution regarding false doctrines, his second coming, etc. A second weapon is PRAYER, a privilege that God has given to us to speak to him directly, to Adore, Confess, Thank and supplicate (or ask). ISN'T THIS AWESOME!!
3) Cling to what is good. If we abhor sin, we are free to cling to what is good. Of course we have to strive to do it. If you think about it, clinging to what is good comes naturally when we're able to work through the previous two qualifications. I realize I made it sound simple, but on the contrary, it is a life-long process and as such, we should make it part of our daily lives.
4) Be kindly and affectionate to one another, with brotherly love. Jesus displays brotherly love to EVERYONE throughout all the gospels, so does Paul. (Note that brotherly love also includes exhorting and correcting one another)
5) in honor giving preference to one another. Loving our neighbor as ourselves includes putting someone else before us. It is very easy to display this with family members, your best friend. But what about with the "unpopular kid at school", or someone who did not pick you to be on their team. Our behavior toward these individuals really shows us and everyone else, if we're truly behaving like Christians.
See ya.

Romans 12:3-8 review

God's grace is the foundation for the Christian life and it is the foundation for the church. Last time, we learned from Romans 12:3-8 how to live out this grace.

verse 3: Don't think highly of yourself. Instead, replace that attitude with sound judgment from the Bible, viewing yourself in light of Scripture--WE ARE SINNERS IN NEED OF MERCY!!! This leads not to pride, but to humility before God and man. As believers, there is no excuse even to have pride in our faith, because FAITH COMES FROM GOD!! So replace pride with humility.

verses 4-6: We are all blessed differently according to grace. We are all a part of the body of Christ.

verses 6-8: Spiritual gifts are grace from God--live out this grace by living out your spiritual gift. Gifts include prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy.

Application: How do you know what your spiritual gift is? By being involved in ministry and trying out different gifts. Which ones are you good at and which ones do you enjoy? There are your gifts!

Leaf Raking Outreach

Just a reminder that our outreach to several neighbors of our church families will begin at 1 o'clock on Saturday, October 27, at the Knotts' house on Sage Park Road. Parents can pick you up at around 4:30.

Please remember to bring rakes, wear closed-toed shoes, and wear layers. There is a chance of rain for Saturday, so please also remember to bring rain gear!

If you have questions, call Tim and Cynthia at 219-9836.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

This is the culmination of the amazing hymn of praise written by Paul at the end of Chapter 11 of his letter to the Romans. It follows a series of rhetorical questions whereby Paul addresses the incomparable nature of God, and man's infinitely lesser status. Paul recognizes that the Lord, the God of all creation, is the only worthy object of praise and adoration, and reinforces this amazing statement with a firm "So be it!"

"For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN?"

Because God is the creator and sustainer of all things, the Omnipotent and Omniscient one, there is no question that all things are from HIM and through HIM.

But what does it mean when it says that all things are to HIM?

Pondering PROCLAIM 2

Today, I could go on and on about how: we arrived at the place (Delaware Outdoor Adventure Center), the van almost got lost (we missed a turn at some point, but we recovered quickly :)); Eric [sp*] found the stick that he hid during the last retreat (at least I think it was Eric*)…and he unintentionally broke it – in his excitement I think; when we had dinner I was the first person to go because I was the only one who had not been to the Delaware Outdoor Adventure Center before, which really is why I almost successfully came out the “In” door when I went to get a drink (excuses, excuses); I heard about someone* who had tripped multiple times on the steps (which are marked by bright yellow paint) by the doors to the kitchen; I enjoyed the musical worship we had, etc. Yet I think it’s best for me/us to just focus on that main session we had on Friday evening, which I believe, called attention to why we were really out there in the outdoor adventure place.

Ben taught, and I believe very lucidly (and in a challenging manner) with regards to evangelism. I remember that one of the things that he mentioned right at the beginning was that the proper perspective and practice of evangelism comes about when we have a “perpetual vision of the glories of Christ”. During this conference, we were going to learn, not things that would force us to evangelize out of guilt, but the biblical ‘motivation’ and ‘power’ for evangelism. The primary passage of Scripture we were learning from was 1 Peter 2:9,10.

The proclaiming mentioned in those verses denotes an outward statement and the statement is the gospel of Jesus Christ. On this night, we learned the reasons (6 of them) why we proclaim [the excellencies of God]:

We [Christians] are a chosen race
In referring to Isaiah 43:21, we can see people chosen by God…to proclaim. We are appointed to serve God.

We are a royal priesthood
Remember the Old Testament priesthood (Exodus 19:6). They served God [in the tabernacle/temple, the place of worship] day and night. That is also what we are appointed to do. We are chosen to worship [God]. And we are a royal priesthood because we are appointed by King Jesus.

We are a holy nation
“Holy” denotes being “set apart”. And when we think of the word ‘holy’, we ought to think of it always as derived from God Himself. Think about the thrice holy God. What does that invoke in us? Worship! We worship God because of His infinite worth-ship…the only worthy One, the one worthy of our worship. Surely, think of His WORTH – SHIP.

We are a people for God’s own possession
Think 1 Peter 1:18-21. This describes redemption.

We have been called by Him out of darkness into His marvelous light
This is amazing. Acts 26:14-18 can help you to understand that…particularly verse 18.

We have received mercy
That denotes compassion, pity, love, affection, etc

Isn’t that all amazing? Doesn’t that give you the right perspective as a Christian? Surely this is true biblical motivation, even for evangelism.
The next ‘pondering PROCLAIM’ post should be packed…action packed…with the other events of that Friday evening (sharpen your memories and see how well and how much we can reminisce). Yet I’ll actually hold off for a little while and just encourage you for right now to pause and ponder this most pertinent part of PROCLAIM [the message from God’s word]…and participate [in the comments section; questions, comments, etc]…and pray about these things [in your personal prayer time and with others]…that you may grow in grasping these truths and glorifying God.

Pondering PROCLAIM Part 1

I just thank God that I had the opportunity to go to a wonbyOne Youth Conference…PROCLAIM. There are many memories from such a time and I definitely will not articulate all that is on my heart or that comes to mind…but I’ll share a fair bit of what ‘I’ would call ‘highlights’. Now, before I do all that, I’d ask that you (the readers, particularly the wonbyOne’ers or “ites”…however you look at it) help me out with any important, funny, interesting and/or eternally worthy details or broad perspectives I may miss (I consider the comments section an integral part of blog posts…so enjoy and participate in that if you can, especially when you see asterisks (*)…PLEASE!!!). Let ‘pondering PROCLAIM’ be the pondering of PROCLAIM from a plurality of perspectives, not just personal pontification – only may it be Christ-honoring (Colossians 3:17).

It’s probably best for me to just place the beginning of this pondering at Harding Hall on that fair Friday evening. I myself arriving just in time to leave, and also finding out I didn’t have to drive (and would be in the vehicle of which Mr. Benjamin Harding was the chauffeur), I gathered all my belongings and placed it in that big van, into which I hopped – to the great pleasure and gratitude of the young gentlemen in the seats just behind the driver’s and front passenger’s seats. Besides Ben and I, they were the only gentlemen in the van.

The van (as we shall now affectionately call it – notice my lack of creativity) was to lead off, and it did. Ben popped in some David Crowder band and that proved to be some cool background music. I actually learned much that night, including: the fact that Ben was well known for referring to “this” while flexing [or not really] one set of his bicep muscles (should we nick-name him “Big Ben”? :))…he had to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel; there apparently had been an accident on the road we were on, days prior to the day we were traveling – a truck had lost it’s brakes on a steep downhill part of the beautiful winding road (Route 44) and had ended up going off the road and crashing in a ditch somewhere; Route 44 had quite a few small towns and establishments lining it – besides its meandering (much like my writing :)), it’s a happening Route!; apparently the biggest house in America is somewhere in Avon on some mountain (very specific hey :)); etc. Hey, somebody please remind me of the many other things we talked about*. I wonder what was happening in the other vehicles*.

We'll call this first series of posts from/by me [Happy D.], 'Pondering PROCLAIM by Parts'. See you in the next part...and hopefully in the comments section [in the mean time and beyond] :).

And some more pictures from Proclaim!!

Here are some pics from the Proclaim!

What a great youth conference! I was so excited for this past weekend and was challenged in my boldness to Proclaim the gospel. How has the conference affected you this week? I began thinking more about the students I teach and the parents I come in contact with and have begun praying for the Lord to open up opportunities for me to Proclaim the gospel to them.
To review.... what were the main points from the passage in 1 Peter? What are we to "proclaim"?
Seeing the excellencies of Christ stops our fears and worshiping Him feeds the desire to evangelize.
God has granted us such amazing grace in His adoption of us as His children! What a blessing that He also gives us the opportunity and desire to share this with others!
How did you feel about sharing the gospel in the scenario's with the leaders?
You should continue to practice and be prepared with Scripture about how to witness to someone and pray with them.
Don't forget! This Friday is QUIZ TIME on your verses from conference!!!
Blessings to you all!