Sunday, February 24th

From Paula:

This week, as we continue in our series called "What Kind of Church?," the title of the sermon will be "Are you growing spiritually?" We will be looking at 2nd Peter 1:2-11 which reads:

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

How much responsibility do you think we have for our personal spiritual growth? According to this passage, it seems to me that there is a lot of effort expected from us in order to live the kind of life God desires for us to live.

Are there any particular spiritual disciplines that have been helpful to you on your journey of spiritual growth so far? How do you exercise your spirit? Or, what are some spiritual disciplines you haven't tried before, but would like to? Something that you have done before but need to re-introduce into your daily life?

Sunday, February 17th

Sometimes I find it difficult to answer the question: "What would Jesus do?" Too often I find myself looking for some specific example of Jesus' actions that I can use to convince myself that being proud, self centered, or rude is really my best course of action at the time. Jesus got angry. Jesus put those who were wrong in their place. But Jesus was also perfect. Even in his anger he did not sin, and he never took it upon himself to humble those who were already down.
So for me the challenge is to stop trying to prove my point, and start pointing to God.

"...even Christ didn't please himself..."
-Romans 15:3

Even the Son of the Most High, who was there "in the beginning," did not look to please himself. His aim was always to serve his father, and to serve his body, the church. This should also be our aim.

So how do you do that? How do you put yourself third, behind God and everyone else? Would you say you are "at peace" with Christ and his church?

Looking forward to Sunday,
John

Sunday, February 10th

This coming Sunday, we will be focusing on God's heart for the lost, and His compassion for all people. The main scripture will be Luke chapter 15, which includes the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. I would suggest that everyone read the chapter sometime this week, to help prepare for a focused worship time on Sunday morning.

My question for our church family to think about and discuss is this: who are the lost? And what do you think about the idea that there may be degrees of "lostness"? I have often struggled with the related concept of degrees of sin… you know the way that we humans like to add a convenient layer of relativity to the concept of sin. One illustration would be the different ways we might think of a liar versus a murderer, or a jealous person versus a lesbian.

What are your thoughts? This is a great place to share!


On behalf of the Worship Team,
Jena Akers