Words that indicate “joy” (rejoicing, gladness, blessed) occur over a thousand times in Scripture. And yet, an abiding joy is often missing in our lives as daily disciples of Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. This year we will seek to prevent that from happening.
Congregational Theme: 2012
Prior to Jesus’ birth, some Jews were patiently and confidently waiting for the promised Christ. They had an image of what they thought He ought to be like, but He turned out to be quite different from what they expected. He turned out to be a Savior of of souls rather than a Protector of national boundaries. He turned out to be a humble servant, and not of a leader of troops. Therefore, most of His people saw no purpose for Him in their nation.
And yet there were 3 people who waited in hope—looking for a bright new day—when God would send His Anointed.
Members of the Lord’s church bear a designation that is most honorable. The Father has given His children the title of Priest; collectively the church is a priesthood. So no longer is just a small segment among God’s people authorized to minister to the LORD. Today every Christian is a minister in the Temple of God where His presence resides (1 Cor 3:16).
A series of lessons based on Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the future Messiah who is Jesus the Christ.
Israel went into apostasy, renounced faith in the LORD God and abandoned all loyalty to Him just two generations removed from Joshua (Judges 2:10). This lesson will give three reasons for Israel’s departure as well as define four levels of failure on their part as a reminder that the same thing can happen and has happened to the church.
Ezra 2:69 – There are some lessons we can learn from this text about our own giving to the Lord for the work of the church, outlined in the New Testament.
There is no text in the Bible that illustrates the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ better than (Acts 2:1-41). This scene was a life-altering, culture-changing, event for thousands of Jews. Why did it have such a powerful impact for change in their lives? Why should we want to know? We should want the gospel of Christ to have that same impact on us, and we should want to see others impacted by it too. What is it about the gospel that had such power to unalterably change the lives of those people?
On the Tenth Anniversary of 9-11 we need to realign ourselves with the word of God so that we can have a clearer view of the world in which we live & the truer view of the nature of God whom we serve through Jesus Christ. When everything appears to be going awry, the natural question is “Where is God”? (Josh 2:11; Psa 11:4).
In this lesson we want to look at how personal accountability works in a family, and also in our relationships to one another within the local church (Eph 5:21).
God desires that each local congregation of the Lord’s church be a single unit, like a family, united under one Name and Authority, Jesus Christ – asserting that He alone is the Lord of us all (Acts 10:36). And, from our text, we will see that He has given us the
tools to work toward that end (1 Thess 5:14-15). In this text, the church is depicted as an army in battle, where some of the soldiers are about to break rank from their fellow soldiers.
