Monthly Archives: June 2015

MP3 & WMA for Sunday (June 28, 2015) messages AM & PM

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SUNDAY AM

Message Title: Pursue What Makes for Peace

Message Text: Romans 14:13-23

SUNDAY PM

Message Title: Living in the Reality of Who We Are

Message Text: Psalm 37:21-40

STUDY SHEETS for Sunday June 28, 2015

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machine factory peace

Hello All,

Another rainy day in western Illinois. Been looking for some gopher wood. 🙂

Anyway …

Have you noticed just perchance how we as believers can see really clearly when someone else screws up but just do not seem to quite be able to identify our own faults and sins?

Nah! You probably haven’t noticed that, huh?

Or have you noticed the very, very clear instruction that God gives us as to how we relate to one another, how we handle disagreements, even what to do when we are angry with one another?

Okay here is where I am going with this thing.

How does a person expect God to produce righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit in their lives when they themselves only plant the seeds of war and discontent?

How is that we sometimes cultivate war and destruction in our relationships via our words and actions, often via gossip, but then we cannot understand why our lives are roiling in bitterness and discontent?

Looking again this week in chapter 14 of Romans we see that the Apostle Paul gives us a very clear course of action to follow when we disagree over matters of conscience. He directs us to a way of living that brings peace and righteousness and joy.

He directs us to a very solid plan to–amazing as this is–be part of his kingdom building process as we build up the people around us.

  • GIGO (gī′gō, gē′-) … (Computer Science) Acronym for garbage in, garbage out.

The kingdom of God is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

So what are we about? What direction have we taken? Are we sowing righteousness and peace and joy? Or are we sowing strife and discontent?

How do we know? Look at our lives? What is the product? The fruit? Pursue the things that make for peace and God blesses with righteousness and peace and joy. Fall to our selfish desires and contentions and expect discouragement and turmoil.

  • GIGO-> garbage in, garbage out.

machine factory war

Message Title: Pursue What Makes for Peace

Messsage Text: Romans 14:13-23

Message MP3 – Fiery Furnace Faith – Father’s Day 2015

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Fiery Furnace Faith. The only faith worth passing on to our children.

My father was a man of God. One of the best examples of following Jesus Christ I have ever seen. He was very flawed and wonderful all at the same time because of the redemptive work of God in his life.

This is the faith–fiery furnace faith–that my Dad passed on to us. Dad would have died for his faith. He took some real “hits” during his lifetime for this faith with no regrets. I remember a very good job that he lost because his employer changed the rules and a few years down the road demanded that Dad work almost every Sunday. They didn’t want to fire Dad;  wanted him to quit but he would have no part of that. Sticking to his principles he did.

He, and we as a family, paid a financial price for the next several years because of this but Dad had no regrets, and I am so proud of him for that.

In Daniel 3 we see three Jewish men who had been through terrible upheaval in their young lives. They went from royalty and nobility to captive slaves in the blink of an eye. But they bounced back and with God’s blessing were prospering in this foreign land.

Only to have their entire lifestyle and lives threatened again.

So would they be willing to give up everything as their new king demanded service and worship to a golden image? Or would they compromise, rationalize and hang on to what they had?

In evangelicalism we make too many deals. We proclaim lives of love and faithfulness, but do we hold true? And if we do not hold true, then what exactly have we passed on to our children?

Fiery Furnace Faith–The Only Faith Worth Passing On!

Message Title: Fiery Furnace Faith

Message Text: Daniel 3:1-30

 

 

 

STUDY SHEETS for Sunday June 14, 2015

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world's foremost expert Hello to You,

We continue our study in Romans this week, and the Apostle Paul speaks to matters of conscience.

  • NOT SURPRISE YOU:
    –It will likely not surprise you if I informed you that Christians often do not get along with each other.
  • MAY SURPRISE YOU:
    But it may surprise you when you see the specific information the Bible has to help us avoid these disagreements. The plan is quite simple. Don’t make things holy that God does not make holy. Don’t judge or despise God’s servants. And, maybe above all, live NOW as followers of Jesus who are fully aware that we will stand before God to give an account of OUR lives.
  • PROBABLY NOT SURPRISE YOU:
    But it will probably not surprise you that as much as love God’s holy book the Bible, that we often do not choose to listen to God. As I said, the plan is quite simple, but people … not so much. We really struggle giving in to the sovereign care of God in matters that engulf us emotionally in the way these “hot topics” do.

We must have a clear picture of this moment in eternity in which we stand before God Most High. Not for fear, but for amazing joy and peace. Paul doesn’t write to us to scare us to death but to point us toward the tremendous blessing of trusting God in all things.

We are not going to be called to “the witness stand” to recollect someone else’s sins and shortcomings. We are going to stand before God to give an account of our lives. Picture the joy that we will share with our heavenly Father at that moment as he reveals tremendous “faith” highlights as we lived our life anticipating this amazing moment.

who do you think you are two faces