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.

• PDF LESSON 36 : Each Person Gives an Account to God : Romans 14-1-12 : FFC : dave scott : 061415: STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF LESSON 36 : Each Person Gives an Account to God : Romans 14-1-12 : FFC : dave scott : 061415: STUDY SHEET TWO
• PDF LESSON 36 : Each Person Gives an Account to God : Romans 14-1-12 : FFC : dave scott : 061415: STUDY SHEET THREE

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are enjoying the wonderful heat of summer. I missed so much of last summer with the bicycle wreck. I am still drinking in the sunshine.

 🙂

Here is the bulletin for THIS WEEK – June 14, 2015.

• PDF Bulletin FFC June 14 2015

Hi All,

Oops. Forgot to post last week.

Here is our bulletin for Sunday June 7, 2015.

• PDF Bulletin FFC June 7 2015

Hello All,

We will have a guest speaker for morning worship on this coming Sunday  June 7, 2015 as Pastor Dave recovers from his hernia surgery. Larry Rickard will be sharing with us.

Also, we will have NO EVENING SERVICE for June 7, 2015.

Thanks,
Dave

Hello to You,

Here are the message audio files for May 17, 24 and 31.

As usual I have the MP3 file for this week’s message, but I am considering also including the .WMA (Windows) format. If you have a Windows machine and do not have iTunes or another MP3 compatible audio player, then maybe you have not been able to play the audio I have been posting.

So for this week (and maybe from now on???) I am also including the WMA format. If you have not been able to listen before, and this allows you to listen, please let me know it was worth the extra time and effort. Thanks.

WMA (Windows): LESSON 34 : Governing Authorities- The Servants of God : Romans 13:1-7 : FFC : dave scott : 051715

WMA (Windows): LESSON 34B : Remember This : MEMORIAL DAY : Titus 3:1-11 : FFC : dave scott : 052415

WMA (Windows): LESSON 35 : Our Debt to Society : Romans 13:8-14 : FFC : dave scott : 053115 80 BITS

MP3: LESSON 35 : Our Debt to Society : Romans 13:8-14 : FFC : dave scott : 053115

An Open Letter to Society …

Dear Friends & Fellow Travelers on This Earth,

This is my promissory note, so to speak, to society at large per instructions in the holy writings of God. I owe you my love which means, as I understand the concept in God’s terms, that I owe you my life. This never-ending “debt” is owed to any and all whose lives intertwine and intersect with mine. Jesus calls you my neighbors. So even though we live in a hurried, hurtful and often harsh world, by the grace of God and the Word of God, I will with the measure of faith that God gives live the love he calls me to.

So to you, and before God, I commit these things.

I will not forget love. (Because if I forget love my voice will become only more noise in an already noisy world, my knowledge will speak to nothing meaningful and my sacrifice futility.)

I will remember love. I will be patient. I will be kind. I will not allow jealousy to poison my relationship with you. I will not hide my insecurities in bragging and boasting.

I will hate rudeness and embrace gentleness and respect for all. I will not be self-seeking. I will not be a petulant, demanding child. I will not be angry even when you are.

I will never keep a list of the mean things that you do. I will never take pleasure in wrongdoing. I will always rejoice when truth wins the day.

I will never give up. I will never stop believing. I will never stop hoping. I will endure.

I will remember love, and I will not fail because I have the promise of God.

Signed _____________________________________________________

Message Title: Owe Nothing but Love

Message Text: Romans 13:8-14

• PDF LESSON 35 : Owe Nothing but Love : Romans 13:8-14 : FFC : dave scott : 053115: STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF LESSON 35 : Owe Nothing but Love : Romans 13:8-14 : FFC : dave scott : 053115: STUDY SHEET TWO

Some years ago the following paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 appeared:

• If I [know] the language perfectly and speak like a native, and have not [God’s] love for them, I am nothing. If I have diplomas and degrees and know all the up-to-date methods, and have not His touch of understanding love, I am nothing. If I am able to argue successfully against the religions of the people and make fools of them, and have not His wooing note, I am nothing. If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent plans, and not His love that sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads, I am nothing. If I give my clothes and money to them, and have not His love for them, I am nothing.    If I surrender all prospects, leave home and friends, make the sacrifices of a missionary career, and turn sour and selfish amid the daily annoyances and slights of a missionary life, and have not the love that yields its rights, its leisures, its pet plans, I am nothing. Virtue has ceased to go out of me. If I can heal all manner of sickness and disease, but wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of His love that is kind, I am nothing. If I can write articles or publish books that win applause, but fail to transcribe the Word of the Cross into the language of His love, I am nothing. (Source unknown)

[MacArthur, John (1994-05-09). Romans 1-16 MacArthur New Testament Commentary Two Volume Set (Macarthur New Testament Commentary Serie) (Kindle Locations 17537-17547). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.]

Hello All,

Here is the message MP3 for Sunday May 24, 2015.

Message Title: Remember This!

Message Text: Titus 3:1-11

• MP3: LESSON 34B : Remember This : MEMORIAL DAY : Titus 3:1-11 : FFC : dave scott : 052415

Dear Friends,

Ding, ding, ding … Now we are in the bonus round. I have included more study sheets to supplement this week’s study.

Does God not have a plan?

Or is it possible that he has a plan, and we are missing it? We sound the alarm. “This legislation is passing; that liberal was elected … We need a plan. We need to do something.”

So I ask again, does God not have a plan?

• (Titus 3:1 ESV) Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

Have world events and national trends taken him by surprise? Slipped by him? Fallen through the cracks of his sovereign, providential rule? Did God not take into account the political climate in the United States as he wrote these words 2,000 years ago?

So are we saying that we need to “come up with a plan” because there is not a plan in God’s Bible? And what does that tell us?

Isn’t it funny–as in not really funny but sad and ironic–that we (evangelical, fundamental Christians) spend so much time, energy and resources denouncing and disparaging our government, calling for a plan, calling for reform, and God nowhere in his Bible tells us to do such a thing.

No it isn’t funny.

No place in Scripture does God call us to spend our lives seeking government reform. For something that is clearly NOT taught in Scripture, why is it so high on our priority list?

Because we put it there. So we must know better than God?

What God does tell us in his Bible is to submit to governing authorities, obey them, honor them and respect them.

• THREE TO ZERO …
  —Three times in the New Testament God commands us to submit to governing authorities.
  —ZERO times he calls us to government reform.

In fact find anywhere in the entire Bible that supports this agenda.

Here are the first two verses of our text this week.

• (Titus 3:1–2 ESV) Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, ² to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

God calls us to a lifestyle that honors both our citizenship in heaven and our citizenship on earth.

• to be submissive to rulers and authorities,
• to be obedient,
• to be ready for every good work,  
• to speak evil of no one,
• to avoid quarreling,
• to be gentle,
• and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Is our cause so “righteous” that we are justified in pushing these truths aside?

God’s plan for reform begins in our hearts and it works its way out through the words we say and the attitudes and actions we embrace.

We do not need to come up with a plan of action, we need to obey God!

• PDF LESSON 34B : Remember This : MEMORIAL DAY : Titus 3:1-11 : FFC : dave scott : 052415: STUDY SHEET THREE
• PDF LESSON 34B : Remember This : MEMORIAL DAY : Titus 3:1-11 : FFC : dave scott : 052415: STUDY SHEET FOUR

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw, The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, In Flanders fields.

[By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918); Canadian Army]