FOCUS on CHRIST

“The more you focus on yourself, the more distracted you will be from the proper path. The more you know Him and commune with Him, the more the Spirit will make you like Him. The more you are like Him, the better you will understand His utter sufficiency for all of life’s difficulties. And that is the only way to know real satisfaction.”   John MacArthur 

WAIT

Isaiah 40:29-31  “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

“Our feelings so often deceive us, especially as we live under the weight of a global health crisis and rapidly changing circumstances. We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.”    R.C. Sproul

NOT A ONE-TIME THING

“One day, One week, One month, One year?  Does it really matter?  Living for Christ is not a ONE-TIME THING… It’s a way of life FOREVER.”

Psalm 118:24  “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

SIMPLE WORKS

“Depth and strength underlie the simplicity of this Psalm. Its peace is not escape; its contentment is not complacency: there is readiness to face deep darkness and imminent attack, and the climax reveals a love which homes towards no material goal but to the Lord himself.”   Derek Kidner

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”   Einstein

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ 41 But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’”

Depending on Him IS the Right Thing

“Lord Jesus, thou who art the way, the truth, and the life; hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make all free. Teach us that liberty is not only to be loved, but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Help us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please to do what is right.”   Peter Marshall, Before the U.S. Senate

Depending on Him IS the Right Thing

Free to Love Everyone, Including You

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

“The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost when thinking about it.”   Blaise Pascal, Pensees

Impossible to Possible ALL because of Him

“When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything; that is HESED love. Though we have no right to expect anything from Jesus, He will nonetheless give us everything precisely because, like His Father, He is full of grace and truth.”   Michael Card, A Violent Grace

Impossible to Possible ALL because of Him

Jesus LOVES Me, this I Know

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”   Jim Elliot

Impossible to Possible ALL because of Him

Jesus LOVES Me, this I Know

Gaining through Letting Go

“When we experience God’s love for us, we can respond with a growing love for Him. Loving God will transform us into people who can love our neighbors, too, whoever they are.”  C. John Miller

Him NOT Us

“You cannot have it both ways. You are either in Christ by faith or in the world by unbelief.”   C. John Miller

Him NOT Us

ALL IN or Out

He saves us from God’s wrath and hell.  (Rom 5:8; 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Jn 3:8b)

He made peace between us and God through His blood shed on the Cross.   (John 14:27; Rom 5:1; Eph 2:14)

We have fellowship with God and with one another.   (1Cor 1:9; 2 Cor 13:14; 1 Jn 1:3,7)

Because He rose from the grave—He has caused us to be born again to a living hope—to an inheritance that is.   (Rom 5:2; 8:20,21; Eph 1:11,12; 1 Peter 1:3-12)

21st century people, just like 1st century people, just like all people who ever lived or ever will live, need the Lamb of God whose blood will secure their forgiveness and acceptance by the Almighty God. 

Are you covered by the blood of the Lamb of God?

At the Passover Seder Christ raised the cup of redemption and told his closest disciples that the new covenant was being inaugurated in His blood.

The Lord’s Supper continues to proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns. (1 Cor 11:25b-26)

Do you have a place at the table?

Revelation 1:5b-6 - To him who loves us and released us from sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

“The first ontological argument in the Western Christian tradition was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in his 1078 work Proslogion. Anselm defined God as ‘a being that which no greater can be conceived,’ and argued that this being must exist in the mind, even in the mind of the person who denies the existence of God.”

The GREATNESS of GOD

“No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved.”   John Knox

The GREATNESS of GOD

Being loved by God is THE starting point!  Loving God is the fruit!

“As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”   Albert Einstein

The GREATNESS of GOD

Being loved by God is THE starting point!  Loving God is the fruit!

LIFE in HIM!

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”   Benjamin Franklin

Final Instructions

“Each generation of the Church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought forms of that setting.”   Francis Schaeffer

Final Instructions

Engaging the Village

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and we miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it.” Michelangelo

Final Instructions

Engaging the Village

Reflecting the Son

1 Corinthians 11:1 - “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Ephesians 5:1 - “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

1 Peter 2:21 - “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

1 John 2:6 - “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

Philippians 3:17 - “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and we miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it.”   Michelangelo

Final Instructions

Engaging the Village

Reflecting the Son

“A British publication once offered a prize for the best definition of a friend. Among the thousands of answers received were the following:

‘One who multiplies joys, divides grief, and whose honesty is inviolable.’

‘One who understands our silence.’

‘A volume of sympathy bound in cloth.’

‘A watch that beats true for all time and never runs down.’

The winning definition read - ‘A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.’”

Friends and Family

“A friend is one who warns you.”   Old Jewish proverb

Friends and Family

Speaking Up

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You, too? I thought I was the only one.’”   C.S. Lewis

Friends and Family

Speaking Up

NOT ALONE

“There are two ways of being united—one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power.”   D.L. Moody

Partners in the Gospel 

“I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.”   John Wesley

“We move forward and find our way, in peace, together.”

Partners in the Gospel 

On Mission Together

“...Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers.”   James Sidlow Baxter

“There is nothing that makes us love a person so much as prayer for them.”   William Law

Partners in the Gospel 

On Mission Together

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!