“As a third-century man was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: ‘It's a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians—and I am one of them.’”

Filled with JOY - Joy is an inner gladness; a deep-seated pleasure. It is a depth of assurance and confidence that ignites a cheerful heart. It is a cheerful heart that leads to cheerful behavior. Joy is not an experience that comes from favorable circumstances, but is God’s gift to believers.

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”  Martin Luther King Jr.

Filled with JOY

AT PEACE - The Hebrew word Shalom refers most commonly to a person being uninjured and safe, whole and sound. In the New Testament, Shalom is revealed as the reconciliation of all things to God through the work of Christ.

“A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, ‘Eighteen to nothing—we're behind.’ ‘Boy,’ said the spectator, ‘I'll bet you're discouraged.’ ‘Why should I be discouraged?’ replied the little boy. ‘We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!’”

Filled with JOY

AT PEACE

Abounding, filled, flush, replete, teeming with HOPE - The word “hope” in Hebrew, with a similar meaning in Greek, actually means “to expect” or have some sort of “expectation.”

Romans 14:13-23

Christian Freedom

“Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.”    Dandemis

Looking the RIGHT Direction – Rising ABOVE our Differences

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted.”   C.S. Lewis

Looking the RIGHT Direction

Seeing the Beauty

“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do!”    David Wilkerson

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

2020 Love, Love, Love

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”

2020 Love, Love, Love

DO STUFF

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.”

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”   Shakespeare

2020 Love, Love, Love

DO STUFF

“Think of the Scriptures as an absolutely accurate map. A map tells you how to get to a certain destination. But just looking at a map won't automatically transport you to Arizona or England or Peru. Getting to those places means you have to make the effort... pay the cost... take the time for travel... stay at it until you arrive. In a word, persevere. So it is in the Christian life. God's map is reliable and available. It is also clear and direct. But there is no hocus-pocus in its pages that automatically sends its reader by way of a magic carpet.”  Charles Swindoll

A True Foundation for 2020 and Beyond

            The Law                      The Gospels

            The Writings                Acts

            The Prophets              The Epistles

                                                   Revelation

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  John Adams

A True Foundation for 2020 and Beyond

We the CHRISTIANS in the United States of America… Living According to a Higher Standard

“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” 

“One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary.”   Francis A. Schaeffer

A True Foundation for 2020 and Beyond

We the CHRISTIANS in the United States of America… Living According to a Higher Standard

Starting the Conversation Where WE and THEY Live, Work, and Play

“God's mercy... goes before the unwilling to make them willing; it follows the willing to make His will effectual.”   Augustine of Hippo

Standing on a Foundation of Mercy

Genuine in love                                   Rejoice in hope

Abhor evil; hold fast to good            Patient in affliction

Love one another as family              Constant in prayer

Outdo each other in honor               Give to others

Do not be slothful in zeal                  Show hospitality

Fervent in spirit                                   Bless others

Serve the Lord                                    Rightly assess yourself

Overcome evil with good                 Feed your enemy

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”   Francis Chan

"If God is your partner, make your plans BIG!”   D.L. Moody

Standing on a Foundation of Mercy

Opportunities Everywhere

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less.”   C.S. Lewis

“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble…”

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”

“John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’”

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

“The greatest single scandal in evangelical assemblies, and I can really only speak for that, is the low regard individual Christians have for the Church.”   Chuck Colson

“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble…”

Ɪ2

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”   Mark Twain

“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble…”

Ɪ2

Ready?  Set?  GO!

“The legalist says something like ‘Do these things and you will live,’ but Paul is saying ‘Live and you will do these things.’”   Leon Morris

Decisions, Decisions

“If you want to be great and successful, choose people who are great and successful and walk side by side with them.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Decisions, Decisions

Discipleship is NOT a Solo Affair

“I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained-glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, ‘If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me.’ And I looked around and nobody was laughing.”   Soren Kierkagaard

Decisions, Decisions

Discipleship is NOT a Solo Affair

God is ABLE

“The God Who can change a sinner into a Christian by giving him His life can equally transform the fleshly Christian into a spiritual one by giving him His life more abundantly.”   Watchman Nee

Decisions, Decisions

Discipleship is NOT a Solo Affair

God is ABLE

“Wolf's Law: Those who don't study the past will repeat its errors. Those who do study it will find other ways to err.”

Avoiding Being Intermittent (Occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady)

“Doing the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”   George MacDonald

Avoiding Being Intermittent

The Plan is in Place

“I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He has written it down in a book! Oh, give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be: ‘A man of one book.’”   John Wesley

Avoiding Being Intermittent

The Plan is in Place

ONE-BOOK PERSON

“We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.”   David Brainerd

“It is better to limp in the right way than to run with all our might out of the way.”   Augustine

Salvation IS the Issue

“Urgency makes the difference between practitioners, proclaimers and procrastinators.”   Richie Norton

Salvation IS the Issue

Everybody… ALL the Time

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

“God has given believers the responsibility of spreading the Gospel to all the world, and we need to use all at our disposal to accomplish this task.”   

Theodore Epp

Salvation IS the Issue

Everybody… ALL the Time