Christ the King Presbyterian Church - Vero Beach, FL

To "keep ourselves in the love of God," we must look to ourselves (using God's ordinary means of grace and having an attitude of hope), look to others (showing mercy to some and snatching some), and look to God (relying on Him as the only one who is able to keep us).

An overview of the book of Ruth. Naomi experiences complete emptiness (ch 1), God's smiling providence and promise (ch's 2 and 3), and finally complete fullness (ch 4).

Paul rebukes a spirituality of "easy rigor" and speaks of a more holistic call to discernment, thankfulness, and training for godliness. The beauty of God motivates us and the Spirit of God enables us to immerse ourselves in the Word and faithfully live out this call.

Recognizing our New Life, New Future, and New Mind, we can live our lives with God as our primary audience, and be free from the entanglements and patterns of the world and of our own past.

The last six commandments teach us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our love for neighbor is a manifestation of our love for God.

Jesus uses the metaphor of a vine to describe our relationship with Him. We are to abide in Him and depend on Him in order to receive our sustenance and experience fullness of joy, as He does with His Father. To abide in Him is to abide in His Word.

God provided an abundance of sacrifices to cover an abundance of sins committed by an abundance of people, who will experience an abundance of forgiveness. In the OT, they brought a sacrifice; in Christ, we bring nothing. We simply cling to Him as our sacrifice.

Keeping God's law is perfectly obeying all of God's instructions. Since God knows we don't do that, He gave us His Son who lived a perfect life on our behalf and took the punishment for our sins on the cross. God's "law principle" and "grace principle" work together in our justification and sanctification.

The God who saved us and called us, also guards us and empowers us. Paul sees God's grace working in his life in both dramatic ways and mundane ways, but both are equally amazing.

Mary experienced the deepest disappointment at Jesus' death, and the ultimate joy at his resurrection, where He spoke her name and she knew His voice.