From our Sunday morning Bible readings.

We conclude our look at Esther.

Why does our church hold to elder-rule- It sounds menacing and opens the door to oligarchies and a possible occasional Diotrephes. Yet, we want to run our church God's way, and Scripture provides us the necessary protections here. So, in conclusion on our study on the qualifications of pastors, then, we're going to consider what Scripture has to say about church government.

We finally get to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, but surprisingly, we see praise in heaven as a response- All the powers are now shifting, preparing for the return of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom. As such, this trumpet blast first sets off a praise chorus in heaven which celebrates the impending victory of the Lord.

Luke 2-1-20 -Jesus's Birth--From our Sunday morning Bible readings.--For more sermons, visit our website at- http---gracesavannah.org-Listen live at- - http---gracesavannah.org-live-Give at- https---gracesavannah.org-give

We begin surveying the Book of Ruth.

The two witnesses are empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach to a lost world. Their message would supposedly include the gospel message, but their sackcloth and supernatural abilities bespeak a difficult message. They will be calling people to repentance before the dreadful day of the Lord. Yet, such a call angers those who love their sin, causing them to rally around the beast. Such hatred is really of the Lord, but we will see the Lord glorify Himself in this situation.

How should a pastor -and the congregation, by extension- live- In the past several weeks, we've learned that it comes back to striving to be someone living above reproach, to the glory of God. In these verses, we'll see that modeled in that a pastor manages his household well -vv. 4-5-, isn't newly converted -vv. 6-, and has a good reputation -v. 7-. We'll consider what that means in his life as well as how that might apply to all of our lives. Let's look at the first of these.

From our Sunday morning Bible readings.

Christians affirm the value and worth of black lives and want to see justice in this world. Yet, we must not adopt the philosophies or premises of the organization called Black Lives Matter. In this midweek study, we explore the erroneous and briefly consider how Christians should respond to the those involved.