Joel 2: 1-2 & 28-29

Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem Raise the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us.

It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.

Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears.

Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again.

 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams,

    and your young men will see visions.

 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.

 And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth—

Romans 8:1-4 & 35-39

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 1:1-3 & 13-16 

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.  But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

Philippians 4:8 (New Living Translation)

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NLT)

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

The fivefold ministry gifts is given by Jesus to the Church for the purpose of equipping the Body of Christ for the work of ministry. The fivefold ministry is gifted people given to the church to aid and assist in its spiritual growth.

The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not a vague, ethereal shadow, nor an impersonal force. He is a person equal in every way with the Father and the Son. All the divine attributes ascribed to the Father and the Son are equally ascribed to the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual gifts are tools given by God for doing the work of the ministry. Different people are given different gifts to handle different tasks. Spiritual gifts are God’s provision for the Holy Spirit to minister to people, through people. Without spiritual gifts people can minister one to another only in the flesh.

Think of the greatest Christian you know. Now consider this: God has called you to do what this person cannot do. Your God has given you a special endowment that suits you perfectly for your special position on the Team. The Christian who knows he has the gift of Serving will not belittle himself because he is not a pastor. He can accept himself knowing his Lord has given him a special endowment that suits him perfectly for this special position on the Team. The Christian who knows that her gift is Administration, and is functioning effectively in her capacity, will not think herself unworthy or unnecessary because she is not a Teacher.

Divisions in the Church

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.  For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”

Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!

- 1 Corinthians 1:10-13(NLT)

The Corinthian believers were arguing over which of the leading evangelists (Paul, Apollos, Peter) was best. Paul rebukes them for their quarreling and worldly comparisons. As a minister of Christ and the Good News, he and the others are all channels through whom God works

Order at the Lord’s Supper

But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it.19 But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!

When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper.  For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk.  What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!

- 1 Corinthians 11:17-22

You make the church a place to be despised and shame the poor by your conduct. Instead of putting the food on a common table so all could partake as needed, the rich ate by themselves and the poor ate by themselves. The rich despised the poor and this led to the divisions and strife, drunkenness and shame which causes disqualification from the Lord’s Supper and death.

7 Disorders in the church

• Division (vs 18)

• Heresies (vs 19)

• Selfishness (vs 21)

• Misuse of the church (vs 22)

• Shaming the poor (vs 22)

• Partaking unworthily of the Lord’s Supper with its benefits (vs 27-30)

• Failure to judge selves (vs 31-34)

The Body of Christ is a common, yet complex term used in the Christian faith. Some may initially think we are talking about the physical boy of Christ, as in His human form while on Earth. But the term “Body of Christ actually refers to the members of His church, throughout history. Who or what is the body of Christ? The Body of Christ is the Church, made up of all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Each Christian, then, is a part of the Body of Christ

Isaiah 40:28-31

Weary 

Yaga (Hebrew); yaw-gah; to gasp, hence to be exhausted, to tire, to toil-faint

- physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired; having the strength much exhausted by toil or violent exertion (Webster's American Dictionary) 

God said, "Let us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness........." (Gen. 1:26a) 

The image of God is a foundational concept for understanding our significance and purpose. Understanding that we are created in God’s image and likeness helps us to see the basis for the dignity and purpose of our life and work

Our worth is connected to our Creator. If God is of great and inestimable worth, then human beings made in his image must be of great value, too.

We were created to display God’s character and His characteristics. Also, through us God would display His attributes.

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

When man sin, we took on the image of sin and no longer displayed the Godly characteristics that God originally intended for us. We now display sin-like characteristics. Gal. 5:13-25

At the heart of what it means to be a Christian is to receive a new identity. In Jesus, we do not lose our true selves, but we become our true selves, only in Him.