The Fairview Alliance Church Messages - Fairview Alliance Church

Who is the Church? What are church people supposed to do and what’s the biblical expectation for them to be like? Well, we have an opportunity to answer these questions looking at the early church found in the old city of Thessalonica. This church was located in a strategical location and lived in a predominantly gentile culture. Those believers were experiencing cultural pressures in the midst of the society they lived in. In many ways, what they were experiencing is not so different from the world we are currently living in! Because of  this we can glean from them, learning how to be a relevant church in the midst of unfavourable culture.

When you hear ‘defend the gospel’ what kind of thoughts and actions come to mind? Who are you defending it from? To what lengths must you go? The Apostle Paul was a stalwart defender of the gospel and has written many letters about that topic. Here we take a look at the situation that Paul was addressing in first century Galatia, how he address the readers of this letter then and let us consider what it means for us today to defend the gospel.

“Mother’s Day” is not only for those mothers who have their own children and are being recognized for their selfless acts, but also for all of those women who are out there honoring the Lord by being a mother to someone who needs to be nurtured with faith, love and care. Rufus’ mother, is mentioned with deep appreciation by the apostle Paul, who surely contributed towards making him become the great apostle known today.

The spiritual battle is a heart battle. Be aware, there are evil powers trying to attack our hearts. A heart cannot remain neutral. You either come to Christ and be protected, or you will scatter and go away from Him. There is no neutrality. Jesus wants us to understand something very important: if you are not with Him completely, then you are against Him. Therefore, knowing that nobody is master and lord of himself, the question we should ask ourselves is: who is controlling my life? Is it God or is it Satan?

God expects those who follow Jesus to look more and more like him from the inside out. When a person is given new life in Jesus, that person has taken the first step toward a lifetime of change, which at times can seem pretty painful. It can seem as though God uses a chisel and hammer to chip away at and shape our lives so we can become the people God longs for—true followers of Jesus. This chipping away and shaping is known as the process of sanctification. Jesus perfects us as we lay aside our sins and turn our focus upon him!

There is no stronger sign of God’s unwavering commitment to love and restore our lives than Christ risen from the dead. For the evangelist Matthew, Jesus’ resurrection is the pivotal point of history. It is the testimony that God is still involved more deeply in the world than we could have ever imagined.

Why would Jesus, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, ride humbly into Jerusalem on a donkey and then take a whip and chase the vendors from the Temple Courtyard? What kind of king is this?

We often consider our kids and think, it isn't hard to see where they get their looks, attitudes, and characteristics from. Yet do we consider that when they look to us they are forming their understanding of God their heavenly Father? Consider the well-known story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac at the request of God. What does this story tell us about how we might live as examples for the next generation? What might it tell us about what roles our parents had in forming our understanding of our heavenly Father?

As Christian parents, we need to understand that an important part of our calling and responsibility in parenting is to purposefully direct our children towards Christ. We do this by applying biblical principles, as we model godliness in our everyday living.

Parenting in our present culture is one of the most difficult tasks. Sadly, it seems that parenting is lived out with an unbalanced view. Nevertheless, it is God’s desire for parents to concentrate their effort on building character and a godliness into their children.