UCG Raleigh

Prophecies of The King of PeaceToday we are going to survey the prophecies made about Jesus as the Messiah who would come to bring peace and reconciliation. BUT… would be rejected by humanity.The Messiah Would Be Rejected[ca 740-700 B.C.] Isaiah 52:13 - 53:3 Jews who knew the scriptures were eagerly expecting a powerful Messiah figure to restore Israel to its former position of honor, Godly purpose, and dominant status on the world stage.  They understood “the servant of the Lord” to be the Messiah come with great ruling power. For example; Isaiah 42:1-4. Embedded in these prophecies of the Messiah were a subtext of suffering and death which confused the Jews. These prophecies of the suffering and rejected servant only made sense after Jesus first coming. Jesus had prepared the disciples for this. He told them the rejection would come and the contempt  would come Luke 17:25, Matthew 16:21, Mark 10:34. Yet like so many other prophecies they only really got it after it came to pass. The holy spirit would later help them to recall and understand all these events and fulfilments... but their understanding began with clear, literal statements from Jesus which they would be able remember... and record for future generations.https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-king-of-peace-comes-humbly-and.html Keep Reading »

The Care & Feeding of Your ConscienceTo have a conscience means "to know better"... a child caught stealing candy might be scolded by a phrase like "you should know better than that". Which begs the question: just what were they taught? Were they taught at all? Were they expected to figure it out on their own?The English word conscience comes from the Latin conscientia which is two words joined  together con and scio... meaning "to know together", or "joint knowledge with others".  In the new testament conscience is used to translate the Greek word syn [together] and eidenai [to know]... to have common knowledge together with someone. https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-care-and-feeding-of-clean-conscience.htmlKeep Reading »

Christ & the Church: Together We Are a TempleThe bible often compares spiritual realities to features of our day to day existence to draw out some feature of that spiritual reality... Jesus compared the work of the holy spirit to the wind "you can't see the wind but you can see the results of the wind". Sometimes a variety of different comparisons are made about the same thing. Each drawing attention to a different aspect of the spiritual reality. The relationship of Christ and the church is just such a subject. It is compared to a marriage, it is compared to human anatomy, it is compared to a shepherd with his flock, it is compared to a city with citizens, and it is compared to a temple.Today we will look at the relationship of Christ & the Church through the analogy of the temple where they come together.https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-church-is-temple-of-god-and-christ.htmlKeep Reading »

God's instructions for the feast of Tabernacles appear in three places:Leviticus 23 gives the responsibility of proclaiming the time of the biblical festivals to the priests. Numbers 29 itemizes specific sacrifices and offerings for each biblical festival. Deuteronomy 16  instructs where the biblical festivals are to be conductedThe Place Which The Lord Your God Shall ChooseDeuteronomy 16:13-15 for many this means Jerusalem. But, Jerusalem only became the place to keep the festival many centuries after these instructions were given. Jerusalem became the place around 960 BC. in the days of Solomon… But was rejected and destroyed in 70 AD.Prophecies of the millennial rule of Christ tell us Jerusalem will be restored as the geographic center of God's government... but that is not NOW. Jerusalem is NOT the place for God’s people to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in this age. Today we’ll review the places God has placed His name and how He designates any given place. We’ll finish with a quick look at how the present day Church of God fulfills this instruction to come before God in the the place He will choose. Keep Reading »

What is Your Reward The subject of reward should be very important to Christians because it is the time when all good fruit of your life are shown to have made a difference. Everyone who enters the kingdom of God at Christ’s return receives the gift of everlasting life… but what you experience and enjoy within the kingdom of God is unique for each individual AND depends on what you do in this life. We don’t often dwell on the subject of reward because it gets all tangled up in the various misunderstandings about “trying to earn your salvation”. Understanding the biblical teaching on reward means understanding the difference between the judgment of your sin (which leads to salvation unto eternal life or eternal death) versus judgment of your works – (which leads to reward). Here is a link to a pdf version of the chart referred to in the message - https://www.ucg.org/system/storage/serve/1361046/judgment_chart.pdf https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/02/your-reward-from-god-what-is-it-and-how.html Keep Reading »

Today we are going to take a close look at blessings in the bible: who blesses who, how we receive blessings, how we give blessings, physical versus spiritual blessings, and finally how the flow of blessing can influence our prayers.Blessings can be understood as the free flow of good things [both spiritual and material] from God to human --> from human to God --> from human to human. Read on our blog 📢 https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/02/what-are-spiritual-blessings-from-god.htmlKeep Reading »

In this message we will review the  responsibilities of Godly parent. I have a listing of 6 things that you owe to your child. Read this message on our blog https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/02/what-parents-owe-to-their-children-flip.html Keep Reading »

We are in the midst of a decades long sexual revolution. Many see this as a liberating process of throwing off the shackles of shame and taboos... inherited from the influence of the bible on western culture.Actually, the bible teaches that human sexuality is a good thing and that it is only the wrong applications and uses of sex which cause shame and feelings of guilt. But that’s a technicality to most.In western culture the dominating perspective is to regard human sexuality as primarily pleasurable activity with a somewhat inconvenient connection to actual reproduction. Its a rather lame human attempt to come to grips with trying to interpret sex as something good… the bible does   a better job but does a lot of restrictions on a person’s sexual activity.Read this message on our blog - https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/01/conception-birth-coming-of-age-in.htmlKeep Reading »

Jesus Sacrifice For SinGod shows His great love for the created world through His great acts of love. This love is demonstrated, seen, and experienced through His great plan to save human beings... who have all brought upon themselves the penalty of eternal death for their sins... through  the life death and resurrection of His only begotten Son... Jesus Christ.Although He [Jesus Christ] was without beginning or end... He was God... and He was with the other who was  also God... He submitted to being born as a human being named Jesus. This Jesus live a perfect human life... without any sin whatsoever... although experiencing temptation on all points. Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of death for all humanity.Read this message on our blog -- > https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/01/how-does-jesus-sacrifice-save-us-from.htmlKeep Reading »

We Begin With RepentanceRepentance is where the message of Christ and His church begins. When John the baptist came to lay the groundwork for Jesus he taught a message of repentance.Repentance is how we begin the process of self examination, self correction, and self awareness. Repentance is the process whereby we change the direction of our life towards life rather than death. Repentance has real psychological and spiritual benefits. Repentance has an ongoing role in the life of every believer!Today we will discuss repentance using this same outline: 1) the message 2) self examination 3) changing to a life giving direction 4) benefits of repentance 5) the enduring role of repentance in your life after baptism.https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2022/01/we-begin-with-repentance.htmlKeep Reading »