Sunday’s main service is NOT held on Sunday due to rigorously held dogma so much, but it IS in respect to the holiness of the Sabbath day as declared by God BEFORE mankind fell. Quite literally the Sabboth was declared holy FROM THE BEGINNING. We know that Sabboth was most likely our modern day “Saturday”, but our Lord was risen on what we call Sunday, so it seems appropriate.
In addition to this, we worship on “Sunday” out of convenience because we believe Jesus’ words which teach us, “Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man.” As such, Sunday is the day MOST OFTEN recognized as the day to worship within Christian circles so that is when we have our main service of the week.
We use this day as the day we press forward as a community of believers into Biblical teachings which our leaders believe God is immediately guiding us into for our maturity and Spiritual growth. We do not have Sunday night services in part due to the fact that we do not want time constraints to dictate our worship.
As a community of grace we are interested in ministering to others, outside our immediate assembly and encourage others to participate in our lessons and grow with us.
Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
Today we looked further into the role the Holy Spirit plays in revealing Jesus to us for the purpose of our maturity and transformation into His image.
One key determination we have to make is – we have to STOP “wanting” to “honor and please God” and start from a position of chosing to DO IT! And this requires co-participation with your Helper – the Holy Spirit!
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
What can we do, on purpose, and what tools have been given us by God to facilitate Jesus being formed in us?
The One Who has been given to us to help us remain in and continue in partnership with our Vine Jesus is the person of the Holy Spirit.
Goring through 1Corinthians 1-3 will helps us better understand this relationship we have with our Helper, the Holy Spirit of God.
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
In Jesus’ parting words to His disciples just before calvary, He spoke to them about being branches which grow out of Him. They were to draw their life from Him and because of their union with Him – would bear life changing, character altering fruit.
Last week we took a verbal stroll through Jesus’ words to the disciples just before leaving the upper room regarding:
• His going to the Father
• That to know Him was to know the Father
• That soon the only way anyone would see Him was by the help of the Holy Spirit
• And that John tells us in 1 Jn. 2 that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are steered into the truth and learn how to abide in Christ.
So this week we will finish up the second half of chapters 14 & 15 and begin chapter 16 then scoot over to 1 Corinthians to see this show up in Paul’s letter to this church.
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational knowledge
Out of all the things that Jesus could have taught, just before going to the cross, just before being separated from His disciples, THIS is the one thing He was led to tell them about.
It was and is a very important lesson. You can get nowhere with God if you are unwilling to embrace the intimacy of vulnerability and dependance. The proud of heart can have no admittance and can bear no fruit!
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational knowledge
We ventured away from John 15 today as we studied correlating scriptures which help up develop a more broadstroked vista of our position as branches in our Vine.
Our spirits have been made alive in and to God, our souls are being converted to think, see, feel and desire as God does, but we live in a physical body which still has both sin and death in it. So while we have very real desires to honor and obey our God and Father, we also have very real enticements from our flesh to do otherwise.
This inward conflict is not simply one of external morality, but one of intrinsic inner character at war with an external hard wiring. As such, like Paul lamented, “I find myself doing the very things I hate!”
Today we learned a little more about this, so as to better understand how to live out our “branchness” and bear fruit pleasing to God.
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