WITNESS ~ INSTRUCT ~ NURTURE / Volume 1 Issue 4
Mar 16, 2005
Hi !
In this issue, you'll read:
DEVELOPING DEVOTIONAL REFLEXES
BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART III
GOD COLORED GLASSES
A WORD FROM BISHOP LATHROP
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR - WEEK FOUR This week's edition will continue building on our theme of prayer and Bible study with another Bible lesson entitled "Developing Devotional Reflexes." I encourage each of you to take time to meditate upon the points listed and to really read and study the scriptures referenced. Everyone knows that it takes exercise to sharpen our physical reflexes and respond quickly to a physical challenge. The same is true of our spiritual reflexes, and we need to be all the more ready when the enemy comes against us. Remember, we are told in James 4:8; "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." I pray God's blessings on you this week as you draw closer to Him in your prayer and study time. Rev. Sam T. Leigh ***A word to our readers: If you know someone whom you think would like to receive this newsletter on a regular basis, please pass along a copy of this edition for them to review. If they decide they would benefit from having this newsletter sent directly to their e-mail address, they may simply send an e-mail containing their name and e-mail address to winsubscribe@fcgm.org. Read Matthew 4:1-11 When Jesus was tempted, He responded with a reflex action - He spoke the Scripture. Now note that it wasn't just a matter of Jesus quoting Bible verses at Satan. He responded with the living Word of God. As you spend regular time with the Lord each day, the Holy Spirit will help you develop the same kind of reflex action. When you face temptation or trouble or trial, your response will be the Word of God - both spoken and lived. But there is a basic principle that is important to understand: Devotional reflexes come from devotional discipline. As you develop a regular habit of spending time with the Lord, you will find that your response to life will automatically come out of your devotional storehouse. Read Isaiah 30:15 The time you spend with the Lord in the morning sets the pace for the rest of the day. And the focus of your morning appointment with the Lord should particularly focus on a quietness of soul before the Lord. This is why some Christians call their morning devotions their "quiet time." We live in a world of high stress. Many voices demand your attention. And so it is vital to have a time where you shut out the world's noise and just focus on your relationship with the Lord. As Francis of Sales put it: "Half an hour's listening is essential except when you are very busy. Then a full hour is needed." In your devotions this week, read Psalms 130-131. As you read, talk to the Lord about their content. When you have finished, go back and find one or two verses and meditate prayerfully on them. III. Memory Verse Here are a few suggestions that may help you to memorize your memory verses: 1. Ask the Lord to help you remember his Word (see John 14:26). 2. Use the version of the Bible you are most familiar with. What you normally read in your Bible is what you need to be memorizing. 3. Don't just memorize the contents of the verse; memorize its “address” (the verse reference) as well. You can do this by following this pattern: Step 1: reference; Step 2: verse content; Step 3: reference. Then repeat steps 1-3. Note that you are quoting the reference twice as many times as you quote the actual verse content. This gives the verse a clear “reference tag.” 4. After you have read your memory verse out aloud several times, try going through your memory verse without reading your computer screen. 5. Look up your memory verse in your Bible. Look at its immediate context and read the verses that come before and after your memory verse. 6. Print out your memory verse or jot it down on a piece of paper. Take this paper with you when you go to work or do other daily activities. Meditate on the meaning of the verse throughout the day. 7. During your noon appointment with the Lord, take out your memory verse and go over it again. Talk to the Lord about what this verse means to you personally. 8. In the evening (at either your evening study or your evening devotions), see if you can quote your memory verse from memory. Then, without looking at the memory verse itself, see if you can find it in your Bible. 9. The next day, before you begin committing a new verse to memory, rehearse your previous day’s memory verse and see if you can remember it (without cheating!). 10. Finally, at the end of the week (possibly on Sunday), collect all your week’s memory verses, rehearse them and see if you can recall them without reading them. Spend a little extra time on any verses you have difficulty recalling. 11. Remember: Don't just memorize a verse. Put it into practice (James 1:22). It is not being able to quote a verse from memory that counts. It is His Word abiding in your heart that counts (John 15:7). When you actually apply a verse consistently to your daily life, that is when you truly know that verse! Acts 2:42-47; As you know, we are continuing to study this passage of Scripture to help us establish, for comparison sake, a pattern of conduct within the early church. Our goal is still to determine how far removed the 21st century church has become from this pattern in order to better understand its condition. And as always, for the purposes of our examination, we will work on the premise that "with all things being equal, we can expect the same end result." With that being said, this week we are looking at the second part of our passage, "in the breaking of bread..." When looking up this phrase in Barnes, we read; " 'Breaking of bread. The Syriac renders this "the Eucharist," or the Lord's Supper. It cannot, however, be determined whether this refers to their partaking of their ordinary food together, or to feasts of charity, or to the Lord's Supper. The bread of the Hebrews was made commonly into cakes, thin, hard, and brittle, so that it was broken instead of being cut. Hence, to denote intimacy or friendship, the phrase to break bread together would be very expressive...' 'From the expression used in Acts 2:44, compared with Acts 2:46, that they had all things common, it would rather seem to be implied that this referred to the participation of their ordinary meals. The action of breaking bread was commonly performed by the master or head of a family, immediately after asking a blessing.--(Lightfoot.)" There is some debate as to whether this "breaking of bread" refers to the Lord's supper, or just to eating and sharing meals together. For the purposes of this article, we are holding to the position that this phrase refers to the participation in the Lord's supper, as opposed to the "breaking bread from house to house" that we will see later in the passage. Be that as it may, the primary focus of this point that we would like to examine is the fact that this phrase, whichever reference is accepted, definitely refers to "intimacy or friendship." And the earlier phrase "...and they continued stedfastly..." tells us that they were committed to faithfully carry out this part of worship within the early church on a regular basis. It is commonly accepted that the early church participated in the Lord's supper (at the very least) weekly when the church came together for its worship service. A word of caution is wise here... As you may know, later in Scripture, Paul had to bring correction to some parts of the church because this very ordinance had become corrupted to the point of making it of no effect, except to bring sickness and death to those who had perverted it. Why? Because they had taken it for granted to the point of becoming gluttons and used it as an occasion to eat their meals instead of carrying out the directive for which it was given. The very directive given to us by Jesus in Luke 22:19; "...This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." The purpose of the directive (or commandment) was to give us the avenue whereby we could remember His death. "But I don't want to remember His death," you say! "I want to commemorate His life!" Let me just remind you that while we often expend great effort in celebrating His life, if not for His death, we would have no hope. Remember, the key to this part of the Scripture is to promote intimacy within the Body of Christ. We can sit in church service every week and never participate to the point of becoming intimate with anyone around us. We can attend service after service without even knowing the names of those who are sharing the very pews with us. I say, "enough is enough!" It is time for the Body of Christ to put away their watches and stop feeding on the circumstances of this world. When coming together to worship Jesus, come expecting to spend time with Him in closeness and intimacy. This will mean getting to know those around us. This will mean getting out of our comfort zone. This will mean breaking up those "Christian clicks." Scary? You bet! But rewarding, nevertheless! It is time to get back to regular "breaking of bread" as remembrance of what He has done for us. It is time to confront the enemy with the truth of what that death has accomplished for us. His death has given us life! DID YOU HEAR ME? His death has given us life! It's time we start acting like it. In the words of James 4:7-8; " Remember, the purpose of our study is to get to the same result as shown in our passage of Scripture regarding the early church. "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." After all, is this not the most important goal in this life? Until next time, we are trying to get "Back to the Kingdom." Bishop Sam T. Leigh Right, however we should never be operating in these "normal things" through the old human nature and understanding. We should remain in the renewed mind of Christ through all that we do and try to see things with God's eyes. We must be coming closer than ever to the completeness of God with the person of the Holy Spirit within us. We know that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us when He went to sit at the right hand of the Father. He left us with someone who would reveal the truth of the Father in all things. He guides us into all truth. He comforts us and gives us a source to rely on for "all" the answers we need for anything we encounter in this world. Remember the word "all." God's Grace has given us the incredible opportunity to live, with Him, and in Him, instead of in our 'dead in sin' human nature. I would encourage each of us to remember who we are. We are strangers in this world as new creations in Christ with the ability to operate beyond our humanness in a place of freedom and purity that will affect every aspect of our lives here if we allow it. God will be relying on us all to fulfill His plans in this world in these times ahead, and we must be ready to hear Him direct us, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Listen! Can you hear Him? Be ready to take responsibility for your share of the Kingdom. Remember, we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us, but this begins by looking at our circumstances through "God Colored Glasses." Rev. Kris Hildreth Our Friday prayer is the most exciting time with about 15 people attending, on the average. One person had a severely twisted ankle healed. People who were not at peace have found comfort in Christ, which is the only place to find comfort. We have had deliverances take place as well as healings and new commitments made to and for Christ. All of these have been through the call and workings of the Holy Ghost as evidence of the presence of our living God. We of The Upper-Room Fellowship are currently seeking a permanent place for our church, as well as The Washington Bible Institute. Please pray for God to soon direct us to our new home. Jesus said, ”… learn of Me.“ Please pray about supporting The Washington Bible Institute by taking a course of two. Don't be shy. You can earn a Certificate, an Associate Degree, or a Bachelor Degree. Check out our programs of study online at God is always doing something at The Upper-Room Fellowship! Rev. David Lathrop, B. Ch.M. Founding Pastor Founding President Unless otherwise noted: All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
It is by the very Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we greet you with this edition of the W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter. We have been working feverishly for the past two days to recover from a computer crash. Although we have a lot more work to complete, I am happy to report that we were able to save approximately 99.5% of the data on the system. Praise the Lord!
Presiding Bishop
Freedom Covenant Global Ministries
E-mail:
Website: www.fcgm.org
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DEVELOPING DEVOTIONAL REFLEXES
I. Developing a Devotional Lifestyle
II. Putting it into Practice
Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' ''
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BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART III
Last week, we examined the first point in our passage of Scripture that says"...And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship..." Before we look at the next point, let's take time to read the complete text taken from the Book of Acts again.
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GOD COLORED GLASSES
Most of us have been raised in "church-ianity" to consider God's things as being restricted to God's times, i.e., church, special meetings, retreats, 24 hr prayer focus, etc. We tend to push God away from the everyday things we do in life because they are just regular daily things that need to be done in order to keep operating in this world. After all, God would not really be "intensely" involved in ordinary life; would He? He gave us common sense and a brain to take care of the mainstream carnal life without His help, right?
Co-Pastor
Freedom Covenant Church Northwest
Kettle Falls Washington USA
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A WORD FROM BISHOP LATHROP
The Upper-Room Fellowship continues with slow to moderate growth. As a few have left, so a few more have come. We have reached the maximum capacity for our building without adding a doorway to the next room. On Sunday, we have about thirty people coming. On Mondays we have about 10 people coming to learn the foundations of faith and Wednesday our discipleship class has about the same, perhaps 2 or 3 more.
Bishop - Western Region
Freedom Covenant Global Ministries Colville Washington USA
The Upper-Room Fellowship Everett Washington USA
The Washington Bible Institute Everett Washington USA
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This newsletter Copyright © 2005 Freedom Covenant Global Ministries. All Rights Reserved. Individual articles displaying copyrights from other ministries are used by permission, have been formatted for use in this publication, and remain the property of respective ministry. Permission is granted to copy, print, and distribute this newsletter for ministry purposes, whether whole or in part, so long as ALL copyrights remain in place and no copies are printed or distributed for sale or commercial purposes.
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