WITNESS ~ INSTRUCT ~ NURTURE / Volume 1 Issue 7
Apr 6, 2005
Hi !
In this issue, you'll read:
THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS - PART TWO
BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART SIX
REPORT FROM WHITESTONE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR - WEEK SEVEN Matthew 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." John 6:45 "It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." As you can see from these two verses of Scripture, it is very important to learn from Him the Truth of His Word. This requires discipline and effort on our part, but God's rewards are great. My prayers are with you all as you study His Word this week. Blessings to all, The W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter may now be accessed on the Internet by navigating to Last week, we read the book of Ephesians in one sitting. This was an important step in developing a student's heart toward the Word of God. During your study through the W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter, you will be reading many of the books of the Bible in one sitting (although some of the longer ones will be broken up into sections). In this week's study, we continue to soak in the book of Ephesians. In a moment, we will read it all the way through again, but before we do, let's have a look at the core message of the book. Read Ephesians 2:14-22 Paul was writing to a mixed readership of Jew and Gentile. He moves from the individual blessings of the New Covenant (1:3-2:10) to the corporate blessings of the New Covenant (2:11-4:16), which have resulted because God has created out of both Jew and Gentile "one new man" (2:14-15), "one body" (2:16; 3:6), and "one temple" (2:21-22), in which God dwells by his Spirit. So let's read through the whole book again (yes, in one sitting!). Our purpose this time is get a better feel of what Paul is saying, how he moves from your salvation as an individual to the purpose of God in his Church as a whole, from your position in Christ to the active stand we take together against all opposition to the Gospel. Notice these shifts of focus, and the unfolding of this "mystery" that God's glory and purpose is being revealed, firstly, in you as an individual and, secondly, in us together as the Body of Christ. 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; " Today, we want to examine the phenomenon in verse forty-three, "and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles." Your first question may be, "Why do you call this a phenomenon?" For that answer, let's look at the definition as taken from Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English. Phenomenon "In a general sense, an appearance; any thing visible; whatever is presented to the eye by observation or experiment,or whatever is discovered to exist; as the phenomena of the natural world; the phenomena of heavenly bodies, or of terrestrial substances; the phenomena of heat or of color. It sometimes denotes a remarkable or unusual appearance." Notice that a phenomenon is something visible or seen by the eye, or perceptible to the senses of the person experiencing it. Webster goes on to say that "it sometimes denotes a remarkable or unusual appearance." The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition, Copyright (c) 1994, calls a phenomenon, "a marvel." Upon closer inspection of the 21st Century Church, one might find modern day marvels to be the exception rather than the rule. Does this mean that "miracles" do not happen in today's church? Not at all! But they seem to be the surprise, rather than the normal occurrence, at least in the Western Church. So what happened to bring about this change within the Body of Christ? First of all, let's look at the early Apostles. Why were there many signs and wonders done through them? Mark 16:20 tells us; "And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen." Notice that "they went out and preached everywhere..." So where did they preach? Everywhere they went! And what did they preach? They preached the pure Truth of the Word of God without compromise. What then is the difference between the Apostles and modern day ministers? The Apostles' first priority was to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In making it the most important focus of their daily walks, we see that the Lord was "working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs." They did not approach their ministry as a job, but rather they lived their life as a ministry. Part of that ministry was also to train others to duplicate these same efforts. But what about today? What about the 21st century leadership of the church? Based on the condition of the modern day church, it would seem that the leadership has somehow lost sight of its responsibility to train disciples to go out and "preach everywhere." We are so caught up in our petty disputes over doctrinal interpretations, our own in-house building programs, promoting our own ministry images, etc. that we are allowing hundreds and even thousands of untrained disciples (believers) to wander through life thinking that it is enough to attend church on Sunday, try not to sleep through another boring, lifeless sermon, and pay their tithes. But is that the believers' part of this walk? Is it just their duty to warm the pews and pay the expenses of the ministry? NO! However, because of this apathy on the part of the leadership, we see more and more Christians who expect the Pastor or Evangelist to do all of the church outreach. After all, isn't that what we pay them for? Sadly, it seems that we have lost sight of the fact that every Christian, including those in leadership positions such as Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers, are called to be ministers. And what is a minister except a servant? And how best to serve those in need than to lead them to Jesus Christ? Not a Jesus who is only available during church service or crisis. But rather the crucified, buried, raised again, ascended to the right hand of the Father, ever making intercession for us Jesus Christ! The Name that is above every name! When we as leaders get back to living our lives for His ministry and training others to pick up their individual mantles and start proclaiming the Gospel, we will begin to once again see signs and wonders happening in our midst. Because if we are proclaiming the pure unadulterated Word of God in its fullness under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, He will confirm His Word with accompanying signs. We as individuals should get on our knees and ask God to help us get away from the "fast-food" life of this world and start to walk in the ministry for which He has called us. Remember, not all of us are called to the pulpit or teaching ministry. Yours may be a one-on-one testimony sharing with co-workers and friends. Keep in mind that the best preaching you can do is simply telling what Jesus has done in your own life. It may be that your ministry is baking cookies and delivering them to shut ins along with a word of encouragement in the Lord. But Christian leaders, are you living for ministry, or ministering as a job? And Christian believers, are you leaving all of the ministering to the leaders? It is time we all asked God what He wants us to do as individuals for Him. And as soon as we get His answer, we need to get about doing it. When this happens, we will once again experience our desired result, "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Until next week, we are on a journey "Back to the Kingdom." Bishop Sam T. Leigh We here at Whitestone are rejoicing in His blessings, which are many. We ended 2004 with a Watch Night Service. The Lord blessed us with His presence. The New Year has brought some changes. We celebrated our Risen Savior with a blessed Easter Service. We are still searching for the right building. The other church building wasn't what the Lord wanted for us. We are not discouraged because we know with God leading the way the right one will be ours. We're seeing more souls come to God. Our congregation is growing. Not very fast, but growing nevertheless. Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow. We remain in His service, *Editors Note: Please add the Lasters and the congregation of Whitestone Christian Fellowship to your prayer lists. They are in need of a permanent meeting place to accommodate their increased growth. God bless you Pastor Bobby for your continued faithfulness to His work! May He bless you and Sister Barbara with health and strength to carry out your task, in Jesus Name! 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 a pleasure to welcome each of you to this week's edition of the W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter. I trust you had a blessed time reading the Book of Ephesians in one sitting last week. Today we continue with the next part of our study and it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will illuminate His Word as you faithfully undertake to learn more of Him.
Rev. Sam T. Leigh
Presiding Bishop
Freedom Covenant Global Ministries
E-mail:
Website: www.fcgm.org
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THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS - PART TWO
I. Devotional Reading
In your devotions this week, read Psalm 62. As you read, talk to the Lord about the content of this psalm. When you have finished, go back and find one or two verses and meditate prayerfully on them. Continue this pattern each day for the next week. II. Bible Study
As you read Ephesians, you will discover that one word repeats itself over and over again. Did you pick it up on your first read through? That word is "one" (read Ephesians 1:10; 2:14-18; 3:6; 4:4-5). And you will find that there is a climax that Paul is building up to. The whole of the book was written to make this one statement. Before we read the book again, let's look at this key passage: 
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
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BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART SIX
We are examining the twelve actions of the early church listed in Acts 2:42-47 with the goal of establishing, for comparison sake, a pattern of conduct within the early church, then determining how far removed the 21st century church has become from this pattern in order to better understand its present condition. We are working on the premise that "with all things being equal, we can expect the same end result." With that in mind, let's take a moment and read the entire passage again.
PHENOM'ENON, n. plu. phenomena. [Gr. to appear.]
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REPORT FROM WHITESTONE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Greetings,
Pastor and Barb Laster
Whitestone Christian Fellowship
Tucson Arizona 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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