WITNESS ~ INSTRUCT ~ NURTURE / Volume 1 Issue 9
Apr 20, 2005
Hi !
In this issue, you'll read:
THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS - PART FOUR
BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART EIGHT
A CRY FOR HELP
WORD FROM THE EDITOR - WEEK NINE Those are the introductory words to a class on Apologetics, Hallelujah! No truer words have ever been spoken! Jesus WAS a real man and the Gospels ARE a true memorial to his life, death, and resurrection. But it seems in this modern age that we have forgotten about the resurrection part of the memorial. We say the words, but our actions seem to contradict them, even as we speak. It is not too difficult to accept that Jesus lived. It is not even too hard to believe that He was crucified. But do we really believe that He was resurrected and is alive today? Jesus is NOT dead! He IS alive! We should be rejoicing in the strength of that knowledge, but even though we mouth the words, the walk of the church is turning more and more towards the path of the world. Everything we do and say in today's world must be politically correct and sensitive to the feelings of others. Teachers are not allowed to wear Christian lapel pins for fear of alienating others who do not believe the same as us. But whatever happened to the commission of Jesus? He said, in Matthew 22:9; "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." KJV And also in Mark 16:15; "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." KJV This is not the time for political correctness. This is not the time for compromise. The idea of each of us showing love to one another is great so long as it is genuine love. And what more genuine love can we show than to tell someone the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ! We can be very careful never to offend anyone or hurt their feelings, but that person may still die and go to hell because they were never introduced to Jesus. Wake up Church! What is more important? Political correctness or Salvation of a soul? Compromise or walking in the complete Truth of His Word? Let's get about doing our Father's business! That of representing Him to a lost and dying world. Until next week... Blessings to all, All editions of The W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter are available on the Internet. To find them, navigate to www.fcgm.org and click on the "Newsletter" link. Feel free to copy as many as you want and pass them out to family and friends. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, send an e-mail containing your name and e-mail address to winsubscribe@fcgm.org.1Apologetics, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2003 by Ed Rickard, the author. 2Bible Studies at the Moorings is located online at http://www.themoorings.org/index.html. In your devotions this week, read Psalm 84. 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. Read the Psalm in its entirety each day of the coming week, but go back and meditate on one or two different verses each day. II. Bible Study This week we will look at the second section of Ephesians, which falls between Ephesians 2:11 and 4:16. Again, we will divide this section into three sub-sections. Read each of them and answer for yourself the questions associated with them. Jot the answers down on a piece of paper and place in your Bible for further review and study. 1. Find the verse that summarizes the main thought Paul is seeking to communicate in this sub-section. Read Ephesians 3:1-21 1. In 3:2-13, Paul interrupts what he was about to say (see 3:1 and 3:14) to define his ministry. Summarize what he declares his ministry to be. Read Ephesians 4:1-16 1. In 4:11-16, what does Paul say is the main reason the Lord Jesus has given five special ministry gifts within the Body of Christ? 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; " This week, we are looking at the first action of verse 46, which says, "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple..." As we learned back in part two of our series, the word "continuing" tells us that there was starting point, because "to continue" in anything indicates that "one started in it." There are three other significant points of this action, however. First, we see that they continued "daily." This was not something they did on Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings. Rather this, as we see once again, was a lifestyle. They "continued daily," meaning it was part of life for them each day. Secondly, we see that they were "with one accord." This is a tough one for the modern day church body to deal with because it is so easy to be opposed to those who do not think like us, or believe the same "exact" doctrinal points as us. Not only do we have problems with crossing denominational lines outside "our church body," we have problems coming together with one heart and one purpose within that same body. So, "to continue daily with one accord," would surely be a miracle of major proportions in the 21st century. And to illustrate my point, when was the last time you [yes you personally] witnessed an Acts Upper Room Experience. Acts 2:1-4, reads; " Before anyone gets off on a tangent about speaking in tongues and the finer points of the gifts of the Spirit, let me just say that for the purpose of this article, we are not examining these outward signs in light of any doctrinal beliefs. We are simply looking at what actually happened in the upper room that day. And as we do so, remember, the key here is not what happened, so much as why it happened. We find our third point at the end of this reference found in Acts 2:1, "Now when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." Being "in one accord [in one place]" means they were on the same page and there were no hindrances in the room. They were ALL there for the same reason! When was the last time you were in a church meeting and heard "a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind?" And did it fill the room? When was the last time you watched as "there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them?" Well, let me ask you these final questions! When was the last time you attended church and found everyone there in one accord? I mean, when was the last time you attended church and found everyone worshipping and fully seeking the face of God? When was the last time you were in church and no one was thinking about the dinner cooking at home, the unpaid electric bill, the sleep they were missing by being in church, etc.? Instead, they were all of one heart and one mind, fully focused on the things of God. I would venture a guess that it was a very long time ago, if ever. In closing, I want to make it perfectly clear that we are not trying to duplicate the exact events that took place on the Day of Pentecost, but rather to experience the same type of visitation from the Spirit of God. That being a visitation in power, glory, and majesty. That being a real, not imagined, move of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ. Not just in "our local church body", but in the Body of Christ as a whole. We are trying to get to the same end result that the early church was seeing, namely, "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." This end result can happen again, but first, we must once again "continue daily with one accord in the temple [one place]. Bishop Sam T. Leigh He said there are a lot of children in this tribal colony living in poverty and malnutrition. Child death is common among these tribals. Young tribal girls are given food mixed with drugs and are often sexually abused by the landlords, as they come to work on their farms. Pastor Thomas has asked to open a Mercy Home in order to save the lives of these kids, born to these innocent and cheated tribal girls. As sponsors come we can save hundreds of kids from death and poverty and give hope for a bright future. Mercy Home is a vision given by the Lord to save the kids .So far the Lord has helped us to open 21 homes for the orphans and destitute. Please read about Mercy Homes under the ministry section of our website: Every home sponsored will be named by the sponsor’s name. Please pray about this need and help us to save hundreds of kids from death and poverty. It takes only $200.00 per month to open and a run a home for 10 kids in a rented house. We are in need of 5 more sponsors for this project right now. Would you please consider sponsoring a home? The pictures and a brief history of the kids will be sent to the sponsors.Please share the needs with your friends/church and the pastors. Looking forward to hear from you! 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.
"We must humble ourselves before Jesus though we lack absolute proof of His deity. We must believe in Him though no writing in the sky or voice from heaven affirms His preeminence. In other words, we must receive Him by faith. Yet faith in Jesus Christ is not a fanciful, subjective preference. As we will show in these studies, a multitude of evidences establish who Jesus was."
Rev. Sam T. Leigh
Presiding Bishop
Freedom Covenant Global Ministries
E-mail:
Website: www.fcgm.org
Bishop's eCorner: www.fcgm.org/ecorner/
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THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS - PART FOUR
I. Devotional Reading
Read Ephesians 2:11-22
2. Read 2:13-16 again. How has God made it possible for the two (Jew and Gentile) to become one?
3. Ephesians 2:19-22 reveals the ultimate purpose of God because of the truth Paul states here. What is it?
2. From 3:16-18, list the three things Paul states he is praying for.
3. What is Paul praying will be the ultimate outcome of the revelation of God's love to you (see 3:17-19)?
2. Look again at 4:13. When does the responsibility of these ministries end?
3. 4:13 also states what the final outcome of these ministries fulfilling their call and purpose will be. What is it?
Psalms 63:7-8;
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BACK TO THE KINGDOM - PART EIGHT
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.
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A CRY FOR HELP
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus, who is full of love and compassion.
I consider it a privilege to correspond with you and introduce a community that needs Jesus and our helping hands .The tribals in India are still exploited and sexually abused by the landlords and upper class people. Recently one of our Pastors named K.T. Thomas, working among the tribal people in Palghat district brought some shocking news in our monthly Pastors’ meeting for immediate action.
Pastor Daniel & Lily
Missionaries to the lost, the last & the least
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