When The Light Goes Dims

Our society glorifies youth and beauty. Billions of dollars are spent every year to deceive us into believing we are still young. But there is no way to deny the effects of gravity on your body. Every moment you are on on earth 14 pounds of pressure per square inch is pulling your skin and vital organs toward the center of the planet. Every time earth completes one rotation on its axis we call it a day. When earth completes one rotation around the sun, we call it a year. We make less than a hundred trips around the sun and call that life. Aging is nature's way of reminding each of us how many times our body has been around the sun!

Let's face it: Trying so hard to make ourselves look younger is just another way our culture attempts to deny death. God does not want us to be in bondage to our fear of death. Jesus died to make us ready for death. He rose from the grave to give us hope.

We should not make an idol out of this life. We should worship God, not life. If we worship God, He will be glorified in our body and our spirit. Paul said, "My earnest expectation and hope [is] that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness . . . Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:20,21, NKJV).

What does one gain?

See you in class.

Safe Worship

Isaiah 8: 11 The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:
12 "Do not call conspiracy
everything that these people call conspiracy [f] ;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
13 The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,
14 and he will be a sanctuary;
but for both houses of Israel he will be
a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured."
16 Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the LORD,
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.

In light of what happened to the pastor of a Maryville, Illinois last Sunday, one has to ask:

Is the church a safe place?

Let's discuss in class.

God's Beauty

Will Work For Food

2 Thessalonians 3 : 6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching[a] you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

With the new national bail-out program in place many Americans are wondering why should we pay to help some who refuse to help themselves. Blog site postings are on fire with comments about the unemployed young lady who has 14 kids and lives at her mother and father's home. This week she went shopping for a 1.2 million dollar home.
Also our tax code benefits those couples who choose to live together unmarried and not work through the unearned tax credit.

How do we as Christians follow the above verses and still show compassion ?

This should be a great discussion.

Testing The Faith

TESTING THE FAITH
Where does your state rank in religious belief?
Gallup poll reveals 'Bible Belt' for real
Posted: February 15, 2009
4:39 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A recent poll of more than 350,000 Americans on the importance of religion revealed that the nation is separated into enclaves of widely divergent viewpoints on faith, with some states and regions clearly religious and others significantly secular.

Gallup conducted a telephone poll of 355,334 U.S. adults, asking the question, "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"

As one might suspect, states from the "Bible Belt" scored the highest, with 85 percent of Mississippians and 79 percent of Tennesseeans, for example, answering yes.

The poll also revealed, however, that in addition to the Bible Belt, the U.S. also has a pair of "secular strips."

The New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine scored the lowest in the nation, with only 42 percent of Vermont residents – or less than half the percentage of those in Mississippi – answering yes.

The other "secular strip" can be found in the West, where Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Nevada all scored in the bottom 10 states for affirming religion's importance in daily life.

Get Ray Comfort's latest book, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think" – signed by the author – exclusively from WND Books!

Across the country's entirety, 65 percent of the respondents affirmed that religion is an important part of their lives.

Stand Firm And Wait

2 Thessalonians 2
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

There is coming a day when "the man of lawlessness" will be revealed and he will claim to be God. He will sway many people and win their hearts. He will do the work of Satan.

What are some of the charactics of this man ?

When will he be revealed ?

What is holding him back ?

Wow, we have alot to talk about in class. Hope to see you there.

Safety First

2 Thessalonians 1:
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

Do you feel safe in this world ? I have to tell you I do not. I read the news of murders and car-jackings in Memphis. I see gang signs painted on the side of buildings as I drive to work. I wonder is this the day my house is going to be broken into. As the economy get worse this may increase. This is the world we live in.

Why does God allow this to happen ?

Have we as a church failed ?

Can we as a church turn this around ?

Let's talk about it Sunday in class.