Come and See!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

December 2010 Calendar of Events

Wednesdays, Dec 1, 8, 15, and 22
  • Advent Bible Study at noon
  • Youth Group at 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Thursday, December 2nd
  • Packing boxes for our College Students, 10 AM
Saturday, December 4th
  • Men of the Church Breakfast, 8 AM
  • Regional Elder Training
Sunday, December 5th
  • Communion
Sunday, December 12th
  • Church Family Christmas Breakfast and Children's Play
    • Breakfast served at 9:30 AM
    • Children's Play during Morning Worship
  • Care Center Service, 4 PM
  • Christmas Cantata, 6 PM at the Methodist Church
Tuesday, December 14th
  • PW Circle at noon
  • Session, 6 PM
Sunday, December 19th
  • Christmas Recital featuring Meredith Nowlin and Peaches Savage, 3 PM at the Methodist Church
Friday, December 24th
  • Christmas Eve Communion, 7PM
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (11/28/10)

Announcement:  Theron Gamblin went to be with his Lord Sunday evening. Services will be Wednesday at 1:00 at the church. Visitation will be Tuesday 5:00 to 7:00 at Kimble Funeral Home.

Scripture for Sunday
Psalm 147 (ESV)
1 Praise the Lord!  For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!  Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules.  Praise the Lord!

Notes and Questions to Reflect Upon
Advent, as a time of waiting, has often been a time of song. Psalm 147, as so many other Psalms do, makes it clear that God's people are a singing people. This world has much music, but the world's music is often in the performer/spectator pattern. There's something different about Christians because they sing together to God. This Psalm, which opens a praise section of the Psalms (145-150), paints the picture of the people of God responding to God's acts by breaking into song. There are 4 Old Testament words and 8 New Testament words for singing, and they all refer to an action on the part of God's people in response to what God says and does.

1. How has music impacted or influenced your life?
2. How does music influence or inspire your worship?
3. What practical advice is offered about how to worship God?
4. What does God desire from His people?
5. What should motivate us to offer our praise to God?
6. What lessons can we learn from these psalms about how to praise the Lord?

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (11/21/10)

Practice for the Christmas play has begun! All kids come to the Sanctuary at 9:30am every Sunday morning. Any parents of young ones that want to help are MORE than welcome!

Scripture and Questions for Sunday
Psalm 100:1-5 (ESV)
A Psalm for giving thanks.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
[2] Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
[3] Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
[4] Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
[5] For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Questions
1. When do you feel like shouting for joy or singing?
2. When (in what situations or for what acts) do you expect a thank you or acknowledgment of a favor you’ve done?
3. What attitude is recommended to accompany the praise of God’s people?
4. Why should the world acknowledge the Lord through praise?
5. What is sincere worship?
6. How could you prepare yourself to praise and thank God the next time you go to church for worship?

Friday, November 12, 2010

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (11/14/10)

Announcement
Practice for our Christmas play begins this Sunday for middle school and high school youth. The following Sunday the elementary students will join them. The Christmas play will be preformed Sunday December 12th during morning worship.

Scripture
Luke 21:5-19 (ESV)
And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, [6] "As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." [7] And they asked him, "Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?" [8] And he said, "See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. [9] And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once." [10] Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. [11] There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. [12] But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. [13] This will be your opportunity to bear witness. [14] Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, [15] for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. [16] You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. [17] You will be hated by all for my name's sake. [18] But not a hair of your head will perish. [19] By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Questions
1. What do you already know about your future?
2. What promises did Jesus give to His disciples?
3. What will be the result of “standing firm” in the last days?
4. Why did Jesus reveal to us these prophecies about the last days?
5. Why should we not allow our hearts to be weighed down with the anxieties of life?
6. What can you do now to get ready for Christ’s return?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (11/7/10)

Announcements
1. Men’s Breakfast Saturday morning. We will eat at 8:00am but come early for fellowship in the kitchen.
2. Practice for our Christmas play will begin next Sunday, November 14th, during the Sunday School hour for Middle School and High School youth. We need them all to be there if possible. Practice for the younger children will start later, they will continue to have their regular Sunday School class until play practice starts for them.

Luke 20:27-38 (ESV)
There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, [28] and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. [29] Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. [30] And the second [31] and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. [32] Afterward the woman also died. [33] In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." [34] And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, [35] but those who are b considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, [36] for they cannot die anymore, because they are f equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. [37] But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. [38] Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him."

Questions for Reflection
1. What do you imagine happens to us after death?
2. How have your beliefs in the afterlife changed over the years?
3. Why did Jesus describe God as “the God of the living”?
4. What makes belief in the resurrection an important Christian belief?

The Sadducees, a group of conservative religious leaders, honored only the Pentateuch—Genesis through Deuteronomy—as Scripture. They also did not believe in a resurrection of the dead because they could find no mention of it in those books. The Sadducees decided to try their hand at tricking Jesus, so they brought him a question that had always stumped the Pharisees.

They wanted Jesus to say something they could refute. Even so, Jesus did not ignore or belittle their question. He answered it, and then he went beyond it to the real issue. When people ask you tough religious questions—“How can a loving God allow people to starve?” “If God knows what I’m going to do, do I have any free choice?”—follow Jesus’ example. First answer the question to the best of your ability; then look for the real issue—hurt over a personal tragedy, for example, or difficulty in making a decision. Often the spoken question is only a test, not of your ability to answer hard questions, but of your willingness to listen and care.

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (10/31/10)

Luke 19:1-10 (ESV)
He entered Jericho and was passing through. [2] And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. [3] And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. [4] So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. [5] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." [6] So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. [7] And when they saw it, they all h grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." [8] And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." [9] And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. [10] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Questions for Reflection
1. Why do you think people pay attention to gossip and rumors?
2. Who are the despised and disrespected people in our society today?
3. Why did the crowds begin to mutter and gossip among themselves?
4. What changes did Zacchaeus make in his life in response to Jesus’ interest in him?
5. How had salvation come to Zacchaeus’ house?
6. If we want to share our faith with someone, how much attention should we pay to their status and reputation?
7. What’s wrong with gossiping?
8. What responsibility do we have to help people of bad reputation?
9. What do the actions of Zacchaeus reveal about the power of God to change hearts?
10. How can we guard against the temptation to judge others?