Happy New Year Grace Bible Family!!! By faith in Christ we’re starting this year LOVED, REDEEMED, FORGIVEN, and filled with HOPE, JOY and ASSURANCE.
I look forward to another year of growing in God’s grace and truth with you all. In 2015 we get to be a part of God doing GOD-SIZED things in and through Grace Bible. Can’t wait!
It’s such an honor and a privilege to serve as your pastor. Love y’all.
Christ is all!
Roy
I was thinking and praying about the coming of the new year and this verse came to mind:
…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
May 2015 be a year that has the GOD, by way of the Gospel at it’s center. May we leave behind any sins of the mind, heart, and hands, hindrances that “cling so closely’. These things hold us back from being the God-glorifying vessel God has called and privileged us to be. But 2015 can’t chiefly be about what we leave behind, but what we fully embrace. We must be “looking to Jesus”, the founder, author, perfecter, finisher and the object of our faith. The greatest thing about 2015 will be the same as what was greatest about 2014, Christ “endured the cross”. We will receive no greater news in the coming year than message of our being reconciled unto God through the blood of Jesus Christ. He died the death that we deserved to die. He lives, that we may live. He’s given us His Spirit. By faith in Christ, we are made children of God. Christian, if God is for us, who can be against us? Think about it! It’s going to be a GREAT year!
Christians, we are in a race. It’s a marathon. As we run with our eyes fixed on Jesus, our view of Him keeps growing larger as we draw closer. May our view of Christ be BIGGER, this time next year!
As we all know, runners train. One way that we can train, and keep our focus on Christ is to read and meditate on His Word, daily. Why not start each day reading God’s Word before you do anything else? I promise you all time in the Word will be time well spent. Below are some links to a few reading plans that might aid you in making God’s Word a priority in your daily life in 2015.
10 Bible reading plans from Crossway
The wise (in his own way) Forrest Gump once said: “…you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they go, where they’ve been.” Well, for the Christian, and really anyone, we can tell a lot about us by looking at Genesis, things like, where we go, and where we’ve been:)
Beginning January 11, Sunday evenings, at our house, from 6-8pm, for High School and college age, I’ll be teaching through Genesis ch’s 1-11. We’ll learn among other things, creation, the fall of man, God’s plan of redemption, The Flood and Noah’s Ark and how it points us toward Jesus. Also, form these 11 ch’s, students will learn how to biblically answer 4 major questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s wrong with the world? What can be done about it?
As an added bonus 🙂 we’ll open our time each week in Proverbs, learning and applying God’s practical wisdom to our lives.
Looking forward to it! Email me if you have any questions.
10 ways we can remember to be Christians this Christmas. By pastor and author, Kevin DeYoung
Christmas is almost here.
And that means many of us are tired, frazzled, stressed, and busy. The next two weeks will go by in a blur–from family, to church, to food, to family, to football, back to church, back to family, back to food, and then back to work.
We love Christmas. We can’t wait for the day to come, and many of us can’t wait for the season to be gone.
But whether you love every nook and cranny about the holidays–or consider most of it “noise, noise, noise!”–there is no excuse to be grinchy and scroogeish. Here are ten ways we can remember to be Christians this Christmas.
1. Sing like you mean it. Sure, there are a some Christmas carol clunkers, but there are some amazing hymns too (see Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, Of the Father’s Love Begotten, Let All Mortal Flesh, and many more). Belt them out with gusto. Smile and take delight in the familiar sounds of the season. You may not hear them for 11 more months.
2. Say thank you. Over the next week you’ll get gifts someone picked out for you and eat food someone prepared for you and enjoy hospitality someone laid out for you. We’re told to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18). Surely, this includes Christmas. Stop to offer a sincere “thank you” to your mom, your husband, your kids, your aunt, your grandma, whomever–it will be good for your soul and it may just make their day.
3. Put the phone down. Go ahead and take a few pictures and post a few updates, but let’s not turn our Christmas experience into another commodity to be bought and sold. Look people in the eye. Be present in the moment. Let the world’s tragedies and scandals and funny cut videos take a back seat for a day.
4. Enjoy some cookies. Oh, the dreadful holiday pounds. Sure, we need to be on guard against gluttony. But we need to be on guard against censorious asceticism too. God created food to be received with thanksgiving. Eat up, and don’t feel bad about it. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is made holy by the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:3-5).
5. Talk to your family. Why not put in five minutes worth of thought on the way to your grandma’s house to think of five questions to ask of five different people? Maybe conversation flows easily with your family. But for many people, it takes some effort to engage our relatives, especially those we don’t see often and those with whom we have little in common. Give people the gift of your curiosity.
6. Find time to be quiet. At some point, get away and be still. Even if just for 10 minutes. Even if it’s in your bed after everyone else is asleep. Go on a walk. Take a long shower. Get up early. Sit in the dark. Stare at the tree. Just be quiet, ponder, and pray.
7. Pray for opportunities. What if we prayed for at least one opportunity in the next two weeks to share the gospel? I bet God would honor that prayer. Maybe we can talk to a friend or family member. Maybe we’ll find a surprisingly open door for conversation at the mall or out to eat or on the plane. Maybe we have not because we ask not.
8. Make a year-end gift. Your church is probably trying to make budget. So are rescue missions, crisis pregnancy centers, Christian schools, mission agencies, and dozens of other kingdom causes. Go ahead a be generous. We won’t out-give God.
9. Quit complaining. Something will go wrong this Christmas. Someone will hurt your feelings. Your parent’s house will be too hot. Your brothers house will be too cold. A meal will be barely edible. Your obnoxious friends will be extra obnoxious. Still, God is more pleased with gratitude than with grumbling. If we learn to overlook a few offenses we’ll be happier too.
10. Rejoice to hear the Story one more time. Matthew 1 and Luke 2 are coming at you. So are Isaiah 7 and 9, Micah 5, and many of the same passages you hear ever year. No bother: “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you” (Phil. 3:1). Let us pray that God gives us ears to hear, again and again, with fresh wonder that God came down to be with us and that he is with us still.
Find more great resources from Kevin DeYoung here
Grace Bible, 2014 Baptisms. To God be the glory!
I mentioned this book in a sermon a couple of weeks ago. I highly recommend it! A short, easy, VERY powerful read.
Here’s a quote:
“The personal desolation Christ is experiencing on the cross is what you and I should be experiencing–but instead, Jesus is bearing it, and bearing it all alone. Why alone? He’s alone so that we might never be alone.”
― C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing
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..there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”…the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste...
Shepherds — the outcasts of their day. They smelled like the animals they worked with. They were considered ceremonially unclean, meaning they were excluded from temple worship. Shepherds had daily contact with the carcasses of the animals they tended, and under Jewish ceremonial law they could not be in the temple. But it makes sense that “unclean” shepherds would be the first to come to Christ, because it’s on the basis of uncleanliness that we approach Christ. It’s the sick who are in need of The Great Physician.
God could have chosen anyone to notify of the coming of Christ. He could have dispatched angels to the Chief Priests, Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees or other religious leaders. Or he could’ve chose great political figures or military leaders, people with power! But instead, the underdog, the lowly, stinky, forgotten shepherds. What sort of God is ths?!?! He is the same God who is still seeking humble people to use for his glory. That hasn’t changed. It’s not about your occupation, social status, past, or popularity. It’s about having heart in need of Christ. Where is your heart this Christmas? Are we, like the lowly shepherds, eager to WORSHIP Jesus? Let’s not, in our pride, miss our opportunity to WORSHIP the King who is WORTHY.
Galatians 4:4-5 tells us that, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…so that we might receive adoption as sons.
The son of God became human, so that humans might become sons and daughters of GOD.
Christmas is a reminder that God loves us! He loves us in spite of our sin (Rom 5:8). He doesn’t see any of us as a lost cause. He sees us as worth serving, living, and dying for. God sent his Son on Christmas to live and die for us…To save us from our sins…and save us to Himself.
Like Christmas, Christianity is a gift exchange: we give Jesus our sin, and he gives us eternal life. No matter how many times we repeat that message, it never gets old.
Augustine, speaking on the incarnation of Christ said this:
Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.
– Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)
One of my favorite Christmas decorations/billboard/church sign/sayings I have seen the last few years is the phrase “wise men still seek Him”, so clever! But, the reality is, we just THINK we are wise. Jeremiah 9:23-24 says this, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom…but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me…” Prior to their being led to, and encountering Jesus, the “wise men” didn’t have any true wisdom at all! But in Matthew chapter 2 we see them encounter divine wisdom. Check it out:
6 Things that marked the experience of the wise men visiting The Christ child.
1. Indescribable Joy Matt 2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
This is a redundant sentence, using repetition for emphasis. The entrance of Hope is unlike any other experience in life. You may have heard people describe a god-shaped hole in their life, when that hole is filled, it changes everything! That’s joy.
2. They worshiped Matt 2:11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.
The wise men were use to being in the presence of worldly greatness, but nothing came close to what they had found in Jesus. He was worthy of their WORSHIP. They fell on their face in his presence and expressed his worth. Their physical response was reflective of a spiritual reality. In the presence of God we realize how low we are and how high and lifted up he should be!
3. They gave him their best Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The gifts they gave were worthy of a king! The early church fathers understood these 3 gifts to symbolic Gold – for his deity, frankincense – His Purity, myrrh – of his death (since it was a substance used for embalming)
4. The ongoing guidance and protection of God Matt 2:12a And being warned in a dream…
As the prophecy said, the Messiah would be a ruler who would also be a shepherd. One who cared deeply for the sheep, protected, ensured they were well taken care of. Jesus would later say in John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. These wise men were under the guidance of a new shepherd!
5. They have a new enemy Matt 2:12b not to return to Herod…
Herod wanted to do the work of the devil, to “kill, steal, and destroy” God’s work. The wise desired to worship and make Christ known, so Herod was to be avoided. 1 Peter 5:8-10 teaches us to “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith…”
6. A new sense of purpose Matt 2:12c they departed to their own country by another way.
The wise men now have REAL HOPE. They can, for the first time, be rightly referred to as wise. Not because of anything they knew, but because of WHO they knew.
The wise men had seen a lot in their life, perhaps the best that their day and age had to offer. Philosophy, Science, the company of kings, material possessions. a life most ppl of their time couldn’t even imagine…But like our old friend Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes, it all adds up to nothing if you don’t know the God who gave it to you. Wise men sought him then, and wise men still do.
We’re now a week from Christmas Eve. In the coming days I hope your able to enjoy some much needed time off from work, a break from your hectic schedule, and some time with your precious family…I hope you open up just the right gift on Christmas morning….But don’t be deceived, without Christ, at the very center of your life, this Christmas season will come and go, and your heart will be as empty as the boxes your gifts came in.
I have been tcrucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
“The gospel is not just the ABCs of Christianity, it is the A–Z” -Tim Keller
“the truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine, most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others and beat it into their heads continually.” -Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians
Pastor Roy Layman 