Coming to the Still Waters

  Wow!  Found this great chart of Jesus' genealogy and the split to show the difference between Matthew's record and Luke's record.  A vacation post as we are in Colorado with Child #2 and his family.  What a great week it is turning out to be for a late Thanksgiving and early Christmas with them.  Thanksmas or Thristmas or Christgiving or Chranksgiving! I am excited about diving deeper into Matthew 1 & 2 for the Advent season.  Last year we went through Luke & 2.  We start with Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17.  Matthew makes a very bold claim in the very first verse.  My rendition is, "I am going to set the record straight of the genesis of the One who saves, named Jesus, and Him as the Anointed One of God, the Messiah, the Son of God who fulfills the Davidic Covenant and the Abrahamic Covenant!"   A tall order to fill. Matthew gets his audience's attention by adding in 5 women, 4 named directly and 1 referred to.  What ...

  I realized that I posted Part 3 before I had made a post about Part 2!  It happens when I sometimes preach more than once in a week.  I do miss those days when I was preaching/teaching a Sunday School class, a Sunday sermon, a Sunday night message, and a Wednesday Prayer Meeting devotional.  I would sometimes put on top of that a midweek home group, daily email devotionals and a weekly 5 minute radio spot.  I was thankful because it was a time for me to be immersed in God's word on many fronts.   Last Sunday we ventured into Part 2 of our mini-series " Am I A Church Member, Biblically. "    We wandered from looking at the global, universal family of God to the local gatherings of His body.  I want to stress again that these Biblical principles are for us to grasp and display no matter the formalness or in-formalness of a local church's membership procedures.  So let's review. 1).  I am a Christian.  I own the statement t...

  A little fun from someone in the last row!  I made a joke about being the one on the whiteboard with the halo and therefore he supplied me this picture after the service.  It was a great Thanksgiving Eve service and the message of " us " came together at just the right time.  It is amazing to see God's hand working before your very eyes.  I speak so much to lead others in hopefully the right godly direction and then God steps in and I don't have to speak anymore.  His children fill in the words and actions.  That is what started to happen on Wednesday night. I concluded the " Am I A Church Member, Biblically? " mini-series with a whiteboard session of the final 6 points.  We who are redeemed are saved into God's family.  The family of God is so intertwined and so much on purpose for God's glory and our benefit. 1) The provided spiritual leadership to the flock restores any wandering sheep.  Galatians 6:1 2) The sheep share with ...