Last week, Pastor Bob showed us what love does: love serves, love gives, love overcomes.
This week, we’ll see what love costs. If we are going to live and love like Jesus for the sake of others, it will eventually cost us something. But I am convinced the fruit of loving others like that will produce a church that welcomes people in from the cold; warms their lives with something kind; and draws them to experience true love in Jesus.
The story this week, “The Ark Was Captured” is one example of the things they allowed to happen to the tabernacle and its furnishings. The ark of the covenant was a symbol of God’s presence with the people. As the Israelites battled the Philistines, they lost a battle quite substantially. Instead of asking God what happened, they decided it would be a good idea to go get the box of God, the ark of the covenant, and bring it into battle with them.
This week we look very practically at what this love for one another looks like. You see, genuine love is not simply a feeling or notion, it is seen and experienced in very real ways. As Bob Goff’s book says, “LOVE DOES.” If we love we will serve, we will give, we will offer hospitality and a cup of water to the stranger in our midst. And in this service we will explore what it looks like to do these things when we do not feel like it, when we do not get acknowledged or when loving is a sacrifice and a struggle.
Thank you, Trinity Church for your generosity of time and treasure. On Sunday, January 17, 2016 you packaged over 5,000 meals that will feed over 30,000 hungry people in Honduras. Your offerings in 2015 paved the way, contributing the $4,500 needed for all the food, packaging, boxes, and shipping. THANKS BE TO GOD!
The Gospel Project for Kids story this week is about a woman named Hannah. Hannah had a good life but one thing was missing. Hannah wanted a child. As her family went annually to Shiloh to worship at the tabernacle, Hannah became distressed and prayed to God that He would give her a son. Hannah wanted a son so badly she promised to give him back to the Lord to serve Him. God granted Hannah’s prayer and a year later she gave birth to a son named Samuel.
Last week I invited people to follow Paul’s challenge to “sober up” with an honest self-assessment of who we are in Jesus. I believe that with an honest view of ourselves in Christ, we will be able to live and love like Jesus for the sake of others.
This week, we pick up the next step: what kind of love we have to give. I was blown away be studying the most common of words – “love.” I can’t wait to share what God showed me. It may just change your life. It did mine.
This past Sunday in The Gospel Project for Kids our journey is taking us for a look at stories that hint of a coming Savior, Jesus Christ. Sunday’s story is about Ruth and Boaz. Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, a woman from Bethlehem who had moved with her husband and sons to escape a famine in their town. After the husbands of both Naomi and Ruth died, the two women moved back to Bethlehem to Naomi’s family’s land.
Welcome to the New Year! I don’t know what you are hoping for in this year, but I know that God is at work among us, and we are praying that our together this week will allow us to be overwhelmed by God’s love in Jesus. And, once loved, to be the kind of people who live and love like Jesus.
This week we are continuing an occasional series we do called “Heidelberg U.” We are in the fifth week of this series here at Trinity. So far we’ve covered our sin and all the effects of that sin. Basically, we know how miserable life is without a savior. But this week is different. This week we get to meet a …
This week we will be picking up an occasional series we do called “Heidelberg U.” So far we’ve covered our sin and all the effects of that sin. God created us with the ability to keep the law. We just keep making bad choices. Sin makes us inadequate and therefore we need mercy. As a result we look at our incredible need for the baby that was born in a manger long ago in Bethlehem.
