May 2018 Philippines Mission Work Newsletter
Philippines Trip April 12-23, 2018 Download/print On April 12, 2018, a team of four, consisting of Lanice White from the Guin Church of Christ, Kathleen Eiring, Anita Williams and Bill Rayburn from the Hoover Church of Christ traveled from Birmingham, AL to the ACU campus to conduct a full week of activities. The three ladies in the group conducted a two-day Teachers’ Training Workshop to help the children’s teachers in Pangasinan to equip them with tools that will help them…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on May 30, 2018
Sermon Title: Dead Bones that Live Text: Hebrews Ezekiel 37:1-14(ESV) Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) Judah was in a truly desperate situation—exiled in Babylon with no hope of ever getting home (from a human perspective, at least). To illustrate their situation, God took Ezekiel and by the Spirit put him in a valley of dry bones. There was no sign of life in…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on May 23, 2018
Sermon Title: From Calm to Chaos Text: Hebrews 2:14-18 (ESV) Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) What should we do when life goes from calm to chaos in an instant? The answer and point of the lesson is this: In our darkest hour we can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence knowing that we will be received not with judgment, but with sympathy and…
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was a breath of fresh air among the kings of Judah during the divided kingdom of Israel. He “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” He tore down idols in the land and reinstated the worship practices that God had instituted. He “trusted in God so that there was none like him among the kings of Judah after him nor before him. (2 Kings 18:3-5) He didn’t get his goodness from his dad. Hezekiah, a son…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on May 16, 2018
Sermon Title: Let the little children come to me Text: Matthew 19:13-15 (ESV) Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) In the month of May we’re having a “Train up a Child” campaign—we’re hoping to be able to fill all of our children’s Bible class rotations with teachers through May 2019. In conjunction with this emphasis, we studied the text above. We discussed how children…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on May 9, 2018
Sermon Title: Love People: Do Unto Others Text: Matthew 7:1-12 (ESV) Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) Jesus’ command to “love others” is simple and generic and something that obviously most people agree with. We ought to love people, whatever that means. But with this—like with all things—Jesus doesn’t leave us with some sort of ambiguous moral platitude that allows us to love people…
No matter what
Many Christians have faced very difficult situations, and some of you are going through them right now. Sometimes it’s uncertainty at work: is my position going to be phased out? Should I make a career change? It might be one of your children that you’re worried about: life and relationship choices, immaturity, worldliness. Sometimes it’s health problems, either your own or someone close to you. Or maybe some other dilemma. You don’t know how something’s going to work out, and…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on May 2, 2018
Sermon Title: Ambassadors of God’s Kingdom Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV) Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) Nic took Paul’s use of “ambassadors” in 2 Corinthians 5 and illustrated how Christians are ambassadors of God’s kingdom in the world today. Just as different cultures have different values and different ways of prioritizing their values, so God’s kingdom has a structured value system. Christians go…
What We Talk About
Have you ever been around someone who talked about only one thing? Maybe sports or politics. Or clothes, movies, or books. And then a few just like to talk about other people. Paul was like that, I think, or at least he had one thing that dominated his conversations. He spent quite a bit of time in jail, and it’s interesting to think about what it must’ve been like to have been his jailer, or maybe his cellmate. I’m sure…
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on April 25, 2018
Sermon Title: The Tree of Life Text: Genesis 2:7-9; Revelation 22:1-5 Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) One of the most amazing things about the Bible is its beautiful unity and cohesiveness . . . It tells one, over-arching story about what God is doing in the world. One remarkable symbol of that is the Tree of Life, which is mentioned first in the…
Paul’s Pity Party
Instead of blowing up the balloons and sending out invitations to the pity party, maybe we should first sit down and talk to the Lord.
Resources for Discussion Class Hour on April 18, 2018
Sermon Title: Do you love me more than these?” Text: John 21:15-19 Click here to listen to or watch the sermon Download tonight’s printable study guide Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?) As you know, our 2018 theme is “Love God. Love People. Change the World,” and Sunday we continued this emphasis by studying Jesus’ post-resurrection interaction with Peter. Just a few weeks earlier Peter had infamously denied any connection to Jesus and had almost certainly been dealing…