Woodland
Hills Church of Christ
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Sunday, June 3, 2007 Volume 51, Issue 21 Mark Your Calendars V B S Summer is almost here, and that means it's
time for June 24th - 27th
Be Faithful Unto Death In a very simple but profound statement the Apostle John wrote, "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10) These inspired words to the church at Smyrna should challenge Christians wherever they find themselves today. Faithfulness to God requires a strong personal commitment. Christians who are truly commited to God are in the minority in the church of today. Our service to God should be "hearty service." A servant must serve his physical master "heartily" and just so we must serve Christ Jesus, our spiritual master "heartily.""And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." (Colossians 3:23) Our goal is not simply for people to attend church services; but our goal is for people to make a genuine commitment of their life to Christ. Faithfulness to God requires a strong personal choice. Each person must choose to be faithful or it will never happen. God blessed the people of Joshua's day. Even though it was true that God had truly blessed those people their faithfulness required a personal choice. Hear the words of Joshua 24:15, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The people understood the need for a personal choice. They responded by saying, "...The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!" (Joshua 24:24) With word and life let us respond by saying, "our God we will serve." Faithfulness to God requires a strong and complete obedience. Jesus saves those who "obey." The Hebrew writer wrote, "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Hebrews 5:8-9) Without obedience there can be no salvation. Faithfulness to God requires a strong resolve to put Him first in our lives. Becoming a Christian is not enough. This is only the beginning of a life that is to be lived for God daily. The Lord must be first in the hearts and lives of His followers. (Matthew 6:33) The Macedonians had it right when "they first have themselves to the Lord." (II Corinthians 8:5) Christians must forsake all, and with a strong resolve, serve God faithfully. (Luke 14:33) Faithfulness to God requires strong self-discipline. "Discipline" is one of the forgotten words of Christianity. There is almost no church discipline and very little self-discipline. Self-discipline must be learned and practiced. Christians must be "not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." (Romans 8:1) Paul spoke of self-discipline saying, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (I Corinthians 9:27) Faithful Christian living requires discipline. Faithfulness to God requires continual and strong spiritual growth. Peter wrote, "but grown in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen." (II Peter 3:18) Christians must grow in order to be able to discern between good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14) Spiritual growth must move us above this world. Even though still "in" the world the Christian is not "of" the world. "Jesus answered. My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." (John 18:36) Matthew records God's plan for spiritual growth in Matthew 16:24. "Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." As a Christian you must set your mind on things above. (Colossians 3:1) If you are not a Christian you should become a Christian today. (Acts 2:36-41) If you are a Christian be faithful to the Lord in daily Bible study, in your commitment and daily living.
TAFT TALK In the WHYG we have many different personalities. They are an awesome group due to the fact that they're all missionaries in different capacities. Some will go to Honduras, others will go to stateside mission trips and other will go across the street from their houses and into their neighborhoods. We have three fellas that we want to keep up with this summer. They are three missionaries that we have working in other cities. We will attempt to do a weekly "missionary report" that will keep up with these three Bible majors and the works that they are doing while away from us. Preston Pinson is working with the Washington Avenue
church of Christ in Evansville, Indiana. Matt Mitchell is working with the Westside church of
Christ in Brownsville, Tennessee. Neil Hillis is working with the Lebanon Road church of
Christ in Nashville, Tennessee. Keep checking back here to get the updates on all of our students and the ministry that is taking place here. Our schedule is full this summer and it should be very productive. Much Love,
FAMILY NEWS OUR SICK/HOMEBOUND WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS OUR RECORD SERVICE GROUPS CONGRATULATIONS THANK YOU Our prayer is that God will continue to bless us, and that we will grow in
our love for each other, God, and for all of you. Thank you! SUMMER QUARTER Class
Room Sunday Teachers
It’s Vacation Time! We need Volunteer Substitute
Teachers. Class
Room Wednesday Teachers
SUMMER SERIES
ROSS RHAPSODY Impossibility. A word we as Christians use often, but should we? I do realize that even some things are impossible like it is impossible for Nate to ever beat me in basketball. In all seriousness though, "impossibility" should be a word Christians know little about. Luke 7:37 tells us, "For nothing is impossible with God." This year the youth group has adopted this verse to be our theme. To kick off our summer WHYG had a devotional Sunday night where we spoke about things that most of the world would deem "impossible" but we knew differently. We knew that through others, such as our church family, and more importantly through Christ that all things are possible. We thank all those who participated Sunday night in the devo and thank our church family for the continued support they give the WHYG. Vego`s Verse Romans 8:37-3937 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor and powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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