- It is God’s Word that converts people to Christ. It’s not me or you… it is God.
- What you teach depends on who you are teaching. Are you teaching an Atheist? Then you need to teach about the existence of God. Are you teaching a Christian who is following a false system of belief? Then teach New Testament doctrines. Are you teaching someone who is morally bankrupt? Focus on what the Bible teaches about how we should live and what Jesus does for us.
- What is my objective as a teacher? It is not to vanquish or overwhelm someone with biblical superiority. It is not to get them to switch churches. My objective as a teacher should be to teach God’s Word and build faith in God.
- As a teacher I should live a righteous, unselfish life. I should have a comprehensive knowledge of the scriptures. I must be intellectually honest and not be dogmatic and opinionated about questionable things. I must come to understand and know my student and I must be a learner. I must strive to be effective.
- Who can I teach? Those who are looking for spiritual help. Those who have an obvious need for spiritual help but are not looking for it.
- As a planter of God’s Word I am not responsible for the outcome… God is. But still I can learn to be an effective, opportunistic teacher.
- The age of working miracles to get peoples attention is over. We live in an age where the only miracle people will witness is the miracle of a godly life in an increasingly morally bankrupt society. That miracle is an attention getter and will create opportunities to teach.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Building Faith: Prayer
Prayer is one of the activities Christians were engaging in when they assembled. Prayer directed towards God is an admission that “God Is” and reflects our dependence upon him. The scriptures describe prayer as the “sacrifice of our lips”.
In public prayer the primary audience is God and the secondary audience is the assembled congregation.
Prayer is a teaching tool. There are several prayers recorded in the Bible and they are recorded there for a purpose… they teach us. We can also teach with prayer in our assemblies.
Public prayer can be thought provoking and can create an emotional response in the listeners. I’ve had two occasions when I have led a public prayer and have had people come up to me afterwards with something special to say.
One of those was in Houston. My dad was either sick or had just passed away… I don’t remember which and I was leading the closing prayer. I don’t really remember what I said but I do remember that I was trembling and Julie reached down and held my hand during that prayer. Afterwards a friend came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, “That was a powerful prayer”.
To pray well in public we have to have an active prayer life in private. To have an active prayer life in private we need to have a broad understanding of who God is and we need to spend time thinking about God. We need to pray to God when things are troubling us and we need to pray when we’re happy or have been blessed with good things and for every emotion in between.
We need to also break away from the old traditional prayers we often hear in assemblies and pray with our own words and our own thoughts.
Here is a sampling of things we can pray for…
- We can pray for other people than just those in our congregation. Pray when tragedy or suffering happens in the community. For example, a school bus gets in a wreck and children are injured.
- Pray for things that seem impossible. Pray that Osama Ben Laden will hear the truth and become a believer.
- Ask God to tell a loved one that we’re thinking about them.
- Pray for the simple gift of healing… don’t tell God how to heal, “Lord touch them with your healing hand”.
- Confess in prayer whatever short comings you have in your life.
- Ask for blessings but confess that if you don’t receive them that God is still your God.
- Pray for God to take us all to heaven right now as a church family.
- Pray for things that are expressed well in songs… “O Lord our God, when we in awesome wonder, consider all… “
Public prayer is one of the essentials of congregational worship. God is listening and the congregation is listening. Prepare yourself by immersing yourself in the word and by spending much time in quiet personal prayer. When you stand before the congregation try as much as is possible to let it be just you and God and pray from your heart with your own words just as if you are sitting in your own back yard thinking about things and sharing them with God.
In public prayer the primary audience is God and the secondary audience is the assembled congregation.
Prayer is a teaching tool. There are several prayers recorded in the Bible and they are recorded there for a purpose… they teach us. We can also teach with prayer in our assemblies.
Public prayer can be thought provoking and can create an emotional response in the listeners. I’ve had two occasions when I have led a public prayer and have had people come up to me afterwards with something special to say.
One of those was in Houston. My dad was either sick or had just passed away… I don’t remember which and I was leading the closing prayer. I don’t really remember what I said but I do remember that I was trembling and Julie reached down and held my hand during that prayer. Afterwards a friend came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, “That was a powerful prayer”.
To pray well in public we have to have an active prayer life in private. To have an active prayer life in private we need to have a broad understanding of who God is and we need to spend time thinking about God. We need to pray to God when things are troubling us and we need to pray when we’re happy or have been blessed with good things and for every emotion in between.
We need to also break away from the old traditional prayers we often hear in assemblies and pray with our own words and our own thoughts.
Here is a sampling of things we can pray for…
- We can pray for other people than just those in our congregation. Pray when tragedy or suffering happens in the community. For example, a school bus gets in a wreck and children are injured.
- Pray for things that seem impossible. Pray that Osama Ben Laden will hear the truth and become a believer.
- Ask God to tell a loved one that we’re thinking about them.
- Pray for the simple gift of healing… don’t tell God how to heal, “Lord touch them with your healing hand”.
- Confess in prayer whatever short comings you have in your life.
- Ask for blessings but confess that if you don’t receive them that God is still your God.
- Pray for God to take us all to heaven right now as a church family.
- Pray for things that are expressed well in songs… “O Lord our God, when we in awesome wonder, consider all… “
Public prayer is one of the essentials of congregational worship. God is listening and the congregation is listening. Prepare yourself by immersing yourself in the word and by spending much time in quiet personal prayer. When you stand before the congregation try as much as is possible to let it be just you and God and pray from your heart with your own words just as if you are sitting in your own back yard thinking about things and sharing them with God.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Young Adults at Tornos
We have a monthly schedule for people to have our young adults/college students into their homes. Cyndi Garcia had them last month and we are booked up through May. However, I'm sure if you wanted to have them over they wouldn't mind getting together twice a month. A lot of our students are going out of town but we will have several in town over the holidays... I'm just saying.
Shane Torno's Class
Shane's class prepared holiday baskets for some of the members. Not pictured is McKenzie.
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