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Join the Pursuit!

To find God is to begin a lifelong pursuit of Him. This sounds like a contradiction or a bit of nonsense, but it’s true. When a man falls in love with a woman, he does not ask for her hand in marriage that he may end his pursuit of her, but only to begin it in earnest. So it is and should be in a person’s relationship with God. When a person is called by God and surrenders his life to Him, he has found God in fullness and secured the promise of spending eternity with Him in heaven. But what salvation also wins for the believer is a newfound peace with God that leads to fellowship, intimacy, and real friendship with Him. Too often, our church’s pulpits and programs have taught that a person’s pursuit of God ends in baptism and that’s a terrible mistake. To those whose growth in God has been stunted by such spiritual malpractice, A. W. Tozer has written a wonderful word of challenge and encouragement. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God reads like a modern day prophecy written to a people in exile and offers the would-be pilgrim a clear pathway back to the Promised Land. A group of us here at the church are reading through this book and meeting on Sunday mornings at 8:30 to discuss what we’ve learned. We’d love to have you come and join the pursuit!

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Why Argos Waited for Odysseus

April 15, 2018

Revelation 14:1-5

14 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

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High Cotton

April 8, 2018

Acts 12:1-5

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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Make Believe

April 1, 2018

Mark 16:9-20

9 Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

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The Stubborn Idealist

March 25, 2018

1 Samuel 8:19-22

19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

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