Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Scripture quotation taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright© 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Skyline’s Proposed 20-year Vision: To become an apostolic church that seeds the development of 50 new Christian communities of believers leading others in the Skyline message: “Spirits on fire with contagious enthusiasm for Christ.” The vision sounds audacious, doesn’t it? Fifty new Christian communities in 20 years? How do we hope to achieve that goal? With much prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe God makes all things possible. However, we know that God chooses to work in the world through human beings, so we need everyone at Skyline (including you!) partnering together in ministry in order to reach this goal. Why does the Council believe this is the direction God is leading Skyline to take? We have all experienced the incredible love God has for us in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We have tasted the grace of mercy and forgiveness and the joy of serving God in our every day lives. We have enjoyed the blessing of Christian community, assuring us we are not alone on this journey. We have also seen the faces of the hurting, the lonely, and those who are lost in this world, and we want so desperately to share the blessing of Christian community with them, so that they, too, can experience the peace of a relationship with Jesus Christ and the joy of a purpose-filled life serving God. In order to serve them well, we want to go where they are and take the message to the people, instead of waiting for them to find us. We realize, however, that to live up to this vision, we will need to sacrifice what we want for what other people need. As Paul proclaimed in the key verse above, we don’t just do what we like or what is comfortable or best for us; we instead focus on what is best for others so that they may be saved. In this passage at the end of chapter 10, Paul completes his discussion on meat sacrificed to idols which we read earlier in chapter 8. However, in this passage, Paul broadened the argument to include a discussion on how to make moral decisions in general. The Corinthians had a motto, “I am allowed to do anything,” which reflected their new-found freedom in Christ. While Paul agreed with the understanding of being free from having to earn God’s love under the old law, he disagreed that the freedom meant we could do anything we wanted. For Paul, the Corinthian motto approached Christian behavior from the perspective of the person deciding how to act. Paul shifted that focus from self to God and others. He, once again, instructed the Christians in Corinth to consider others when making decisions, doing what was best for others and for the community instead of just what was best for them. He also reminded them that everything we do must be for the glory of God. In other words, every action we take and every word we say makes a statement about who God is in our lives. As Christians, our actions reflect back on God. People will discover who God is by the way we live our lives. In the words of Uncle Ben in Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility.” We have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in us and working through us, which gives us freedom and great responsibility. The Council believes that God has given us an awesome gift in the Skyline community. With that gift comes the responsibility to share it with others. The best way to share this gift is to take it to the people who need it. Will you join us in this incredible mission and help us live out our vision? Questions for Reflection
For further reading: See Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 13, and Matthew 18:5-7.
For next week: Read
1 Corinthians 1:4-10.
Why is unity so important to the life and witness of the church before a
watching world? |
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