YAM eNews Week of April 20, 2003

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IN THE eNEWS THIS WEEK

Calendar
Coming Up
NewsFlash—Summer Job at TFB
[Your Contribution Could Be Here]
A Look at the Resurrection with Pastor Charlie
Suggested Study Plan For Romans
The Gathering—No Gathering today, but the donut holes in the courtyard were good!
Tuesday Bible Study—Big Rocks
Soul Work—Resurrection Art

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CALENDAR

SUNDAYS
Worship @ 8:45 am—Main Worship Center
Current Study: Pastor Charlie is teaching through Paul’s Letter to the Romans

The Gathering @ 10 am—YAM room
Current Study: Tom on, “The Importance of Easter: What it means and what it doesn’t mean”
An online summary is available weekly at http://tfbyam.blogspot.com/

Eating together (most weeks) @ 11:45 am—restaurant changes, meet in the patio or see Mike N


TUESDAYS

Bible Study @ 8 pm—YAM room
Current Study: Big Rocks, taught by Laura
An online version is available weekly at http://tfbyam.blogspot.com/

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COMING UP

SUNDAY May 4
@ 5:00 pm
SEE SPOT ROCK
visit http://www.seespotrock.com for more info

SUMMER EVENTS… at least so far (send in your ideas!!)
Sparks games
Baseball
Weekend retreat

LABOR DAY WEEKEND, August 29 to September 1
COLLEGE BRIEFING
Forest Home
In our world we are often faced with hard and challenging situations.
What do you depend on during these times?
Jesus Alone!
…CHRIST IS ALL THAT MATTERS… Colossians 3:11 NLT
Cost: $145, $25 non-refundable deposit due at sign-up
Scholarships available, ask Laura or Tom
Visit http://www.gospelcom.net/foresthome/collegebriefing2003.htm for info

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NEWSFLASH—SUMMER JOB AT TFB

Helper for Director of Christian Education (Lynne Foster)

Everything from grunt work to program planning
Ten weeks
$100 (before taxes) a week for a total of ten weeks = $1000
Payday is every two weeks

Contact Lynne Foster if interested:
tfbce@pacbell.net

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[YOUR CONTRIBUTION COULD BE HERE]


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STUDYING ROMANS WITH PASTOR CHARLIE
[NOTE: the Romans study will continue next Sunday]

WHY DOES THE RESURRECTION MATTER?

1. Because of the resurrection, our past can be forgiven. Colossians 3:14; Romans 8:1.
“Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross so I can quit nailing myself to the cross.”

2. Because of the resurrection, our present life can be managed. Ephesians 1:20; Philippians 4:13.
“Maturity is realizing that you cannot manage all that life sends you, but God can.”

3. Because of the resurrection, our future life can be secure.

Two ways to Heaven:
Plan A—I earn it! I live a perfect life!
- Salvation by sincerity: “It doesn’t matter what you believer as long as you’re sincere.” The problem? It’s very easy to be sincerely wrong!
- Salvation by good deeds: “I do good to others.” The problem? Good deeds aren’t the requirement, perfection is.
- Salvation by subtraction: “I give up my bad habits.” The problem? That would mean that all dead people are saved, because they’re not doing anything. I don’t think so.
- Salvation by religion: “I join a church and conform.” The problem? This is kinda like saying that being in a garage makes you a car. Nope.
- Salvation by heritage: “My mom and grandma were Christians.” The problem? Mom and grandma were probably married to, but your marriage (or not) is your choice. Same with salvation.
- Salvation by comparison: “I better than a lot of people.” The problem? God doesn’t grade on a curve.

Plan B—Jesus earns it! He lives a perfect life. I place my trust in Jesus, who earned my salvation through his life, death, and resurrection. 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 17:3; John 3:16

If you’re still trying to get to Heaven on Plan A—it doesn’t work. The only way is Plan B. This is the most important decision of your life. If you’ve made the decision to follow Jesus, sit down right now and tell him that you’re through with trying to get to Heaven on Plan A. Tell him you have decided to trust Plan B—to trust Jesus. Now, tell someone else about your decision, send an email to tfbyam1@hotmail.com and we’ll send you some more information.

--Charlie (lks)

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SUGGESTED STUDY PLAN FOR ROMANS
1. Read a chapter a day. When you’ve finished the book, start over. By the end of the series—about six months—you will have read Paul’s Letter to the Romans eleven or twelve times. How cool is that?
2. Memorize! Three plans:

LIGHT LOAD: memorize Romans 14:1-15:2—a total of 25 verses. Memorize one verse a week and you will finish in about six months.

MODERATE LOAD: memorize Romans 14:1-15:2 and Romans 12— a total of 46 verses. Memorize two verses a week and you will finish in about six months.

HEAVY LOAD: memorize Romans 12:1-15:13— a total of 71 verses. Memorize three verses a week and you will finish in about six months.

To know it, you gotta DO it!

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THE GATHERING—
[also available at http://tfbyam.blogspot.com/]

The Gathering took a break today for Resurrection Sunday. Pastor Charlie taught on the resurrection, so if you need a fix until next week, check out the sermon notes above.

- Laura

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TUESDAY BIBLE STUDY

YAM Tuesday—Big Rocks
[also available at http://tfbyam.blogspot.com/]

YAM Tuesday—Big Rocks

Big Rock One: The Word: 2 Timothy 3:10-17; Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Big Rock Two: God: Psalm 145:17-21; Hebrews 12:4-11
Big Rock Three: Man: Genesis 1:26-31; 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:4
Big Rock Four: Sin: Genesis 2:25-3:7; Ephesians 2:1-3
Big Rock Five: Christ--Isaiah 9:1-7; John 1:14-18

This week: Big Rock Five: Redemption-- Isaiah 53:10-12

THE MENU
First: Get out your bible and read the passage a few times.
Second: What do you notice—who, what, when, where, how?
Third: Divide the passage into chunks that make sense.
Fourth: Summarize each chunk with a crispy sentence.
Fifth: Using the passage as your guide, try to answer your questions.
Sixth: Ask yourself, “So what?” What difference does/should this passage make in your life?

Here’s a few thoughts from Tuesday:
- Spend some time figuring out the three characters in this passage. The first is the LORD (Yahweh), the second is the righteous servant, and the third is “they.” Identify each pronoun and name/title/description.
- The passage flows in a series of contrasts between the apparently bad and the apparently good. Locate these chunks.
- The first part of the passage says that it was the LORD’s will to crush him. Frankly, this does not seem at all nice. What does this all mean?

So what?
- Two important themes run through this passage: grace and justice. The American Heritage Dictionary defines ‘grace’ as “5. A favor rendered by one who need not do so” and ‘justice’ as “3a. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.” Where do you see these themes in this passage? Be careful. They show up in unexpected places.

- This passage tells us that God upheld both justice and grace when he gave the righteous servant (Jesus the Messiah) as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of humans. If God did this for us while we were his avowed enemies, how should we respond to our enemies? How do we balance our responsibilities as the children of God with our responsibilities as citizens of our nation?



Coming up...

Big Rock Six: Redemption--John 3:16-21
Big Rock Seven: Spirit--Ezekiel 36:22-32; John 16:5-15
Big Rock Eight: Church--Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ephesians 4:7-16
Big Rock Nine: Future--Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 20:11-15

[the above preview may change, but it probably won't]
--Laura

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SOUL WORK— Resurrection Art

No words today. Check out the art links at:

http://www.textweek.com/art/resurrection_of_Christ.htm