YAM eNews Week of May 11, 2003
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IN THE eNEWS THIS WEEK
Calendar
Coming Up
NewsFlash—Summer Sunday School Volunteer
NewsFlash—Training Day
The Things You Can Find With A Decent Search Engine—Prib’s Realm
[Your Contribution Could Be Here]—Funny: Influential Things My Mom Has Taught Me
Studying Romans with Pastor Charlie
Suggested Study Plan For Romans
The Gathering—Resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15:1-19
Tuesday Bible Study—Big Rocks
Soul Work—
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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
SATURDAY, June 14
9:00 am to 12:30 pm
TRAINING DAY: UNIQUELY YOU
Trying to figure out what you were made for?
Discover your divine design!
SUMMER EVENTS… at least so far (send in your ideas!!)
Sparks games
Baseball
Weekend retreat
Taco Saturday
Pool Party
MTA Los Angeles Art Tour
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 SUNDAY SCHOOL VOLUNTEER
Helpers needed urgently for the Preschool Sunday School class beginning June 8th, one Sunday a month on a rotation with other volunteers. Both guys and girls needed.
Contact Lynne Foster ASAP if you can help:
tfbce@pacbell.net
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NEWSFLASH—TRAINING DAY
June 14
9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Every YAM student and leader is expected to attend Uniquely You on June 14.
Price is $25
If you need assistance, scholarships are available.
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THE THINGS YOU CAN FIND WITH A DECENT SEARCH ENGINE—Prib’s Realm
Yep, J. Pribble has a website… http://web.umr.edu/~pribble/
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[YOUR CONTRIBUTION COULD BE HERE]
INFLUENTIAL THINGS MY MOM HAS TAUGHT ME
My mother taught me logic: "If you fall off that swing and break your
neck, you can't go to the store with me."
My mother taught me medicine: "If you don't stop crossing your eyes,
they're going to freeze that way."
My mother taught me E.S.P.: "Put your sweater on; don't you think that I
know when you're cold?"
My mother taught me humor: "When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't
come running to me."
My mother taught me patience: "Sure, you can do that--as soon as you're 21
and leave the house!"
My mother taught me diplomacy: "I don't want to hear who started it. It
takes two to fight."
My mother taught me sharing: "Play nicely with that or I'll just take away
from both of you."
But most of all, my mother taught me love: "You know that whatever you do
or whatever happens, I'll stand behind you because I love you."
--Author unknown.
Source: http://www.gospelcom.net/ifc/newsletter.shtml
Editor’s Note: For most Mother’s Day is a happy day of rejoicing, but for others, it is a sad day of mourning. Please remember to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn.
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STUDYING ROMANS WITH PASTOR CHARLIE
The Christian View of Life
How Jesus Replaced What Adam Erased
Romans 5:12-21
WHAT ADAM ERASED—or how we got into this mess
- Adam gave us sin, 5:12
- Adam gave us death, 5:12
Three Different Kinds of Death
1. Physical death—body stops working, Hebrews 9:27
2. Spiritual death—disconnected from god, Ephesians 2:1, 2, 4
3. Eternal death—permanently disconnected from God
- Adam gave us the sin nature, 5:12
By condemning the entire world in one man, Adam, God was able to save the whole world though one man.
WHAT JESUS REPLACED
- Jesus replaced Adam’s sin with his sacrifice, 5:15
- Jesus replaced God’s judgment with justification, 5:16; 3:28
- Jesus replaced death through sin with life through death,, 5:17
- Jesus replaced the sin nature with his righteousness, 5:19; Phil 2:8; Rom 6:23
--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/]
From Tom's Table:
Happy Mother's Day!! We may not all be mothers but at least we all have mothers!
Today, I went into 1 Corinthians 15:20-38.
Paul is now going into the fact that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. For those of you who attend the service today, Charlie was right in step with us here at YAM. He was going over Romans 5:12 - 21. Rom 5:12 goes into exactly what this segment of 1 Cor 15 does, that is the comparison of Christ with Adam. That through Adam came death, but through Christ comes life.
Christ's resurrection marks the beginning of a new era which Paul recognizes. The Messiah has now risen. This leads the way for all of us to now look forward to our resurrection. When God will take us up into heaven. Jesus' resurrection is an incredible act in which He overcomes death. giving us the same assurance that all His promises will be fulfilled. For when Adam, living in the garden of Eden, brought sin into the world, along with sin came death, which affected all to come after Adam. But now Christ reverses this. He has conquered death, He has provided the means, through faith in Him, that we can be forgiven ours sins, and now, with that saving faith, we will be able to be back with Him in heaven. So the downward fall of man is now reversed to the upward path through Christ.
Paul alludes to what the suffering Christian's are willing to endure (v32 ...fighting with wild beasts...). The early Christian's suffered persecution of all sorts. Paul says, if the dead are not raised, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." To use modern vernacular, he's saying if all this stuff about the dead being raised is not true, then "let's party!" But Paul knows from his own personal encounter with the risen Lord, and all the witnesses he mentioned earlier, that it is true. So now he says, quit messing around, start thinking seriously, stop sinning. Especially since there are still those out there that don't know God! An interesting verse from Rom 5:7-8 "For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This talks about how Christ was willing to die for us, even though we are lowly sinners. But the verse is also making us aware that who among us is willing to die even for a good man? Likewise, who of us would be willing to die for good cause? For us humans, it would probably have to be a reeeeeeeeeal good cause. But who would die for a fake cause??? No one would be my answer, assuming they knew it was fake. Yet here are all these early Christians (and even still to this day) willing to die because they KNEW Christ has been raised, that he conquered death, and they now had that promise from Him, that He would raise us up at the end.
Paul winds up the section we're looking at (v 35-38) where I can imagine Paul's not thrilled with people questioning the idea of bodily resurrection and here mimics the scoffers saying "How are the dead raised, and with what kind of body do they come?" (say this with your best sarcastic voice). Well the next line, which probably seems mild to us, probably wasn't too mild back in Paul's day. He says, "You fool! ..." (say this in your best Mr. T voice, [assuming you all know who Mr. T is]). If you look at Matthew 5:22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, "You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." This was Jesus speaking and saying your guilty enough to go to "fiery hell" for saying "you fool" to someone, must make that a pretty bad thing to say to a person. (Fortunately for Paul, he's addressing a hypothetical scoffer here and not someone directly). Obviously, Paul is very serious here. He goes into a familiar "seed" metaphor that is used in many places in the NT. Essentially he saying that unless the grain (or seed) dies, it will not come to life. We are the grain or seed. Like a seed of a tree "dies" meaning that it must give up it's "life" as a seed to get a new life as a tree, otherwise, its potential will never be realized. We likewise, need to shuck off the old life, the life without Christ. Now we begin to realize the potential God has for us as believers. We won't realize our full potential that God has in store for us until after our resurrection, when He bring us into heaven with Him. That's when these little seeds of who we are now, which are sown in dishonor and weakness (v43) will be raised in glory and power. We have some awesome times to look forward to. This should make it easier to understand why people like Paul had no problem putting their earthly lives on the line, because they knew what was to come.
For next week, I will finish up 1 Cor 15, where Paul goes into greater detail of what was talked about above, that is the change from our earthly body to our heavenly bodies.
Have an awesome week in the Lord, study hard, pray hard, tell someone about the reason for the hope you have!
Tom
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TUESDAY BIBLE STUDY
YAM Tuesday—Big Rocks
[also available at http://tfbyam.blogspot.com/]
[A "Big Rocks" study booklet will be available in a few weeks. Send an email if you're interested.]
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
Big Rock Five: Redemption-- Isaiah 53:10-12; John 3:16-21
Big Rock Seven: Spirit--Ezekiel 36:22-32
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:
- Yahweh’s putting his Spirit within his rebellions people Israel …causes his people to remember their sins and reveals Yahweh’s holiness before the nations.
- Spend some time searching out repeated words and ideas—they are important in this passage.
- Note especially the sandwich: “not for your sake.” When a passage has the same idea at the beginning and the end, that’s a KEY to the main point of the passage.
Thinking it through:
1. Ask yourself—off the top of you head—why did God give us his Spirit?
2. According to Ezekiel 36, God sent his Spirit to show himself holy. How does your list compare? If you’re like most people, you listed things like: to guide us, to assure us, to help us remember, etc. Well, surprise! The primary reason God sent the Spirit was to show his own holiness—to magnify his own glory. Now the Spirit does those other things, and more, but let’s not get fooled into thinking that it’s all about us. Nope. It’s all about God.
3. How is the Holy Spirit demonstrating through you? In what ways are you hindering the Spirit’s primary work of demonstrating God’s holiness?
4. Spend some time in silence and solitude practicing quietness before God, and let him teach you.
Coming up...
Big Rock Seven: Spirit--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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