|
1001 E. MacArthur
Ministers |
Today Camp Rock Creek Bring a friend Registration starts at 3:00pm Maps, Forms & What to bring are on the foyer table. Senior High staffers need to remember their $40 camp fee. ASAP!! A Big Thank You for those who have donated money to help with camp. You may still help defray cost!!!
Ladies Ministry Shirts Ladies that ordered shirts, Please see Jenn today or you will have to wait until next Sunday to get your shirt.
Afghans are in the cry room for your comfort in the auditorium.
Craft Encouragement Operations There are letters to sign and gifts set out on foyer table, please sign and help deliver or pick-up your own.
Small Group Committee Meet today at 4:30pm
This Week 39rs will meet this Thursday at 7pm.
-
|
July 20, 2003 Vol XXIV # 29 Teens We are all at Camp Rock Creek Welcome to our newest members!! Placed Membership last Sunday. Dale, Alicia Frazier & daughter Rachael Roberts PO Box 94 Macomb, OK 74855 333-2612
Upcoming Faith Partners-Evening For Everyone “Family Systems; Maintaining a Healthy Balance”, Thursday, July 31, 7:00pm. Jan Tipton from Gateway will present a fascinating program about family stresses, open communications, parent-child relationships, etc.
Thank You We want to thank everyone that participated in helping with VBS.
|
|
|
Remember in Your Prayers Daniel Huckleberry, a relative of the Younger family had 2 stints put in last week. Jack Hickman is home and doing well from his heart attach last Sunday. Corey Shelburne needs prayers for loneliness and encouragement. Jeff Caster. Walter Cartwright’s stepbrother is suffering from an incurable disease. Robert Allen isn’t feeling very good from his treatments, they have asked for no visitors at this time.
The Holy Spirit Actually Indwells Christians
The Holy Spirit actually indwells Christians. We would not need the word "actually" in this statement if it were not for the teaching that the Holy Spirit does not actually indwell (live in) us. Despite scriptures that clearly state that the Holy Spirit is given to and dwells in Christians*, some persons teach that it cannot be so. It is said that the Holy Spirit dwells through the Word only or that He dwells representatively. It is claimed that an actual indwelling is impossible because that would make each Christian become deity or that we would all be working miracles or that the Spirit cannot be physically parceled out into so many pieces or because His Holiness could not exist in our sinful frame. None of the statements in the paragraph just above is claimed in scripture. None of the supposed problems is a problem in scripture. All of it is a misunderstanding of the point of the Biblical promise of the Holy Spirit - an intimate spiritual connection with the Divine. God (1 Jn 4:12), Christ (Eph 3:17), and the Spirit dwell in believers. In 1 Cor 6:19-20 Paul went beyond any question about "Word only" or "influence only" claims when he said that the Spirit resides in our bodies. The written Word cannot reside in our bodies. The same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead (Rom 8:11) dwells in the Christian. The written Word did not raise Jesus. The Spirit is sent into our hearts because we are children of God, not to make us children of God (Gal 4:6). Neither the Bible nor our spirits cry "Abba Father" here - the indwelling Spirit does. Trying to explain away scriptures which simply state the indwelling of the Spirit leads to problems. Nothing physical or empirical can explain the spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit. We cannot explain how our very own spirits attach to or live in us! If the Spirit dwells through the Word only, then He is essentially reduced to being the same thing as the Word. Does a person have the Spirit only to the extent that he knows some Bible?! If someone knows things from the Bible without becoming a Christian, does that person then have the Spirit?! What about Christians who never had a copy of the written Word? While the Spirit did reveal the Word, He, like God the Father, is much more than that and should not be limited! If God had wanted to tell us that He gives us His Spirit and that Spirit dwells in us, what would He have said? If God wanted to tell us that the Spirit dwells through the Word only, what would He have said? What indeed did He say?! Don't explain away this promise. Receive its power, encouragement, strength, pledge, and intercession for you. - Cliff
* Acts 2:38, 5:32; Rom 5:5, 8:9-11; 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19; Eph 2:22; 2 Tim 1:14; Js 4:5
|
|
| : |