WEST LIBERTY CHRISTIAN
FELLOWSHIP
“I want to know Christ and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him
in His death.” Philippians 3:10
April 18, 2021
THE GOD WE WORSHIP
The Gospel of John
MESSAGE AND SCRIPTURES
The
Spirit and Truth
John
14: 15-17, 25, 26
John
15: 26, 27
John
16: 5-15
WLCF VISION STATEMENT – To
be a God centered, God loving, Holy Spirit filled, led and empowered Church,
having Christ as the Head and we, as His Body, being used to make disciples of
Jesus to build His Kingdom.
CHURCH COVENANT:
We covenant together with God
and with one another in an ever-increasing relationship with God as follows:
Lord God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we covenant with you and with each other…
That we
will seek to be kingdom people living as kingdom individuals in kingdom homes
in a kingdom church.
BARUCH ATA YHWH
SEBAOTH – Bless You. Praise You.
Thank You Beloved LORD GOD. We are
thankful for our Treasurer, Glenna MacGowan and Financial Secretary, Barb
Keele.
Weekly Dawn Prayer – Wed 7:00 a.m. Zoom
Daily Time Alone with God – for a daily devotion please follow the enclosed
format. Please pray TAG every day.
Prayer Chain – Call or email Geri Owen 319-627-4858 or westlibertychristianfellowship@gmail.com
TODAY
AT WLCF
9:00 a.m. Adult Sunday School (Zoom only) 10:30 a.m.
Worship Service (On Site &
Zoom)
6:30 p.m. CCS YA Bible Study – Luke (Zoom only)
THIS WEEK AT WLCF (All Studies on
Zoom)
Bible Studies
Tuesday 7:00 p.m. Spanish Bible Study
– Mateo (Zoom)
Wednesday 6:30 p.m. Youth Bible Study – Mark (Zoom)
7:30 p.m. Adult Bible Study – The Good Fight (Zoom)
Saturday 7:30 a.m. Men’s Bible Study
– John (Zoom)
Sunday 9:00 a.m. Adult Sunday School
(Zoom)
10:30 a.m. Worship Service (On
site and Zoom)
5:00 p.m. CYG (WLCF)
Final gathering
6:30 p.m. CCS YA Bible Study
– Luke (Zoom)
Birthdays
Monday, April
19, Jordan Mills
Tuesday, April
20, Courtney (Braun) Oaks
Thursday, April
22, Scott Harmon and Matt Owen
Onsight Services
– MUST wear a mask, practice social distancing, follow entrance/exit signs, and
sanitize.
UPCOMING
EVENTS, SERVICES, AND ACTIVITIES
Sunday
Worship Service is both On-Site and Zoom which started
Sunday, March 28th. Sunday
School and Bible Studies will stay with Zoom only, until further notice.
Zoom –You will need to download the app on your phone or
computer. The code for ALL videos is 228 893 6865. The password is 416991. Join us!
National Day of Prayer: Thursday, May 6, 2021. Due to COVID we will host three different prayer times via ZOOM.
The times will be 7:00 am, Noon, and 6:00 pm.
We will be praying for our NATION, GOVERNMENT, MILITARY, SCHOOLS,
ENTERTAINMENT/SPORTS, FAMILY, CHILDREN, COMMUNITY, and CHURCH. (If you are
unable to join us please pray for the above groups on your own).
ONGOING
EVENTS, SERVICES, AND ACTIVITIES
Baptism – If you are interested in following Jesus in the
Waters of Believer’s Baptism please see Pastor Mario.
West Liberty Food Pantry – Is open at FCU Saturdays 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. and
Thursdays 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
We encourage
each family to bring one food item or personal care item to church with you
each Sunday as a donation to the Food Pantry. Please place this item at the
base of the cross. Thank you. Thanks to
the men who deliver these items to FCU.
Julie McKillip is our coordinator.
Church library – You are invited to check out the books from the
library downstairs.
Copy of the Message or Bulletin – Visit our website: www.wlcf.org (an audio
version is included) or contact Brad J.
OUR
GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK: Offering Box – back table
Giving
in April, $2,340, $2,837. We are $106 ahead of budget! We need a monthly offering of $7,736 and a
weekly offering of $1,785. BARUCH ATA YHWH SEBAOTH for the giving of YOUR people
through the years. God loves a cheerful giver. Checks can be mailed to the church or dropped off at the church, in the
mailbox at the end of the lane.
***************************
WLCF
YOUTH MINISTRY
WLCF Youth
Group for young people in 6th – 12th grades
Ministries
Worship Service: Sundays at
10:00 a.m.
Youth Night: Wednesdays
at 6:30 p.m. Studying the Gospel of Mark with Pastor Mario
Activities and Events Organization
Youth Team: Daniel
Zeman, Josh Zeman, Jacob Zeman
Parent Team: Lisa
Perdue and Lynne Zeman
Adult Helpers:
Lynne and Lisa will help coordinate
parents, adult helpers, and any other adults who would help serve with
transportation, food planning or helping as needed. Let them know when available and willing to help serve our youth
ministry.
COMMUNITY
YOUTH GROUP (CYG)
If you are interested in serving this
ministry in any way, let Pastor Mario know. We need one board member and
several cube leaders. The group
meets at First Church United (FCU)
-
Sunday, Apr 18 Regular CYG – Decaying Corpse or
Resurrected Lord 5:00 p.m. WLCF
(Last CYG – Outdoors with Weiner Roast/Games)
PINE
LAKE CAMPS
Pray for
PLCC, the staff and ministry: Mary Jo Litwiller
TIME
ALONE WITH GOD (TAG)
Sunday readings: April 18, 2021
There are vistas of truth which the disciples could not grasp prior to
the cross and the exaltation, but the Spirit of truth would guide them into
“all the truth.” (The Greek has an article before truth; Jesus did not mean
that the Spirit would necessarily guide his followers into any and every kind
of truth but the truth as it is in Jesus’ person, his work and his words.) The
Spirit has bound himself to the teachings of Jesus. And when Jesus says the
Spirit will “declare… the things that are to come,” he does not mean that the
Sprit will give Christ’s followers a blueprint of future events. The meaning is
rather that the Spirit will lead Christ’s followers into the deeper
significance of the cross and the resurrection, which from Jesus’ standpoint were
still future events. Without the Spirit’s illumination Christ’s death would
have been utter tragedy; under the Spirit’s guidance, however, Jesus’ followers
saw in it the victory of God.
What the free Spirit of God has to reveal
to the Church is therefore not new revelations, new doctrines, new promises,
which go beyond things that Jesus himself said or even complement and add to
them. It is not said of the Spirit that he will lead the Church into new truth,
but into all truth…Jesus is followed by no new revealer; in him, once for all,
the revelation of God is given to the world. This revelation is inexhaustible.
But the new insights bestowed on the Church by the Spirit do not add to or
surpass what Christ himself revealed…The Spirit cannot say more than Jesus…The
Spirit cannot give a new revelation, but through the preaching of his witnesses
he will cause everything that Jesus said and did to be revealed in a new light.
The Spirit’s work will be totally Christocentric. He will glorify Christ
by taking the things of Christ and declaring them to his disciples. Just as
Jesus glorified the Father by revealing him to people, the Paraclete glorifies
Jesus by revealing him to people.
David
Ewert, The Holy Spirit In the New Testament, p. 82 (1983)
SUPPLEMENTAL
READINGS
The
Gospel of John – The Spirit and Truth
John
16: 5-15
First of all, it is commonly understood that the
Scriptures depend upon the Holy Spirit for their efficacy in guidance as well
as redemption. A recent conference of evangelical scholars affirms “that the
Holy Spirit who inspired scripture acts through it today to work faith in its
message,” and “that the Holy Spirit enables believers to appropriate and apply
scripture to their lives.” It is likewise denied “that the natural man is able
to discern spiritually the biblical message apart from the Holy Spirit.” Many people commonly regarded as in the
evangelical tradition seem prepared to make even stronger statements on the
role of the Holy Spirit in Bible study. Consider again William Law:
Without
the present illumination of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God must remain a dead
letter to every man, no matter how intelligent or well-educated he may be… It
is just as essential for the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of Scripture to the
reader today as it was necessary for Him to inspire the writers thereof in
their day…Therefore to say that because we now have all the writings of
Scripture complete we no longer need the miraculous inspiration of the Spirit
among men as in former days, is a degree of blindness as great as any that can
be charged upon the scribes and Pharisees. Nor can we possibly escape their
same errors; for in denying the present inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we have
made Scripture the province of the letter-learned scribe.
Dallas
Willard, In Search of Guidance, p. 197f, (1984).
The work of the Spirit is Christocentric.
He will draw attention not to Himself but to Christ. He will glorify Christ. It
is the things of Christ that He takes and declares, i.e. His ministry is built
upon and is the necessary sequel to that of Christ. There is no division in the Godhead. What the Father has the Son
has. It is because of the community between the Father and Himself that Jesus
can speak in the way He has just done. Just as the Spirit is concerned to set
forward the things of Christ so is He concerned to set forward the things of
the Father.
Leon Morris, The Gospel According
to John, p. 701 (1971).
Christ
is “the way” by which men are led to “the truth.” By Him we go to Him. The
Spirit “guides” men who follow His leading; He does not “tell” His message
without effort on their part. He also guides them “into the Truth,” which is the
domain upon which they enter, and not something to be gazed upon from afar.
B.F. Westcott, The Gospel
According to St. John, p. 230 (1881).
Without
the Spirit of Christ a man cannot begin to be a Christian at all. It is the
Spirit who makes him a son of God and who assures him of the reality of that
sonship. For the Christian man the Spirit must be the law of his life, his
director, the standard by which he judges all things, the person whose gifts he
most of all desires. The Spirit brings him certain great gifts. The Spirit
brings him liberation from the law of
sin and death. The man into whose life the Spirit has come is the man set free.
The Spirit brings him peace. The
Spirit brings him victory in the warfare of the soul. The Spirit brings him life. His mortal body becomes alive with
the life of Christ. The non-Christian man without Christ and the Holy Spirit
may be said to exist; he cannot be said to live. The Spirit brings him power and enables him to put to death
the deeds of the body. The peace which the Spirit brings is the peace of
conquest. It may be said that for Paul
the spirit of a man is the indwelling power of God in that man, or, to put it
in another way, it is the risen Christ resident within him. The spirit of a man
is that part of a man which has kinship with God, and which therefore gives a
man fellowship with God and power to win the victory in the warfare of the
soul.
William Barclay, Flesh and Spirit,
p. 16 (1962).
THE DISPLACED MEMBER OF THE GODHEAD “In most Christian churches
the Spirit is entirely overlooked. Whether He is present or absent makes no
real difference to anyone.
J. Oswald Sanders, The Holy Spirit
and His Gifts, p. 10 (1940).
In recent years the Lord of the church
has fanned smoldering embers and lighted new fires in many fireplaces.
Spiritual renewal has appeared in a variety of forms. The most significant, in
terms of its beginning, its movement across denominational boundaries and its
continuing growth, is the charismatic renewal. Like others in the history of
the church, it has arrived in a shape as unexpected as it was unplanned, and as
controversial as it is powerful. No wonder it stirs reactions ranging from
enthusiastic welcome to perplexity to violent rejection.
Charles E. Hummel, Fire In The
Fireplace, p. 16 (1978).
NOTES: