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
Jan. 19, 2025
THE GOD WE WORSHIP
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Message and Scriptures
Known & Called
Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-15a (CEV); I Samuel 3:1-10 (The Message)
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 strive to take Your Word seriously as we seek to be doers of Your Word.
BARUCH ATA YHWH SEBAOTH – Bless You. Praise You. Thank You Beloved LORD GOD. We are thankful our area Ministerial Association and their work to build a community of Christ across churches and to care for everyone in our community.
Weekly Dawn Prayer – Wednesday mornings at 7:00am both in person and via Zoom
Daily Time Alone with God – for a daily devotion please follow “Time Alone With God”, found on the website. Please pray TAG every day.
Prayer Chain – Call or email Lynne Zeman 319-627-4858 or westlibertychristianfellowship@gmail.com
TODAY AT WLCF (On Site and Zoom)
Worship Service
9:00
a.m. Adult Sunday
school 10:00
a.m. Prayer
10:30 a.m.
Worship Service
THIS WEEK AT WLCF
Bible Studies/Sunday School/Worship
Monday 6:00 p.m. Getting to Know the Bible
Tuesday 7:00 p.m. Spanish Bible Study – Lucas Holy Spirit
Wednesday 7:00 a.m. Dawn Prayer – Prayer for the World/Nation/Community/WLCF
6:00 p.m. Youth Bible Study – Luke / Psalms
Saturday 7:30 a.m. Men’s Bible Study - Revelation
Sunday 9:00 a.m Adult Sunday School
10:00 a.m. Prayer (Sanctuary) Social (Foyer)
10:30 a.m. Worship Service
Birthday(s)
Tuesday, Jan 21 – Lisa Perdue
Wednesday, Jan 22 – Becky Feldman, Julie McKillip, Layla Plath
Thursday, Jan 23 – Easton McKillip
Saturday, Jan 25 – Gabriel Malagon
Anniversary(ies)
MASKS: Everyone is now welcome to make their own decision regarding wearing masks. There will still be a supply by the entry door, but it is your choice whether you wear a mask.
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!
UPCOMING EVENTS, SERVICES, AND ACTIVITIES
Women’s Sunday School –A new 8 week study focused on Spiritual Formation will begin on Sunday, Feb 2 at 9am (downstairs). “Practicing the Way.” Led by Kelsey Jenkins. Childcare will be provided.
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.
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 Jenkins.
Stephen’s Ministry – is available for anyone needing someone to walk beside them or pray with them. Please contact Kelsey Jenkins 319-936-4891 or Cindy Mays 319-330-4620 for more information.
Child Care: Child care is available in the Nursery during worship service.
Children’s Sunday school – during the sermon at the 10:30 a.m. worship service.
OUR GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK: Offering Box – back table
Giving in January: $855, $1415 . We are behind budget $1953.32 . We need a monthly offering of $9150.52 and a weekly offering of $2111.66 to match our budget. 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. You are also invited to sign up for Electronic Funds Transfer (ETF). Please see Lynne for details.
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WLCF YOUTH MINISTRY
WLCF Youth Group for young people in 6th – 12th grades
Ministries
Worship Service: Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
Youth Night: Wednesdays at
6pm: resumes Sept 4 – Luke& Psalms
(Please bring your Bibles).
Activities and Events
COMMUNITY YOUTH GROUP (CYG)
If you are interested in serving this ministry in any way, let Pastor Mario know. They need one board member and several cube leaders. The group meets at First Church United (FCU) on Sunday evenings.
Jan 19 Movie night 5:30 pm FCU
Jan 26 Regular CYG 6pm FCU
Feb 2 Regular CYG 6pm FCU
TIME ALONE WITH GOD (TAG)
Sunday, Jan 19, 2024
I must realize that the Bible is not a book of magic but a book of miracle. God not only spoke to the writers of the sixty-six books, but He continues to speak through them to me today. Jesus called the words of the Bible "life" (John 6:63), and Peter called them "seed" (1 Peter 1:23-25). The Word of God is seed that contains the life principle of God Himself; and when that Word is read, digested, and obeyed, it manifests itself in a living reproduction of God, just as the seed will manifest itself again in the new plant. The Bible is not history, biography, or anthology; it is God's life in the crystalline form of words that, when read and obeyed, releases that life for the benefit and blessing of the reader.
The Bible is food (Deuteronomy 8:3), and food is nothing more than the chemical continuation of life. Unless the Holy Spirit has food to give me, He cannot maintain the level of spiritual life in me that He desires. That is why He pleads with me not to live off experience, service, ritual, dogma, or fellowship, but to live off the Word, which alone carries the capability of sustaining my spiritual life.
The Bible is a life-giving book! It is a drugstore loaded with tonics of every description, all waiting to be used. There is enough resource to take care of all my (needs, for both soul and body, for today, tomorrow, and forever.
Have I found His Word a delight to my heart? Do I read it as one searching for a love message and not just "doing my daily dozen"? Have I gone past dates, facts, numbers, and events and found God Himself there? Have I made the Bible a rendezvous with infinity and eternity, and is my soul satisfied? Praise God for the "angels food" He supplies for us in His Word (Psalm 78:25, KJV), which nourishes and satisfies the new man!
W. Glyn Evans, Daily with The King, p. 240 (1979).
We turn again to the "aim of the Christian discipline, which is love that springs from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith." Note that it is a love that springs from the total personality -- "a pure heart," the emotional nature; "from a good conscience," the volitional nature; "from a sincere faith," the intellectual nature.
The personality expresses itself in three phases: intellect, feeling, and will. So the Christian discipline produces a love that springs, not from a portion of the being, but from the total being. This is the echo of the words of Jesus, who said the highest commandment was to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart"--the affectional nature; "with all thy soul"--the volitional nature; "with all thy mind"--the intellectual nature; and "with all thy strength"--the physical nature. Man is to do the highest thing in the world—love—and he is to do it with every portion of his nature.
To love with every portion of one's nature is important; otherwise, one develops lopsided. The "strength" refers to the physical, but it could also refer to the rest of the personality. We are to love God with the strength of the mind, the strength of the emotion, the strength of the will. If you love Him with the strength of the mind and the weakness of the emotion, that lopsided love produces the intellectualist in religion, lacking emotional drive and appeal. To love Him with the strength of the emotion and the weakness of the mind makes the sentimentalist in religion. To love Him with the strength of the will and the weakness of the emotion makes the hard man of action, but lacking in lovableness. The only really strong Christian is the one who lets love get hold of his total nature— he loves with the strength of the mind, the strength of the emotion, the strength of the will, the strength of the body, so that the whole being is caught up by a burning passion of love. Like the rays that are gathered into our focus by a burning glass, so he kindles love and devotion in others. He is contagious. The disciplined make disciples.
My consecration shall be the burning glass that gathers everything into one focus of love. Then and then alone can I kindle others. I would kindle others. For I know that the discipline of myself is to get me beyond myself, so that I can be freed to lift and inspire others. Then let me find release from all contradictions, all cross-purposes, and let me burn -- burn for Thee. In Jesus' name. Amen.
E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living, p. 348 (1942).
We are being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others within the body of Christ and for the sake of others outside the body of Christ. Corporate spirituality and social spirituality are inseparable elements of the wholeness of our journey in faith.
The journey of faith, the path to spiritual wholeness, lies in our increasingly faithful response to the One whose purpose shapes our path, whose grace redeems our detours, whose power liberates us from the crippling bondages of our previous journey, and whose transforming presence meets us at each turn in our road. Holistic spirituality is a pilgrimage of deepening responsiveness to God's control of our life and being.
M. Robert Mulholland, Invitation to A Journey, p. 168 (1993).
Detachment is often understood as letting loose of what is attractive. But it sometimes also requires letting go of what is repulsive. You can indeed become attached to dark forces such as resentment and hatred. As long as you look for retaliation, you cling to your own past. Sometimes it seems as though you might lose yourself along with your revenge and hate -- so you stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the other who wants to heal.
When you want to pray, then, the first question is: How do I open my closed hands? Certainly not by violence. Nor by a forced decision. Perhaps you can find your way to prayer by carefully listening to the words of the angel to Zechariah, Mary, the frightened shepherds, and the women at the tomb: "Don't be afraid." Don't be afraid of the One who wants to enter your most intimate space and invites you to let go of what you are clinging to so anxiously. Don't be afraid to show the clammy coin which will buy so little anyway. Don't be afraid to offer your hate, bitterness, disappointment, to the One who is love and only love. Even if you know you have little to show, don't be afraid to let it be seen. Often you will catch yourself wanting to receive your loving God by putting on a semblance of beauty, by holding back everything dirty and spoiled, by clearing just a little path that looks proper. But that is a fearful response, forced and artificial. Such a response exhausts you and turns your prayer into torment.
Each time you dare to let go and surrender one of those many fears, your hand opens a little and your palms spread out in a gesture of receiving. You must be patient, of course, very patient, until your hands are completely open.
Henri J. M. Nouwen. With Open Hands, pp. 6f (1972)
Incarnation
All-Powerful God — helpless in a manger
Omniscient Mind — confined between the ears of a toddler
Eternal God — confined in time
Omnipresent King—traveling by foot
Creator of the Universe — swinging a hammer
Source of Living Water — parched in the wilderness
Lion of Judah — Lamb of God
Author of Truth — accused by liars
Prince of Peace — -beaten by soldiers
The Word of God — edited
The Author of Life — dead in a tomb
Light of the World — shining again from a once-dark tomb
All-Powerful God — becoming like me for a time
So that I could be like him forever
Gary W. Moon. Falling For God, p. 179 (2004)
VOLUNTEER ASIGNMENTS
Church Cleaning Schedule
Jan 26 & Feb 2 Brad & Kelsey Jenkins
Feb 9 & 16 Mireya Franco, Teresa Ortiz, Mayra Esquivel
Feb 23 and Mar 2 Mary Maxson