First Baptist Church of Ferndale WA - online media

discussion on relationships

Growth as a Christian requires diligence.

It takes a process and a godly mindset to maintain a peaceful relationship.

Christian growth begins with faith.

The "common wisdom" assumes there will always be fighting in marriages and in the family. But Jesus said love would be the chief mark of a disciple.

The best foundation for a lasting relationship is being a disciple of Christ.

The Christian life is a gift from God which only reaches it's full potential through the dedicated effort of each Christian.

The Christian life is a gift from God

As the children start their summer break, it's good to think about what you intend to get done at this time of year. It was never God's plan to take a break from life, or living for Him.

Paul, in this letter to the Corinthians tells us that the Christian life is one of discipleship as modeled for us by Christ. He lived out the life that He wanted us to lead, and asks us to follow that example. And then as we grow more like Christ, to be an example for those after us.

We look today at "The Great Commission"-to make disciples- and how Jesus said we should do that, from the example of Paul in I Thessalonians.

As a follower of Christ, we are to focus on Him and what He has done for us. We don't have anything that we have not received from Him, so we have nothing to be proud about, as we see today from I Corinthians 4.

We all like to have people think well of us. But as we see in I Corinthians 4, when we get to heaven, there will only be One Who's opinion matters.

"An incomplete gospel is no gospel" so the first step of true discipleship is to make sure you are a true Christian. The next step, as we see today, is to check your priorities.

Aging and death were not in God's design. But sin brought death, and aging with it. But that is not what we have to look forward to as Christians. Every era of life has a purpose and today we take a closer look at what God's purpose is for each of those eras.

The gospel message of the death and resurrection of Christ is something that we should talk about at more than just Easter. So today we look what the resurrection power of God means to us.

The book of Romans is where we look today for the impact of what happened on this day about 2000 years ago.

As we continue to look at I Corinthians 3, we see today that evangelism in a teamwork effort that takes time. It is not just a one-time thing. It takes a team and it takes time But the key thing is that for it to truly work, God has to be on the team.

In I Corinthians 3, it says that our body is a temple of God. As such, we need to watch what we do with and how we treat out bodies.

As we look at I Corinthians 3 today, we see that we Christians are going be evaluated for what we have done for Christ, whether or not what we have done has an eternal value.

From the third chapter of I Corinthians, we see that missions and reaching people for Christ is a teamwork effort. Not everyone can do all of it, but we all can, and should, be a part of it.

A key requirement for understanding the Bible is to be spiritually mature. If you have sin in your life, you are not being spiritually mature and the Holy Spirit is not helping you understand God's Word to get the most out of it.

The Bible has been given to us to show us how God thinks. In order for us to grow more like Christ, we need to read it and let the Holy Spirit show us how Christ thinks.

America has a unique heritage and history. One that is not being taught in our schools or reported on in the media. It is good that we be reminded of it and that we do our best to help it continue.

The Corinthians had a problem with wanting to be seen as great. But Jesus didn't save us because we are great. So Paul addresses this issue of pride in this portion of his book to the Corinthians