First Church Williamsport

Life Application: Do I believe that Jesus loves me and values me as His treasure?  Even with all my flaws? Do I know Jesus as the shepherd of my life in a deeply personal way? If not, am I willing to take an intentional step to help me experience Jesus in this way? What step can I take to know Jesus more personally? How can I help others know Jesus personally?  Jesus does not just get to know us,...

Life Application: First Church is primed to live a new type of church in our changing world to share the love of Jesus Christ with more people—a church that lives with Jesus as the Gate—simultaneously with the right tension of Gathered (IN) and Sent (OUT). Strengths of the Gathered church: depth, stability, discipleship focus, resources, influence in the community, power, centralization Strengths...

Life Application: What is my expectation in worship?  To think about Jesus? To be entertained? To share in a religious routine?  Or to engage Jesus with our entire being? How can worship be more than a time of reflection?  How can I learn to feast upon Jesus as the Bread of Life? Am I more concerned with ideas about Jesus or interacting with Jesus Himself?  What step can I take today to concretely...

Life Application: Is the light of Jesus shining in me right now?  If not, what is causing me to miss the experience of the light of Christ? Am I willing to let the light of Christ shine through all of my life?   Action Point: Commit to living out three elements in 2019 that will help you shine and experience the light of Christ: 1) Pray daily at 5:17 AM/PM for more connections with new people. 2)...

How can I open my heart to the real gift and presence of the Christ child in a way that will melt my heart? How can I embrace the light of Jesus in the midst of whatever darkness I may be going through? Reverend Matt Lake December 24, 2018

Life Application: In the model of the magi, am I intentionally seeking out Jesus to worship Him rather than just observe Him? What journey is Jesus calling me on?  Am I willing to go? What would need to change in my heart to experience the full joy of Christ? How is God moving unexpectedly in my life right now? Am I living my life by the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of the Christ child? How c...

Life Application: Pray this prayer every day this week: Lord Jesus, make us expectant and eager to do your will even when it disrupts our world, just like Joseph.  Lord, prepare us to have our lives changed and our world rocked by your advent among us, just like Joseph. Lord, give us the grace to silently, obediently live as you would have us live in whatever strange and inexplicable circumstances...

Life Application: Today is the first day of Advent, a season during which we seek to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.  Beginning today until Christmas, pray that you will experience Jesus in unexpected ways. Do one intentional act to share the life and love of Jesus to a new generation. What does it mean to you for Jesus to usher in ultimate rest this advent?

Life Application: What are the greatest doubts in my life right now?  What are my greatest doubts when it comes to God? Am I willing to name them? Which story has the greatest hold on my life and influences my decisions the most? How can God use my doubts to strengthen my faith? In the midst of my doubts, what will allow me to feel the touch of Jesus or hear the voice of Jesus in my life right now...

Life Application: How can the reality of hell deepen my love for God? Upon what am I tempted to build my identity? What step can I take to more firmly build my identity upon Christ? Do I need to trust that God will make all things right and give up seeking vengeance for a wrong that was done to me or someone I love? “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  Colossians 1:17

Life Application: 12 Ways Ordinary People Can Love Orphans 1) Foster 2) Adopt 3) Celebrate Orphan Sunday Annually 4) Become a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children 5) Mentor 6) Become a volunteer Safe Family  7) Offer practical aid to foster/adoptive families 8) If you have a specialized skill, considering offering it to adoptive/foster families 9) Raise Financial Support...

Life Application: What parts of the Bible are the hardest for me to accept? What parts speak the most to me? How engaged am I in God’s Word?  Do I read it daily? Weekly?  Monthly?  Never? How can I take my next step to be more in God’s Word? Consider exploring the YouVersion Bible App. Am I willing to trust the Bible in such a way that my heart begins to “burn within me?” What would it take for th...

Life Application: Who have I hurt?  Am I willing to confess this to God? How do I show favoritism? Who can I pray for who has been hurt or disappointed by the church? “Whole-hearted faithfulness to God will always require of us whole-hearted faithfulness to the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters: to orphans and widows, to our naked, hungry neighbors, to wounded and broken left-behind bystanders”...

Life Application: What question is my biggest obstacle when it comes to understanding Jesus as the truth? What question most helps me understand Jesus as the truth?  Do I see questions more as obstacles or opportunities? Why do you think Jesus asked so many questions? What is a question in your life that you would most love answered?  How am I testing what is true?  What question can I ask that wi...

Life Application: Have you ever had a defining moment of saying “Yes” to Jesus in your heart and mind?  If not, can today be that day? Is Jesus just a formula in my life?  Or Lord of my life?  Am I trying to become a Christian?  Or can I say with certainty I am a Christian?  How can I better realize that salvation in Jesus is the greatest news in the universe?

Life Application: What is your current perception of “church?”  What step can you take to help us live into GOD’S perception of the church? What step can you take to help First Church become a “supernatural community” where so many different people are united in God’s love? How can our vision of “Transformation in Christ, Changing Lives Inside and Out” be more than a statement? How can it be our r...

As believers, we are given the Holy Spirit as our advocate to help us live in close relationship with God. Life Application: How solid am I in knowing what the essentials of the Christian Faith are?  Am I allowing my ability to understand the concept of the Trinity to limit my acceptance of Biblical truth?  What would my life be like if I was more aware of God’s presence? How am I willing to chang...

Life Application: How am I living an incarnational life? How am I not? Where am I trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Where is God calling me to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Spend some time this week simply dwelling on the miracle of the incarnation—that Jesus as fully divine chose to become fully human for us. On this Freedom Sunday how can you support those around the world seeking to b...

Life Application: What is my perception of sin? In the core of my being, do I trust that God has my best intent? Do I seek to please God to gain favor or simply to please God? What elements of my life am I hiding behind in order to gain security and worth? What part(s) of my life is God in control of?  Which ones is God not in control of? When God asks, “Where are you?” what is my response? How mu...

Life Application: What step can I take this week to realize how real God is? What step can I take to experience God in a more personal way? What step can I take this week to realize the holiness of God? If you are not already part of a small group would you commit to joining one? Leave a comment on a communication card, call the church office, or email the church office (office@firstchurch.cc) and...

Life Application: 1) Will I commit daily Bible reading as a foundation of my faith?  2) Am I a part of a Life Group? (Sign up Sept 9!)

Life Application: How would you describe your love for God?  Is it an infatuated kind of love?  Or a love requiring grit and determination? Do we realize the wealth of love that God offers to us through Jesus? What are we willing to offer to God out of the wealth of God’s love for us? What step of generosity am I willing to commit to over the next year at First Church? Action step: Out of love, co...

Life Application: How am I trying to live a great life? What will make us a great church? Am I willing to be great by serving others? Why or why not? What does it mean for my life that Jesus gave up His life for the sake of others? How can I help First Church live into a dual expression of church as both gathered and sent community? Action Points:  1) Pray for First Church to be a church that is g...

Life Application: Have I made following Jesus more about getting what I want or responding as Jesus would respond? How am I showing compassion to those around me? Do I believe that we can love others with greater impact as a corporate body or as an individual? Do I view stewardship as only relating to money?  Or is it about giving and loving as Jesus gives and loves? Am I willing to make a new cov...