Glory of Christ Fellowship

Affirming and Encouraging our children’s positive development Imagine you are in a prayer circle at church or in a family devotion and children are present. Not only do they sit quietly and respectfully, they participate of their own will by offering sweet and innocent and biblical prayers. If we are going to let the Gospel truly shape our efforts in parenting and spiritual development we have to ask and answer an important question: “how will we encourage this child?” The reason we should be thoughtful about it is because our answer may be the difference between drawing attention to the work of Christ in them and their work for Christ. It is the difference between seeking justification by keeping the law of God rather than receiving his grace. Our children need to live in the hope that an almighty God works through needy people, not needy people work for an almighty God. God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). God ...

Here's a note I just sent to the church about Sarah Fergus. Check out her blog here . Hello Everyone, Sarah Fergus and I have been e-mailing back and forth over the last day, and here's where she's at: 1. She has bought her tickets, and she will be leaving the country--Lord willing, of course! 2. She does have enough support to go, but she really needs another $100-150 per month of support to be at an optimal level. Please pray about joining her support team, and feel free to forward her blog address to anyone who might be willing to lift her up in prayer or offer financial support (sfergus.aimsites.org--Sarah's contact information is on the blog-site). 3. Please consider coming to Sarah's send off party from 4-9 p.m. on December 29 at the home of Dave and Susan Fergus (19352 Carson Cir NW, Elk River, 55330). 4. Please attend the worship service on December 30 where we will be commissioning Sarah for the glory of Christ. 5. Please put Sarah on your prayer list and...

Obedience versus Righteousness…there is a difference! Parents are instructed to train their children to be obedient, yet, it is impossible to be pleasing to God without being born again.  Elyse Fitzpatrick outlines the various spheres of obedience which parents are to train their children to be obedient within. There is initial obedience (understanding the command “no”), social obedience (laws particular to our culture), civic obedience (laws of the land), religious obedience (practices of the faith). Most interesting and most controversial is religious obedience, particularly because it has to do with the matters of a transformed heart. For instance, we teach our children to pray before a meal. If they do so, is it because they are born again and love Jesus? Maybe, but it could just be because it is what they were taught to do and that is all they know.   The title points out that there is a difference between obedience that please...

Some years ago, while going through a difficult time of life, I bowed before the Lord and begged him to get me out of the situation. The prayer session literally lasted for about two hours. Near the end of that time, I sensed the Lord's loving reply, by his Spirit, "Charlie, I don't want to get you out of this, I want to develop you in this." I felt a deep peace wash over me at that moment because I knew that my Father was with me, and that's all I really needed to know. The circumstances remained the same, but with the Lord at my side my attitude did not.  As I moved on with my life, I thought it might be good to conduct a fairly thorough New Testament (NT) Bible study on the subject of suffering, and my mentor at the time, Tom Brindley, agreed and encouraged me to do so. I was surprised by what I found. First, I discovered over 60 passages from the NT that touch upon the subject, some of which are one or more chapters long. The Lord has much to say about s...

How it looks when we parent out of the Gospel What about you, the Christian parent? Do you feel that God loves you, or loves you more when you are obedient or self-controlled? Do you sense that he is more pleased with you when you successfully fight sin? Or do you ever feel like you have less of a right to go to him in prayer or song if you have done some bad things?   “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” Psalm 130:3-4. Parents, if you answered “yes” to any of the above questions it may reflect a desire to justify yourself (and your children) by the law. The bad news is that there is never a time that we have any right to fellowship with God based on the good we have done. The good news is that in Christ there is never a time we cannot fellowship with God, even when we sin and repent. God is the perfect parent who comes to his children on the basis of their sin and offers...

A new week is here. A new MONTH is here. Hello, DECEMBER! This month is the beginning of the ending of another year, of baking hundreds of cookies and watching quiet snow fall on silent nights. And we mustn't forget the millions of tiny lights, twinkling houses on cold nights, lighting the way home in the dark. (I DO like that part!) For me, there's something that warms my heart even more than a steaming cup of hot cocoa. When the tree is bare from tinsel packed and ribbons from gifts are no more, what is left that lingers long that makes all the effort worth all the doing? If all we have to look forward to is discounts at Target, 'to Santa or not to Santa', deciding whether to have a fake tree or a real one and who's going to host the family this year (or how are we going to afford all of this anyway?), maybe something's missing? Maybe, just maybe, we're forgetting what started this all in the first place? The reason why t...