Unity

Hello guys!

Today, we had Grace's pastor come and speak to us today. Pastor Jacob gave a message based on Philippians 2:1-18 about being like-minded as Christ. He gave various examples such as the United Airline, United States, and the United Kingdom to emphasize the importance of unity within Christians. A house divided against itself cannot stand. In the same way, we need to be united with each other. Then, how do we achieve unity? We first individually need to be rooted in our relationship with Jesus. Then we need to "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit..." as verse three says and consider others better than ourselves. We need to humble ourselves and serve others. Though it seems to be the least rewarding job, Jesus said the least will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Pastor Jacob also emphasized how what we do is important. Though it may be unrecognized by others, we are advancing the Kingdom of God. Let's pray that God may move in Roosevelt because he has great plans for it!

If you have any questions, you can contact Pastor Jacob at jacobleeubf@gmail.com .

Oh, and we also got Bibles for TLC. Woohoooo!

My Own Resurrection

by Francis Chan


Hey guys!
We watched eighteen minutes of this video this Wednesday. In case you wanted to finish it, here's the video! After we watched the video, we had a discussion on what Pastor Francis Chan talked about -- krav maga, his wife's soup, and more. During his sermon, he often referred back to 1 Corinthians 1:18 "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." We discussed God's attributes -- great, almighty, sovereign. As the analogy Pastor Francis Chan used with krav maga, though it is scary that God is all powerful, we find comfort that He's our friend. Whenever we face anything impossible or difficult, God is with us and He has our backs! We really recommend watching the rest of the video. It has some really cool stories. (:

We hope you guys have a great spirit week. About three more weeks 'till Easter!

Relentless

These two weeks, we had the privilege of hearing Praveen and Preethi give their sermons. The overall theme of both messages was to be relentless after God. Praveen compared the Christian life to running and training for a race. He defined what a relentless life looks like. It's a hard life. It's a life full of struggles, sacrifices, but it's also a life filled with incomprehensible peace through it all. To be relentless, we must throw off everything that hinders us (Hebrews 12:1) -- the good and the bad. This requires us to set our priorities straight and make the effort to run after God with everything we have. Let's be relentless after God!

Today, Preethi focused on being relentless after the responsibilities God has given us -- to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). She began her sermon with an anecdote about a suicidal man. There was a suicidal man about to jump off a bridge off of I-95, but then a stranger came up to him and asked him why he was about to take his life. The stranger listened to the suicidal man's stories and in the end, the stranger, not the suicidal man ended up jumping off the bridge. What does this have to do with anything? Preethi compared this to what Jesus did for us. Jesus was the stranger. He took all our sins and problems away by dying for us on the cross. Therefore, now we have the responsibility to go and share the gospel. Even though it's hard, let's overcome the difficulties and be relentless in sharing the gospel with everyone. Though we may be timid, the Holy Spirit will give us words to speak when we open our mouths.

So we want you guys to be relentless. Let's try to encourage each other through everything. (:

Oh, and if you were there three weeks ago when Danny's dad came to speak to us about Lent, let's keep praying for the people we wrote down on our index card!