How should we be people of thanksgiving not just as we enter the month that features 220;Thanksgiving Day,221; but every day?
FaithTree is of the local church and for the local church. What do we mean by that? We want to strengthen our local churches' ability to show the love of Jesus to those in our community. We also believe that an important part of the Christian life is being committed to mutual encouragement with other believers in a local church and aim to see FaithTree help each person who comes and does not have a local church family to find one.
Paul says we should remember the 220;sound words.221; What does that mean? How does that apply to us?
As we come an election and contemplate how much those around us drive us crazy, God calls us to a different path as the church than what the world says we ought to do. We turn to 1 Timothy 2 for insights into the Lord217;s plan for us in a partisan world.
When pain makes even sitting in a chair impossible, someone else’s ordinary comfort can suddenly look like the one thing that would make life right. In Exodus 20:17, God forbids coveting anything that belongs to our neighbor—but how do we distinguish a healthy desire for change from a heart dissatisfied with what God has given?
Amid turkey and pie and football, we can list what we217;re thankful for and still miss the point. Psalm 95 won217;t let us settle for vague gratitude; it calls us to sing to the Lord and come into His presence with thanksgiving to the rock of our salvation.
We cruise along thinking everything seems worth rejoicing in—until something smacks us over the head and forces the question of what really matters. Paul faces that same reckoning in Philippians 3, listing every credential and mark of status he once counted as gain.
It217;s easy to be busy with the Christian life—programs, good intentions, real effort—and still be missing the one thing that keeps it all from exploding. In Ephesians 1:15–16, Paul looks at believers whose faith in Jesus is visibly pouring out as love toward one another, and what he does in response is the piece we most often skip.
With 220;social distancing221; shutting down much of our society, including traditional, in-person Bible studies, FaithTree is offering a Men217;s Bible Study for men of all ages going through the comforting Servant Songs of the Book of Isaiah. It will be facilitated by two pastors familiar to FaithTree, Pastor Tim (of Little Hills Church) and Pastor Brad (of Bible Baptist Church).
We are called every day to pray without ceasing and to rejoice before our God (1 Thess. 5:16-18). FaithTree had planned a Spring Prayer Walk to pray for our community in that spirit that had to be canceled last month due to the situation around the coronavirus. However, in partnership with our sponsoring churches, other wonderful area churches and individuals throughout the community, we are going to have an online prayer walk today, May 14! We are excited to see what God will do through this time!