Announcements

MEMBER ALERT:

Text messaging to the congregation has been suspended until a better approach is discovered. Emailing has resumed.

Bible study for the ladies on the English-speaking side: October 12th at 10 AM via Zoom. For additional information, contact Winnie Sylvester or Rosemary Dayie.

Men’s Bible study – Friday, October 18TH at 7 PM, at the church building. Zoom will be available if you can't attend in-person: https://zoom.us/j/99914262031?pwd=STZLR3dUcEl3QW1uSTUzWjBqZ XdBQT09/; Meeting ID: 999 1426 2031; Password: 139492 or Dial: +1 301 715 8592. Volunteers to lead/facilitate future Bible studies are needed.

Parents, remember to review and work with your children on the new books and the things that they learned/talked about in Bible class and that they are prepared for Bible class.

Ladies, the Heritage Christian University offers a credit certificate program: “The Certificate in Women’s Ministry”. It is designed to provide training to better equip women to provide holistic ministry in the congregation for discipleship, mentoring, teaching and leading. This is 15 credit hours program

Lessons are taught Sundays 10-10:45am, and Wednesdays 7:30- 8:15pm. We encourage you to bring your young ones to both classes so the can benefit most from lessons. Our prayer and goal is that our young ones will love the Truth and internalize the Truths in scriptures so they may become obedient and faithful disciples of Christ. Let us all do our part to encourage our young ones to memorize scripture, develop holy habits, and love to come to Bible classes and worship services. Parents and guardians, we are honored to journey with you on this path. If you did not receive the Bible class letter from our shepherds, please contact brothers Kwaku or Riley

Sign-up sheets are on the bulletin board for hall monitors, Sunday morning greeters, meal contact persons and Bible class substitutes and assistants on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Bible class teachers and assistants are needed, see Arnoldo Velásquez or one of the elders if you desire to serve in this capacity

Pray for our shepherds and the flock (our congregation): that we may all submit to the Lord's will and His design for His Church that He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28, 31; 1 Thessalonians 5:11-24; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 5:1-21; Titus 1:6-15; 1 Peter 5:1-11).

Pray for the congregation in Ecuador, for the security of that country and for all people who are suffering through no fault of their own.

MEMORY VERSES

Exodus 20:4 - “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. NASB95

Luke 4:8 - Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’” NASB9

ACROSTICS

BIBLE Believers' Instructions Before Leaving Earth (2 Tim 3:16-17).

GOSPEL - For God so loved the world that He gave His Only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not Perish buthave Everlasting Life (John 3:16).

GOSPEL - God's Only Son Provides Everlasting Life.

A Living Hope

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

WITH HOPE, ALMOST NO OBSTACLE IS INSURMOUNTABLE, BUT WITHOUT HOPE, IT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH TO DESTROY US. That being true, it should stir us deeply to hear Peter tell us in this text about what has been made possible in Jesus Christ: a living hope.

It is only by God’s “great mercy” that the hope Peter speaks of has become a possibility for sinful people like us. Having rebelled even once against God’s will by doing that which we knew to be wrong, we have forfeited the privilege of fellowship with God. Alienated from Him, not all the righteousness we could exhibit would be enough to reestablish a state of perfect holiness on our part. So when God opened up the door of reconciliation, He did something we did not deserve to have done for us. And mark it well: it was “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” that this happened. Everything about the gospel of Christ depends on the fact that His resurrection really did take place historically.

In v.4, Peter continued by saying that the object of our hope is “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” If this is true — and as an eyewitness of Jesus after His resurrection, Peter was in a position to know the facts of the case — it means the Christian’s hope is in an absolutely unique category. There is nothing in this world that won’t have to be given up when we die, and even before we die, there is nothing we can have or do that isn’t perishable, tentative, and subject to disappointment. But unlike all these treasures, our hope in Christ is “pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay” (NLT).

Finally, Peter says in v.5 that we “by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Christ’s resurrection is proof that God can be counted on to help us. His power, through our faith, will guard and keep us until our hope is finally realized. So when discouragement hits us (as it surely will), one thing is to be recalled: the resurrection of Christ.

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead” (Timothy Keller).