Following Jesus Son of God …

“Hear, O Israel …” (Mark 12:28-34 ESV)

The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
There may be other gods, illusions contrived in the religious minds of men and women. But there is only one God, and he desires a love relationship with you and me. Blows me away! I bow low in worship.

• QUESTION: What is the most important command?
  (12:28) And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

• ANSWER: Love God so completely that there is room for no other god.
  (12:29–31) Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

• ANSWER: You are right. No amount of offering or sacrifice can match this sold out love for God.
  (12:32–34) And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Good Morning to All!

It is April. Yay! We had quite a rain on the prairies of western Illinois last night. Very fresh and springy this morning. Grass is getting green. Again … Yay!

We finish our Ezra study this Sunday, and I have to say that I have been very blessed, and God, as he does, has been over-the-top in his grace and wisdom through the last several weeks.

Lessons in Ezra:
God is God. People are people. People do really stupid and sinful things. God is full of grace and there is always hope. God will move heaven and earth, kings and kingdoms for his people if we will bow before him and make things right. We need each other. We must have strong leadership. We must all have a strong, faithful sense of mission and purpose as directed by God. God tells us who we are; no one else. We are who God says we are. We must move in faith toward the vision that God has for us that he sets out in his holy book, the Bible.

More lessons in Ezra:
One king, many pawns. There is no panic button in heaven no matter who is the president of the U.S. or Russia or the prime minister of the UK or the dictator of North Korea. God should be our main media outlet. If our news source cultivates fear and despair, then we are listening in the wrong place, whether it is labeled Christian or not. God is God. God is full of grace. God is there, always has been and always will be. Same God as in Ezra’s time rules the universe today.

Did I happen to mention that “God is God!”?

Here are this week’s handouts.

Message Title: Yet There Is Hope!

Message Text: Ezra 9 & 10

• PDF Yet there is hope : Ezra 9 AND 10 : FFC : Dave Scott : 040614 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Yet there is hope : Ezra 9 AND 10 : FFC : Dave Scott : 040614 HANDOUT TWO

Hello All,

Happy Friday! Yay!

Help, humility, the hand of God and honor.

Recurring themes throughout Ezra it seems. God is there. But he is not just there. He is also very active in our lives and in the affairs of the world. Not just then, in the Bible stories, but now in our lives, in our world. We will see this very clearly in retrospect from heaven, but we need to see this now by faith. We need to allow God to build our perspective of life on the planet. God needs to be our major news source.

The Bible story of Ezra, Zerubbabel and the others is actual and historical. Not fable and myth that help us along our merry religious way, but real life and real truth which we can bite into and trust. Anchor. Rock solid. God was there. Is here. Has always been and always will be. He is Sovereign LORD, God Most High, and he determines the course of humanity.

Let the mountains fall into the sea! Our God still reigns! (See Psalm 46.)

If God is our major news source, this is what we hear: The darkness has had its day and is passing away.

• (1 John 2:8 ESV) At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

So who are we listening to?

What are we telling each other?

If we are trembling in our boots before anything other than our holy God who is a consuming fire, then we’ve got it wrong. Way wrong.

This week Ezra sets out for his place of service and confronts his fear of the journey, asks for help, bows in humility, looks to the hand of God for deliverance and worships God when he comes through again.

Dave

• PDF Moving against the darkness : Ezra 8:FFC:dave scott:033014 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Moving against the darkness : Ezra 8:FFC:dave scott:033014 HANDOUT TWO

Hello to You,

This week we will be studying Ezra 7, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, will make his first appearance. There has been a 57 year gap between Ezra 6 and 7. Ezra comes in as part of the next wave in God’s rebuilding project.

KEY VERSE: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel,” 7:10.

■ Have I set my heart firmly …

• To study the Word of God?
• To live by (do, obey) the Word of God?
• To teach the Word of God?

■ Why do I need to set my heart firmly?

• “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit).
• Our default settings: By default we will use our reasoning abilities to edit incoming information to agree with what we already believe.
• This is how our the minds work. Our rationalizations know no limit as we look for evidence to support foregone conclusions. Apart from the direction of God we will contrive elaborate schemes to keep believing what we already believe and want to believe (universal sheep-like tendency). So how do we defeat this faulty editing system? Enter center stage, God’s word, as it is profitable in transforming our thinking. Through the words of God we can approach and receive truth outside the boundaries of our current knowledge in a way that is profitable to our spiritual growth. (David Scott, LIving by the Words of God.)

Dave

• PDF Living in the hand of God: Ezra 7:FFC:dave scott:032314 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Living in the hand of God: Ezra 7:FFC:dave scott:032314 HANDOUT TWO

Hello All,

Beauty of a day. Spring may yet arrive.

This week we are in Ezra five and as with people and God, everyone is doing his or her job.

• The prophets are prophesying …
• The builders are building …
• The opposers are opposing …
• And God is God!

Message Title: But the Eye of Their God Was on Them!

Message Text: Ezra 5:1-17

• PDF But the Eye of Their God Was On Them : Ezra 5-1–17 : Dave Scott : FFC 030914 : HANDOUT ONE
• PDF But the Eye of Their God Was On Them : Ezra 5-1–17 : Dave Scott : FFC 030914 : HANDOUT TWO

Hello All!

I know the calendar says March but the weather still seems February. If you are like me, you have had to make an effort to not whine and complain. But I can’t wait for Spring. Maybe more snow tonight. Hopefully that doesn’t stop services tomorrow. Gerald and the guys will let us know if that would be necessary.

Interesting, powerful thoughts this week. God calls us to build alone with him, but when we do “stuff” hits the fan from those who would oppose. The attack mainly comes through our powerful adversary the devil who is like a lion seeking whom he may devour. But the really hard part to swallow is when fellow professing Christians fall for Satan’s schemes and become part of his onslaught of fear, intimidation, threats and accusations.

Time to be afraid? No. Time to trust God. There is a reason we are called to love God first when we prioritize our lives. We need that strong bond to weather the storm as we seek his refuge and strength in our times of need. And he will be there.

• GOD IS GOD: God is not merely a god of the land, not just a viable option to get by, but THE God of all creation.

Message Title: Building with God Alone!

Message Text: Ezra 4:1-24

• PDF Building Alone for God! : Ezra 4-1-24 : FFC : Dave Scott : 030214 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Building Alone for God! : Ezra 4-1-24 : FFC : Dave Scott : 030214 HANDOUT TWO

(Psalm 27:1, 7, 11, 14 ESV)

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!

Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18] so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

[19] We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, [20] where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive a blessing from the Lord  And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

God, God, God … 

First, God. God is the subject of life. God is foundational for living. If we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right.

Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends. God at center and circumference; God first and last; God, God, God.

(The Message, Introduction to Genesis, Eugene Peterson, p19.)