August Calendar of Events
Wednesday / August 1 / 6:30pm
Saturday & Sunday / August 4 & 5 / Time TBA
Wednesday / August 8 / 6:30pm
Wednesday / August 15 / 6:30pm
Saturday / August 18 / 8am
Wednesday / August 22 / 6:30pm
Sunday / August 26 / 5:30pm
Wednesday / August 29 / 6:30pm
August 31-September 3
July Calendar of Events
Sunday / July 1 / 3:30pm
Softball game @ Tualatin City Park
Saturday / July 14 / 12:30pm
BBQ & Singles Olympic Games @ the HCHS Baseball Field
Sunday / July 15 / 2pm
Softball game @ Atfalati Park
Sunday / July 15 / 6pm
Elevate: Prayer & Praise Night @ HCC, RM 211
Wednesday / July 18 / 6:30am
Women’s Breakfast & Devotional @ Hayden’s in Tualatin
RSVP here
Saturday / July 21 / 8am
Men’s Breakfast @ Shari’s in Tualatin
Sunday / July 22 / 3:30pm
Softball game @ Jergens Park followed by the Bucket/BBQ
June Calendar of Events
Sunday / June 3 / 2pm
Softball game @ Atfalati Park
Sunday / June 10 / 5pm
Softball game @ Jurgens Park
Saturday / June 16 / 8am
Men’s Breakfast @ Shari’s in Tualatin
Sunday / June 17 / 3pm
Softball game @ Tualatin City Park
Sunday / June 24 / 4pm
The Bucket/BBQ followed by a softball game @ Jurgens Park
Wednesday / June 27 / 6:30am
Women’s Breakfast & Devotional @ Hayden’s in Tuataltin
RSVP here
Saturday / June 30 / 12 noon
Women’s English Tea Party @ the Esquerra’s
RSVP here
Rapture
As a believer, is it really that important for me to choose which to believe in, pre, mid or post tribulation Rapture?
Thanks Marie for this question. The answer lies somewhere in the Bible and through study you should be able to come up with the answer. I can’t give you an ironclad answer because the answer is part of each individual’s belief system so it is up to you to form the answer for you. You say that you are a believer which means that you believe three things.
(1) You believe that God is One, in three persons or parts and together they created the universe and everything in it including man and sovereignly directs everything that goes on in the earth and on the earth.
(2) You believe that because of sin God sent His Son to die for that sin as a penalty on our behalf and by His resurrection He defeated the penalty for that sin (death) and offers us by His mercy and grace, eternal life with Him as it says in His Inspired Word to us. We must accept His sacrifice and live to please Him in all we do in order to have this eternal life. ( Romans 10: 1-2)
(3) You believe that if you believe 1 & 2 that Jesus will come back to earth as He has said and take you back to Heaven and “so shall we ever be with the Lord”. That is our blessed Hope and that gives us the peace to live in today’s crazy mixed up world. In order for you to have this peace, you must study the Bible and know for sure that Jesus is coming back and study what He said about it and understand the signs He told us to look for.
One of the main books in the Bible that has as its central theme Jesus’s return is the book of Revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ and completes the prophesies from the rest of the Bible. There are 4 main ways to interpret the book and I will list them with a brief explanation. I would advise you to “google” each of these terms and study them further to understand what they represent.
- Preterest view – describes the book of Revelation as first century events
- Historist view – describes the book as a panoramic historical look at church history
- Idealist view - describes the timeless struggle between good and evil
- Futurist view – sees Revelation chapters 6 -22 as yet to be fulfilled
There is a common buzzword used by end times theology people and that is the word “Rapture”. It is used to describe the time when Jesus Christ will return to take His Bride ( The church) back to heaven with Him. With all the talk about the Rapture, the fact is that the word Rapture does not appear in the Bible. The Greek word “Harpazo” translates to being “snatched away” or caught up. That word is used in Acts 8:39 when Philip had just baptized the Ethiopian eunich and as soon as they camp up out of the water Philip was immediately taken to Azotus, a town about 20 miles away in the blink of an eye so the Rapture will take all Christians immediately to Heaven.
I have listed below a few scriptures that I would call foundation blocks for the third part of a person’s belief structure and for your understanding on how and when this will all take place. Your question seemed to be, “is this 1/3 part of my belief that big of a deal”. Does it really matter? My answer to you is Yes it absolutely matters.
1 Thessalonians 4:17
1 Corinthians 15:35-50
John 10:28
Acts 8:39
John 14:1-3
Revelation 3:10
Matthew 13:34-50
Matthew 24:29-44
Revelation 19:11-21
Compare these with a good study Bible and you will get the idea of the Rapture and a general sense of the timing, not the actual date.
BC and AD
BC/AD What does it mean
In our Sunday school class this week, Dr Purcell referred to a time line used in the Bible of BC and AD. To further explain what this means to us, first He explained that the New Testament writers used the Roman numbering system which did not have a zero in it. The Old Testament Hebrew calendar was based on a 30 day month. Over the years the calendar was adjusted to the cycles of the sun and the numerical idiosyncrasies to finally come up with a useable system. Out of the number of possible calendars, the version most used is the Gregorian calendar which was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582. The previous calendar was called the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 AD.
BC is before Christ. In order to not have anything religious in the calendar, the powers that be in today’s world have changed it again to BCE which can be Before Christian Era or Before the Common Era.
AD is a Latin phrase which means Anno Domini or “in the year of our Lord” or “in the year of the Lord”. The dividing line in time is the birth of our Lord Jesus and no matter what the world wants to call it, it is just that.
Does God tempt us?
Question: After a slip up in yielding to temptation and the guilt that followed, I read this verse and began to wonder if God tempts us and why
Matthew 6:13 (NKJV) and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen
Answer:
The short and to the point answer is that God does not tempt anyone. This verse is part of Jesus’s answer to a disciple who ask Him to teach them how to pray. (Luke 11:1-4)
James 1:13-15 (NKJV) says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. (sin) Romans 6:23
When we go off course and yield to temptation, it would be easy to say “God made me do it” but in actual fact it is us and the sinful nature within us that causes us to falter. If we will recognize that we have sinned and will confess our sin, 1 John 1:8-9 says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God will allow trials of all kinds to come along and mold us into the person He wills us to be. Matthew 26: 33-35 says Jesus told Peter he would yield to temptation that very night and deny that he knew Jesus. Peter forcefully rejected Jesus’s statement, but it wasn’t too much later that night that Peter found himself weeping bitterly, realizing that he had done exactly as Jesus said he would. God used that situation to strengthen Peter because a few years later Peter was the main driving force in establishing the church.
Job 1: 8-12 is a conversation that God had with Satan about God’s servant Job. While Satan was allowed to do anything he wanted against Job except take his life, he did not break and when it was over after losing everything he had, God replaced everything, doubling it.
James 1: 2-3 (NKJV) says, “my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” Here again, God explains why He allows temptation
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV) says, “no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
This prayer or petition is from a person that knows God and trusts Him and knows that His power will keep us from worldly temptation and will protect us from ourselves. Single people are particularly vulnerable to self-generated temptation. Dealing with the emotional issues of temptation can be a real struggle.
It is far better to seek relationships among Christian people which is no assurance that temptation won’t happen but they hopefully will understand your values on a more biblical basis.
Do you know what you believe?
First question: The younger generations are being hammered – they’re told they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions, they have to coexist, they have to change their view of what a family is, they have to love birth control and be ok with abortion and if they don’t they’re considered to be crazy, fanatical Christians. I’ve also heard that Christians hate Mormons and believe that homosexuals are an abomination. I know the scriptures that combat these views, but I am not sure what to do about it.
Second question: I recently heard someone (who was a Mormon until they were in high school) say they believe there is probably a God but feel no pressure to make a decision right now. It got me to thinking – if you only had 5 minutes to explain to an unbeliever why you believe in Jesus and why they should to – what would you say?
Thank you Candice for your questions. I am combining the first two questions because they contain a common thread.
Your first question lists some of the pressures that young people are faced with in today’s world and are asked to accept them without question. The Bible talks a lot about the apostasy in the end times and these problems are part of it. In Luke 17:26 Jesus talks about how it will be in the end times. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of man”.
In the days of Noah the world was much like it is today and in the end no one believed Noah except his family and they were the only ones saved from the flood. God destroyed the earth with water in the flood but in the end times coming, He will destroy the earth with fire. This next year is an election year and the two parties (Democrats and Republicans) are already positioning themselves on the issues of the day, many of which are the problems you list. The Democrats are starting to push the labels of Christian principals as being “right wing” and unacceptable. Christians don’t hate anyone because of their beliefs but with the Bible as a guide should point out what it says about these things.
The issue of Mormonism is coming up more and more because Mitt Romney is a committed Mormon. Rick Santorum is a committed Catholic and has already come under fire for his beliefs on birth control. When someone calls you a “fanatical Christian” for your beliefs, you should respond with “thank you very much” because they are recognizing you are true to your faith. You might engage them in some light conversation as to what they really believe.
1 Peter 3:13-17 tells us that we should always be ready to tell the reason for our hope. Matthew 5:16 talks about our faith being a light and we are to live so that light shines to all those around us. The way we do this is by having a relationship with Jesus. The old church song says, “What a friend we have in Jesus”. No one has ever had a close friend that they haven’t met yet so study the Bible and get to know Jesus and His saving Grace and be ready to tell in a few words what that means to you. Study the 2 main religions that will be involved in everything political and on a small notepad write down the main differences just to get your conversation started. Type into Google “13 articles of faith” and read them carefully and you will see the differences between your faith and the Mormon faith. When they use the name of God it doesn’t mean the same as when you use His name. The Catholic Church also has differences but they are less obvious however you should be able to make a short list of them.
When you confront someone who contests your faith or maybe they just ask you why you believe what you do, remember it is not you who will save anyone but God may be using your contact with this person to accomplish His purpose. You may want to say a little prayer under your breath and ask God to give you the words to say. People are hurting in today’s world and they know these things are wrong and that is why they are hurting and they are looking for someone to verify their thinking. Occasionally you will run into someone who wants to argue or maybe show you how “smart” they are but keep in mind that God through the Holy Spirit may have brought this person to you and He will give you the words to say.
Keep an attitude of a peaceful satisfied person and your “light” will shine on them. Who you are will come out in your personality.
April Calendar of Events
Sunday / April 1 / 6pm
Elevate – Prayer and Praise Night
“A less structured service built around
prayer, worship and testimony.”
Saturday / April 7 / 6 & 7:30pm
Sunday / April 8 / 9:15 & 11am
Easter Services
(No Singles on Sunday)
Wednesday / April 11
Thursday / April 12
LifeGroups resume – RSVP if you’d like to join a group
and we will get you assigned to one
Sunday / April 15 / 1pm
Lunch after church @ Deb & Jason’s
Bring your own lunch
Monday / April 16 / 6:30pm
Women’s Book Club at Deb’s
“Mother Teresa: A complete authorized Biography” by Kathryn Spink
Saturday / April 21 / 7am
Men’s Breakfast @ Shari’s in Tualatin
Saturday / April 21 / 6pm
Bunco Night in Room 206 at the Boones Ferry Campus
Bring a snack to share
Sunday / April 22 / 5:30pm
The Bucket at the Esquerras
Wednesday / April 25 / 6:30am
Women’s Breakfast & Devotional
at Hayden’s in Tualatin
Please RSVP if you would like to attend
March Calendar of Events
Sunday / March 4
No singles Sunday School
Sunday / March 11
Daylight Savings Time begins
Turn your clocks AHEAD one hour Saturday night
Monday / March 12 / 6:30pm
Women’s Book Club at Deb’s
“Mother Teresa: A complete authorized Biography” by Kathryn Spink
Wednesday / March 14 / 6:30am
Women’s Breakfast & Devotional at Hayden’s in Tualatin
Please RSVP here if you would like to attend
Saturday / March 17 / 7am
Men’s breakfast
Shari’s in Tualatin
Sunday / March 18 / 1pm
Lunch after singles Sunday School at Qdoba’s in Wilsonville
Sunday / March 25 / 5:30pm
The Bucket at the Esquerras
Winston’s Wisdom
Question:
Can a person lose their salvation? Submitted by Marie L. Hollibaugh
Answer:
This question and its answer could start a theological firestorm of thoughts, ideas and beliefs. Many thousands of pages have been written, mainly from one of two viewpoints, Calvinist and Armenian. The Calvinist view simply stated is that you are saved once and if you are truly saved, you can’t lose your Salvation. The Armenian view seems to be that when you are saved, you must be careful in what you do or you may lose your Salvation. Both of these positions are simply stated here because there are many arguments from both sides that you must consider. Many Pentecostals support the Armenian view. You need to spend some time studying both views and support each with scripture because our only source of truth is God’s word as written in the Bible.
The book of Hebrews is thought to be written to two groups of Jews. One group is the Christian Jewish converts and the other group is the Orthodox Jews who are following the Law strictly. The writer of the book of Hebrews was very familiar with their beliefs and trying to show them the errors of their beliefs and the possible consequences of ignoring the fact that Jesus was their Messiah.
As for your question, “Can a person lose their Salvation”, I can only share my opinion and support it with Scripture as I see it. You ask your question based on Hebrews 3:12 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; NKJV. The NASB wording says, “Take care, brethren lest there should be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart in falling away from the Living God;” The Greek word translated “falling away” is aphistemi which has a lot of different meanings depending on its use but none of the meanings suggest losing anything. One of the words from that root word is Apostasy and all the words seem to indicate an action of unbelief or walking away from the Truth or placing our allegiance somewhere else.
When I consider this question, the first thought in my mind is “where does my Salvation come from.” It comes from God through Jesus Christ. God has given it to me by His Grace through my faith in him. He is the only source of Salvation and through His great Love; He has overlooked my sin through His Son’s death on the cross. If He is truly the only source of salvation, Then He would be the only One who could take it back from me. There are a great number of verses in the Bible, some spoken by Jesus Himself on how to be saved and what to believe but I don’t know of any verses that say if I do or don’t do something He will take away my Salvation.
John 3:1-7 is about an encounter that Jesus had with Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a teacher of the Jewish law, and was trying to figure out who Jesus was. Jesus talked to him about being born again. Verse 7 says “do not marvel that I said to you “you must be born again”. In verse 5 Jesus said “unless you are born again, you cannot enter into Heaven”. It seems to me that if my Salvation was so volatile that I could lose it, He would have said “you must be born again, born again, born again……… Simple logic tells me that if I am born , I cannot later become unborn.
Remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. He had gone away and squandered all his money and his life and was feeding pigs which weren’t a thing Jews should be doing. He reasoned that he had lost his standing as his father’s son but figured he was at least equal to the hired help. When he got near his home and saw his father he said “I am not worthy to be your son” but his father didn’t pay any attention to him and had a great celebration to honor his homecoming. At no time did Jesus say that the son had lost his sonship.
The Bible tells us that the angels rejoice when a sinner or a prodigal come back to the presence of God. All of us who have been prodigals at one time could have easily been stripped of our Salvation except that God’s great and pure Love through His Grace has protected us.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, That whosever believes on Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.
Everlasting doesn’t have stops and starts. I Praise God for His Mercy and His Grace that He is willing to overlook my sin and I look forward spending eternity with Him.
