09/27/2020 Newsletter

mosaicnazarene
Sep 27, 2020
5 min read

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Pray For One Another

To request prayer, email mosaicnazarene@gmail.com

or call/text (520) 709-0815

Our pastors and their families

Our board members

The world as we all continue to navigate this Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamian and KC and family

Barbara Gionfriddo's family

Giselle and TJ Gutierrez

Phil Hunt

Alice Romano's friend, Chris

Frank Sundstrom's Sister, Andy

Mary Ann's friend, John

Talma's niece's husband, Troy Starks

Mary Ann's Daughter-In-Law's Father

Alice Romano's friend Nick, Brother Philip, Sister, Diane and her grandchildren.

Talma Harmon's son, KC

Chaplain Richard Jackman

The many unspoken requests

Praise Report:

Sarah Burns has been accepted into her dream Masters program at Dallas Theological Seminary!

Make sure you're a part of our Facebook group to get prayer requests as they come in: https://www.facebook.com/groups/21109057279

Holiness Today

Reflections on Sermon 57: “On the Fall of Man”

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” —Genesis 3:19

The opening line of John Wesley’s sermon, “On the Fall of Man,” poses a question nearly as old as humankind and proposes an answer that would have sparked no controversy in his day and great controversy in ours. “Why is there pain in the world; seeing God is ‘loving to every man, and his mercy is over all his works?’ Because there is sin.”

Sin. What’s the big deal?

Beloved NTS professor Dr. Ralph Earle wrote these still-relevant prophetic words in 1950: “The trouble with most of the current discussions of human problems and their proposed solutions is that they deal with symptoms rather than causes. War, class hatred, industrial strife, divorce, murder, suicide, juvenile delinquency and general unrest; the staggering crop of social and economic ills and evils – all these are only symptoms of an inner disease. That disease is sin” (D. Shelby Corlett, editor. The Second Work of Grace. 1950, Beacon Hill Press).

Sin. What’s the big deal?

God’s covenant with Abraham, the Old Testament sacrifices, messianic prophecies, Jesus’ testimony about Himself, the apostles’ witness to Jesus, and the consistent witness of two millennia of orthodox Christian teaching all broadly touch upon God’s plan to redeem humanity from sin. The entire Judeo-Christian story illuminates how sin separated all humans from their created purpose of living in a perfect relationship with Him and how Christ died to restore everyone to that purpose.

Sin. What’s the big deal?

“Wesley thought that a solid doctrine of original sin was required for two reasons: first, to free God of the charge of being responsible for humankind’s sinful condition, and then to exalt the gospel of justification, new birth, and especially, transforming, sanctifying grace” (Thomas Oden. John Wesley’s Teachings, Vol. 1).

To deemphasize sin is to devalue the very story of God, the atoning sacrifice of His Son, and the cleansing and empowering work of His Holy Spirit. That our first parents sought to become the god of their own lives in the garden is the first and greatest tragedy of human history. Only when God is worshiped and His glory is revealed do we recognize the gravity of sin.

The final lines of Wesley’s sermon say it all: “This is now the noblest theme of all the children of God on earth; yea, we need not scruple to affirm, even of angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven. "Hallelujah," they cry. "To the King of the sky, To the great everlasting I AM; To the Lamb that was slain, And liveth again, Hallelujah to God and the Lamb!"

Scott Sherwood is the district superintendent of the Northwestern Illinois District Church of the Nazarene.

To read the full text of the sermon, click here.

Week 40 (9/27 - 10/03) Bible Reading Plan

This week we start the NEW TESTAMENT!

Day 274 is a great place to join the Bible reading plan!

Take bookmarks 9 and 10 in the foyer.

Before you read God’s Word today, seek His help with these 5 prayers:

1. God, give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. 2. God, let any knowledge I gain serve to help me love You and others more, and not puff me up. 3. God, help me see something new about You I've never seen before. 4. God, correct any lies I believe about You or anything I misunderstand. 5. God, direct my steps according to Your Word.

Day 274: Luke 1

John 1

Day 275: Matthew 1

Luke 2

Day 276: Matthew 2

Day 277: Matthew 3

Mark 1

Luke 3

Day 278: Matthew 4

Luke 4-5

Day 279: John 2-4

Day 280: Matthew 8

Mark 2

Humor... Kinda

Wired for sound

Back in the days before many churches had wireless microphones, a preacher was wired for sound with a lapel mic, and as he preached, he moved briskly about the platform, jerking the mic cord as he went. Then he moved to one side, getting wound up in the cord and nearly tripping before jerking it again. After several circles and jerks, a little girl in the third pew leaned toward her mother and whispered,"If he gets loose, will he hurt us?”

Not Welcome

An impoverished old man applied for membership in a wealthy church. The pastor tried to put him off with all kinds of evasive remarks. The old man became aware that he was not welcome there and finally told the pastor that he would pray about it. After several days he returned. "Well," asked the pastor, "Did the Lord give you a message?" "Yes Sir, He did" was the old man's answer. "He told me it wasn't any use. He said, "I've been trying to get in that same church myself for ten years and they won't let me in either.”

Community picnic

A church had a picnic and invited the entire community to come. The Pastor placed a basket full of apples on one end of a table with a sign saying, "Take only one apple please - Remember that God is watching."

On the other end of the table was a plate of cookies where one of the children had placed a sign saying, "Take all the cookies you want -- God is watching the apples."