Trinity Christian Church

04/10/2020

04/01/2020

What We Are Learning, by Heather Van Wyk
For a little over a year now, we have been applying ourselves to memorizing God’s Word. Each Sunday morning, we have a brief portion of the service in which church members can walk to the front and share a memorized Bible verse. During this time, there is no commentary, preaching, or apology for words stumbled over – just a pure recitation of scripture. Some of us have committed whole passages to memory, and others have memorized the Word in bite-sized pieces, one scripture at a time. In either case, this attention to the Bible and the commitment to trace over it, time and time again, in our minds has proven to be valuable. In recent weeks, as various church members have faced fears and uncertainty related to the coronavirus pandemic, God’s word, quietly stored away in our hearts through this exercise has brought us comfort, strength, and hope. Moreover, the pattern that we established of memorizing, meditating on, and speaking God’s Word to one another has been a welcome and familiar activity that has provided a fruitful place for our minds to go when they could easily be overrun with fear and unfruitful imaginings. Indeed, the proverb is true that says, “He who gives attention to the word will find good” and we are so grateful to God for helping us understand that in a real way! (Proverbs 16:20).

03/29/2020

What Has You Convinced?

Acts 1:3 “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”

If we limit what we are convinced of to what we see and hear with our natural abilities – our eyes, our ears, and our reasoning, we can become a negative people without hope. We become convinced of negative things – pain, suffering, lack, want, loneliness, rejection, sickness. It is easy to become convinced of these things because they are all real and present.

That is why Jesus, in the time after His resurrection presented convincing proof of another Kingdom – a heavenly Kingdom brought to earth with love, power, hope, provision, and healing.

He knows we were already convinced of the natural world we live in and the trouble it brings because of sin. So after he brought the remedy for sin in His sacrifice, shedding of His blood, and death and resurrection, He convinced His followers that there was more to this life than the miseries they were already convinced of. He offered them proof of the things He taught them before the cross by demonstrating to them the power of resurrection.


And His followers wrote in detail of the new convictions of love and hope and power in the New Testament.

What Luke wrote in Acts 1:3 shows us that it is the intention of God to prove the realities of the Kingdom to us so that we may have confidence in Him.

Paul, who was convinced of His love and power by the ministry of the Holy Spirit – just like we are – wrote in Romans 8:38 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So we are convinced of the love of God to cast out fear.

And to Timothy
2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I a convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
Which convinces us of the power of God to keep us when we entrust everything we have and are to Him.

So meditate on the word – renew your mind and let the Holy Spirit convince YOU of the things of the Kingdom of God. It is a source of hope and power over the challenges of the world.

03/15/2020

The Comforter Has Come



Have you ever been to the grocery store on a major buying trip, filled your buggy, then hauled all the groceries home, put them away, and then find you don’t feel like cooking so you order a pizza? It seems like my food shopping trips are always before either lunch or supper and I have experienced the “I don’t want to cook now” feeling many times. Ordering a pizza isn’t really an option for us so I just dig in and start cooking.



I’m wondering if we do the same thing spiritually. We spend years investing in church attendance, Bible study, musical worship, and prayer, only to turn to the world’s way of comfort when the going gets tough.



When Jesus walked with His disciples He was such a commanding presence with them. He taught them, provided for their needs – sometimes supernaturally. He calmed the storm, multiplied food, raised the dead, healed the sick. What a comforting time for those who walked with Him and witnessed and lived with this kind of power! And then He said that He would leave and send them ANOTHER Comforter. This Comforter would take His place when He was gone back to the Father. We have this Comforter with us now!



The Greek word for Comforter is Parakletos, meaning the one summoned, called to one’s side. The Holy Spirit came to continue and multiply the work of Jesus through His disciples. He led them to the deeper truths of the Gospel and gave them strength to help them undergo trials and persecutions. This is the Comforter we have!



John 14:1-17 ““Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”



The word “helper” in verse 16 is translated as “comforter” in the KJV. We have this comforter to come along side and help us walk through the weeks ahead. Don’t just settle for the world’s way of coping, but cook yourself a good meal from the Scripture you have invested in and then eat it! Meditate on those Scriptures, pray them, speak them to one another. Spend time in musical worship all by yourself. Cultivate the presence of the Holy Spirit, especially now. Experience the joy of Spirit-inspired prayers, as well as answers to those prayers.

07/01/2019

What We Are Learning June 2019

​Recently, we have been tracing the footsteps of the apostles in the book of Acts. By cross-referencing the epistles and surveying maps, we have been learning – in a fuller sense – that the early church was made up of ordinary people who relied on the Holy Spirit as they lived, served, and proclaimed the gospel in a world sometimes receptive but often hostile to it.
By carefully notating references to the Holy Spirit, we have noticed that He acts as a catalyst for much of the action in the early church. We have also noticed the Holy Spirit comforting and encouraging believers. As the book of Acts progresses, different apostles and disciples come in and out of the storyline. However, one constant “character” in Acts is the Holy Spirit, whose movement is continuous from beginning to end, advancing God’s kingdom through numerous people in differing and often surprising ways.
As we have applied our minds to understanding the acts of the apostles and the work of the Holy Spirit in the early church, two ideas have emerged:
The power of Almighty God is more than sufficient to accomplish His purpose and His will, not only in the face of opposition, but also by using the opposition to His advantage to further His purpose.
Although it may seem that our lives are a series of haphazard events, when we love God and submit to His will, His Holy Spirit carefully guides us through each day to accomplish his will and do his work.

05/23/2019

A blessed time of fellowship, encouragement, and prayer tonight with missionary to Mexico, Jamie Daegling.