RESCHEDULED EUMC EVENTS:

Women's Breakfast - February 6th - Rescheduled to February 13th

Confirmation Classes - February 7th - Rescheduled to February 14th

Spring 2010 Leadership University - for information about the classes and courses that are being offered click here.

March 2010 - Mission Trip to Georgia!  If you want more information please contact Beth or Chris Pyles.  If you know you are going - download the forms that need to be completed for the Georgia Trip.  Click here for the forms

Fellowship is going bowling February 20th at Bedford Elks!

Sign up sheets in the vestibule!

PLACEMAT CONTEST!!

Outreach is holding a placemat contest for Grades K - 12.  Draw a picture with an Easter Theme in black and white.  The winner will have their picture published as a placemat and distributed to various restaurants in town.  Deadline is March 1st.

Haiti Earthquake Relief Donation Information

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 Missed Church?  You don't have to miss the sermon.

February 7, 2010

The Basics

            Tonight at 6:25 pm Eastern time Super bowl XLIV between the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts and the NFC champion New Orleans Saints will get under way.   These two teams didn’t get here by accident.  The preparation for the 2009-2010 season started months ago when spring training began.  The lessons learned in those early practices carried both teams to this point in the season as the two top teams in the NFL.  Neither team earned a trip to Miami Florida without mastering the fundamentals of the sport. 

            Faith is much the same, although faith is practiced under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot improve upon our faith unless we understand the basic tenants of our faith.  As we come to church this morning we will soon participate together in the Lord’s Table.  In this act we are getting back to the basics.  In Luke 22:19 we hear these words, “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Remembrance of the foundational truths of our faith helps us to grow and can help us avoid paths which are misleading and even confusing. Through the act of remembrance we are put in touch with the Holy Spirit as we live the faith that we profess.  

            Peter shares the fundamentals of faith when he writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, <sup>4</sup>and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,”  1 Peter 1:3    Jesus calls us into acts of visual and spiritual remembrance as we meet Him at His table today.  As we hear the words of institution and consecration and make our way to the communion table we are making our way to a place of victory.  It is through approaching Jesus Christ that we receive the forgiveness He provides as well as victory over sin and death.   Rom 6: 23  “For the wages of sin is death….Those who know Jesus but fall away and forget the basics of faith are not fit to come into the presence of God .  But we know that sin doesn’t need to produce death for Paul goes on to say in the same verse, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in<sup>£</sup> Christ Jesus our Lord.."   .”

I am sure that the coaches for the Saints and Colts will tell the players, “Play good solid fundamental football today.”  Forgetting the basics will cause penalties, poor decisions, and dumb mistakes.  As Christians we embrace the basics of faith in order to move ahead in Jesus Christ.  We must first know Him as our Savior who loved us unconditionally, even before we sinned, and died for those sins that we might know eternal life.    These are the basics of faith.  We seek to be more like Jesus and shed the old nature we knew before our encounter with Jesus and receive the new nature that comes from walking with Jesus.  Getting back to the basics should call us into deeper relationship with Jesus through His word, the scriptures found in the Bible, through opening our hearts and lives to the renewing breath of the Holy Spirit as we commit ourselves to Him.

Readings: 1 Peter 1:3, Isaiah 1:15-18

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