Saturday, September 12th, 4:00 pm: Elim League Bowling begins at Don Carter Lanes
On the Lord’s Day:
9:15 am — Sunday school classes for all ages: Classes for graded age groups meet to learn from the Scriptures. To see Sunday school classes, ages and meeting locations, click on the red “Ministries” button under the category “Pages” (to the right).
10:30 am — Our look into the epistle of Jude has been such an encouragement to “contend for the faith, once or all delivered to the saints.” In these last few weeks of this study, we’ll see how Jude concludes this wonderful letter.
Hearing Assistance Available
During the Week:
- Tuesday, 10:30 am: We continue our Ten-thirty Tuesdays Bible study in Genesis, meeting in the Fireside Room.
- Tuesday, 5:45 pm: We have an opportunity to glorify our Lord at the Rockford Rescue Mission by serving dinner and doing light clean up. Sign up on the back table in the sanctuary.
- Wednesday, 6:30 pm: Our Awana Clubs kick off the new Awana year! Be here to join in the fun!
- Thursday, 6:30 pm: Our Old Testament survey Bible study, From God for Your Encouragement, continues with a survey of Isaiah. This study meets in the sanctuary.
- Saturday, 9:00 am: Men of Elim prayer/study fellowship meets in the Fireside Room.
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- More volunteers are needed for our own in-house mission field—Children’s Church! These little ones need to hear about God’s love and salvation. Won’t you tell them by being part of our rotation of volunteers? See the church office for details.
- Those sisters in Christ who have been praying for and serving another sisters anonymously will meet for a wonderful potluck luncheon at Noon on Saturday, September 26th. Will you find out who your Serving Sister has been for the last year? Come and find out!
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
Jude exhorts Christians, “. . . to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). But what does he mean by “the faith”? In this context, “faith” (Greek—pistis) means “. . . the content of what Christians believe—the faith, beliefs, doctrine” So we are talking about beliefs, doctrines. But which ones? Christians have many beliefs about many subjects. Which ones are essential to the Christian faith?
In the early church (the church of the second and third centuries), these questions were answered by appealing to the “Rule of Faith.” Origen (185-254 AD) described the Rule of Faith as follows: “The holy apostles when preaching the faith of Christ, took certain doctrines, those namely which they believed to be the essential ones, and delivered them in the plainest terms to all believers . . .”
Concerning these doctrines, Irenaeus (120-203 AD) wrote: “. . . the Church, having received this preaching, and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house carefully preserves it. She also believes these points of doctrine just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same.”
So there was an unity in the early church and this unity centered around certain doctrines the apostles had specifically stated were essential to the Christian faith. —from Essentials of “The Faith”
Posted on September 11th, 2009 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim