Woodward Park Church of Christ

Join us tonight @ 6:30 online or in the auditorium as we talk about another of God's characteristics, perhaps the greatest of all: Love. Our good and beautiful God is love. Tonight we'll talk about why we can know this.

"Mindset" Paul writes in Philippians 2:5, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." That Greek word translated "mindset" comes from a Greek word that describes the way a person thinks and how that thinking then affects the life lived. In other words, "mindset" summarizes the way we think as it relates to our actions and interactions with the world around us. So, one of the principles this emphasizes, in the way we live, is we need to str...ive to see things and interact with this world in the same way that Jesus did. He is our Lord, our Savior, and our Pattern. In the overall context of this passage, he is highlighting the humble, self-sacrificial attitude that God Incarnate had as He walked the earth among us. One problem is we live in a world where the vast majority don't practice this. Indeed, those of you reading this (and the one typing this) haven't always seriously applied this to your life, and people must be taught (discipled) to follow Christ and take on His "mindset." God's word clearly calls us to be like Jesus and to adopt His teaching as our practice in so many different areas of our lives. For all people this will require a change. And the "change" to adopt Jesus' mindset brings us close to hovering around that word "repent." What does it mean, to repent? It comes from a Greek word that indicates a change in mind and thinking. This change in thinking (to change your mind) should affect the way we live. For example, if we think we are better than other people (for all the ignorant reasons we humans think in such ways), and if we are called by God to be humble, and if we want to be humble and put others first, then what must we do? We must repent or change our minds to adopt a more humble attitude. Is it easy? No. Furthermore, we can't do it alone and we must have God's help. This life is a partnership that starts by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. Another problem is our world is increasingly adopting all of these victim categories and rushing to push the blame for their issues onto others. And it seems like just about everyone wants a slice of that pie, which is why the victim categories keep getting bigger and bigger and they keep getting more absurd. Further complicating this is churches are validating some of these ridiculous and divisive narratives. And in everyone's frantic rush to blame others, the message of God's call for all people to return to Him gets pushed aside in favor of a "me-first" mentality. Yet God, who loves humankind and knows very well what awaits those who are unfaithful (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9), is still calling to people, and the Gospel message still speaks to us today. I would ask you to stop here and pray for yourself and your family, for me, and all people, that we will all have ears to hear God's call for us to submit to Christ's Lordship and change our minds. Join us this Sunday @ 9 as we hear God's plea for us to return to Him.

"Forgiveness" What does each of us need if not, ultimately, forgiveness? Or as Jesus would put it, "What good would it be for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit their soul?" Why would a soul be forfeited? What is it we need forgiveness for? It's because of sin. We all sin. Every day! Adam and Eve sinned when they ate the fruit and every human born since, with the exception of our Lord, has sinned. But there's good news!!! Jesus came to be the propitiation for our... sin. In other words, to make atonement. Propitiation and Atonement. Those are a couple of big words we will discuss in more depth later in this series. For the meantime, those words should call to mind the powerful act of mending our broken fellowship. The fellowship was between humans and God and the fellowship was broken because of our sin. Yet God came to humanity and worked with us despite our sin. He came to us to offer forgiveness for our sins, only through Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12) even while we were still in sin (Romans 5:6-10). If we learn nothing from this, especially considering how depraved we humans can be, it teaches us that God is filled with mercy and compassion. Oh, and don't miss this. God expects (commands) us to be compassionate and forgiving of each other. Based on what I have seen over the past several months, there is lots of forgiveness that needs to go around. God's compassion and forgiveness is displayed time and again in God's intercessory work on behalf of His people. In the struggle between the offspring of the woman and serpent (Gen 3:15), God's people find themselves in trouble, trouble by-the-way because of their own sin, and God comes in and saves the day. Sometimes God does so rather dramatically. We will see that this Sunday. A Kingdom in trouble. A righteous king facing his own demise. God comes and rescues them all and, in doing so, highlights both His faithfulness to His promises and His desire to give us grace! Forgiveness. Join us this Sunday @ 9 as we look at the God of second chances.

"Daylight Savings Time" Love it or hate it (I get the impression that most don't care for it), the time change is a reality. This Sunday our clocks will roll back one hour. Some of you will get an "extra" hour of zzzzz's. Big whoop, right?! They'll just take it away from you on March 14. If you knew part of DST's initial start in history, well, it seems a bit odd and self-centered. Supposedly, it was first proposed in 1895 by a man named George Hudson who was an entomologist ...Continue reading

Sunday Morning Worship

"Mission Sunday" With all the problems going on in our society today; politics, constant bickering, divisiveness, everyone is upset about something, economic issues, home schooling, pandemic, it's easy to forget and lose sight of who really matters in life. Jesus Christ is who really matters. For those of us who truly value and cherish him, he is our Lord and he is our Savior. And I don't think we can truly comprehend the eternal glories he has in store for his people. Jesus ...Continue reading

Gods Redemption through a Chosen King

"Dynastic" The battle between the offspring of the woman and the serpent (Gen 3:15) isn't always gloom and doom. Some of it is fantastic, romantic and dynastic! Often it is God's divine power reaffirming His promise (Genesis 12:1-3) time and time again. Thus far in our journey out of the Garden we've seen the calling of the Patriarchs, the fulfilling of the promise to bring Abraham's descendants to the Promised Land. Last week we spent some time looking at the period of the J...Continue reading

"Judges" God's eternal purpose and plan, a.k.a. "The Scheme of Redemption", is utterly fascinating. The biggest fascination to all of it can be seen in people's reactions to what God did through Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul describes God's plan of salvation in terms in which no one was able to grasp what God was doing. It was difficult to conceive. Before that, Paul would indicate in the first chapter that the plan is so unfathomable, that Greeks and Jews alike ridicule ...Continue reading

"Pastors" For as long as I have been a "Gospel preacher" I have had a number of people, typically out of the denominational world, refer to me as a "pastor". A number of you who are reading this right now belong to a group of people who were raised on the Bible and strict adherence to the truth it teaches, and so instantly some of you understand that I am not a pastor. As a matter of fact, in some of these non-denominational/evangelical churches where the preacher is called a...Continue reading

Israel’s Long Journey Part 2