Live Wire This Week

YCG 10/11 – Sept 14th

September 14, 2010 at 6:00 pm | Posted in LiveWire Event, YCG Session | Leave a comment
Tags: Book of Acts, Devotion, Eras

1. Announcements:

Upcoming events: Lock-in,  JB Renunion,  Paint Ball,  Origins and Lemons,  Chill @ Church,  Harvest Supper, Elders’ Tea Party, Please bring term subs and Consent Forms and give to Ruth Rawes as soon as possible. Take a look at youversion.com and the Essential 100 Reading Plan.

2. 10 Men of the Bible

Can you place the following Biblical characters in time order (as they turn up in the Bible)?

Joshuah, Paul, Noah, Adam, Nehemiah, Jesus, Moses, David, Abraham, Samuel

Where would they fit against these Biblical Eras?

Creation

Patriarchs – the “Fathers of the Faith” start laying the foundations for God to save mankind

Exodus – God’s people leave Egypt to head for the promised land

Conquest – The Jews cross the Jordan in to Caanan and begin to take territory

Judges – The Jews live in the new land first under the rule of “Judges”

Kings – then of Kings.

Exile – Because of repeated disobedience to God, the Jews are taken captive by the Assyrians and Bablyonians

Return – The Persian king Cirus allows the Jews to return to their land

Silence – Several hundred years not represented by books in Bible

Gospel – The New Testament Era.

3. The Early Church: “Devoted”

The first Church started when on the day of Pentecost in about A.D.30 Peter preached a message in Jerusalem to the Jews there, explaining that the man Jesus who had just been crucified was the awaited Messiah. “When the people heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the other Apostles ‘What shall we do’….” You can read in Acts 2:37-47 how 3000 were baptised that very day, and how they began to live together as an amazing community.

Acts 2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

New International Version (NIV)

Some questions for you:

• What do you think of the kind of church life described in Acts 2:37-47 ? How do we compare? How could we close the gap?
• How can we be more devoted to one-another?
• How would you finish the sentence “I feel loved when…” Are you meeting other people’s needs by finding out what makes them feel loved, and offering them the kind of encouragement they need?

Some more scriptures about loving one another: John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:19-21, Mark 12:30-31