Author: Believers Church

July 4, 2018 Believers Church

R.C. Sproul

The Holiness of God examines the meaning of holiness and why people are both fascinated and terrified by a holy God. R.C. closely explores God’s character, leading to new insights on sin, justice, and grace. The result is a new awareness of our dependence upon God’s mercy and a discovery of the awesomeness of His majestic holiness. R.C. Sproul says, ‘It affects every aspect of our lives — economics, politics, athletics, romance — everything with which we are involved.’


The Holiness of God

To read more on the subject, purchase a copy of R.C. Sproul’s best selling (and highly recommended) book, inquire at the bookstore or look online.

 

 

June 4, 2018 Believers Church

Pastor Timothy Keller gave a sermon at an open forum back in 1994 entitled “A Reason for Living”. In it he addresses the issue of life and it’s worth. He says, “To find absolute freedom in life, we must admit that life on its own accord is meaningless. True meaning in life is only found through Jesus Christ, the designer of life.” As you listen, see if you’re not compelled to consider his arguments as they pertain to your own life.

Click play below to listen to the teaching or you can download the audio for free at his website.


BONUS: In addition to this great message, take some time to read the following 1-page PDF where Tim Keller provokes us to think about our life motivations and the effects of such. Download below.

Download the PDF now

May 29, 2018 Believers Church

Today

The school year has come to a close and most of the international students from UW-Stout and UW-River Falls have returned to their home countries. For some of them this is just a summer break and they will be back again next year to continue their studies in America. Others have returned home for good with only this one year of experiences to form their opinions of what it is like to live in the western culture of the United States. When the school year began, we also began a new ministry outreach at Jesus Fellowship of Believers.

Street Level International Community is an arm of Street Level Ministries that was formed in an attempt to reach out to students from other nations that come to our local campuses to further their education. As the school year got underway, we began the year by holding weekly meetings designed to give students a chance to practice their English speaking and fluency. We were excited when two students from Korea showed up for our very first meeting. We really enjoyed our time with them, and discovered how hard it can be to explain exactly why we Americans speak the way that we do. As the semester went along, we had a number of students from China attend and were able to start building some friendships that lasted throughout the year. Some of these students heard about our meeting because they were matched with host families that attend JFB. Others were invited by members of Street Level that connected with international students in their classes on campus. As the semester wore on, the need for practicing their English diminished as their skills and confidence increased. As a result, our outreach efforts shifted more to hosting events such as snow tubing, bowling, and meeting at friends and neighbors houses for meals.

The Past

Looking back on the year, it seems to have gone by very quickly and the amount of time that we were able to spend with each student seems brief. It is easy to wonder if we were able to have any impact on their lives for the kingdom at all. But it is my hope and belief that what they were able to experience while engaging with our group was the kind of warmth, love, and acceptance that can only come from Christian believers who are able to reflect the nature and personality of the one true God. Many of these students come from countries where their belief system does not center on the idea of a personal loving God. Their faith rather is based on deeds to do, concepts to believe, and traditions to follow.

Most of the students that we met don’t follow these beliefs anymore, viewing them as the old ways followed by their grandparents. Most of them come to college with no personal belief or participation in spiritual things. We are prayerful and trust that God will use this interaction with American believers to challenge their thinking and touch their hearts. We were blessed this semester to meet a few students who came from their home countries already born again with a strong belief in God. It was a unique experience to be able to hear stories of how they practice their faith at home, and how that compares to what they experienced here in the states. It was a privilege for use to be able to encourage them in their faith while they were here, and we were sad to see them go.

What’s Next

As the summer comes on, it is a time for us now to look back at lessons learned and to seek God and his direction for this ministry next fall. I wanted to thank all of you what lent a hand to us last year, we couldn’t have done it without you. I would also request your prayers as we dream and scheme for next year that we would fall in line with how God would have us move forward in reaching out to international students.

God Bless, Andy

May 4, 2018 Believers Church

Mark Driscoll – John 6:16-22

Pastor Mark Driscoll is currently teaching through the Gospel of John. In this sermon, we learn a great many truths about ourselves as we watch what Jesus does with His disciples in a boat in a storm on the sea (John 6:16-22). One of the overriding messages in this teaching deals with God’s desire for relationship. In the middle of the sermon, Mark sheds some important light on the need for us to have regular solitude with God (not isolation but solitude).

We often seek God to fix our outward storms, but God comes to firstly deal with those that are inward. Do we recognize God in the midst of our storms? How incapacitated are you by fear of the storm? How are we to rise above the storms of life with Jesus?

Click now to watch the sermon.
Make some personal notes as to how God ministers to you in this season of your life:

subject: relationship
Mark Driscoll – John’s Gospel
May 3, 2018 Believers Church

Street Level Ministries is now accepting donations for their annual Thrift Sale.

Donate your unwanted thrift sale items by calling 715-233-2063 and making arrangements to drop off your items. Please only donate sell-able items. No undergarments please.

The Thrift Sale will take place May 25-26

at the Street Level House
1009 6th Street, Menomonie, WI

All Proceeds go to Local Missions.

May 1, 2018 Believers Church

There are times I find myself in predicaments and situations that could bury me if I let it. I can find myself drowning beneath a whole spectrum of things that I can’t control; things that can paralyze me with anxiety and fear; tossing and turning at 3am wondering what’s going to come of it all. These experiences reveal to me my limitedness. I can get exhausted wrestling to change the future or control the outcome of my circumstances. God never made us with those abilities.

Where do we get the idea we can? For the answer to that, we need to rewind the tape to the beginning of Genesis. The “temptation” in the Garden of Eden finds its fingers in every avenue we try to live today… without God, that is. Satan was speaking with Eve in chapter 3:4-6 saying, “‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Why did she believe Satan? He stirred in her the notion that God was keeping something good from her. Bottom line, she desired to be like God (and not in the way we seek to be by the Holy Spirit today). Satan said, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Don’t we all want to be like God in that way? She didn’t want world domination per se, but to be limitless. It is interesting how today we gravitate toward comments like, “Honey, you can be ANYTHING you want to be. You can do anything you set your hands to.” How disappointing it is to learn when you are older that this is simply not true. One drunk driver drifting across the line, one organ disease, one cheeseburger too many will reveal quickly that we are limited. I get the sentiment, right? We want our kids to try hard and to excel. It’s the backbone of America, but this world is broken. Can you see how, perhaps, this has set up generations with the false idea that they can live without God? We are very limited. We only have so much energy, and so much strength; only so much endurance and intelligence, only so much time. Our vitality is on a nonstop conveyor belt downward. If you think you can do anything, go ahead and try to swim from California to Japan. Be sure to wear a beacon so we can find your remains when you don’t make it. When we think that way, we’re confounded when we try to rectify the “I can do ANYTHING!” mentality with Jesus’, “Apart from me, you can do NOTHING.” How do you live in that?

Embracing your limitedness is quite radical, don’t you think? Or maybe you think I mean that we’re to become lazy sloths with ho-hum attitudes. “I can’t do that… I can’t do anything… waaaa waaaa!” Ha! …um, no. What I mean is, it is time to get over ourselves. I am human, therefore I am limited! I know it! And it is totally okay! When we embrace the fact that we are limited it causes us to become dependent. A man in a wheelchair, like my aged father, needs to embrace the fact that his motor skills are limited by his condition. He will need help to change clothes, eat, bathe, or even to use the restroom. He is totally dependent. The difference between us and the man in the wheelchair is that he knows he needs help with everything. Being dependent often gets looked at as a negative attribute, and it definitely should be when capable people manipulate others or abuse support systems to put off living in an independently sustainable way. But now let’s turn that statement over to say we are not capable of our own Christian salvation, holiness, perfection, or ministry. Sure, in our society, you can find a way to live safely. You can find a vocation and even get a sense of purpose from it. You can regiment your time and finances to make a name for yourself in business or in life. You can differentiate a foolish choice from a wise one. (Keep in mind most of us are starting off our lives with an advantage here in the US. Many others are born into a limiting difficulty). BUT you cannot do enough good to make yourself righteous. You cannot lead yourself into ministry. You cannot empower yourself for ministry work. You cannot make God-aligned choices with your own logic. You’ll never, because of your own goodness, inadvertently happen into righteousness and Godliness. You WILL NEVER BE GOD, though you may feel like you can (that’s the Edenic temptation); you can never partake of the divine nature by your own will and muscle. He is eternal; we are created …and there is a huge chasm between us.

When we embrace our limitedness, we’re forced into undeniable dependence on Another; the Eternal One. Paul once quipped, “I CAN DO ALL THINGS!!!!! …through Christ who strengthens me.” From the outside, Paul may look like he, himself, was one unstoppable machine of ministry; a great man of religious integrity. Gutsy. Fearless! But that would be missing the full picture. Paul embraced his limitedness. In fact, he told us that anything from his own strength was something he looked at as dung (Phil 3:2-11). Let me help you with this one. Dung is off-putting and repellent. There’s a lot of it in our backyard, now that the snow is gone, thanks to our dog. We don’t host dinner parties in the middle of the backyard this time of year. It’s offensive. That is how Paul saw his own abilities and strength; off-putting and offensive. Because of that, he knew he was limited and had to become heavily dependent on the Holy Spirit. With his limits fully understood, he called on the limitless one to come. It was the Spirit of Christ at work inside Paul that made Paul unstoppable. It wasn’t Paul’s natural ability and he didn’t just happen to be this type of man. Paul “strove”… he “fought”… he “beat himself into submission”… not to be a better man but to know God; to engage God, who has no limits.

My prayer is that we grow in knowing just how very limited we are without Him; and that when we embrace our limitedness, we would become more and more dependent on God.

-=pastor tom