God’s grace just changes everything.   This story uses a giving event to show off the power of God’s grace.  This is not rich churches giving to poor churches, as we would expect should happen, but really poor churches giving to other poor churches.    The churches of Macedonia are giving liberally to the churches of Jerusalem to help them out in their time of need but they themselves (Macedonian churches) are described as people in deep poverty.   Some exciting highlights of this story are that their affliction should have brought pain, yet they were joyful.  Their deep poverty should have been a reasonable excuse for them to ignore the offering plates when they passed, yet they begged Paul to receive their offering.  So how was all this possible?  Because grace writes exciting stories out of hopeless situations.

Jesus gave first.  II Corinthians 8:9 says that Jesus (who was truly rich) made Himself poor so that we could be rich.  The believers at Macedonia then gave themselves back to Jesus (II Corinthians 8:5) then to all other believers.  This is how the grace of God guides the story and changes all the rules.  The pain of my affliction is now swallowed up in joy, and my poverty is no match for my generosity.  I have my own abilities plus all of the grace of God at my disposal!   Our teenagers should not go it alone and try to write some story themselves, or worse, let a lost world write it for them.  The grace of God changes everything and the next big thing that God wants to do includes our young people and us.  They should see the work of grace in us and hear our exciting stories of how it changes everything.

Contact John Pearson at john@mjvi.org , 770-265-7846 or Sandy Pearson sandy@coldriveram.com , 770-377-5518 for information about the high school class at Vision.

The post God’s grace writes the most exciting stories. appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

Mature Christians Imitate Christ by Serving Others. 

March 28, 2015 Romans 15

This chapter continues the discussion from chapter 14 on strong versus weak Christians.  The strong are those that understand the liberty they have in Christ and how to use it to serve Him, while the weak are those who feel the Christian life is a set of rules and abstinences they follow as a way to please God.  The strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak (help them) and not to please themselves.  This is a lesson on service and against selfishness. We waste time with our selfishness trying to control situations instead of using our liberty to serve and help our brothers in Christ to mature.

God tells us in the chapter (Romans 15:4) to read our Bible and learn how He does things.  Learn how Jesus took our reproaches on Himself and how He received us flaws and all.  He also tells us that in the Scriptures we will find the God of patience as well as the consolation we need to deal with whatever the current life challenge is.  Sometimes that challenge is a who not a what.  Most of all, we will learn how to receive one another without being selfish and glorify God together.  He deserves to be glorified.   So if you want to know how to show yourself as a spiritually mature Christian, learn how Christ served others and then imitate that.

The post Parent Corner: Mature Christians appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

March 1, 2015

Text: Romans 13

To help our parents stay informed about what their students are learning during the Student Bible Fellowship time at church we are providing an overview of the lesson from this Sunday for you. 

Submitting to authority is tough at any age, especially when you want to do your own thing.  There is no law against doing your own thing, unless it impacts you or others in a destructive manner.  God knew that every generation would want to leave its own unique mark on the world, and sometimes that would involve lawlessness.  To protect those that may be injured by that activity, God gave us instructions on how to govern ourselves and told us to be obedient to those in authority over us.  He reminded us that He placed the authority structure on the earth and He was ultimately the “boss” of all those in authority above us.  So if it was God that ordained that we govern ourselves with laws and governors, then submission to those in authority above us is submission to God.

God doesn’t discuss in Romans 13 the question of what happens when God’s law and man’s law conflict, but He does make a spiritual distinction between the kingdom of this earth and its governing laws, and the spiritual kingdom of God and its governing laws.  He lets us know that we can live in both kingdoms peaceably at the same time if we put on Christ (Romans 13:14) and keep the flesh under control.  In doing so, we can love our neighbor and fulfill the Law of God (Romans 13:9-10) while at the same time subjecting ourselves to the powers ordained of God in the temporal kingdom of this life.  This will bring us praise from our Lord who is the lord of both kingdoms (Romans 13:3, Romans 13:10).

The post Parent Corner: March 1st appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

Don’t Waste Your Advantage!

Text: Romans 9:1-3

You had the advantage and you wasted it!  That is Paul’s message to Israel in Romans 9:1-3.  He is grieved to the point where he offers to trade his salvation for the salvation of the Israelites.  Though that wasn’t possible, it demonstrated the measure of his grief over the fact that his people had blown the greatest advantage ever given to a nation.  They were the nation chosen by God to take the Gospel to the world.  Because of that, they had all the advantages of the covenant, the law, the tabernacle the lead in all the worship and above all, they were the nation through which God sent us Jesus.  They had all the things that pictured Christ, but when Christ came they rejected Him.  They totally wasted their advantage.

God has given the church the advantage today.  Though just for this time, it is still the greatest advantage a body can have.  We have the truth of the Bible, the fellowship of the body of Christ and most of all the blessings on the work of the great commission.  God is for us which means that nothing that is against us measures up.  God is using His church in this age to do His work.  Anyone that has been made His child and become a part of His church has the advantage of His blessings while they live out their new life in Christ.  To live any other way is to squander the advantage that we have and not to learn from the lessons of men like Esau (Romans 9:11-13) who traded his birth right advantage for one meal.  He was sorry afterwards, but it was too late.  Don’t be sorry, take advantage of your advantage.

The post Parent Corner: Don’t Waste Your Advantage! appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

More than conquerors through Jesus (Romans 8:28-39)

There is a great story in the Old Testament about a mighty man named Benaiah (I Chronicles 11:22-23).  Benaiah, among other great acts is known for taking a spear away from an Egyptian and whipping him with his own weapon.  Benaiah was more than a conqueror because he took the enemy’s weapon away from him and destroyed him with it.  In the last eleven verses of Romans chapter 8 we see the long list of things that will come against us as Christians.  We also are told that God is for us and He will work all things together for our good.  That means that even the bad stuff brings victory in our lives if we trust God to take us through them.  That makes us more than conquerors.

Jesus faced all the things listed in these verses in Romans 8.  He was in distress, persecuted faced peril and the sword and had the powers and principalities of this world come against Him with all their furry.  He arose victorious over them, and if we be dead with Christ then we are also raised in newness of life with Him.  Our salvation doesn’t prevent those things from coming our way, but we can rise up against them in the power of God and see that He will work all those things together for our good.  We are more than conquerors in Jesus which means that in the midst of the trial or temptation is both the way of escape (I Corinthians 10:13) and the tools of a great victory in Christ.

The post Parent Corner: More than Conquerors appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

We have heard from our childhood that we are what we eat.  It’s pretty easy to see who is eating the right stuff and who isn’t.  Romans chapter 6 tells us we are who we serve.  If we serve sin then we are the servants of sin, and if we serve righteousness then we are the servants of God.  The chapter is about what choice Christians will make about who they will serve.  Will we go back to serving sin with our Christian life, even though we know that the things we did in that life brought shame and death, or will we serve righteousness and holiness which is what our new life is designed to do?  Either way we are guaranteed to see the fruits of our service, good or bad manifest themselves in our lives.

When we were under sin and the law, before salvation, we did the thing that came naturally.  That is, our nature reacted to our sinful appetites by yielding to the temptations we thought would satisfy us.  Though it brought shame and ultimately death, it was what we knew and we were comfortable doing it.  In Christ sin no longer has that dominion over us and we can respond to its promptings with what we have learned in Christ and have victory.  We can chose to disobey the old master and serve God.  We have learned that real victory in our Christian life comes through the crucifixion and resurrection.  What used to stimulate us to react to evil can now be used as a signal to respond with godliness.

The post Parent Corner: We Are Who We Obey appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

Appetites and temptations are both liars.  Our young people know that their new life in Christ is supposed to include something about old things being passed away and all things becoming new.  They have to wonder sometimes why the appetites of the flesh still seem to be in full working order, and yet their power to control them seems to be out of order.   I know that I wonder it sometimes.  Romans 6:1-14 deals with this challenge with an explanation about our liberty in Christ.  Though we shouldn’t want to continue to serve sin because Christ lives in us, our appetites live there too and we are given full liberty to choose what we will do.  We usually choose poorly and try to satisfy the appetite by feeding it.  It comes back quickly and wants a bigger fix.

The truth is that we have the power to overcome this, but find it hard to yield to the holy, when the unholy is so flashy and attractive.  We are tricked pretty easily by the shiny, tasty, good feeling or good sounding bait.  This is not a cruel situation that we are left with, rather a testimony to the true unconditional nature of the love of God that never forces nor coerces but gives us full liberty to serve Him or serve sin.  The key is to think of ourselves as dead to the appetites of the old life and know that we have the power to refuse the old and replace it with the new things.  The challenge is that at the same time, we have the liberty to do either.  We should remember that our appetites lie about how much they want and the temptations of this world lie about their ability to fulfill the wants!  We have the power to stop serving liars and yield ourselves to Christ.

The post Parent Corner: Appetites and Temptations appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

In Christ, we go from enemies to children of God (Romans 5:10).  Reconciliation is not just a truce, it’s the creation of a Father – son relationship.  Since we are no longer enemies, we are safe from the anger of God toward sin, but with our new family relationship we are given our lives to live as sons of God.  It is a life that is guided by the new reigning king in our lives.  His name is Jesus and He reigns over the kingdom of grace (Romans 5:21).

Many of our young people are wondering what the Christian life means for them out on their own.  Some are starting to own their own faith, or admit that they have been living on borrowed faith and need their own.  Some don’t really see how it matters.  They may know, or need to know that Jesus died to save them from Hell, but they also need to see how His life saves their lives each day.  In Christ we are handed our lives to live in faith without fear of condemnation.  There is joy even in tribulations and an abundance of grace for every sin.  That is the way to live.

The post Parent Corner: Reconciliation appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

Romans chapter 5 leads off with the peace we have with God and the access we have to God.  These are two of the chief benefits of our legal standing before God which is described in the word – justification.   Those that have placed their faith in Christ are described by the word justified more than by their nationality, profession or social standing.  Justification is possible only because of the unusual nature of God who takes those that are His enemies and too weak to even battle against Him and shows them mercy instead of judgment.  Mercy is available to those who have sinned and have no other remedy because Jesus took the judgment on Himself.  No other god, king or man has ever done this for His enemies.

Justification then, changes everything.  Those who put their faith in Christ now find an instant change in their legal standing and they are declared righteous, and no longer a sinner.  It changes everyday life also in that tribulations are no longer the pathway to failure and shame for the child of God but the chance for God to glorify Himself in their victories.  Tribulation now has purpose and benefit for the justified.  It teaches us how to wait and be patient, it gives us a chance to experience our faith and see it work and it answers a longing in our life to have relief in its hope.

The post Parent Corner: The word “justified” appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.

Romans chapters 1, 2 and the first part of 3 teach that the wicked man, the moral man and the man that ignores the truth of the Bible will all face the same tragic fate.  These chapters make a clear point that all are born in sin and no one has a good excuse to refuse the Gospel.  That is the Roman’s “negative” lesson which is designed to bring someone to a realization of the mess they are in without Christ.   More often though, our saved teenagers are dealing with an insecure and ineffective relationship with God because they may not fully grasp the Roman’s “positive.”

The positive aspect goes way beyond salvation to the point that it becomes the cornerstone of a secure and effective Christian life.  It goes like this; God declared that He would satisfy His own self in our salvation and Christian life.  In other words, I don’t have to worry about whether or not God is pleased with me.  The reason is, that He provided Himself (the propitiation) as the satisfaction for our sins and redeemed us with His own blood.   License for us to be sinful and lazy in our faith?  Stop thinking like that!  Not license but liberty to live a Christian life without fear and regret in the love and grace of our great God.

The post Parent Corner appeared first on Vision Baptist Church of South Forsyth.