God’s Indescribable Gift

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
-Romans 8:32


Romans 8 is a very well known passage of Scripture, but not one we usually associate with Christmas. And yet, Romans 8:32 reminds us of what Christmas is all about: the gift of the Son to save sinners. 

This Christmas season of giving should remind us that God is the true Giver of all good things, all of which we receive by virtue of the greatest gift, God the Son. In Jesus and his life and death, we know God’s grace, and God will give us every other good thing that we need.

This is no promise of loaded bank accounts and worldly mansions. There is no promise here of an easy life. There will be loss and grief and hardship in life, maybe especially this Christmas season. 

Yet in the midst of grief and joy, this promise in Romans 8 is a window into the generous heart of our God. He gave us his Son—he spared no expense, not even the sacrifice of his Son, to bring us back to himself. Nothing can separate us from his love. Everything we need for life and godliness he gives us freely through Jesus.

This Christmas be sure to take time to reflect on
God’s inexpressible gift. Read the Christmas story with your spouse, kids or grandkids, friends and family, listen to some biblically rich Christmas songs, and wonder at the indescribably generous grace of our God. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich,” (2 Cor 8:9). 

We pray that you and your families have a blessed Christmas and taste and see once again or maybe for the first time the incredible generosity of our great God.


Merry Christmas!

 


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Give Thanks 2023

A Thanksgiving Passage: Psalm 105:1–11

This psalm calls us to give thanks to our God and tell others about his wondrous works. This is part of missional living, as Jim Desmond shared with us this Sunday. Even with all we’ve gone through the past two months, we have much to be thankful for, and we never want to lose sight of our calling to give thanks to God and tell others why we can be thankful in all circumstances.

Our God has kept his promises, is keeping his promises, and will always keep his promises. In him, we have salvation and new life through Jesus. Let’s remember all the wondrous works the Lord has done, this week, all our lives, and into eternity!

1.    What are some of God’s “wondrous works” we can be thankful for?

2.    What are some promises you’ve seen God keep in your own life?

A Thanksgiving Playlist

Take some time this week, to listen and sing along to some songs that express praise and thanksgiving to our great God. Here’s a suggested Thanksgiving playlist for both YouTube and Spotify.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Lord, we give thanks to you today that you have saved us and made us new in Jesus. You always keep your promises. You are always faithful and truly good to us. Forgive us for when we doubt your goodness, when we complain and grumble. Help us this week and all our lives to be people of joyful thanksgiving who share the message of the good news with those around us. Be glorified in our family gatherings and time with friends this week. Thank you, Lord for all you are and all you’ve done. Amen.


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The King Who Is Near

Read Together: Psalm 145

In Psalm 145, David lifts up his voice to praise his God and King. Like Psalm 139, this psalm highlights both God’s transcendence (his otherness) and immanence (his nearness). David praises God as his King whose greatness is unsearchable. His Kingdom is glorious and everlasting. Yet, our King is also near. He is gracious and merciful, and his goodness overflows.

The Lord is a King who upholds the weak, raises those who are falling, provides for the needy, and saves those who cry out to him. He is kind in all of that he does, and he is near to all who call out to him. These are truths to bolster the faith of our hearts. As we walk through a difficult time with the Troyers, we know that the Lord is near to us. He will uphold us. And no matter what, he “is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works” (v. 17).

Discussion Questions

1.    What does it mean that God is transcendent? How is this encouraging?

2.    What does it mean that God is immanent? How is this encouraging?

3.    How should we respond to these truths about God?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read all or portions of Psalm 145 with your children. Discuss with them what it teaches us about who God is. He is our great King who is with us. Talk about ways God is near us.

Memorization: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)

Song: Listen to “The Perfect Wisdom of Our God” (Keith Getty and Stuart Townend).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord for his unsearchable greatness and nearness to his people.
  • Confess before God our neediness before him.
  • Pray that God would uphold us as we walk through this season.

Go Together

  • God’s greatness and nearness have practical implications for our lives. It means we should be people of prayer, depending on him to supply our needs. It also means we should be ready to be used of God to be near others in need. As a church family, right now this means we can pray for Pastor Jerry and his family knowing that God hears us and has the ability to answer our prayers. It also means that as opportunity arises, we should be ready to be used of God to support the Troyers in practical ways. Our church leadership will keep our church body informed on ways we can do so in the coming days.
 
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The Lord Will Provide

Read Together: Genesis 22:1–19

One text that was traditionally read during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets was the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. This is the story where the Lord tests Abraham and his trust in God’s promises. God had promised that it was through Isaac that he would make Abraham into a great nation. Now the Lord tells Abraham to offer up Isaac to him as a sacrifice.

Abraham obeys, not wavering in his faith in God’s promises, and at the last moment, the Lord orders Abraham to stop and provides a ram for the sacrifice. The main point of this story is that the Lord provides. He provides a substitute for Isaac. And this of course clearly points us to Jesus. Jesus is God’s beloved Son who is our sacrifice for sin. Through Jesus, God has provided forgiveness for us. In Christ, we can always trust that the Lord will provide.

Discussion Questions

1.    What does this story teach us about Abraham’s faith? (see Hebrews 11:17–19)

2.    What does it teach us about God?

3.    How does this story point us to Jesus?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read “The Present” in The Jesus Storybook Bible (pages 62–69).

Memorization: “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)

Song: Listen to “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery” (Matt Papa & Matt Boswell).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord that he did not spare his own Son but has given him up for us and our salvation.
  • Confess before God our lack of faith in his promises and his provision.
  • Pray that God would give us an ever-growing faith in his promises.

Go Together

  • Discuss together in what areas you are tempted to doubt God’s promises. Remember and reflect on Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In Christ, we can be assured that God will keep all his promises to us. Discuss some of these promises and how you can grow in your trust that God will keep them.
 
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Costly Forgiveness

Read Together: Romans 5:1–11

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to forgive one another from the heart (Matt 18:35). We are to have hearts of mercy and forgiveness. But how do we actually get to this kind of heart-attitude? We start by returning again and again to God’s mercy toward us. We show mercy as those who have experienced God’s mercy. We forgive as those who have been forgiven more than we can comprehend.

Romans 5:1–11 can help us consider afresh just how much God has loved us and forgiven us. By the Spirit, the Father has poured his love into our hearts through the work of Jesus. Jesus died for God’s enemies (us!) so that we might be forgiven. This forgiveness was not cheap. It cost the death of God’s Son, and it displays the depths of God’s love. How can we who have experienced such costly love be stingy with our forgiveness?

Discussion Questions

1.    What does Romans 5:1–11 teach us about God’s love?

2.    How does God’s love transform our attitude toward others?

3.    When have you have seen someone show costly love for a person who didn’t deserve it?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read “Debts and Debtors” in The Biggest Story Bible Storybook (pages 380–83). Discuss with your children God’s forgiveness of our sins and how we should forgive one another.

Memorization: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Song: Listen to “His Mercy Is More” (Matt Boswell).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord for his abundant mercy toward us in Jesus!
  • Confess before God the unforgiving spirit that can take over our hearts.  
  • Pray that God would help us to experience his mercy more deeply and learn to forgive others from the heart.

Go Together

  • Take some time this week to consider where you might be harboring unforgiveness in your heart. Take it to the Lord and reflect on how much he has forgiven you. Then begin to take steps toward forgiveness. If your situation is especially difficult and the hurt especially deep, we encourage you to seek out another mature believer to walk with you in this process to provide wisdom and encouragement as you seek to forgive the person who wronged you.

 
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Union with Christ

Read Together: Colossians 2:6–15

The apostle Paul uses a short phrase in this passage and throughout his letters that is loaded with meaning. It is the phrase “in/with him (Jesus).” This simple (often overlooked) phrase presents to us important truths about our experience as Christians. All of our Christian life can be summed up in this phrase: in Christ. The Christian life is a life of union with Christ.

In Jesus, we are made complete (v. 10). In our union with him, we have died to our sinful self and have found new life in him (vv. 11–13). Baptism is a picture of our spiritual union with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection. We are bound to Christ. Our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). And so we are called to walk in Christ, to be rooted and built up in him (vv. 6–7). Jesus is our life (Col 3:4), and union with Christ is the source of all the blessings of the Christian life (Eph 1:3).

Discussion Questions

1.    Notice all the cases of “in/with him” in this text: what do these teach us about the Christian life?

2.    What does baptism picture?

3.    What are some ways we can actively “walk in Christ” this week?

Ideas for Younger Kids

·      Read “Paul, Purple Goods, and a Prison Quake” in The Biggest Story Bible Storybook (pages 476–79). Discuss with your children the pattern here of belief in Jesus and then baptism.

·      Learn the following catechism question with your children (Q119 in A Catechism for Boys and Girls):

o   Q. What is baptism?

o   A. The dipping of believers into water, as a sign of their union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Memorization: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12)

Song: Listen to “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me” (CityAlight).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord for all the blessings that are ours through our union with Christ.
  • Confess before God the times when we have sought to live in a way contrary to our union with Christ and our confession of faith in him.
  • Pray that God would help us live everyday as those united with Christ, rooted and built up in him.

Go Together

  • Spend some time remembering and reflecting together on your baptism (for those who have been baptized). Tell each other your story of coming to know Jesus and identifying and picturing your union with him in baptism. For those who have not yet been baptized, consider whether you have trusted in Jesus and are, thus, ready for this next step.
  • Continue to discuss together Question 3 above: what are some practical ways you can live this week as someone who is united with Christ? What are some sins you need to confess and cut out of your life? What are some ways you can love others as Christ has loved you? Where do you need to stand strong for Jesus in the midst of the onslaught of worldly philosophies?  

 
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Fellow Workers for the Truth

Read Together: 3 John 5–8

The apostle John commends Gaius for how he has received and supported traveling preachers and missionaries. These were men who traveled from city to city planting and strengthening churches. They were sent out “for the sake of the name”—for the sake of Jesus, to make him known. Gaius had taken part in supporting these missionaries, showing them kindness and Christlike love, receiving them into his home while they were in town.  

John writes that we ought to do likewise. We take part in the mission of Christ when we support those who have gone out “for the sake of the name.” When we actively support those on mission, we get to be fellow-workers, or co-workers, for the truth about Jesus. So, while we live on mission and walk in the truth in our own contexts, we also take part in the mission elsewhere through partnering with those who go where we cannot.

Discussion Questions

1.    Why should we support missionaries?

2.    What does it mean to be a “fellow worker for the truth”?

3.    What are some ways we can we show love for and support to missionaries?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read 3 John 5–8 with your kids. Ask them: “What is a missionary?” and talk about how our church sends and supports missionaries who go to another place to tell other people about Jesus. Talk with your kids about the missionaries Eastport supports and how we are working together with them to spread the truth about Jesus around the world.  

Memorization: “Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.” (3 John 8)

Song: Listen to “May the Peoples Praise You” (Keith and Kristyn Getty). “This our holy privilege to declare/Your praises and Your name/To every nation, tribe and tongue/Your church proclaims.”

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord for the privilege and blessing of representing Jesus in the world.
  • Confess before God for when we have neglected to support the mission in prayer and in other ways.
  • Pray that God would help us live on mission for Jesus each day.  
  • Pray that God would help us faithfully support others on mission.

Go Together

  • Take some extra time this week to pray for the missionaries our church supports. If you have our missions prayer journal, that is a great place to start. If you would like a digital copy of this prayer journal, please let Pastor Nathan know, and he can send you one.
 
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The Lord’s Discipline

Read Together: Hebrews 12:5–17

Why does the Lord discipline his children? Because he loves us. He loves us, and he disciplines us for our good. And the good for which God disciplines us is that we might share his holiness (v. 10). We need to remember that what is best for us is not going our own way but going God’s way. God’s discipline is meant to be a course-correction for his children, and it all stems from his love for us.

The same goes for our life together in our church community. Together, we pursue peace and holiness (v. 14). Which means we look out for each other (v. 15). In love and a desire for peace, we watch out for sin creeping into each other’s lives and confront it in love. Like the Lord’s discipline, the goal of true church discipline is repentance and restoration. Striving for peace and holiness is not something we do in isolation. It is a community endeavor.

Discussion Questions

1.    Why is sharing in God’s holiness what is best for us?

2.    What are some examples of loving discipline you’ve seen or experienced?

3.    How are pursuing peace and pursuing holiness connected in the life of our church community?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read Proverbs 3:11–12 with your children. Discuss with them what “discipline” means. It is when someone in authority over us corrects us so we can learn the right way to live. Also discuss that behind discipline is love. God corrects us because he loves us, like a father loves his children. Sometimes this correction hurts, and we don’t like it. But it is what is best for us, and we learn through it.

Memorization: “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11–12)

Song: Listen to “Come Ye Sinners” (The Worship Initiative).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord that he is our Father who loves us and seeks what is best for us.
  • Confess before God that we are tempted to despise his discipline and the correction of others. We are proud and don’t like correction and miss the love in God’s discipline and the correction of others.
  • Pray that God would help you see God’s discipline as aiming for our good, sharing in his holiness.  
  • Pray for our church community that we would pursue peace and holiness together in love and humility.

Go Together

  • Take some time to think about and discuss your general attitude towards discipline and correction. Ask yourselves: Are we willing to receive God’s discipline and the correction of others as what is best for us? When we confront someone about their sin, do we do it in love aiming for restored peace and holiness? Before we can receive discipline well and confront others living in sin, we must assess the attitudes of our heart. Our attitude must be humble, our motive must be love, and our aim should be peace and holiness.
 
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Life-Giving Rebuke

Read Together: Proverbs 15:31–33

Nobody enjoys receiving a rebuke or being corrected. Few enjoy confronting others who need correction. Our world today tends to view correction and rebuke as inherently life-draining and simply arrogant. Who are we to tell anybody that they are wrong or living in a way that is sinful? 

Yet, Proverbs 15:31–33 teaches us the value of life-giving correction. That’s the goal of confrontation: giving life and seeking restoration. In fact, these verses also teach us that ignoring the warnings and rebukes of others is an act of self-hatred. Listening to correction is wisdom. Ignoring a genuine rebuke is foolish and self-damaging.  

So, as you discuss these verses, remember to think about not just how we should go about giving correction. But consider also how we should receive correction. Until we can receive life-giving rebuke as well as give it, we have missed both the path of wisdom and an important component to unity in the church.

Discussion Questions

1.    How would you describe the difference between life-giving correction and correction that tears someone down?

2.    What are some examples of “life-giving” correction?

3.    Why is ignoring correction hating yourself?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read “David Sins . . .  and Repents” in The Biggest Story Bible Storybook (pages 152–55). Discuss how Nathan confronted David and rebuked his sin. Nathan’s rebuke led to David’s repentance, which led to a restoration in David’s relationship with God (even as there were still lasting consequences for his sin).

Memorization: “The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.” (Proverbs 15:31)

Song: Listen to “Oh, How Good It Is” (Keith and Kristyn Getty). This song reminds us of the goal of confrontation in the church: unity and peace.

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord that for his mercy in forgiving us. Thank him for those in our lives who love us enough to offer life-giving correction. Consider thanking God for some of these people by name.
  • Confess before God our pride in often thinking we don’t need correction. Confess our tendency to pursue surface-level peace and unity without the depths of love and humility that lead to giving and receiving life-giving correction.
  • Pray that God would help you receive correction and offer it with humility and love.
  • Pray for relationships in our church community. Ask God to help us have a spirit of forgiveness when we are wronged and a spirit of humility when we are confronted for doing wrong.

Go Together

  • We tend to be people who like practical application, a seven-step plan for change or a two-step system for being a better [fill-in-the-blank]. Yet, many times the most practical thing we can do is return to the foot of the cross.
  • So, take some time this week to go to the cross and reflect on Jesus’s death for sinners. For how can anyone think themselves perfect who lives at the foot of the cross? The cross reminds us of the seriousness of sin. It reminds us that in Jesus there is forgiveness. We don’t need to fear correction. Correction can lead to repentance and lead to life. Take some time to go to the cross this week by remembering what Jesus has done, praying together about what the cross means, and seeking to live as those who seek life in the work of Jesus.

 

 
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Sharing Burdens

Read Together: Galatians 6:1–5

Galatians 6:1–5 provides an opportunity to reflect more on the compassion and humility that should be a part of our church community. As you read and discuss this passage with your family or with others, be sure to reflect on the key points Paul makes:

(1) Those who are spiritual (i.e., those who are led by the Spirit) should humbly and carefully help restore those caught in sin. This was probably a rebuke to many in the Galatian church who thought the “spiritual” attitude was to keep away from believers who had fallen into sin. Of course, wisdom is needed in applying this, as the second part of verse 1 indicates.

(2) We should bear each other’s burdens. These burdens include the idea of being caught in sin, but also go beyond it to include the cares and burdens of life that we can’t carry alone.

(3) We should examine ourselves and test our deeds and attitudes, not by comparing them with those of others, but by coming to terms with what they really are in light of God’s standards.

(4) We must remember that there is a load that we alone are responsible to carry: our eternal destiny (Gal 6:5). In the end, there will be a day of reckoning where we will be held responsible for how we have lived and responded to Christ. No one can carry this load for us. We alone are finally responsible before God for our conduct in this world.

Discussion Questions

1.    How should we respond to people who are caught in sin?

2.    How do we fulfill the “law of Christ”?

3.    What is the “load” we alone can carry?

Ideas for Younger Kids

  • Read Galatians 6:2 with your kids. As an object lesson, fill a backpack or box with heavy items that you know will be difficult for your kids to carry on their own. Ask them to try to carry it. Then offer to help them. Make the point that we need help carrying heavy loads. As followers of Jesus, we need to help each other when we are caught in sin or going through a trying time.
  • Yet, also highlight verse 5. There is a load/burden we alone must carry: our standing with God. Take time to remind your kids about how one day we will all stand before God. What matters is how we have responded to God: have we trusted in Jesus? Have we repented of our sin? No one can trust in Jesus for us or repent for us. This is a “load” we must carry ourselves.

Memorization: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

Song: Listen to “The Love of God” (by Frederick M. Lehman, performed by The Worship Initiative).

Pray Together

Focus your prayer time together on the following areas:

  • Praise the Lord that he is a jealous God who shows his people compassion, seeks out the wandering, and disciplines those who give way to sin.
  • Take some time to examine yourselves and confess your sin before the Lord. Confess before God our pride in comparing ourselves with others instead of examining ourselves in light of God’s Word.
  • Pray that our church community would be marked by this kind of compassion and care. That we would carry each other’s burdens and be willing to confront sin in each other’s lives to promote restoration.

Go Together

  • The key question that arises from Galatians 6:2 is “how do we practically bear one another’s burdens?” Take some time to discuss this question with your family or another believer. Make it concrete by thinking of someone you know who needs extra care, compassion, encouragement, or even a gentle confrontation for sin in their life. Then, go from the “who” to the “what” and come up with a plan to help them carry their load this week. Even a simple encouraging note can go a long way in many cases.
 
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