Opening Reflections for Committees July 2008

Evangelism Sub-Committee of the Witness and Fellowship Ministry Team

The Evangelism sub-committee recommends that all committees and meetings be opened with a scripture reading and discussion followed by a prayer in order to get the members in the correct frame of thought before starting their work in Christ.  It should also build a relationship between the members with their mission to serve the will of God in their meeting.  If we learn to share and discuss the word of God among ourselves, we will be more comfortable spreading the good news through out our every day relationships.

It is also recommended that members of the committee rotate the leadership of these reflections so every one can be equipped to lead and pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

RENEWAL

Romans 12: 1-3 - ¹ I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ³ For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.

Titus 3: 4-7 -  ⁴ but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, ⁶ which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

2 Corinthians 4:16 - So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.

Ephesians 4:22-24 - ²² Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3: 8-10 -  ⁸ But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The work of the Holy Spirit begins in understanding, and is carried on to the will, affections, and conversation, until there is a change of the whole man into the likeness of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. Thus, to be godly, is to give up ourselves to God. Those who have put off the old man have put it off with its deeds; and those who have put on the new man must put on all its deeds, not only in good principles but also in good conversation. The new man is said to be renewed in knowledge, because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. Without knowledge the heart cannot be good, Prov. 19:2. The grace of God works upon the will and affections by renewing the understanding. It was the honor of man in innocence that he was made after the image of God; but that image was defaced and lost by sin, and is renewed by sanctifying grace: so that a renewed soul is something like what Adam was in the day he was created.  Christ came to take down all partition-walls, that all might stand on the same level before God, both in duty and privilege. And for this reason, because Christ is all in all. Christ is a Christian’s all, his only Lord and Savior, and all his hope and happiness. And to those who are sanctified, one as well as another and whatever they are in other respects, he is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: he is all in all things to them.