April 24, 2016 - Heavenly Worship

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE
 Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”

Have you ever wondered what Heaven will be like?  What

will it be like to worship in Heaven?  I'll bet the mention of heaven brings images of clouds, winged angels with harps, and maybe streets of gold lined with mansions.  However, this is not the picture that God gave the Apostle John.  You see, later in his life,

John was exiled to an island named Patmos.  It was there that John was given a vision from God of Heaven. It was this vision that we now know as the book of Revelation.  Among other things, he saw a glorious image of worship in Heaven that we rarely talk about!  Perhaps we talk about, or rather sing about, it more than we think.  The Christian singer, Kari Jobe, came out with a song that many of us are familiar with called Revelation Song.  It is called this because most of it, mainly the first two verses, are taken from Revelation 4 and 5.  So lets take a brief look at Heaven using this song.

Revelation 5:6a

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

Revelation 5:9

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll

    and to open its seals, because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Revelation 4:2-5a

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder.

Revelation 4:11 

11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Revelation 5:12-13

12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

Revelation 4:8

8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

Revelation 4:11

11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

I hope you enjoyed this different view of Heaven and Heavenly Worship.  Picture these things the next time you hear or sing Revelation Song.  It may help you to better understand what you are singing and actually take you to a deeper place in your worship. Also, there are many more references to Heavenly worship in the Bible and other pictures of Heaven such as in Daniel or Ezekiel.  It is a fun and rewarding study and I encourage you to do it with your family.

April 17, 2016 - Church Worship - Body of Christ

Tony & Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

I Corinthians 12:27

What is the most important part of your body?  Is it your brain? Your heart? Your hands?  What parts would you be willing to do without? Your feet?  Your ears?  What if your feet thought they weren't really a part of your body because they weren't the hand?  How about if your ear thought it wasn't really part of your body because it wasn't your eye?  Sounds pretty silly, doesn't it?  That's because it is.  But we, as a church, do this very thing all the time! Let me explain.

During his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul came

to a town called Corinth.  Paul, as he always did, tried to preach to the local Jews in the Synagogue about Jesus Christ.  However, he and his message were soundly rejected.  Paul then decided to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews) instead.  There, Paul met with success.  He, along with his friends Silas and

Timothy, were able to recruit and teach many new believers and set up a church in Corinth.  

After a year and a half, Paul saw that it was time for him to leave and he continued on his journey.  Unfortunately, things did not go exactly according to plan in Corinth. The people of the church began arguing among themselves over who was more important in the church.  They thought that certain

gifts, jobs, and positions were more important than others.  Word of this reached Paul and he decided to sit down and write them a letter.  We know this letter as 1st Corinthians. 

Paul began explaining to the people there that the church was the body of Christ and Jesus Himself was the head.  (He also wrote a similar letter to the Romans.)  Not only that, but each person was like a

different body part doing a different but equally important job.  He explained to them that the body needs all its parts to do the complete job it was meant to do.  

Today, we still make the same mistake.  We think to ourselves that only certain people are important to the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest aren't. People think, "Because I'm not a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I'm not very important." Others think things such as, "because I AM a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I am much more important to the Kingdom of Heaven than the others."  

We, as the body of Christ, need to pull together if we ever

want to win this world for Jesus Christ.  God has a unique and important job for each of you and He has given you an special ability and desire to do that job.  We need to seek God and discover what our job and our giftings are.  Then we need to work together with, strengthen, and encourage each other.  You would never get much done if all your body parts were working against each other now would you? 

April 10, 2016 - Synagogue Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another; 

(Hebrews 10:25)

Have you ever been taught something that you later found out wasn’t true?  It happens all the time; even in CHURCH!  Sometimes it is just a mistake on the part of the teacher but sometimes someone is trying to trick you on purpose.  Satan himself is called the “Deceiver” and always wants you to believe things that aren’t true.  That is one reason that God gave us the Bible, so we could always check to see if something we’ve been taught is true or not.

This week, we are talking about the

Apostle Paul during his second missionary journey.  The first thing Paul would do when he came to a city was look to see if they had a Synagogue there.  If they did, he would go there and teach the people about Jesus.  Now, a Synagogue is sort of like what we call a church.  It was where Jewish people would go to worship and learn about God when they weren’t near the Temple in Jerusalem. 

That was just what happened in Thessalonica.  Paul went to the Synagogue and started to teach the people.  The Jews

had been hearing for many years about a Messiah or Christ that God would send to become king and save them all.  Paul began to teach them that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.  He also told them the Scriptures had taught that the Messiah would have to suffer and die for the people.

The Thessalonians were not easy people to teach.  Paul had to teach them three times before some of them finally began to believe.   However, some of the people didn’t like what Paul was teaching about a king.  They went to the City Council and complained.  The council did not like what Paul was teaching either so they went looking for Paul. 

All they found was Jason, the man that Paul and his partner Silas were staying with.  They told Jason that he had to make Paul leave Thessalonica immediately.  So the next day, Paul left.

Next, he and Silas came to a city called Berea.   Just like before, Paul went to teach at the Synagogue.  This time, the people were eager to learn about God.  Also, each time

they heard Paul preach, the Bereans went and checked with the Scriptures to see if what he was saying about Jesus was true or not.  When they saw that it was true, they went back to hear more.  The Bible says that the Bereans were more noble because of this.

Unfortunately, the same troublemakers from Thessalonica followed Paul and Silas to Berea and started causing trouble

there too!  So, once again, Paul had to leave town but this time there were many people who believed in Jesus because they read and believed their Scriptures.

Even today, we still need to read our Bibles and know them well.  You never know when the devil will try to use a false teacher to trick us and we need to be prepared.  Always check with God’s Word before believing something you hear.  

April 3, 2016 - Temple Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (I Corinthians 3:16)

How important did God consider the temple in Jerusalem?  The temple in Jerusalem was extremely important for worship to the Jewish people. When King David wanted to build the temple, God deemed him unworthy.  Instead, God had David’s son, Solomon, build it.

When King Solomon completed the temple, he moved in all of the temple articles: the altar of incense, the table for the show bread, the seven tiered candlestick/Menorah, and of course the Ark of the Covenant. When all this was done, God filled the temple with His Spirit in the form of a cloud so thick that the priests could not do their work.

This was God’s way of showing the people that He approved of the temple and that His presence would dwell within it. God intended the temple to be a place for people to pray to Him.

Approximately 1045 years later, a new Temple stood in Jerusalem but it was still sacred to God. During the Passion Week (the last week of Jesus’ life), Jesus visited the temple.  When He arrived, He was greatly offended by what He saw.

It was the week of the Passover and Jews from all over came to make sacrifices. Many of them decided to buy their sacrifices there in Jerusalem. Jesus was not happy to find people selling animals in the temple courtyard.  Also, many people did not have the right kind of money. 

They had money from the countries they came from, which had to be exchanged for local money.

There were people called money changers who would take the people’s foreign money and give them local money. However, they would cheat the people and not give them back the correct amount.  The people could not do anything about it because they needed the local money.  Jesus saw that the money changers were robbing the helpless people. He became very angry.

Jesus grabbed some chords and made a whip from them and used it to chase the money changers out of the temple courtyard. He also flipped their tables over and told them to get the animals out of there. Jesus said to them,  “It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!” (Matthew 21:13)

Christians today do not need a temple to meet with God.  After Jesus ascended into Heaven, God’s Holy Spirit came to live inside of us. God’s word tells us that our bodies are now His temple.  Do you think that God holds our bodies just as sacred as the temple? Of course He does! 

Our bodies are now the dwelling place of His Holy Spirit. If

Jesus thought it was so important to keep wrong things out of the temple, shouldn't we find it just as important to keep wrong things out of our temples (ourselves)? 

So we should take good care of our bodies by eating well, exercising, practicing good hygiene, and not putting bad things in it.  But even more important, we need to keep wrong things out of our minds and spirits! We need to watch what we see, what we hear, what we believe, how we feel and so on.  

Satan will try to get us to let down our guard and fill us with anger, hatred, sadness, jealousy, and many other bad things.  We need to clean our temples the way Jesus did and chase those things out! 

All Christians together are also God's temple.  So we need to watch out for each other and the entire church.  We need to stick together and take care of each other so that our brothers and sisters in Christ aren't deceived, hurt, lonely, afraid, hungry and other such bad things.  We are all in this together!