GREENE STREET LETTERS: January 2008

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Who Are We?

People in transistion.
People who have crossed over into "new" life.
A work in progress.
Straining forward to the Upward call of Christ.

We have lived in the darkness far longer than we care to remember.
Now the dawn of hope breaks over us everyday through the Word of God and the presence of His Holy Spirit in us, over us, around us.

It's all about Surrender.
Giving up.
We has spent our lives giving up.
This time it is a surrender to one greater than us that has the power to restore us to sanity.
Sanity?
The ability to make sound decisions that lead to good consequences.
Sanity!
We have surrendered ourselves to the rock.
We have surrendered ourselves to the needle.
We have surrendered oursleves to the joint.
We have surrendered ourselves to the bottle.
We chose to bow our knee and worship the high.
Repeatedly we performed this ritual so many times that it became second nature
We did it out of habit until it becamse a habit.
A habit that consumed the very focus of our lives.

The Church @ Rapha is a community that is seeking answers that can only be found in Christ.
Our Theology?
I Corinthians 2:2
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Christ at the center of our life, gives my life purpose and strenght to be lived and walked out everyday.

We are a community of hope.
Our worship is simple and direct.
We sing "to" God and not about God.

Our services are every Saturday Night at 7 p.m.

Come back and visit our Blog.

Michael Bynum
Pastor
Church @ Rapha

Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Who Are We?

THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD