Grace
God is the Source of Grace. It brings understanding and meaning to experience.
It lifts hearts and minds and gives purpose to all who believe.
Grace is a spiritual fortune.
God is the Great Creator. All good
things come from Him: One of those good things is His Grace.
Grace is “a showing of kindness, a favor done without
expectation of return, an act of mercy.”
All of God’s qualities are wrapped up
in His Grace: His Holiness, His Truth, His Righteousness, His
Justice, His Goodness, His Love, His
Mercy.
Family
The New Testament uses certain
pictures to describe the church, and each one brings out aspects
of our corporate lives together as believers: For instance, we
are likened to both a field and a building (1 Corinthians 3:9),
to a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5) and a flock of sheep (Hebrews
13:20).
The Word of God tells us that
church is Family, whether it be the Christian Church
Universal (throughout space and time), or part of the Church
Militant (throughout space) locally in any one individual and
particular corporate gathering in someone's home. (Matthew
16:18)
Churches are meant to be extended
families, and the Word of God gives us the pattern of how they
are to function and operate. And when we look at that blueprint
and pattern then what do we find? We find a family gathering in
every sense of the term. God is our Father, Jesus is our big
brother, and those others in the church are our brothers and
sisters.
Ministry
“The ordinary ministry is that which
receives all of its direction from the will of God revealed in
the Scriptures and from those means which God has appointed in
the church for its continual edification.” (William
Ames)
New Testament ministry should
achieve several purposes:
First, our ministry should serve to
continue, in one sense, the ministry commenced by our Lord Jesus
Christ (cf. Acts 1:1-2). We are His body, expressing His life to
men today (cf. Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12ff.).
