What is most important?
"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain."
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles." (1 Corinthians 15:1-7)
This is the most succinct definition of the Christian Gospel (aka Good News of Jesus Christ) in the whole Bible. During our Christianity 101 Course, every four months we take four Wednesday nights to look at four words that help us understand what Christianity is all about. These four words make up the acronym GIFT, which is the sum and substance of Christianity (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Here are those four words and what we will be discussing each week…
G = God's Law
WEEK 1: We will discuss how we have all broken the 10 Commandments and deserve God's punishment. God is the holy Creator and He gave us His holy Law to keep, but we've all broken it and deserve His punishment.
I = Immanuel
WEEK 2: We will discuss how God is with us in Jesus (Immanuel) and how He took our punishment on the cross and rose again. "God with us" in Jesus Christ; He kept God's Law, died in our place, and rose from the dead.
F = Forgiveness
WEEK 3: We will discuss how when we confess our sins, God gives us mercy and He forgives our sins in Jesus. We will discover that if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us through the blood of Jesus.
T = Thanksgiving
WEEK 4: We will discuss how our response to this unearned free gift is simply to say "thank you" forever. Having been forgiven from all our sins in Jesus, we now live a life of thankful service because He first served us.
Please contact the church office to see when the next Christianity 101 is meeting. For each of the four weeks, we provide a free meal and childcare for whoever is interested in attending. All we ask is that you give us a heads up before you come, so we know how much food to make… Thanks!