The Heidelberg Catechism - The Foundations Of Our Faith

Luke 16:1-13  Ecclesiastes 11   How To Have A Successful Year  1 Cast your bread upon the waters,  for you will find it after many days.  2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,  for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.  3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.  4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.  5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.  6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.  7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.  8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be m

The English word Christmas dates from before the twelfth century. In Old English it was two words, Christes maesse , and in Middle English, Christemasse . Literally it meant "Christ's mass" and referred to the special worship service held on December 25 in honor of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. As most of you know, we aren't certain about the time of the year when Jesus was born, but it's safe to infer He wasn't born around December 25. This is a date the Roman Catholic Church set centuries ago for the wrong reason. When Constantine legalized Christianity in the 4th Century, there was already a pagan celebration called Sol Invictus that took place a few days after the winter solstice. It was a celebration of the fact that once again light had conquered darkness. When the Roman Empire became "Christian" they adopted many of these pagan practices and tried to Christianize them (they eventually paganized Christianity), thus we celebrate "Chr

Developing Your Spiritual Maturity   Ephesians 4: 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.     Christian Maturity Christian maturity is not only an individual goal, it is a corporate goal as well. Christian Maturity involves a number