This Sunday, Pastor Niki dove into a convincing argument for living a life that is always mindful of the things of God, fighting the worldly things our fleshly nature desires.  Our culture bombards us with thoughts to "live the American dream," working hard today so that we can be lazy later in life.  This type of self-indulgent lifestyle is inconsistent with a life that is focused on the things of God, since He seeks to use us throughout our entire life, not just for a portion of it and then release us to our own desires.  Truly seeking after God calls for a life that is solely dedicated to the things that He desires, things that last forever.

Scripture to memorize: "For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world."    ~ 1 John 2:16

It is easy to slip into.  A little slack here, a little stagnation there, and before you know it you have a complacent attitude towards God.  There is little worse than a mindset that is lazy and indifferent to the desires of God, and this Sunday Pastor Niki dives headlong to explain the symptoms, pitfalls, and ways to overcome this destructive path.

This Sunday, Pastor Niki covered the other 5 areas of importance in determining the believability and trustworthiness of the Bible as the inerrant word of God.  As we come to acknowledge the verifiable evidence pointing to this truth, we must come to the point of choosing to follow God, even if there remain questions and things we do not understand.  This is where "faith" comes in.  As Niki has shown over the past two months, there is great reason to trust in the Bible as truth.  We must choose to put aside our own human reasonings, look at the evidence, and decide, once and for all, which source we will seek for guidance in our lives.

This week Pastor Niki continued our walk through the many reasons that we can trust the the validity and inerrancy of the Bible.  He went over bibliographical information which shows how above reproach the Bible is in comparison to every other piece of history or literature of antiquity.  Of all of texts we have for anything, the bible stands heads and shoulders above the rest in provability for contextual confirmation and comparison due to the immense amount of documents we have!  Adding this to the slew of other mounting data, it is not a surprise that the Bible can be believed to be accurate and inerrant in its integrity maintained throughout the years.

This Sunday, Niki discussed some of the historical information that lends support to the reason that the bible and its books can be considered trustworthy sources of information.  Through the explanation of documentation and reasoning behind scripture choices, the ability to grasp the Bible as a valuable source for faith is becoming less and less of a mystery.

This Sunday, Niki gave an overview on the series to come, which will highlight many of the reasons that we have to put our trust in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.  We need to always be prepared to give voice to the reason for the hope within us, and this series will strengthen each member to adequately understand the facts behind the Word.  We then will be able to communicate to others our reasons for hope and trust in the bible as the ultimate authority for God's plan for humanity.

Scripture of the Week: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." ~ 1 Peter 3:15

Niki will soon be starting a series on the reasons why the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and can be believed as such.  Often today, we find so many lies going around us that call to question the validity of the Bible as anything from a Supreme Being.  All of these doubting suggestions that we find ourselves coming up against often make it so difficult to find the truth among the lies.  These are the reasons we must know why the Bible can be believed, even when the Devil would have us doubt God's Words, why we can seek it for help and assurance in this life, and why we can trust in the truth it offers.  There is much hope to be gained in the pages of the Bible, but before truth can take root, faith must be rooted first.

Scripture of the week: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  ~ Genesis 3:1

In the beginning of service Niki provided a short sermon on our thanksgiving to God and always remembering that God gives us blessings because of His outpouring of love for us, not because we are deserving of such blessings, or because we have done ANYTHING to have earned them.  "We love because He first loved us."  Let us never forget it!

This weekend we watched a wonderful video from another Foursquare Church called the River Church, which has had amazing experiences with God since their church began.  Keeping in mind the amazing things God is able to do, we should never doubt His ability to help us out in our struggles.

This Sunday, Pastor Niki began a two-part series on unity in the church, speaking on its counterpart; division. Citing from the gospel of Mark, we see that division is a tool used by the enemy to break apart the body of Christ, and he continues to use it because it has been such an effective tool against the Kingdom of God.  We are wise to keep away from those discussions and habits that break apart a church and practice the habits of building each other up, unifying the body under its one Head: God.  When we all remember we all follow God, we can all turn to each other for strength and support, stopping the enemy, and his ill-intentions, right in his tracks!

Scripture of the Week:  "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand."  ~ Mark 3:25 (NIV)

This Sunday Pastor Niki elaborated on the reasons why Mount Vernon Foursquare operates the way it does.  He provided insight into the many elements that have helped to determine the path down which they have walked in order to move our body in a particular direction of growth, explaining the differences between a "lake" church and a "river" church.  The significant level of thought and biblical grounding found behind the way our church works is motivating and clarifying for the body.

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