Central Assembly
July 3, 2022 | Dr. Jim Bradford | REFOCUS - REPENT - RETURN
July 3, 2022 | Dr. Jim Bradford | REFOCUS - REPENT - RETURN
Locations & Times
Central Assembly
1301 N Boonville Ave, Springfield, MO 65802, USA
Sunday 10:00 AM
Central Assembly - Online Campus - www.centralassembly.tv
Sunday 10:00 AM
REFOCUS - REPENT - RETURN
REFOCUS -- on Jesus
Dr. Gary Tyra, Christ’s Empowering Presence “At the heart of many of the approaches to Christian spirituality that have been offered over the years is the idea that it’s possible to learn to live moment by moment in the felt presence of the resurrected and ascended Jesus.
“It’s possible to approach all the events in the course of a day with a sense that we’re not alone: that Christ is right there with us, loving us, encouraging us, enabling us to respond to this or that situation or person the way he would…. the life-altering concept of Christ’s empowering presence.”
“It’s possible to approach all the events in the course of a day with a sense that we’re not alone: that Christ is right there with us, loving us, encouraging us, enabling us to respond to this or that situation or person the way he would…. the life-altering concept of Christ’s empowering presence.”
REPENT -- of all sin
* Honest
* Humbling
* Honest
* Humbling
Frank Bartleman, Azusa Street
“The depth of revival will be determined exactly by the depth of the spirit of repentance.”
“The depth of revival will be determined exactly by the depth of the spirit of repentance.”
RETURN . . .
* To being the people of God
* To being the people of God
Epistle to Diognetes (written c. 130AD):
“For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe….But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life…
“They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.
“For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe….But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life…
“They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.
Mark Clark, “Think Again: Why Religion is Good for Us
”I want to turn this idea of ‘thinking again’ and aim it at an idea so rooted in the post-Christian West that I’m sure it will mess with our brains a little. It’s the idea that religion is good, (and perhaps great) for society as a whole.
”I want to turn this idea of ‘thinking again’ and aim it at an idea so rooted in the post-Christian West that I’m sure it will mess with our brains a little. It’s the idea that religion is good, (and perhaps great) for society as a whole.
RETURN . . .
* To being the people of God
* To doing good works
* To being the people of God
* To doing good works
Epistle to Diognetes
“…To sum up all in one word–what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world.”
“…To sum up all in one word–what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world.”
Tertullian (a church scholar who lived in North Africa c. 160-225AD)
“We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation.”
“We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation.”
Apology of Aristides (to the Emperor Hadrian c. 117-138AD)
“They abstain from all impurity in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world. As for their servants or handmaids or children, they persuade them to become Christians by the love they have for them; and when they become so, they call them without distinction, brothers. They do not worship strange gods; and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another.
“When they see the stranger they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as over a true brother; for they do not call those who are after the flesh, but those who are in the Spirit and in God….And [if] there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.”
“They abstain from all impurity in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world. As for their servants or handmaids or children, they persuade them to become Christians by the love they have for them; and when they become so, they call them without distinction, brothers. They do not worship strange gods; and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another.
“When they see the stranger they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as over a true brother; for they do not call those who are after the flesh, but those who are in the Spirit and in God….And [if] there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.”
RETURN . . .
* To being the people of God
* To doing good works
* To proclaiming the good news
* To being the people of God
* To doing good works
* To proclaiming the good news
REFOCUS - REPENT - RETURN