Hebrews 12:1-2

Dear TVCC Students,

We are continually thankful to get to worship with you all on Wednesday evenings. We pray that the Word that was shared with you last night will be producing fruit in your lives (as well as ours) this week.

Highlights from last night...

Hebrews 12:1

~"witnesses" are people that testify (with their lives) to the greatness of God. The cloud of witness that surround us are people from the past who were faithful to the Lord with their lives; we can look to them as an example of faithfulness

~let us look at others of faith and imitate their faith. This cloud of witnesses that Hebrews is speaking of were all from the Old Testament. They had not even had Christ come yet and they still lived such powerful lives. How much more revelation of God do we have with Christ coming and the New Testament being written (and even more faithful witnesses to look to).

~Q: How are you living? Does your life imitate the faith of those faithful witnesses that have gone before us or does your life look like those who are living for the pleasures of this life only?

~"lay aside every encumbrance"- no relationship is worth it if pulls you away from Christ. Remember that "bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33)." You WILL be like the people that you hang around with. They WILL rub off on you. You will talk like the people you hang out with. You will act like the people you hang out with. You will think like the people you hang out with!

~Q: Who are you hanging out with? Are they people that are encouraging your intimacy with Christ or are they an "encumbrance" that you need to remove so that you can run the race of faith?

~Trust God with your friendships. Get rid of any friendships that are damaging your run with Jesus!

~"run with endurance"- this is not easy and it takes practice. Just like those who are marathon runners practice A LOT, so should we be "practicing" or working on our faith. When we are growing in our faith and gradually getting better at obeying Jesus and saying no to the world, we are developing the endurance that He wants us to have.

~Remember that we are not running against each other in this race but with each other. We should be encouraging each other in the race as we run against satan, sin, our flesh and the corruption in the world.

~Q: How are you doing in the race of faith? Have you been encouraging to others who are also running with you? How can you being doing better?

Hebrews 12:2

~"fixing our eyes on Jesus" is what will help us in this race. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we will grow as we behold His glory; we will be transformed into His image as we behold Him.

~know that we ARE being transformed- either to the image of Christ or to the image of the world. We constantly have things trying to shape and mold us into the image of this world. If we are not fighting against those things by beholding Christ through His Word, prayer, worship, etc, we will end up looking just like this world.

~Q: How are you spending your time? Are you "beholding the Lord" daily so that you will continually become more like Him? If not, what changes need to take place in how you spend your time?

~John 17 says that Christ was to be glorified after He had suffered. Our joy is to bring Jesus glory as we are connected to Him as His brothers and sisters. When He gets glory- we get to share in that eternally.

Philippains 4:8

Finally,brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whateveris pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

~Remember that this life is our teaching time to learn about our God! Eternally speaking, it is very short. Let us make the most of the time that we are given here to learn about the glory of our Savior!

We love you all very much and pray that you will run with Jesus this week. Throw off everything that hinders you and run with Him. Spend time meditating on His glory and you will be continually transformed into His image. We hope you can all make it to the joint small group on Sunday night that is meeting at our house. Again, we love you!!

~Sonny and Casi