About My Father’s Business Outreach Ministries (a Grace Brethren Church)

We praise You Lord for this wonderful day and all that it stands for.  Thank You Father for giving us the ultimate love offering through your son Jesus Christ.  His sacrifice is and will always be the ultimate gift we could ever dream of receiving.  We ask you to give us a mind and heart to accept that tremendous gift, so that we may live a life according to Your Word.  Thank You Jesus!

The past week was another phenomenal privilege.  From the continued Gospel Transformation series, Bible Study classes each week on Wednesday evenings, to the sermon yesterday titled ‘Transformed By The Light’ (Acts 9:1-19), and everything in between, God has been in the midst.

The Shelter Ministry on Saturday was a spirit-filled time where the true meaning of Christmas was shared with everyone through sharing the gospel of Jesus our Lord.  Songs were sung, prayers were prayed, a message was spoken, food was served, and gifts were given out…in Jesus name.  We’d like to acknowledge and say a special thanks to Liberty Grace Brethren Church of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  They are a continued supporter of our church in so many different ways and we are so blessed to have them as fellow church family.  They sent down a multitude of gift tote bags for us to give out, specifically for the women of the shelter.  The bags themselves were a gift, but they were also filled with winter-time essentials such as hats, scarves, gloves, hand sanitizer, and more.  We also gave out new bibles to those who wanted them.  The overall mood within those walls was jovial and we praise God for it.

** Want to see more Shelter Ministry photos?  Click on the Activities and Ministries album (top right)

We look forward to whatever God has in store for us for the week to come.  Stay tuned for updates and remember to continuously check the photo albums for new additions to the galleries.

God Bless   

Fellow Christians:  How often do you find yourself stressing at this time of year?  You want to make sure you get everyone a present?  Do you sometimes neglect your tithes and bill payment(s) to make sure you have enough money to get something for everyone you know?  Do you feel guilt if you didn’t get someone a gift that got you one?  Do you ever find that when you describe Christmas you say, “It’s about family.  It’s about the kids being happy.”  If you answered yes to any of these questions, it is time to get back into the Word.  As we approach this Christmas holiday, let us remember…although Christmas is often a time when you buy presents, family comes together and children are happy because they get things on their wish lists, these are not things in which the holiday symbolizes.  Christmas is about Christ; celebrating His birth and life…period!

On Sunday, Pastor preached from Luke 12:35-48 about Preparing For Christmas.  Some key points:  1) How are we communicating the true message of Christmas to others this season?  We must be aware that we (true believers) set the standard of it’s true meaning.  We are the examples that must proclaim the truth in a world filled with non-believers and so-called Christians who celebrate Christmas because of the gifts they receive.  We have already received the ultimate gift from Jesus…he died on the cross to give us the opportunity to have eternal life.  2) Many are so focused on the things of this world that we’re backing out of God’s will for us.  Serving God is a method of celebrating the Christmas season and every season.  3) Faith=Obedience.  What you believe is what you do!  When you are controlled by the spirit, God runs your life.  4) Live for Christ.  5) Get out of your own way to be the best He wants us to be.  6) Why do we often put God to the test, as if He has something to prove to us?  We are the ones who need to do the proving.  Jesus was born to be a sacrifice for us all.  Celebrate that fact in all you do and don’t conveniently forget it during Christmas in order to have material gain.  Give Christ the respect He is due on Christmas.

Bible Study continues to be a blessing.  What are you waiting for?  Come out on Wednesday evening at 7:30 sharp to get an awesome lesson in AMFB’s Gospel Transformation series.  Last week (Dec.13), the lesson was Idolatry; becoming aware of the nature, power, and extensiveness of it, to see that it’s the cause of surface sin in our lives, and to realize that sin is more than just what we do outwardly.  Whom or what do we serve, fear, trust, or desire?  Fellow believers, these studies are insightful and truthful.  They force you to put up a proverbial mirror and examine the Christian you are in retrospect to the Christian you’d like to become.  Thanks to the dedication and preparation of his lessons, Pastor Joyce gives us a blueprint through God’s word to make that transformation a reality.  Thank God for that!  The time to acknowledge your weaknesses is now.  The time to start changing those weaknesses into strengths for our salvation is now.  Don’t hesitate, come get your piece of peace.

It’s almost that time again…The Women’s Homeless Shelter Ministry is in full effect for this coming Saturday, December 23rd.  It’s not too late to volunteer to be a part of this wonderful effort.  If you have a financial, compassionate, food/cooking, God-given talent, or organizational gift that you’d love to contribute to the cause, PLEASE let us know.  We can never have too many hands.

Choir rehearsal has been cancelled for this week.  Rehearsals will resume regularly starting on Tuesday, December 26th.

Also, we praise God for sending visitors to our Sunday service. ** Click on the AMFB Visitors and Family album (top right)

Thank you Father God for all your many blessings.

About My Father’s Business Outreach Ministries // 411 New York Avenue, N.E. // Washington, D.C. 20002 // (202)548-7555 // amfbgrace@yahoo.com

Forgiveness, Faith, and Duty was the title of yesterday’s impactful sermon.  Pastor Joyce preached from Luke 17:1-10.  There were many noteworthy points that he touched on:  1) To trust and follow God is our job as believers.  2) What we do impacts others.  Sin is bad, but leading someone else into sin is worse.  3) There are 50 year olds that are immature in Christ.  Being a mature believer is based on obedience to God, not one’s age.  4)  Completely following God is no cake-walk, but total dedication to His will is required.  Remember that sin is a choice.  Deny yourself.  Our own selfish ways are NEVER better than God’s way.  5) Realize your relationship with Jesus and stretch for your fullest relationship potential.  6) Forgive for Christ’s sake; not to make yourself feel better.  To forgive is to have faith in His word.  6) Lack of faith is obvious in so many ways…lack of faithfulness is one example.  But, don’t expect a proverbial prize for doing what you should for God.  Even after doing the Lord’s work, realize that it is by God’s grace you were able to make it through.  Never take the credit.  Always humble yourself and recognize that you are still unworthy of His holy love.  7) Serving Christ is a privlege!

We praise the Lord for the deliverance of His word.

Our Christmas-time prison ministry, Angel Tree was a blessed success.  Angel Tree is a program that fulfills the gift requests of children with incarcerated parents, who are obviously unable to get them presents.  Dedicated AMFB members, along with our Pastor delivered the bulk of presents on Saturday the 9th to the homes of those kids.  There are still a few homes left to deliver to.  We anticipate this process to be complete by this coming Saturday the 16th.

Also, for those of you who missed our choir in concert at Mt. Airy Baptist Church this past Saturday evening…you missed out on quite an annointed treat!  We praise the Lord for our choir, Behind the Cross and their awesome ministry gift.  Next time, we hope to see more AMFB faces there in support.

Bible Study continues in the Gospel Transformation teachings.  Last week, we learned that one of the barriers to faithful living is the repeated occurence of our many sins.  In the face of all our failures to do better, the gospel often seems to good to be true.  Thus, a great struggle will be continuing to believe that we are God’s children, and are in a right relationship with Him.  The lesson seeked  to solidify the foundation of Christian living-the death and resurrection of Christ and not our performance.  We viewed the Christain life relationally and not legally.  God is all encompassing.  He’s a God of Wrath and Love, all in one.  Our continued studies will bring us closer to Him.  If we step ‘out of bounds’ with Him, His condemnation will be upon us, but it is our responsibility to get it right with Him.  He will accept us after we’ve fallen because His love is ever endearing.  We just have to truly repent for our misdeeds and there is no limit on how often we can go to the throne of grace.  We must praise Him for this fact.

Save the dates:  We are having a Christmas Eve service and a New Years Eve fellowship.  Bring a friend!  Check in with us periodically.  There will be more details to come.    

On this our day of rest and reflection, we search our hearts.  We are urged to take heed and action toward the many things God is showing us.  We rejoice in His name.  We are thankful for His love.

Sunday School continues to be a blessing.  Every Sunday morning at 10am, they deliver well prepared teachings to bring us that much closer to an understanding of Christ.  Teachers, your dedication is appreciated.  Keep up the excellent work.  Sunday School is a very important Ministry within the church and we are thankful for it.  Best of all, God is pleased with your work faithful servants.

God packed His house on Sunday!  We had some visitors, and God helped some members find their way back home.  Praise Him!

** Click on the AMFB Family and Visitors album, for updates. 

Minister Eric Jones preached yesterday; a sermon titled Don’t Give Up!  This sermon was taught from the book of Galations Chapter 6, Verses 1-10.  Excuses feed into our sinful nature.  Let’s stop breaking our sins down into big and little categories.  Stop sizing up sin to justify ourselves.  We have to learn to find the strength within to do God’s work.  Everyone is not physically available to help out with certain tasks, but remember that God’s work comes in many forms.  If you don’t have time to clean up the church, maybe you have a financial contribution to assist with purchasing the cleaning products.  If you can’t attend the Shelter Ministry, maybe you can make a promise to intercede in prayer for those who do go and the homeless which are being ministered to.  There is always a way to give back to the Kingdom.  Often times, we find the time to do so many other things, and church stuff comes last.  We must continue pressing our way through for God.  Why do we expect so such from Him when we give Him so little?  We don’t see our prayer(s) answered, we bail out.  Whatever we put out, we get back.  Let’s keep it real with God…really, He knows our hearts anyway.  Great job and message Minister Jones!

REMEMBER-By not giving up, even the snail reached the arc!

This Friday, December 8th at 7:30pm is our men’s fellowship at AMFB.  The challenges our men face are profound, but through the grace of the Lord, we are taking back what the devil stole.  Men, want to be a part of this encouraging experience?  Come join us.   

Our choir, Behind The Cross will be having their regularly scheduled choir rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, from 6-8pm.  They are continuing to prepare for the VICTORY TOUR SERIES 2006-2007…a concert on Saturday December 9th at 7:30pm.  The concert will be held at Mount Airy Baptist Church: 1100 North Capitol Street, N.W.  Our support is very important.  Be sure to tell a friend!

** Periodically click on albums for updates!

We want to give our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ all the praise, for He has seen us through another week!

Yesterday was World AIDS Day (observed).  The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.  From 1988 to 2004, the World AIDS Day was organized by UNAIDS.  It is now controlled by various organzations.  Each year, December 1st is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.  AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 39 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.  Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million lives last year alone, of which about 570,000 were children.

God said these things would come to pass and they are coming to pass.  For many years, many religious leaders and churches didn’t want to address HIV/AIDS because they felt that it would send a message of condoning the lifestyles which produce it.  AIDS education is very important because the disease certainly exists.  The more information available, the more knowledge we all have.  But Christian family, we must remember to set ourselves apart from the world within our thinking about AIDS.  The world promotes prevention through various means; we should encourage CHRISTIANITY, ABSTINENCE, LOVE, and PRAYER.  If we are striving to live a life that’s pleasing to God, there won’t be a lot of time left to get into things that would make us a victim to such an atrocity.  Unfortunately, being a true believer doesn’t completely shield us from the virus (i.e. innocent babies born into the affliction, raped by an infected person, married to a ‘down-low’ or secretly promiscuous partner), but we must have faith in our Lord and trust that His will for our lives be done.  Our focus should be on Him and not drugs or premarital sex.  We must love our bodies as Christ loved the church…as a temple.

Wednesday’s Bible Study was awesome once again!  The goals for the lesson were to understand and experience our adoption into God’s family; to see this adoption lead to personal delight in and love for others; to know that we are connected to others in this new family.  From the incarnation-death-resurrection of Jesus flows our full salvation, including our justification, adoption, inheritance, and gift of the Spirit. 

The word adoption signifies that The Father has taken us into his family and made us his own children.  When we feel alone, alienated, or sinful, we need to remember that we have constant access to Him.  There is glory in being a child of God.  What a gift to receive!  We no longer have to glorify ourselves or seek earthly recognition and we all have at some point…no need folks, because in Christ we have arrived!  His approval is all that should matter to us.

The turn out on Wednesday was good; let’s make this coming Bible Study’s turn out great! 

Tomorrow is the 1st Sunday.  In addition to communion, we look forward to the Love Feast portion of the day where the Usher Board serves scrumptious home cooked meals.  Unfortunately, the Love Feast will not be served tomorrow .  Be mindful that it’s the holiday season.  So, Love Feast will resume the 1st Sunday in February.