Azle Christian Fellowship House of Prayer is a small, friendly congregation in Azle, Texas. ACF worships together on Saturday mornings. Dress is casual. If you live in the area, stop by and worship with us! We would love to meet you.
Because we meet on Saturday mornings, this may offer an alternative to those who work on Sundays! Interested in finding out more about us?
Contact:
-Carl & Neita Head, Senior Pastor and wife
Phone: 817-688-3339
Email: carl.head@gci.org
-Chuck & Linda Fredrikson, Associate Pastor and wife
How can we know there is security in our future as Christians?
Recently an elderly Pastor predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. It did not, and so continues the quest in many Christian circles to study the scripture in order to better understand what lies ahead for the future of mankind.
The simple truth is that many are looking for and misinterpreting the scriptures because of their own desires for self preservation. These would-be prophets overlook the only sign that God gave mankind for its safety and security. That sign is Jesus. From the beginning until the end of the story of man, God has always desired that we find our place of safety in Jesus Christ. It is high time that all Christian eyes look to the one source where there actually is a future so all the body of Christ can walk forward in one accord toward our tremendous
calling.
In order to see this clearly let's look back... back farther....even farther, and begin where God intended us to start our understanding of the future.
In the beginning God planned for our security and deliverance. He did not leave it up to
chance. He secured it in His only begotten son. Imagine for a moment you are sitting in the Heavenly throne room before the earth was created. Everyone there is listening to the heart and mind of the Triune God.
In the course of sharing His plans with the Heavenly realm, God begins to share how the children of mankind will become His through the Spirit of Adoption.
Since the plan calls for only one son to be begotten of Him, He begins to explain how He intends to extend His family to include those who turn to Him for salvation from the bonds of corruption. How does a parent obtain more children when they have only one naturally born child? The answer is the legal technique of adopting someone else's offspring as their own.
The belief taught in most Christian churches today is that when a person believes in Jesus as their personal savior, God the Father graciously adopts these children of men to become children of His. It is as if the rich man who lives down the street has a son who comes out to play with the neighborhood kids. These kids treat his son with disdain, persecute him, spit on and revile his child.
Finally they drag him up to the local neighborhood hill and nail him to a fence post. When this man sees how the neighborhood treats his only child he determines to use his considerable resources and destroy every home and family on the street . However, his son steps in and says, “Wait Dad. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So, the Dad answers, “Ok Son, anyone who will come and confess to what they have done to you, ask for forgiveness I will spare them. I will still destroy the neighborhood but I will offer to adopt them as my children so you will have siblings to play with and they can live with us in our house.” Does that sound familiar?
This expression says these children are taken from among men and, like orphans, God will graciously take them in. The view that Christians are originally like orphans and God in His mercy adopts us to become His children has one missing element: Jesus.
The original apostles saw God's plan for the redemption of man in a different way. The way that Jesus revealed to them during His ministry. In the eyewitness account of the Apostle John, the self aware Word of God became human flesh and dwelled among us. In the Word made flesh was life, and that life was the light of all men. The apostle clearly states in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He went on to record in the book of John 1:11-12, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
Many theologians and church teachers in the past have naturally taught that the only way God can have more children is to adopt then from among men. All have seen Jesus as His one and only begotten Son. The rest of His children have to come to him by adoption. While this is truth, there is more to the story. Jesus taught his disciples they would have to be born again. The apostle John wrote
that God's plan was to have these children born of Him. In vs.13 of the same chapter John writes, “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John records that God's plan is to have children born of Him.
Jesus taught this truth and it is recorded for us in John 3:3. In speaking to Nicodemus Jesus taught, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the .” The Christ further states in vs 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To be born
of a human father is one thing, but to be born of God is something completely different and new. How does one become born of God when God has only one child, and that child is Jesus of Nazareth. The answer is Jesus himself.
Jesus came to redeem mankind from our sins, and to redeem us from our sinful flesh. He did it through the cross. Here God, the Word, became flesh, dwelled among us, and as a young man growing up, he was tempted in all points like every man only He was without sin. When He went to the cross at 33 years of age, He died a single man without a wife or children. Three days after His burial, He rose from the grave, Whole and Complete. Jesus walked out of the grave alive. His physical body once again lived. He appeared to the disciples in the upper room in , and told them to touch Him for he was flesh, blood, and bone. Everything about Him was resurrected that day including the power all
healthy mature men have to produce children.
Jesus was raised from the dead with the seed of man still in Him. He came to the earth to redeem the seed of man, and in His own flesh rose that seed of life perfected in His own body. Not just any seed, but incorruptible seed, perfect seed, seed without sin, Righteous seed without guilt or shame. Seed that now had been resurrected from the grave immortal for evermore. The Apostle Peter said in I Peter 1:23 that we are, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible," by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever,
Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus is the one who gives new life to any who believe in Him. We are born of God through Jesus. We are children of God born of Jesus Christ. He is our Father by a new birth through faith in Him. That is what it means to be born of God and that is why the Glory of the Father is in the Son.
The prophet Isaiah declared by the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 9:6, “ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The EVERLASTING FATHER, The Prince of Peace. “ Jesus is our everlasting Father and we are his children by spiritual birth.
The apostle Paul made this fact
abundantly clear in chapter one of the book of Ephesians vs, 4-5, “ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will.” Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit that we are born of the Son of God and Adopted by His Father.
This is the fulfillment of the prophetic type found in the old testament record where we see the adoption example in the lives of Jacob and his son Joseph. Jacob took the two sons of Joseph as his own and adopted them, making them heirs to the promises of along with his son Joseph and Joseph's brothers.
Joseph now called his own sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, brothers. Jacob prophesied that a nation and a multitude of nations would come from the boys. This was a prophetic type of who we are in Christ. The Jewish nation and the Gentile nations who are being called into unity in the body Jesus Christ.
This story is found in the 48th chapter of Genesis.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He secured within Himself a perfect future for all of mankind. Any person who believes in and follows Jesus is guaranteed a brand new life born of Christ. That is why the bible says we are in Him seated at the right hand of the Father. That is why John wrote in 1John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him, and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God.” This is also why Paul wrote that Jesus was the second Adam in 1Cor 15:40-58 . All Christians are born of the second Adam and that's why Christians refer to each other as brothers and sisters, calling ourselves brethren. We are related to each other because we are born of the same Father, Jesus Christ. God the Father sees us as children born of his son.
The day will come when Jesus will present all of His children to His Father and He will hear the words “These will be my children, I will take them for my own”. The Father of the only begotten will adopt us as His that we may be partakers in the inheritance of our savior. Just as important, that is why we have a certain and
secure future. Jesus has kept our promised future safe and secure within Himself. No believer in Jesus ever has to worry whether he or she will have a future. It is not about our performance. It is about what Jesus has done in His own flesh and who He is, the savior of all mankind.
Praise Him!
Pastor Carl Head
Azle Christian Fellowship/GCI
KJV used through out.
At a recent gathering, one of the Christian men present mentioned something about taking on the yoke of Jesus that I found interesting and enlightening. He explained that the disciple of a particular rabbi would take on the yoke, or teaching and school of thought, of that rabbi. This involved the rabbi’s interpretation of the scriptures, which the disciples would thoroughly learn and embrace (and later teach to his own disciples). A rabbi never spoke on his own authority. He spoke only by the authority of his teacher. When the chief priests and elders in Matthew 21:23 asked Jesus by whose authority He was doing and speaking as He was – they were asking whose yoke he wore, or who was His teacher and rabbi that gave him such authority.
Of course, we understand that we are bound to, embrace, and live by the teachings of Jesus Christ – but the insight of the common usage of the rabbinical yoke as opposed to the cumbersome physical yoke used to bind animals such as oxen together, was something that gave me a bit of insight.
If you’re interested in reading a bit more in depth on this subject, the links below are not too lengthy, and they discuss the use of the yoke of the rabbi in relation to scripture.
http://inscribewritersonline.blogspot.com/2007/01/jesus-rabbi.html http://www.prayinglife.org/articles/Cost.of.Discipleship.pdf
Kimberly,
When You asked the first two questions, I read on and it sure looked to me the very answer was in your all that you do. I couldnt have said it better ! You are a wonderful sister in Christ and Yes I would love to come visit soon..! It seems to me you are all having a great and close relationship with Jesus our King and savior.. Loving it Kimberly !!
email me at christianknightofpeace@hotmail.com and I will love to receive directions to visit some time.. Maybe Carl and I can arrange a time together..
Ok. I just had a couple of questions. What does "we share as a home church would back in the days shortly following the pentecost" mean? And What is meant by "spiritual family power"? I have been participating in a home church for about a year in Cleburne, Texas. We meet together around 2pm every Sunday. We don't necessarily follow a set format either. We try to follow as the Spirit leads us and teaches us. We have prayer times, worshipful music with powerpoint, we listen to "Speaking of Life", we have communion, and we most times have been listening to Pastor Jonathan Stepp from the Adopted Life Website. At other times we may decide as a group to have nothing but prayer and when possible we attend Pathway of Grace in Mesquite. I know we all have come out of so much darkness because we have been taught by the Holy Spirit of our Inclusion in the life of The Triune One!! It is beyond words, beyond Amazing how much The Triune One loves us!! I guess the biggest thing for me is knowing that we are all included even those we may think are doomed to exile. It is awesome that Jesus took care of that because we could not. It has been life changing for my entire family. I have trouble articulating the depth of how I am growing up in my Father's love. You are more than welcome to come visit us on Sunday if you are ever in Cleburne.
Continually Growing Up to See the Greatness...
Your sister in Christ Jesus,
Kimberly
Kimberly, this is a different kind of meeting in that we are a prayer group and that we dont have sermons per say but instead we share as a home church would back in the days shortly following the Pentacost.
We only meet a couple of times a month but in truth it is where I draw much of my spiritual family power from.. Our Lord Jesus and father has given so much in this group.. And though I enjoy visiting other churches within the body, its this one (on the porch) that really feeds me deeply.. I love it !
No problem. Thank you for answering. Unfortunately our Saturdays are full of Soccer practices and such otherwise we would love to visit. I have heard Carl Head speak once on Adoption...He is a good speaker and I enjoyed the sermon very much. Maybe, some day soon we can all get together...
We are like mind in using scripture and taking faith in the words of the bible as infallible and for reproof. I also believe the days are 24 hours just as the day we are currently enjoying. I went through the list and compiled several pages but that is way too long. I will stick to the void.
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:2 “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
As an interpretation that the void was nothing may be right, however it has some problems if you look at it literally.
1. The rest of the chapter is sequential why is the first part not? Such as when the light is created there is no sun created. Revelation is a great reference showing how light could have existed before the sky let in sunlight. But this does not refute the sun, stars, and earth already existing. Instead of Genesis saying the sun is created it says the sun could not be seen because of a lack of a firmament. Did God also create the stars at that moment? Possible.
2. The same verse defines void as the waters on earth not having light, and the earth lacking the Spirit of God. Being void of the Spirit of God is an amazing summary of the rest of the bible. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” To say the void is not these things is fine but it is not literal. Such as what is the deep? And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3. The void being water is supported by Revelation 21:1 (New King James Version) “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” This matches the two periods in Genesis. The creation of the heaven and earth and the period it was covered with water.
4. Nowhere is water created for the earth. However the first thing, light, which it says the earth is void of is brought back on the first day. On the seventh day the Spirit of God is brought back. We also know that if only water covered the earth that it was void of land. Being void of land it was void of land animals.
5. Can something be void of itself? In computers a schema (list) describes what is void. It can not be void of itself. In Genesis we find a schema that tells us the object is the earth and it is void of light and the Spirit of God.
6. What are the multiple events of creation? Gen. 2:1 In addition to six day creation there is a host of them (array), an army of angels. Gen 2: 4 “Generations” of creation indicating multiple related events before the six days. Each time instead of just saying creation is it unnecessarily qualifying which period? This is especially evident in Gen. 1:8-9. It goes into detail to explain Heaven as the sky and bridge day two and three so as to explain Gen. 2:4 where it puts heaven second as yet a third key that it is the sky. Why so much detail to show this is not the creation of the Heavens and Earth from Gen. 1:1? Why not create the sun instead of creating the firmament. Why part the waters instead of create the earth. Why create a sky instead of create the stars?
7. Where are the second and the third heavens in the six day creation? The closest he comes to mentioning them is in Gen. 1:16 when he makes the sun and moon. However Gen. 1:15, 17 says in the first heaven or sky of the earth. So is this a contradiction can this be literal. Airplanes do not have to go around them. Gen. 1:2 says water covered the earth. Gen. 1:6-9 the water blocked the light. Gen. 1:17 says the result of the creation is that their light is in the sky. So if the void was caused by water the literal fits.
8. When is the sun created? Not only does it say it is only creating it in the earth’s sky on day four, it says it three times. On day one we already have a 24 hour day and a light is made to fill in until the sun is visible on day four. Since the earth already existed then the sun already existed. Verse one says the heavens and earth so either heaven created first or at the same time. This all relates back to the void problem. How can you have darkness without light? What was this light that the water blocked? Gen. 1:3-4 that there was no light or division of light on earth. So thus the light was in the heavens. What was that light in the heaven? Gen. 1:15-17.
Reading your post made me open my bible and read Genesis for the first time in years. It is also the first time I remember asking God to give me understanding. So even if this does not perk your interest to read the account again it has led me to study and prayer. I started reading Chapter 2 yesterday and when you apply the literal, Wow.
My Father Is A Christian
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