Last night we talked about finding our place in the church. Everyone is called to find their place and use it for the building up of the church. Check this out! To do so, we can take a look at 5 things we need to evaluate to find out where we can best fit. These are:
1) Spiritual Gifting – What is your spiritual gifting? Contact the church office for a gift analysis that will help you discover where God has gifted you.
2) Temperament/Personality Type – It’s really important to know yourself. Some excellent resources have been made to help you discover these things. Check out a Meyers-Briggs test here, and the Keirsey Temperament test here. (The Keirsey test is free, but you can buy more detailed results. When finished, you’ll have an option to view the free report. It will be at the bottom of the list).
3) Natural Talents/Learned Skills – Psalm 33:3 talks about musicians needing to ‘play skillfully’ before the Lord. That requires a sharpening of natural talents. God has given everyone talents in something, and we must sharpen them to make the useful!
4) Life Experiences – What’s your story? Don’t underestimate the power of your testimony and your life experiences. Chances are your journey can help lead others. Read about Paul’s testimony.
5) Your Calling – Where do you feel God is calling you? What desires do you have in your heart? God will help lead us to our calling through everything else on this list. We must listen and answer to the call.
This past Sunday we talked about the ‘Kingdom’ Jesus brought. This ‘kingdom’ was mentioned over 60 times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It was also prophesied in Old Testament. This is the very kingdom and king that we should be sharing with people. Here are some challenges we talked about.
- 3/4 will not receive the Kingdom. Don’t be discouraged by this reality.
- Two things have to happen for success: strategic placement and fertile ground. The ‘sower’ of the seed has to put the seed in the right place, and the ground has to be fertile to receive it. As a sower you should invest your time and resources into fertile ground. Otherwise you’ll toss seeds that will not grow. Preparing the ground takes work, but the harvest is worth it.
We have to remember that our first allegiance is not to anything other than the Kingdom of Christ. I shared the lyrics of this song Sunday. Listen to it, and let it encourage you.
The Scriptures often say ‘sing a new song’ to the Lord. As a worship leader, I try to follow that command by keeping up with new songs that speak the truth of God across generations. I dove into a bunch of new songs the past few months, and here’s a list of some songs to be on the lookout for at DCC. You may want to go ahead and check them out! These songs really spoke to me, and I believe are appropriate for our church and community (i.e., speaking to our needs and longing for Christ).
Here are some songs to listen out for this spring!
We’ve been going through the stories of the Bible, and this Sunday we came to the book of Daniel. Rather than preach the stories of Daniel, I took 3 prophecies and expounded them. Afterwards, I talked to a lot of people who were just blown away that God (through Daniel) prophesied such major events in world history.
As I said Sunday, unless the Scriptures say ‘…this is what it means…’ we can only speculate through study what the prophecies mean. In Daniel, both of those things happen! The interpretations of the 3 mentioned prophecies come from the Scriptures, world history, and theological study. I want to encourage you (if this topic interest you) to go a bit deeper by studying some really great resources.
The first was the dream/statue. Read Daniel 2. Here is a quick explanation. The emphasis of this passage is on the stone that crushed the feet of clay; that stone grew into a great nation. The stone is Christ, and the great nation is the church. A kingdom was coming that was greater than any kingdom before it – an everlasting Kingdom. Jesus said that He is the Kingdom.
The next prophecy we talked about was a prophecy on a famous Greek general, namely – Alexander the Great. Read Daniel 8. The passage speaks about Greece overtaking the Persian empire, and even speaks of Alexanders fall and his dividing the Greek empire among his four generals. You can read all about Alexander the Great here. Did you know that according to the historian Josephus, Alexander spared Jerusalem after being shown the Daniel 8 passage?
Last, we talked about the seventy weeks prophecy. Basically, God showed Daniel how long it would be before the Messiah would come into Jerusalem. This corresponds to our calendar quite beautifully. Here is a really good article explaining the seventy weeks. It’s rather long, but if you’re looking for a detailed explanation, check it out.
There’s been a lot of talk about baptism lately, so I wanted to take a minute and give a brief overview of why we baptize. This will be a quick overview, but for more info you can contact us.
First, let’s understand the word baptism. The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek, the international language of the time. We have english translations like the KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, ESV, etc. Just grab any Bible you have and see what translation it is! Anyway, the word we translate into ‘baptize’ comes from the word ‘baptizo.’ If we look at the meaning of ‘baptizo’ we see that is means ‘immerse, dip, or submerge.’ By purely looking at the original word used in the New Testament, we can only conclude that baptism should be by immersing, dipping, or submerging. All of the stories of baptism include going into water. That’s why we immerse when we baptize, because it clearly represents Scripture.
Next, we ask who can be baptized. It’s pretty clear throughout the book of Acts that baptism was for believers. See Acts 2, 8, 9, 10, and 16 for starters (though there are many more). Never did the apostles or Christians baptize unbelievers, or infants. Immersion is for those who have faith in God, and want to have their sins washed away.
That’s exactly what baptism does. It washes away our sins. See Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16. It is the place that our sins are forgiven. It’s also the place where we receive the Holy Spirit. Again, Acts 2:38 (as well as Romans 6) talk about this. We are united with Christ in baptism, and we receive the same spirit in our baptism. Speaking of Romans 6, it beautifully describes what happens when we’re immersed. We are buried in the water (death with Christ), and raised back up (resurrection with Christ). Baptism unites us.
Last, Peter tells us that baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21). It is at our baptism that we have the assurance of salvation. There is no prayer that can bring this, nor is there any act that was done to us without our knowledge or faith (see Colossians 2:12). It is only at baptism that we can have the forgiveness of sins and receive God’s spirit.
The Bible teaches that all of these things are equally important in becoming a follower of Christ – faith, repentance, confessing Jesus as Lord of your life, baptism, and faithful living. Baptism is no more or less important than any of these. They are all equally important.
And that’s why we baptize. For more information, email us at info(at)dasselchurchofchrist.com or give us a call.
At Dassel Church of Christ, we are all about being real. You won't find us doing a bunch of traditional stuff that churches do just because...well, they've been doing it for a long time. We want to be real, and we want you to be real. We want you to connect in worship, experience relationships with others, and live a life of service. We are an nondenominational church that is built solely on God’s Word. We don’t follow anything man has created, or try to be something that God hasn’t made the church to be. We are a simple church, with a simple message: love God, & love others.
We guarantee we are unlike any other church in the Dassel/Cokato area! Come find out why!
To learn more about us, check out the information you'll find on this site. If you have any questions, call us or send an email!
Sunday Mornings
Join us for worship each week at 9:30am!
While we do not offer Sunday school, we have many small groups as well as an awesome Wednesday night program to get involved with. For more info, contact the church.
We are located right on Highway 12 in the east part of Dassel. You really can't miss us.
Wednesday Nights
Go Deeper!
We have a free dinner at 6:30pm and groups meet at 7:00pm. We have group for adults, teens, and children. Learn more by clicking 'groups' up top!
At Dassel Church of Christ, we are all about being real. You won't find us doing a bunch of traditional stuff that churches do just because...well, they've been doing it for a long time. We want to be real, and we want you to be real. We want you to connect in worship, experience relationships with others, and live a life of service. We are an nondenominational church that is built solely on God’s Word. We don’t follow anything man has created, or try to be something that God hasn’t made the church to be. We are a simple church, with a simple message: love God, & love others.
