Mmmmm Update??

Us In Him


Have had requests to have the fellowship on Sunday evenings instead of Tuesday.
Just pray about this as we move forward.  The request(s) were made in terms of convenience as work nights can be tough on many and 6:00 on Sunday still leaves time to
ramp up for Monday.
If you know anyone in the Greensboro area who might be interested have them contact me.  
ms@tc2v1.com


Thanks
M

Make a "stickie" note ---

Sept. 11  7:00 PM
Bible Study
Right now - @ Caribou
To start - probably monthly / 2nd Tuesdays
Needs:  looking for a - meeting place
Open to anyone - especially the curious, confused and committed 

Contact:  ms@tc2v1.com
No bells or whistles.  No bells or spells.  Just Him, us and the Word.

We are an un-autonomous ministry ;-}!

Help get the word out?!?!

Can you help?

This Sept. we will be starting what we hope will be a unique and valuable Bible Study.  We call it Us & Him.  Below you will find some information about our position.

We hope that the Lord will bring the unconverted, the uncomfortable and the unsatisfied who are interested in the Christian faith and want to learn and understand what the faith truly is.

We plan for the study to be on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:30 and "brown-bagging" dinner will be fine.  Right now we're looking for a place to meet in Greensboro but if push comes to shove we'll start out at Caribou Coffee (my "office").

Please pass this on!  I can be contacted at      ms@tc2v1.com      if there are any questions.
Your prayers and help will be greatly appreciated ---
And --- No, we're not starting a new "church" -

Us and Him, a Bible Study

The purpose of “Us and Him” is to glorify God and offer the curious, confused and committed the opportunity to study the Christian faith in a safe and biblically sound setting.

There are so many prejudiced views and confused perspective of the Christian faith that we felt called to offer an opportunity for believers and non-believers to become better informed of what the Word of God teaches about the foundations and priorities of the faith.

Our approach is that all that is most appalling in the history of the Church is, though not excusable, understandable in light of Scripture.  We believe that the priority of each believer and hence the Body of Christ is not to change the world but to be changed by the Word and the Spirit.  We believe that the battle between what Scripture calls the flesh and the Spirit is the key battle the believer has to fight.  We also believe that the world and the devil have been very successful in distracting believers from this critical confrontation by getting them to direct their efforts toward establishing a kingdom which is only His to establish.

Though we are aware of the disturbing issues and debates that mark American culture and even the church, our focus will be upon what has been and always will be fundamental to the Christian faith:  the believer, the beliefs and the one believed in.  For us it is about “Us and Him,” not “Us and Them.”

We are called and thereby re-created to be “light.”  Light by its very nature changes its environment.  We are not called nor re-created to be fire.  The fire which will purge is His to employ not ours.  It is the nurturing (living growth) of our new nature that is critical to the effect our “light” can and will have and it is by God’s Word and Spirit that our new nature is nurtured.

Doctrinally we are Reformed, believing that this perspective offers the clearest and most complete understanding of the Scriptures as well as the duties and obligations of God’s people, corporately and individually. While we are very aware that doctrinal differences can often lead to ugly disputes, we believe that Reformed doctrine requires us to be people who engage in conversations that help everyone involved grow in their love for and service to God and their fellow human beings.”

 Mat 22:36-40  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  (37)  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  (38)  This is the great and first commandment.  (39)  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

To love God is not easy, He’s really really big.  Certainly He has put a love for Himself into the hearts of believers.  But that love needs to grow in its depth and breadth.  Only through the Word and the Spirit can it do so.  This love for God is also what the other commandment depends upon for fruition.  We believe that without a love for God there is only a love for self to the exclusion of love for anyone else.

 In view of this, every session will aim at gleaning the “how” of loving God.

Plans ......please pray

042412
FYI – and thanks for reading this………….
Long long ago in a universe far far away (;-} we had a Bible Study lovingly named the , “Yuck It’s Monday Bible Study.”  The purpose of this study was to encourage and help believers come to appreciate the wonder of God’s Word, to learn the fundamentals of the faith and to grow in their obedience to the Lord.
The study was started because of one young lady my wife and I had come to know and love.  She asked that if we started a Bible Study could she come.  Well, she’s done it again.  Having seen God work in and through her over almost two decades we are inclined to believe that God is again using her to lead us.
Soooooo we are praying about starting a Bible Study.  This will not be a smells, bells and spells study.  That is to say we won’t be focused on the “cool” stuff or the latest neat stuff that passes for part of the faith.  What we will be doing is examining the Word of God as a mirror to find ourselves and our individual walk with Him.  This is not about “christian” fads or fashions but about the Christian faith and the Christian’s faithfulness.
Social and cultural issues may arise but this is not to be an “Us and Them,” study.  It is to be a “Me and Him” study.  We will study doctrine and scripture in light of the battle we are called to fight.  This is not a battle with the World nor the Devil but the one battle we are commissioned to fight, the battle between the Spirit and the Flesh.
It’s too easy and futile to fight the World and the Devil and even easier to ignore the battle that rages within.  But this latter fight is the right fight, the critical fight.
I can’t tell you if you should consider attending.  But I can tell you who shouldn’t:
2Ti 4:3-4  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,  (4)  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
 Please!!!!!!!
 Pray

1. That this is permissible in His will.
2. That we will find the folks He desires to have come (or they will find us).
3. That we will find a place to meet.
4. That He will continue to provide for Patti and I materially.  Patti will continue to work as a Legal Assistant and I will continue to work as a Consultant and Counselor but this new work will bring new $ demands and take away from the time I will have for clients.  We have no plans to do the tax exempt thing at this time.  It is costly to achieve and costly to maintain.  We are praying that the folks who come and even those who can’t but want to help, will do so anyway.  ;-}  Cash is nice but helping me get clients for consulting and counseling will achieve the same end.  I really don’t want to ever give up being a “tent-maker” unless the Lord makes it very clear.
5. Pray for accountability.  Patti and I are members of Covenant Fellowship Presbyterian Church here in Greensboro.  As such we are under the authority of the Session (elders) of this congregation as members.  Though this is good, I wonder if it is sufficient since there is a difference between the nature of the accountability needed as a member and that needed as the leader of a ministry. 
6. Pray for me.  Teaching and counseling believers is really all I have ever wanted to do.  My ministry has, for the most part, been to folks who for one reason or another either haven’t or can’t find a place in any of the churches they have attended.  I don’t want to start another “church institution.”  I firmly believe that where-ever believers gather, there you have a church gathering.  I am firmly committed to the “local congregation” and am convinced we all need to have a “church home.”  Though I know for some the study may be their only fellowship with believers I will encourage everyone attending to find a “church home” – hey you can come with me and Patti.
7. Pray for me.  As a lot of you know I deal with depression.  Hey, I earned it!  It is often easy for me to get discouraged – oh, I press on but it’s tough.  Just pray I will plant my nose right between the Master’s shoulder blades and focus on following Him.  What I don’t see resulting from my ministry often loom larger than what I can see.
8. Pray for Patti – if for no other reason than she’s married to me.  But also know that whatever kind of man or teacher or counselor I may be, the Lord has and does use her mightily in my life.  She is indeed the whetstone that keeps me sharp.

 We will have a website (a freebe).  It is www.tc2v1.com .  We’re in the process of getting it up and running.  My email address will be sheepdog@tc2v1.com.  Patti can be reached at pattiami@gmail.com.
 Your prayers, suggestions, inspirations, comments, insights and encouragements will certainly be welcome.
 I am considering “ME and HIM” as the name of the study with the motto, “You don’t have to look like the other sheep to be part of the flock, you just have to follow the shepherd!”

God bless you …….
Michael