Pastor Dan and the teaching staff at Soul Rio will begin a new Message series this Sunday January 19th called “Fuel: Driven By Love”. This is a verse-by-verse study through the New Testament book of First John. Each week you will receive memory cards from key verses and a study plan with discussions to use with your family, accountability partner, or Rio Link. Tell a friend about this new series and invite them to join us this Sunday.
Here are some thoughts from Dan on the new study…
“Believers go through stages of faith. A new believer is usually excited about their new faith and enthusiastically tells everyone they meet about the changes in their life and the new purpose and direction they have. Then when difficulties come that faith is tested and the believer must draw close to God and study His truths, or they will become dissillusioned. This is when spiritual growth happens.
When your faith and basic confidence get destroyed, you don’t have much. Your assurance is devastated. Sometimes the only thing you can do is cling to Jesus. But that is also the greatest thing you can do.
Here is what was going on at the end of the first century in Asia Minor. It was probably in the city Ephesus. Whole groups of believers in small churches and clusters of churches had sprung up because of the ministry and the teachings of the Apostle John. They were trying to cling to their faith and assurance in God but were at a crisis point. False teachers had claimed to have special knowledge from God. But their teaching did not fit or sync up with the Gospel that John had written. They claimed that only they, their narrow band of followers and people who followed their teaching, actually belonged to God. Everybody else was at risk.
The people in these little churches in this area were confused, uncertain and hanging by a thread. Because of these false teachings, they were no longer sure what to think about these absolutely basic teachings of the faith. So a very wise old man (John) sits down to write a letter. The book of John is the attempt of a father to anchor his children in the faith. He writes one of the great foundational books of the New Testament.
I’m excited to go on this journey with you through this awesome New Testament book. This will be a great time of spiritual growth for all of us. See you on Sunday!”
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