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February Alabaster Offering
The third Sunday in January, is set aside for churches to focus on the sanctity of human life. Emphasis is given to a broad range of life issues, including abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, health care, child abuse, and eldercare.
Lesson Objectives1. To help people understand that all forms of violence threaten the sanctity of life wherever violence occurs, and that ministering to those who have been hurt fulfills Christ’s command to care the least of these but also model’s God’s love in Christian witness.2. To learn how issues of violence and the sanctity of life intersect with missions in the Church of the Nazarene, providing opportunity to show God’s love, and also discover how these present obstacles and danger to the mission work and workers.3. To engage people with stores of how Nazarene missions intersects with the issues of violence and to engage them in prayer for the safety of our missionaries as well as support of global efforts to alleviate
It is important to keep in mind that “sanctity of life” is a phrase that evangelical Christianity has tended to associate almost exclusively with issues of abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia. However, this phrase speaks to other issues as well, including war, genocide, creation care, domestic violence and capital punishment to name a few. To claim that life is sacred is to claim the miraculous, but, of course, life is sacred because all life is of God. There is no life apart from Him, the resurrected and living one.
Story: Seeking Refuge By Simone Finney on May 24, 2009Amman, Jordan––Maria* and her family stayed in Baghdad as long as they could after the United States declared war on Iraq in 2003. It’s not that things had always been easy––as Christians, there was always a measure of tension with Muslim neighbors. But her husband owned a successful window installation shop in the city, her pre-school-age son Rani* enjoyed PlayStation at home, and her 11-year-old daughter Samiya* loved grade school. Maria had lived in Iraq since she was born, family was nearby, and 35 years had made it home. For the rest of the story look at the accompanying handout
Seeking refuge
Discussion Question Maria’s story is a reminder of those who have been displaced by the violence of war. How do violence and death of war threaten our conviction of the sanctity of life? How should missionaries and churches in war respond to the travesty of death?
The Sanctity of Life
All life is sacred to God, because all life finds its being and purpose in His life. He holds all life sacred because
he is the source of all life. A holy God gives source to holy life. A holy
Creator creates holy creatures. As the living water of life, He constantly affirms, nourishes and affirms it.
The Sanctity of Life
“Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we
must die. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways so that a
banished person may not remain estranged from him.”
(2 Samuel 14:14)
Discussion Questions:1.The story of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection—the gospel of hope—teaches us that the violence of the world, and the world’s contempt for the sanctity of life, isn’t as the love of God and God’s power to redeem and renew life in his image. What do the crucifixion and resurrection teach us about what to expect when we participate in His mission in the world? What do the crucifixion and resurrection tech us about what God means when He teaches us in Micah “to act justly”?2.How can we show in practical ways to those around us sanctity of life and encourage them to see life as God sees it?
Do you know how loved you are? By Africa Region on July 26, 2011
Do you know how loved you are?Deep brown eyes followed us as we played games in a school yard.Do you know how loved you are? Fingers curled around ours, skipping over puddles.Do you know how loved you are?
Standing by the fence posts surrounding our work
site, they watched us
1. What about the church of the Nazarene?
Arguably, all missions work done by the church could be linked to the sanctity of life, but here are just a few of the specific ways the Church of the Nazarene is working right now to improve the lives of brothers and sisters in Christ across the world, showing them the love of God in the process.
Love—mightiest of words—permeated our time in Kenya. Speaking for the entire team, I can say that we felt it and lived it. From the moment we arrived in Nairobi, we became a unit. Each hour we spent together was another step in our becoming a family, embracing not only the members of our team but the people we encountered, lived with, worked with.
The most important thing I (and I daresay, we) learned on our journey was not how to construct a rebar cage, or sing in Luo, or properly eat a termite. It was to love, openly and with abandon. We built a church, taught Bible lessons, viewed breathtaking landscapes and met beautiful, remarkable people, all in a manner that can truly be called God’s.Do you know how loved you are?Let me tell you. Let me show you.
THE HEART OF AFRICA
1. The Role of the Church in Addressing
the AIDS Crisis
2. The Way Forward
3. Durban Deep - Caring for the Orphans
4. The Face of Transformational Development - Malawi
5. The Chance Remark That Made a Difference
ADDRESS: NAZARENE COMPASSIONATE MINISTRIESNazarene Building17 Botes StreetCnr Ontdekkers Rd & Botes StreetFlorida Park, 1709Gauteng, South AfricaNCM-AfricaP.O. Box 44Florida, 1710South AfricaTel: +27-11-472 3190Fax: +27-11-472 2788E-mail: [email protected]: www.ncm-africa.org
One way to become involved
Mathew 25:34 to 40 : "Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, YOU who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for YOU from the founding of the world. For I became hungry and YOU gave me something to eat; I got thirsty and YOU gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and YOU received me hospitably; naked, and YOU clothed me. I fell sick and YOU looked after me. I was in prison and YOU came to me.' Then the righteous ones will answer him with the words, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and receive you hospitably, or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to you?' And in reply the king will say to them, 'Truly I say to YOU, To the extent that YOU did it to one of the least of these my brothers, YOU did it to me.'“
