Newsletter 2017/9/10

Lord’s Day Message: Mat. 1-3

1: ¹ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. …

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

3: ¹ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'”

⁴ Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Message Next Week: Mat.4

Bible Reading Schedule: Mat.4; Exo.3-6

Church Meetings/Time/Place

Home Meeting/Chinese Speaking Young People:

11/9 Mon., 7:30pm,  Richard & Flora’s, (Dinner @ 7pm)

Pursuing of Uni Students: 12/9 Tue. 7:30pm, Yulin’s

(7:00 dinner)

Sisters Meeting: 13/9 Wed. 10:00am, Hannah Dong’s

Prayer Meeting: 13/9 Wed. 7:45pm, David Tan’s

Pursuing of Words: 15/9 Fri. 8:00 pm, David Tan’s

Saturday Home Meeting：16/9 Sat. 7:30pm

Yulin & Jessica’s (YP & adults)

Olsen & Likun’s (Gospel group)

Announcements:

1. We welcome all the new ones who are joining us today. May God bless you and lead you into this family of God.
2. Starting from this week, the small groups in the Chinese speaking meeting will be rearranged in the following:

Gospel group: served by brother Olsen, and sisters Likun and Lamee. All the gospel friends please join this group.

New believers lesson: served by brother Yulin. If you are baptized within two years or never took such lessons before, please join this group.

For all other brothers and sisters, we will have three groups, served by brothers David Tam, Richard Chen and Patrick LI. Please see the name list for details. We will not have the Cantonese speaking and elder people groups during this period of time.

3. On 30/9 – 1/10 we will have a 2 days spring conference. We will invite Brother Peter Cheng from Indianapolis and Brother Xian-Jing Chin from ChongQing as speakers. The main topic is “The healthy church life” from Matthew 18-20. May the Lord use this chance to bless His church and help all the brothers and sisters to grow in Him.

On 24/9, we will have a spring cleaning at the hall. Brothers and sisters, please prepare and come to serve together.

4. For the visit to North America and attending the church conference in Cleveland in December, please fellowship with Brother Raymond Young if you are interested to join.

<Reminder>

1. For the brothers and sisters, please come on time and bring your own Bible and hymn book for the Lord’s Day meeting.
2. During the meeting, please turn off your mobile phone or put the volume on silence and not to walk around or to wonder/talk too loud in the kitchen.
3. Please keep the play field and rooms tidy and put all equipments in place after use.
4. When you prepare the love feast for Lord’s Day lunch, please do not prepare any food containing nuts as someone may have food allergy.

Please refrain from bringing uncooked food for the love feast so we may lighten the work for the serving ones in the kitchen.

Intercession:

1. May the Lord bless the gospel friends among us that they can know how precious the Lord is and are willing to believe in Him.
2. Pray for the new believers (4 brothers: Vincent Tai, YuMing Liang, Zylen Liang and Frank Wang, and 7 sisters: Vanessa Lu, Li Zhou, XiaChun Li, YuRong Liu, Lili Chen, Jenny Zhu and Yun-Yue Lin). May the Lord establish them in the church life and bless their growth in life.
3. Pray for those year 12 young people who are studying for the HSC. May the Lord give them wisdom and abundant grace.
4. Pray for the brothers and sisters or their relatives who are weak in body or spirit. May the Lord care for them and give them sufficient grace.

Serving This Week: (Sep. 10)

1. Message: David Tan & Yulin Wang
2. Breaking the Bread: Richard Chen & Chuan Ma
3. Serving Bread and Cup: Richard Cui, Jason Wang, Sam Li & Chuan Ma
4. Cleaning: Sam & Hannah Family, Tina & Fiona Jiang, Hannah Dong & Vic, Patrick & Lily Family, Baoling Lei
5. Kitchen: YuRong & Hannah
6. Children: Supervisor – Lamee & Hengxin

Singing – Combined

Teachers – Chris & Jono

Serving Next Week: (Sep. 17)

1. Message: Richard Chen & Yulin Wang
2. Breaking the Bread: Richard Cui & Yulin Wang
3. Serving Bread and Cup: Sam Li, Sean Dong, Patrick Li & Richard Cui
4. Cleaning: Sam & Hannah Family, Tina & Fiona Jiang, Hannah Dong & Vic, Patrick & Lily Family, Baoling Lei
5. Kitchen: Lili & Mandy
6. Children: Supervisor – Joe & David

Singing – Chris & David

Teachers – Betty & Berry

 

2017 Church Activities

1. Church conference (Sep.30-Oct.2)
2. Gospel Meeting with Hymns (Dec. 3)
3. Attending church conference in US (YP) (Dec.)