WHAT WE THINK IS RELEVANT

1. Every believer can have a personal Love Relationship with God and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
2. Every believer should be involved in meeting with other believers to strengthen their relationships with one another. We won't hang for the long haul without it.
3. New Beginnings is a family church, a place where everyone is loved and important.
4. Every believer has a purpose and a place of serving people.
5. If we love people we will find creative ways to share the Good News of Jesus Christ

Eph 4:15-32

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Many want to speak the truth but do not live the love part. Love is not a feeling that you have for someone nor is it your good intentions toward him or her that equal love. There is only one proof of your love for them, which gives you the right to speak the truth to them.

v  Joined (join closely together) …

v  Held together (woven together) coming to a place of one heart one mind. This is the place where we will see the greatest battles in the body of Christ. Conflict, jealousy, envy, strife, childishness, loveless-ness, trying to find common ground to stand on. It must be based in Christ not in you!

v  By every supporting ligament (a supply connection)This is a connection where supplies flow back and forth. Not a passive non-active relationship, but living.

v  As each part does its work. According to the ENERGY invested in it.

v   Grows and builds itself up in love…

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated (non-participant) from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity (become apathetic), they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands that he may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness (bitterness is when you put poison in someone else’s food to kill him and you die), rage (fierceness) and anger (revenge), brawling (crying out against) and slander (speaking evil of), along with every form of malice (little evil deeds). 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (NIV)