This week at The Bridge !

Sweet Dreams NKY

Sweet Dreams NKY is a project of Safety Net Alliance of Northern Kentucky that is endeavoring to provide beds for children in our area who currently lack beds on which to sleep. 

The goal is to build and deliver 50 beds to children in need on March 19th.  The Bridge has been asked if we would like to supply the bedding for these fifty beds. 

We have found that we can purchase a “Bed in a Bag” containing the necessary items for $50 per set.  If you would like to supply bedding for one or more of these beds, please note this on your check or offering envelope over the next couple of weeks.

 If you would like to join in helping to build and/or deliver beds, you can sign-up online at http:// www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0e49afaa2aa6fb6-sweet.

Grenada Mission Trip

This summer you have the opportunity to join Grenada 24-7 ministries with Justin and Erica Zauflik by participating in their “Summer Bash” kids program.  If you are at least 18 years old, have a passion for ministering to children and don’t mind getting out of your comfort zone then this trip might be a life changer for you.  Teams are currently forming for Summer Bash Kick off happening July 9-16 and if needed an additional team the week of July 16-23rd.  For more information sign up at the Welcome Center. 

Volunteer at The Bridge

Serving at The Bridge is fun, rewarding and a great way to meet other church members.  To learn more about opportunities, pick-up a volunteer application at the Welcome Center in the lobby. 

Doing the Impossible

In case you are wondering how God’s call of Moses has any relevance to your life, I want to say that in my more than thirty years as a pastor, I have seen God call people to do what at the time seemed impossible.

I’ve seen Christian parents faced with the task of raising severely handicapped children.

I’ve watched parents lose children to cancer and to drugs.

I’ve been witness to parents who after raising their children in church and teaching them to love and honor God, watch their kids turn their back on God and walk into a life of sin.

I’ve seen devout followers of Jesus face economic tragedy and have to start over in mid-life, something they never expected to have to do.

I’ve seen people face all kinds of difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible situations, situations they didn’t think they could ever survive – and yet they did.

They, with God’s help, did the impossible.

The same God who could equip and empower Moses to do the seemingly impossible is able to enable you to do more than you could ever imagine.

Bo

Special Revelation

Special Revelation is God’s revelation of Himself to particular persons at definite times and places. Special revelation provides a clearer and more detailed understanding of God. Special revelation is necessary because God is infinite (unlimited) and man is finite (limited).

The only way we can begin to comprehend God is if He elects to make Himself known in ways we can comprehend. God, in His goodness, has done exactly that. God is a personal God and the objective of Special Revelation is to bring us into relationship with Him. It is to show us what we need to know about Him in order to bring us into a restored relationship with Him.

For this reason you could say Special Revelation is always for redemptive purposes. Man is fallen and God has come to fallen man revealing Himself in ways that allow fallen man enjoy a restored relationship with Him. What is about to take place as a result of God revealing Himself to Moses is a perfect example of the redemptive nature of Special Revelation.

God begins to unfold His redemptive purposes beginning in Exodus 3 verse 7.

7 And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Bo

The Complexity Of Creation

The more that is discovered about the complexity of creation and the incredible fine-tuning of the universe required for life on this planet, the harder it is to not believe in an incredibly intelligent being that created it.

It was this hard scientific evidence for design in creation that caused Sir Frederick "Fred" Hoyle (1915-2001), considered the greatest British physicist of the 20th century, to reject naturlistic theories of how the universe came into being.

Hoyle writes:

"The likelihood (probability) of the spontaneous formation of life from inanimate matter is one to number with 40,000 noughts after it... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence."

Sir Fredrick Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), p. 148. [11]

That God has made Himself known in His creation is noted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1.

Romans 1:18-21

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Bo

General Revelation

The Judeo-Christian faith is a revealed religion.

That is, we know what we know about God, as it has been recorded in the Bible, because God has chosen to make Himself known to His creation.
God has chosen to reveal Himself to mankind.
Theologians identify two kinds of revelation.
General Revelation or Universal Revelation

General revelation is also called universal revelation because this is revelation that God has made available to everyone everywhere.

This comes is three ways.

1. Nature (creation)

Psalm 19:1-3
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.

Creation speaks of a creator.
We know that out of nothing, nothing comes.

2. God has made Himself known through history.

The formation and preservation of the Jewish people is evidence that God exists. Though persecuted in virtually every country they have ever lived, the Jewish people remain. The fact that you will be hard pressed to find an ancient historian that will deny that Jesus Christ existed is evidence of how God has revealed Himself in history.

3. God has revealed Himself by virtue of a God-consciousness, or by what some call a religious nature in humanity.

This is why wherever you find man you find religion.
In all civilizations from all time, you find people instinctively reaching out to connect with God as they understand Him to be.
Along with this religious nature are moral qualities of a commonly shared knowledge of right and wrong or what we call a conscience.

Bo